What Can You Do with Self-Striping Sock Yarn Besides Knit Socks?

Self-striping sock yarn has become pretty popular lately and quite a few indie dyers (myself included) offer it. It is a labor of love for those dyers who make it--although it takes a lot of work to dye it, it's so much fun to knit! Even using just a basic sock pattern, you can let the yarn do the work and still end up with a really neat pair of socks.

But what if you're not a sock knitter? At the fiber festivals I went to this year, quite a few people stopped to admire my self-striping sock yarn but moved along, saying, "I don't knit socks." But you don't have to move along. If you love self-striping sock yarn but have no idea what you'd make with it, I have some ideas for you.

Think about length of color repeats

The key with self-striping sock yarn is to think about the length of the color repeats. Most dyers make repeats long enough to knit somewhere from 3-8 rounds of a typically sized sock for one color. If you expand the circumference (or width) of a knitted item too far beyond that, the color repeats are going to come more quickly and won't give as much of a striped effect.

For example, knitting a hat with self-striping sock yarn might work, but it also might mean each color shows up for just 1-2 rounds of the hat. Or, for example, if you try a triangular shawl that increases on each row, you'll find that the stripes don't work out evenly as you increase the number of stitches, and at some point you might end up with a stitch count that uses more than one color on just one row, completely losing the striped effect of the yarn. These options might work for you, but you'll have to experiment and take these projects on a case-by-case basis.
 

Use a smaller circumference similar to socks

The first thing you can do is make sure that the rounds in your project are a smaller size, similar to what you'd find with socks. One of my favorite patterns for this is Frankenfingers by Elizabeth Green Musselman. This pattern is for a pair of fingerless gloves--although fingerless isn't quite right as there are fingers; the fingers just don't have tips. Not only do you have the stripes going down the arm of the mitt, but think about the possibilities with the half fingers section: you could knit each one a different color within the self-striping yarn. And you could do each glove differently so they match because of the colors and stripes but have different colors along the fingers. So many possibilities!

Use a narrow width

If you'd prefer to knit something flat rather than in the round, you'll want to keep the width of the item fairly narrow so as to make sure the stripes have enough room to form. It doesn't have to be super narrow. A typical sock has 64 stitches in a round, so as long as you don't go any wider than that in a flat object, you should be fine. You could try a simple garter stitch or stockinette stitch scarf. Or even a ribbed scarf.

But just because you should keep rows on the narrow side doesn't mean you're limited to a narrow finished object. Designer Frankie Brown has a series of "Ten Stitch" patterns that are based on knitting very narrow strips, but joining them in a way to create a much larger item, such as a blanket or a shawl (and joining as you go, not with seaming!). Self-striping sock yarn would be perfect for these patterns!

Ten Stitch Blanket
Ten Stitch Triangle
Ten Stitch ZigZag
Ten Stitch Corner

Knit on the bias

The main benefit of self-striping sock yarn is exactly in its name: it allows you to create stripes without having to change yarn colors and have tons of ends to weave in. So play with that property a bit by trying a project that knits on the bias, which includes chevron patterns.

For example, I knit a Totally Biased cowl using Round Table Yarn Merlin in the Pavilion colorway. The way biased knitting works is that it forms rows at an angle, so it is perfect for showing off the stripes of self-striping yarn.

Biased knitting is also how chevrons are usually created. Just doing a Ravelry search for "chevron" led me to a ton of possibilities for patterns to use with self-striping sock yarn. Here are some of my favorites:

Chevron Sock Yarn Scarf by Amanda Gill (Amanda was my knitting instructor at my LYS back in Indiana!)
Chevron Scarf by Joelle Hoverson
ZickZack Scarf by Christy Kamm
Chevron Cowl by Shannon Sanchez
Waving Chevron Scarf by Lee Meredith

Work Mitered Squares

Another element that is often worked by changing colors of yarn is the mitered square. Let the self-striping do the work for you and see what magical possibilities the mitered square might open for you.

For example, I knit a couple of mitered squares as examples (Round Table Yarns Merlin in Pavilion). You can make a ton of these and sew them together to make a blanket or scarf (there is also a way to join them as you go so you don't have to do any seaming). But I actually decided to make these into Christmas tree ornaments! (I wrote up some notes for what I did on my project page on Ravelry in case you'd like to make these yourself.)

But there are so many things you can do with mitered squares. Here are just a few of the possibilities:

Mitered Square Wrap and Shawl by O/C Knitiot Designs - Deby Lake
Mitered Square iPad Mini Case by Jocelyn Aufseeser
Mini Mochi Mitered Eyelet Shawl by Gail Tanquary
Polar Bear Express - Mitered Square Ornaments by Tess Mattos
Domino Star Stashbuster Afghan by Anita Grahn
Breakwater Shawl by Katherine Matthews

Other Ideas (Share Yours!)

There are lots of other ideas for using self-striping sock yarn that don't quite fit the above categories, such as the Barn Raising Quilt (although technically it's a form of mitered square). Or you could even just make a pom pom (which I also turned into a Christmas tree ornament).

And there were so many other pattern ideas that I saw that I didn't list here because I didn't want to overwhelm you with too many links (although I may have already done that).

So I'd like to invite you to the group bundle I've created over in the KarenDawn Designs/Round Table Yarns group on Ravelry. First, join the group if you haven't already. Once you're a group member, you can add patterns you find that work with self-striping yarn to the bundle. I can't wait to see your suggestions!

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (December 5, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

Making Yarn Lemonade from a Yarn Lemon

I was dyeing some of the Sword in the Stone self-striping, which is yellow, grey, and black.

At the same time in another pot, I was dyeing a new teal colorway. When I took the Sword in the Stone out to dry, I noticed that, somehow, some of the teal dye had splashed onto the yellow section of Sword in the Stone!

I had three skeins of Sword in the Stone involved in this mishap and I was hoping that the teal was just on one or maybe two of the skeins. But when I reskeined the three skeins, there was teal on all three. What to do? Dye is transparent rather than opaque, so whatever is underneath a color will still show through (so I couldn't just redye those spots with yellow). I debated several options and decided that I'd try overdyeing the whole skein in teal.

This is how it came out (before and after). You can see some of the yellow still coming through the teal.

At first, I was just going to have these three skeins be a Quest colorway (meaning not repeatable), but I got a lot of positive response on this colorway on Instagram and at the Blackland Prairie Artisan and Fibre Faire last year. And all three skeins sold quickly. So I've given this colorway a name, and will occasionally offer it in the shop and at festivals. And if it's not available, but you do see some Sword in the Stone in the shop, just let me know that you'd like this overdyed version, and I'd be happy to dye it for you.

This color is now The French Book Saith.

Why that name? It comes from Malory's Morte D'Arthur. While Sir Thomas Malory was in prison (in the 15th century in England), he used the time to write the story of King Arthur, which became one of the greatest works of Arthurian literature. He used various source material while writing his version, including some French sources. Throughout the Morte, Malory often introduces material with the words "as the French book saith"; however, most of the time when Malory uses that phrase, when checking his French sources, scholars have found that the French book did not actually say what Malory claims it did.

In the Middle Ages, having source material and proving that you were using the source material was actually a way of legitimizing the text being written. Although stories were certainly created "from scratch," most stories were different versions of a prior story (and many scholars, including myself, spend a lot of time comparing versions to see what is different, which is usually where commentary and analysis come into play). So for Malory, using this phrase would give legitimacy to what he was writing, even when (especially when) the text was something Malory was introducing into the story rather than something from his source material.

So I felt this name was appropriate for this overdyed yarn since it is technically a version of one of the other colorways and yet at the same time is something all on its own.

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (November 5, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

Pattern Suggestions: Camelot

One of my most popular yarn bases is Camelot, which is a blend of merino, cashmere, and nylon (fingering weight). I love this yarn; it is super soft--yet strengthened by the nylon--and really takes color well. So for those of you who have some Camelot or for other skeins of MCN in your stash, here are some suggested pattern ideas for 1-2 skeins.

Oakenshield by Elizabeth Helmich - A hat pattern inspired by Tolkien, available as a beanie or a beret; the details on this hat would look great with a tonal/semi-solid yarn color.

Jana by Veronika Jobe - This shawl pattern is knit sideways, so by weighing your yarn, you can make it as big as your skein will allow--which also means you'll get to make the most of your skein of MCN, using up every delicious bit of it. You can also add beads, which I think makes the shawl a little extra special.

Weathertop Socks by Claire Ellen - Because of the nylon content in this yarn, it is quite suitable for making socks. And these socks are very eye-catching and look like they would be a lot of fun to make. But do look at the pictures on the pattern page--make sure to chose a semi-solid yarn color because all the work of the design gets lost in a variegated yarn.

Lórinand by Amora Designs - Another Tolkien-inspired pattern, these fingerless mitts look really nice. And (as I discovered last year), fingerless mitts make a really great gift (I did five pairs for Christmas presents last year!), especially for teacher gifts.

Midnight Craving by Jennifer Weissman - This crescent-shaped shawl will take two skeins, but I'm really loving the cable and slightly ruffled border. I think this one needs to be added to my queue.

Lady Bertilak Cowl by Karen Robinson (me) - Although I have my Perceval base listed as the recommended base for this cowl pattern (and it works up quite nicely with Perceval), knitting it in Camelot, with that tiny bit of cashmere, would make this an extra soft cowl to drape around your neck.

Which of these patterns is your favorite?

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (October 5, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

Behind the Scenes: Taking pictures of yarn

Being an indie business means that I wear a lot of different hats. One that I struggle with is the "photographer" hat, and I've tried a lot of different setups over the years. But it's only recently that I've found a setup for yarn photos that I like, so I wanted to share that with you for this newsletter.

When I first started taking photos of my yarn, I wanted an "interesting" background. I had bought an Amish-made basket from Woolgatherings a few months before that and thought it would make an interesting backdrop.

But I noticed that the pictures were pretty dark overall, and when all placed together on the same website, the overall color was just "dark" which de-emphasized the bright colors of the yarn.

A few people suggested that I use the typical white background for the pictures. I resisted. But it wasn't just because I wanted to be different. It was because I thought getting good white background photos would be a ton of work, involving light boxes and special lighting and whatnot. I've tried that in the past and hated the experience.

So I tried something else with the help of this blog post. I bought some white foam board: one piece that was flat and one that was tri-fold. I tried a few different locations and times of day until I settled on the mid-morning light coming in from the window of my craft room. I set up a chair, placed the flat foam board on the seat, and placed the tri-fold foam board on the back of the chair, so it could bounce the light from the window down to the yarn.

I also used some settings on my camera, including my 50mm macro lens, to help with the white balance (the blog post linked above goes into detail about suggested settings). And I did do a little post-process editing, although I found that once I had my optimal setup, the photos needed very little editing.

So it took me a while, but all of my current inventory has been re-photographed and everything in my shop is up to date. And now when I look at the overall image of the shop, I see a much lighter and much brighter image. And the background fades away, allowing the yarn to be the center focus.

This makes me want to do the same thing to my personal yarn stash so my Ravelry stash page looks nice as well. Hmm... *adding note to my "to do" list*

Here's the old picture. I still find the background interesting, but then again, the background isn't supposed to be the focus!

And here's the new white background picture. The eye is now focused on the yarn rather than the background.

Updated August 31, 2016: I've still been struggling a little with getting the white background to be truly white. I discovered an iPhone app called Snapseed that I now use for editing my photos. It allows you to edit specific areas of the photo, so I can edit the white background by brightening the area without also brightening the yarn color.

Here's an example of a newer picture:

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (October 5, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

Evolution of my pattern template

My first pattern that I released for the public was the Criseyde Scarf. I designed it during a class at my then LYS and thought I might write more patterns but wasn't sure. So I used my limited graphic design skills, put together a layout, and posted the pattern on Ravelry.

Two years after that, I started designing more seriously and wanted to develop a better-looking layout. So as part of what I was looking for when I found my tech editor, I asked if she could help me come up with a pattern template. Because I used knitCompanion a lot, I wanted my pattern template to be super easy for someone to use in knitCompanion.

Almost a year later, I felt like I needed something else. Something to add some "oomph" to the layout. But I didn't really know what to do. So I left most of the layout as it was and added some colored boxes on the front page and rounded the edges of the pictures.

And then I saw what Elizabeth (from Stitch Definition) had done to the layout for the Gawain's Shield collection. It is so beautiful. I wanted that feeling for my individual patterns as well. I tried to do it myself. But I just couldn't come up with something that I was happy with. So I turned to Elizabeth and asked for her help. And she came up with a new pattern layout for me. When I saw it, I was amazed. It seemed so simple, yet she had paid attention to tiny details (such as echoing the circle in my logo) that really made the layout look amazing.

So updated all of my previous patterns with the new layout. I also took the time to polish some of my first patterns (no changes to the actual pattern but just a refinement of instructions or details here and there).

Here's a look at how my Criseyde Scarf pattern has evolved:

What do you think? Do you like the new layout?

One of the things I love most about it is that I'm now able to include the "story behind the name" section so the story that used to be available just on the Ravelry description is now on the pattern itself.

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (August 20, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

Behind the Scenes: Self-striping sock yarn Reskeining Process

So now I have the yarn dyed, but it's still in that gigantic loop. I need to get it into the smaller circumference skein so it is ready to go to a new home. (Could you imagine if I sent out the giant loop? What would you think?)

This is when I go back to the warping reel and put the yarn back in place. I go through and cut off all of those choke ties I had put on, thankful that I took the time to do that because it makes putting the skein back on the warping reel much easier. I then combine the warping reel with my swift (using it as a skein winder) and wind the yarn back down into a more manageable sized skein. This doesn't take as long as winding the yarn onto the warping reel, but it can easily take up to an hour depending on how many skeins are on there (2-4 usually).

Once I have the yarn reskeined, I twist it up and label it and sigh. Yes, it was a lot of hard work. But imagine the socks it will make!

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (August 5, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

Behind the Scenes: Self-striping sock yarn Dyeing Process

The dyeing itself can be done in a few ways. I've seen people using mason jars within a water bath (either crock pot or pot on the stove), but my current setup isn't big enough to hold multiple mason jars, so I'm using a different method. I dye one color (sometimes two) at a time.

I find the colored ties and choose one section, placing it in the dye pot. I use the crock pot lid to hold the yarn in place. I let that color set and then move onto the next section and dye it. I continue like that until I've dyed all of the colors. If I am doing four colors, I will sometimes dye the sections opposite one another at the same time, using two crock pots. But this means that I'm technically going through the dye process 2-4+ times for each colorway, which can take up almost an entire day's worth of dyeing time!

Problem!

I was moving right along with my self-striping dyeing and then I hit a huge problem. Color creep. This pink/green colorway pictured below (Erec and Enide Variant) is a good example of that. I dyed the pink first and then when I dyed the green, the dye just moved right on past that crock pot lid and into the pink, creating a 2-4 inch section of a dark color. No! I really wanted much cleaner transitions between colors.

I tried multiple fixes, including using clips or super tight choke ties at the color changes, but that still didn't work well.

Then I got that spin dryer I mentioned in the last newsletter. So I soaked the yarn like usual but then put it through the spin dryer before putting it into the dye pot, thinking that if the yarn was less wet, the color might not wick too far into the other section. I then put the yarn through the spin dryer in between each section of dyeing.

I also added gravity to the mix. Before, I had a shallow bowl that I placed beside the crock pot to hold the sections of yarn that were not being dyed. Now I use a tall bucket so the yarn is coming down into the crock pot (which is what is shown in the above picture).

These two factors (dryer yarn and gravity) seem to have done the trick and I'm getting much cleaner transitions between colors now. Whew!

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (August 5, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

Behind the Scenes: Self-striping sock yarn set-up process

I don't know about you, but self-striping sock yarn has become a favorite of mine. I always have a "plain vanilla" sock on the needles so when I want to knit but not think too much about my knitting, I can work on it. It's also a great travel project and is what I usually bring to my weekly knit night. But doing a plain sock over and over again can get boring. Enter self-striping sock yarn! With it, you can have fun watching the stripes progress, wondering what color is coming next, which livens the knitting.

When I was at DFW Fiber Fest in 2015, all the yarn I bought was self-striping sock yarn. At first, I thought I wouldn't actually dye any myself, so I needed to get it all from other dyers. But wow! Self-striping yarn can be expensive. Now that I'm actually making it myself, I totally understand why. It's a rather labor-intensive process. But it's so rewarding that it is worth the process, so I've been hard at work developing my own process and colorways. And in this blog post (and upcoming ones), I'll be taking you behind the scenes of how I dye self-striping yarn.

To dye yarn so it creates stripes as it is knit, long sections of each color need to be dyed. But if you just take a skein of yarn as it is sent from the supplier, the loop of the skein has a small diameter. To get the long sections of yarn for each color, the first step is to reskein the yarn into a very very large skein. Dyers have various methods to do this and I've tried three, finally settling on one as the method that works best for me.

A warping board. In many ways this was the easiest to get the yarn into a loop, but getting it off the warping board is not so much fun because each section actually contains both "sides" of the loop, which need to be separated. Maybe I wrapped the yarn too tightly, but I had a hard time separating the two sides of the loop.

The kitchen chair method. Place two kitchen chairs far apart from one another and walk the yarn around and around. Although I got a lot of steps in while doing this method, I have a three (almost four)-year-old boy and three cats, who were all super interested in the yarn. Plus I wasn't sure if I would be able to get the chairs the exact same distance apart each time and worried about the chairs moving while I was working.

A warping reel. Ah! So much better. With this, I can wrap the yarn around and around while rotating the reel. I can make skeins of various circumferences, and it's more contained than the chair method, so although it is tempting for the cats, it's easier to keep them away from it. Plus, the two sides are separated which makes removing it from the reel much easier.

So based upon how many stripes I'm going to be doing, I'll wrap the yarn a certain number of times around the warping reel. I also do more than one skein at a time (again, depending on the number of stripes), which is really helpful.

Once I have the yarn reskeined, I have to remove it from the warping reel. But dealing with a gigantic skein of yarn can lead to tangles, so the major key here is to add lots and lots of choke ties. So before taking it off the warping reel, I cut short lengths of a white cotton yarn and create loose choke ties throughout the entire skein.

I also have a colored cotton yarn that I use to measure off the increments to know how much of each color to dye (so if I'm going to do four even stripes, I'll measure and divide the skein into four parts and place colored ties to mark them).

It varies depending on how many skeins I do at once (2-4) and how big the circumference is, but it generally takes me well over an hour to prepare the skeins. And I haven't even started dyeing it yet! 
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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (August 5, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

Behind the Scenes: Drying and Reskeining

When I started dyeing, I was using a salad spinner to spin out the excess water in the yarn before hanging it to dry.

My arm got really really tired and I wasn't able to get very much water out. It took skeins 24-48 hours to dry, and my Avalon base with the silk took even longer. I don't have a lot of space to dry skeins, so I couldn't dye very fast because I didn't have the space to dry the yarn! (I dry yarn in our guest shower.)

I had heard other dyers talk about using a spin dryer (basically a small portable dryer) and thought that I might look into that at some point. Then, someone in my local knitting group had ended up with two spin dryers and mentioned that she was considering selling one. I decided to take the plunge and buy it. And I am so glad that I did! It has made a world of difference in my dyeing, both in the drying time (less than a day now, even for the silk yarn!) as well as for the self-striping yarn.

Once the yarn is dry, I reskein it. Some dyers reskein their yarn and some don't. For me, I think the finished skein looks neater when reskeined, so I choose to take this extra step (although I sometimes wish I didn't because it takes up a lot of time!). Right now, I have a set up for reskeining that I'm not thrilled with. At some point I plan to get an actual reskeiner or an electric skein winder, but for now, I'm using what I have: a horizontal swift and a ball winder. Here's what I do:

I put the yarn on the swift and wind it into a cake. I then take that cake and rewind it into a skein using the swift (the picture below is of winding it into a cake, but the image shows the "handle" that I use as I reskein [top left corner]). It's definitely a workout for my right arm! But I've been listening to and watching a lot of podcasts while I do the reskeining, which makes the time go by much more enjoyably.

Once I have the yarn all reskeined onto the swift, I tied it off using choke ties to keep the yarn from tangling. I've been using cotton yarn for these ties in various colors. Here's a little secret: the color yarn used for the choke ties is actually coded for the yarn base. Although I can tell the bases apart, it's nice to just be able to see at a glance what base the yarn is. (See below for the color code--now whenever you see a picture of my yarn even without a label, you can identify the base yourself!)

After that, I remove the skein from the swift and give it a few twists, fold it in half, slip one side into the other side's loop, and voila! Skein of yarn all prettified and ready for a label.

Color coding for choke ties
Guenevere: light green
Perceval: white
Gawain: brown
Camelot: reinforcement thread in variegated purples/blues/reds
Galahad: tan
Avalon: dark green
Lancelot: orange
King Arthur: salmon

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (July 5, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

Behind the Scenes: Immersion Dyeing

Besides choosing the types of dyes to use, I also needed to chose my technique for adding heat to the yarn. This decision was based upon two factors: the kind of yarn I like and my dyeing set up.

Looking at the yarn that I have in my stash and what I'm most attracted to, I see a lot of semi-solids and tonal colors. Although variegated yarn looks beautiful in a skein, sometimes it can be a challenge to find a pattern that works well with it. And the types of projects that I knit and design usually use elements of lace or cables, which doesn't work extremely well with variegated yarn. So to get the tonal quality, immersion dyeing seemed to be the best option.

With immersion dyeing, I heat up a pot of water, add acid and dye, and add yarn. I let it "cook" for a while (until the water is clear, which means the yarn has taken up all the color and the dye bath is "exhausted"). Then I let it cool, rinse it, and dry it. I thought about using big stock pots on my stove top, but I have a three-year-old boy plus three cats, so leaving something on the stove with an open flame for an hour seemed like a bad idea. So I decided to use crock pots for dyeing. It works really well for my space and the rest of the occupants in my house.

I can still make variegated colorways, but they are a little more time intensive than other options (hand painting and steaming). But for now, immersion dyeing is working well, and I enjoy seeing the tonal qualities of the colors on the yarn.

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (July 5, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

My Vacation to French Polynesia

Last week, my husband and I took a vacation to Tahiti (French Polynesia). We stayed on two islands, Bora Bora and Moorea. My brother-in-law and his wife went with us but all the kids stayed behind with grandparents (thank you so much to the grandparents for child care!). Or rather, I should say that we went with my BIL and his wife because they're the ones who invited us and because this was the third time that they've gone there!

Now, I'll be honest, traveling to Tahiti is expensive. And normally this would not be a trip that was within our budget. But my BIL knows some tricks, and that's how we were able to pull it off. The trick? Credit card points. He told us exactly which credit cards to take out when to maximize on our points. We'd each open up a credit card account, do the action required to get the points (such as spend $1000 within three months--super easy when you do things like pay your bills with the card), pay off the charges immediately, and close the credit card account. By using the credit card points, we were able to purchase our flights from Los Angeles to Tahiti and four of the nights we stayed in Bora Bora, saving us literally thousands of dollars. We still had to pay for some things (flight to LA, flight within the islands, and the house on Moorea), but it make the trip much more manageable. In fact, we wouldn't have been able to go without using the points. But enough about that. Let's get to the actual trip!

We left Dallas late afternoon and left LA late evening, which meant, theoretically that we could sleep on the plane to Tahiti and be ready to start the day when we landed the next morning. (There is only a 4 hour time difference between Tahiti and Dallas, so that wasn't too bad.) I say theoretically because sleeping on the plane doesn't always happen and isn't the greatest sleep. And indeed, I didn't sleep very well on the plane. But I was also too groggy and restless to do much of anything else.

When we got to Tahiti (the actual island of Tahiti; French Polynesia is made up of several islands), we still weren't done traveling. We were starting our stay in Bora Bora, which meant we had to get on another little plane to fly from island to island. Right away, I learned that the climate there was really hot. And that's coming from someone who grew up and still lives in Texas! And not every place had air conditioning, including the airport (there were lots of fans, which helped but didn't really do as much as AC would have). So we started sweating right away while in line at customs. Ugh. But we got on the little plane and flew to Bora Bora. The view from the window was amazing because the water was just so blue and clear. Incredible!

When we landed on Bora Bora, I discovered that our journey still wasn't at an end. We needed to take a boat to the hotel we were staying at. And it wasn't a short boat ride! Finally, we got to the resort and after a quick tour, we were taken to our beach bungalows. Although I appreciated the incredible view we were getting, I have to admit that I didn't partake of that view very much at first. Instead, I found myself lying down on the little couch (yay for air conditioning in the bungalow!) and trying to get rid of a headache. My husband, BIL, and his wife decided to go get pizza at a place BIL/wife had been before and bring it back to eat. When they got back, we all devoured our pizzas (which was quite good)! (We had pizza at this restaurant a few times during our trip.)

After that, I felt much better and walked out onto the beach for a while, once again marveling at how clear the water was. My husband and I decided to just go ahead and get in the water right away, so we changed into our swimsuits and waded in. The water was shallow for quite a ways so we were able to easily go out and swim to some coral formations not too far from our bungalow. Snorkel masks in place, we got to see tons of fish swimming around the coral. (Later during our visit, we saw a ray swimming around in that area, which was really cool!)

That night, we went to Bloody Mary's, which is apparently a pretty famous restaurant, for dinner. As luck would have it, they were having "Country Night" that night, and we all laughed when we told them we were from Texas. I have to admit that I don't like seafood, so while my husband took advantage of the wonderful selection of seafood, I stuck to sausage and chicken. The restaurant definitely had a lot of atmosphere, with sand on the floors and wooden stools to perch on (that didn't always sit straight on the ground). We went back to this restaurant a few nights later on a non-themed night (I had ribs that time).

View from a pier right across from the restaurant.

I think this was actually taken on Moorea, but I'm posting here anyway. Sunsets were gorgeous!

The next day, my husband and his brother went on a jet skiing tour. My SIL couldn't go because she was pregnant so I chose to stay with her. We explored a shop in walking distance from the hotel (I got a shirt for Luke) as well as a small convenience store, where we got some snacks. Then we went back to our bungalows and sat out on the deck, reading, until the guys got back. (I read four and a half books during the trip.)

One of the trips we did all go on was a snorkeling adventure, which was supposed to be about three hours long but turned out to be closer to five hours! Good thing we brought extra sunscreen! (Unfortunately, my SIL didn't reapply sunscreen as often as she should have and got a little too much sun on her arms and thus didn't feel very good the rest of that day or the next.) And good thing that I had a motion sickness patch to wear (I definitely needed it!) that day. But the trip was so worth it! Our two tour guides were really funny and they also serenaded us with the ukulele and singing while we were on the boat. It was nice because it was just 8 of us (four couples) on this tour.

The first stop was to swim with sharks. Yup, sharks. They were mostly reef sharks as well as a couple of lemon sharks (or maybe they were nurse sharks--my husband and his brother each heard something different from the tour guide). We got right into the water with them! Eek! The water was fairly deep where we were and the sharks didn't come right up to us, but there was nothing stopping them from doing so!

My favorite stop was the second one where we got to swim in shallower water and feed some sting rays. Here, the rays were right there with us and we got to touch them and have them come right up to us (even having them swarm us if we were feeding them).

I could have stayed there with those rays for quite a while (and we did), but our guides noticed some of the other boats had stopped a little ways out from where we were and discovered that they had found some manta rays. One of my husband's biggest wishes on this trip was to see manta rays, so he was so excited about that! Apparently, it was pretty rare to get to see them on this tour, so we were quite lucky! And there were three of them that we got to see. They didn't come up to us, but we got to swim right over them, and boy were they huge!

After that, we went to a coral garden and got to see (and feed) lots of fish. My husband saw an octopus, but I wasn't near him at the time so I missed it. But the fish. So many different kinds! We ended the tour by going to a small island and eating fresh fruit and drinking fresh fruit juice. I think this tour was my favorite part of our entire trip.

After two nights of staying in the beach bungalow, we moved to one of the over the water bungalows for the last two nights on Bora Bora. It was really neat to walk out our door and just look down and see fish (or go for a swim right there). Walking to our bungalow was when we saw the ray in the water there. But we didn't even have to leave the bungalow to see fish as the coffee table in that bungalow was made of glass with a glass bottom so we could just sit and watch fish from right there!

I don't have a lot to say about the food on this trip since as I mentioned, I'm not big on seafood, but my husband who loves seafood (and doesn't get it often since I don't like it) really enjoyed everything that he tried. I stuck mostly to beef, chicken, and pepperoni pizza. My husband got seafood pizza at two different places and said both were excellent.

After our four nights on Bora Bora, we got back on the little plane to go back to the island of Tahiti. From there, we took a ferry across to the island of Moorea, where we were staying for the remainder of our trip. Here, we had rented a private house for our lodging, so we also rented a car. Mostly, there was one road that went around the entire island, so there were some really great views as we were driving.

The house we stayed at was gorgeous and was right on the beach. The only problem was that only two of the four bedrooms were air conditioned (which wasn't a problem as far as the bedrooms since we needed only two anyway). So to feel comfortable in the rest of the house, it was best to open the front and back doors to allow the breeze to come through (or to just sit outside in the breeze). However, the problem there was the mosquitoes! Although we had some good bug spray and we sprayed ourselves liberally with it, we all got quite a few mosquito bites during our time at the house. So much so that we didn't spend as much time outside or with the doors open as we would have liked. So I feel that we didn't get to take as much advantage of the location of the house with the beach access as we could have.

View from the back of the house

View from the front of the house

While on Moorea, we went to the Lagoonarium, which took us out to a small island off the coast which had a wonderful coral garden. Ropes were set up along the perimeter of the garden for use as a guide (and they were needed because the current was quite strong in a few places). I made one trip around the ropes (which took quite a while) and saw even more fish than I had seen before. After that, I was quite tired, so I sat out on the beach (it was an overcast day, which was actually quite nice) with my SIL while my husband and his brother went around again. Then the guide there did a feeding, and we got to see a moray eel (cool!) and more rays and reef sharks. I didn't get back in the water at that point, just watched from the shore, but my husband was in the water and this time the sharks got even closer than on our other trip! We hadn't fed the sharks on the other trip, but the guy here did (making sure the people stayed back out of the feeding area) and wow! Those sharks are super fast!

There was a place on Moorea where we could have swam with dolphins, and I really wanted to do that, but it was really expensive and pregnant women (my SIL) weren't allowed to do it, so we opted out of that experience. Alas. We also didn't see any sea turtles (my son kept asking if we had seen any so it was sad to have to tell him no). But everything we did get to see was really amazing.

The trip back wasn't pleasant. Because of the timing of the ferry and our flight out of Tahiti, we had to sit at the airport for about six hours. The un-airconditioned airport. Then I didn't sleep very much on the flight, just dozed off and on. So I was really really happy to get home. And I have to be honest, the heat and the mosquitoes were really bad and took away a lot from the overall experience (especially on Moorea). This trip was really a trip for my husband (being fully honest here, I'm not really a beach person. *gasp*) and he had an amazing time. And despite the heat and the itching from all my mosquito bites, I'm glad that I went and especially glad that I swam with the rays. But our next travel destination is my choice. So now it's time for us to start earning credit card points again because next up will be Scotland!