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Tuesday, May 31, 2005
WOWAlaska was the most amazing trip I've ever been on - I still can't believe how much I experienced and what a great time I had. Go here if you want to see all about the boat I was on, and if you want to book a cruise yourself - and you know you do. If you want, I'll come with you - I may go to Alaska for EVERY vacation from now on!But before I got to Alaska, the knitting and I took a little layover in Seattle to visit my brother. Here is the knitting hanging out at Pike's Place Public Market -  And here is the knitting posing seductively in front of the Seattle skyline, complete with Space Needle. Now I know how those parents feel when their kids lean way over the edge of something!  And here's the knitting in action on the WEX - our little boat - in front of a glacier. Notice that I'm drinking a beer, watching unbelievable scenery, AND knitting. And you can't tell, but I had just gorged myself on freshly baked cookies. do NOT go on this trip expecting to lose weight. the food is so amazing and plentiful that, no matter how much you kayak and hike, you will NEVER manage to burn enough calories. I mean, SMOKED SALMON OMELETTES for breakfast, people!!!  The knitting did NOT come with me on the kayak, so it missed out on seeing this amazing glacier - I think this was Reid Glacier, in Glacier Bay National Park. It was really really cool. :)  I can't even begin to describe all the animals I saw, or all the amazing sights, or how unbelievable it was to wake up in the morning and be surrounded by nature, and beauty, and stillness. But I did get to see a black bear eating barnacles from approximately 20 feet away (we were offshore in our kayaks - but only because Mr. Bear decided to kick us off the beach!)  And, in case the scenery wasn't breathtaking enough already, Mother Nature threw in a few rainbows for good measure...  And that? oh, that's a humpback whale - one surfaced less than 50 yards from my kayak, and another swam UNDER OUR BOAT. Whales are WAY cool.  And when I got home, this was waiting for me in the mail as an early birthday present!  Also waiting patiently for my attention post-unpacking was the now-finished Dad's Vest, waiting for its steeks:  Take a deep breath...  WOO HOOO! Now I just have to "pick up and knit." I HATE "pick up and knit." Grumble Grumble.  And new to the project panoply - the Peace Socks! I found a huge list of "peace" in a crazy number of languages, so I adapted the chart to use for socks for my mom. Like the mittens and the vest, this is Christmas knitting... an acknowledgment of the fact that, come August, law school will once again reclaim my life.  In the meantime, I plan to get lots of knitting and kitty-snuggles in!  PS to my secret pal - I promise I'll get to the questions asap - hopefully tomorrow!!! 0 comments || # Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Back May 28!!
0 comments || # Wednesday, May 11, 2005 Surrounded By YarnToday is my first day manning the online store (go! shop! buy yarn!), and I'm surrounded by yarn. Yarn EVERYWHERE! And I'm not allowed to play with it - I just have to pack it up and send it to you people, who will hopefully knit amazing things with it and let us know, because we go crazy trying to figure out what projects people are buying yarn for.Luckily, I have some yarn of my own - I bought another round of shetland to make "Dad's Vest III" for next Christmas. Here are the colors I'm using - the chart and most of the colors are from Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting book, but I subbed in the blue and greed on my own because I know my Dad gravitates towards anything in the blue/green spectrum.  And here was my swatch that I finished last Wednesday night at Late Night -  And here was my progress on Sunday night -  And here's my progress as of this morning. I'm LOVING the whole color-work thing - and with all this new-found free time, it's really going fast!  Speaking of free time, apparently my brain is still broken, because I decided to WALK to late night - it was a beautiful day, and I had the whole afternoon free, and it only took me about 2.5 hours. But now my legs are just a wee bit sore! But see how pretty?  And look - baby goose! I wanted to say hi, but Mommy looked like she was ready to kick my ass if I didn't move along...  Unfortunately, at late night, there was a bit of an "incident" when Kristine pulled out a box of Artyarns silk... First, Cindy had some "grabbing" issues -  And then some "stuffing" issues - I believe she was trying to claim that she was actually with child, and had not just stuffed an entire bag of the yarn under her shirt...  Then Kristine opened the rest of the box, and, well, it wasn't pretty. Kristine is under there somewhere - that's her hand trying to save the yarn - and she was last heard crying "where's the funnel cake in this rugby scrum?" as Holly, Cindy, and Phyl-Phyl attacked...  I thought things were back to normal - we were all sitting and knitting around the back table - and then things got strange. Here's the "normal" side of the table...  ... and here's the dark side. I'm not sure what they were doing, but it scared me. I prefer to buy my yarn, thank you very much!  And finally - a reminder of what it's like to be a cat in a sunny apartment - 
0 comments || # Sunday, May 08, 2005 Sheepie Goodnesswarning - many photos ahead! Yesterday, I joined up with the Irregulars and headed up to Howard County for the world-famous Maryland Sheep and Wool... the perfect way to begin my recovery from my last final on Thursday. Despite Kristine's best efforts to set a new land-speed record on 270N, we did NOT get pulled over, and arrived about 9, just as the doors were opening... and already there was quite a line of cars waiting to get in. While we were waiting for our turn, we did our best to piss off the person behind our little caravan. Here's Kristine, Cindy, and Aimee saying hi through the sunroof - later on, other finger signals were involved, but unfortunately, those did not get photographed! First Up - Adorably Cute Animals We saw bunnies:   And lambs:  And sheepies:  And Llamas:  And Alpacas:  And Doggies:  And finally, the most adorable 4 month old border collie named "Fat Louie" - we're pretty sure Shanti didn't bring him home, but we didn't actually inspect her backpack when we left...  We also saw the extremely rare Mega-Mullet - a subspecies of Mulletus Manus. Rarely do you see such an impressive Mullet in the wild...  Of course, we also saw a few people!  But really, I was there for the yarn... First, from Brooks Farm - destined (I think) for a v-neck pullover of some kind...   Then, some luscious Tess' Designer Yarn in an amazingly rich, vibrant green that refuses to photograph in either natural OR artificial light - it's going to be an aran when it grows up.   And finally, some amazing Cormo sheepie goodness - also destined to be an aran. This stuff is so soft that I just want to pile it on my bed and sleep in it!  I also saw an extremely ironic sign in front of a booth filled with fuzzy, acrylic novelty yarn -  it says "life is too short to knit with ugly yarn." I wholeheartedly agree, so I didn't shop at that booth! And finally, proof that Shanti has gone over to the dark side -  and just for you, Phyl-Phyl.... 
0 comments || # Monday, May 02, 2005 Finals SuckI think my brain is broken from all this studying. Proof? This morning, I took a netflix dvd out of the player, placed it carefully in its envelope, sealed it, and headed towards the door. 20 minutes later, I arrived at school, and had NO IDEA what happened to the dvd. Did I mail it? Don't know! Did I drop it? Possibly! Did aliens descend from the sky, take it, and fly away in a magical, silvery spaceship? Could be!My brain is definitely DEFINITELY broken. Luckily, my brain was still functioning (barely) last Wednesday for "Harlot Night" at Knit Happens - and I managed to take a break, drive over, and knit up a storm, all while getting my book signed by the Harlot herself!  A good time was had by all - including Kristine, who celebrated day 2 of her birthday with an extra-cute balloon. I swear, despite my atrocious lack of camera skills, that she loved the balloon. Really.  Even more exciting than the balloon? I ACTUALLY KNIT SOMETHING! Here's Mom's Latvian Mitten #1, in all its glory -  And, as of Thursday morning, here was Mitten #2.  Wanna see the mittens today?  And here they are all pinned out on the blocking "floor" -  The astute among you will notice that there are no thumbs. This is, in fact, true. Not only did I not want to knit the thumbs, but I also wanted to block out the thumb-hole so that the mittens wouldn't pinch - a slight problem with my first pair. plus, it's MUCH easier to block the mitten bodies by themselves since the thumbs just get in the way. I guess since the mittens are drying, I'll have to go back to Mariah - and hopefully fix the (*##(@*&$ front! oh, right, but first I should study. Only 2 more exams to go - I'm done on Thursday, and what better way to celebrate being done than with a road trip to Sheep and Wool! :) 0 comments || # |
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