Vacation!

Well, on Friday we left town to go to Rockport! We got there pretty late, so we didn't do much besides going to bed.

Saturday

Saturday, we decided to go into Corpus to visit some of the local yarn stores. There are two stores, apparently. Knotty Girl Knits and The Studio. We were especially excited about going to The Studio, since they are closing their physical location as of the end of this month. However, it turns out that both of them were closed for the holiday weekend. Boo!

However, there is a silver lining! We had no idea where to go get a bite to eat and so we stopped at a chocolate shop across the street to, um... think. It ended up being a wonderful, fabulous place called Gourmet Chocolatier. The guy inside was very helpful and somehow lured us into the trap:

 I have this woman trap... here, let me show you it.

There was quite an excellent selection of dark chocolates, and I purchased some for my personal enjoyment! They also let us have a sample of their chocolate pudding. It was quite excellent and I would suggest it in a heartbeat. The wrapping on the chocolates was quite fancy!

...and so were the contents!

We ended up taking his advice and having lunch at Water Street Oyster Bar. The food was good and I enjoyed the atmosphere. Afterwards, we went walking around the shopping center behind the restaurant and I ended up buying some little nick nacks. I'm not that sort of person, but these were Items of Superior Adorableness. 

 SNAIL! Squee!

I also got a really cute pelican for my grandma because she collects them. I am so sorry, I seem to suck at taking pictures and managed to get my finger in the shot. Bah!

Then, we had some great dinner with my grandma and everyone around. It was a really awesome day!

Sunday

Well, a few of us went to the beach in Rockport on Sunday. There was, sadly, a swarm of jellyfish. It was quite frightening, really. We tried to stick it out a while, but eventually were herded in to shore. We sat on the beach for a bit, then packed up and went to the Aquarium at Rockport Harbor. I have an entire album of photos, but there are a few that are my favorites.

Hi, I'm a fish and I don't really move. I am pretty cool, though.

Hi, I'm a crab and the hell mouth is not just found in Joss Whedon productions!

Hi! I'm another fish and this is the only clear picture you will get of me! Hah!

Anyway, that was the aquarium. It was a lot of fun and it's free, so if you're in the area it's a lot of fun to check out! 

  Afterward, we went to go eat at Los Comales restaurant. They have some good food, though I think they've gone down hill recently. It was rather amusing, because they have put questions on the tables with answers on the ads, so you have to read them. I think they really should have had someone edit the design, though.

it's =/= its

Afterward, we went to the Used Book Warehouse.  I didn't get anything, but there have been times when I find some really interesting stuff there! It's worth swinging by if you can. It's full of interesting things, at least.

Monday

We left on Monday. It was quite a long drive and quite a bit of fun. We made little stops here and there, but nothing too terribly noteworthy. We went to my grandma's and my friend helped fix her sewing machine. She makes some of the most interesting things and I have been trying to convince her to start up an etsy store! She made this bag and I think it would be a perfect project bag for small things like socks!

 So, if you think so too please let me know and I will bother her more often and shamelessly flaunt her awesome stuff here! :)

Spinning Candy!

So, I bought some roving from WishFox Dyeworks on a whim. I absolutely adored it. It came in just in time to be worked on at the big spinning meetup at Yarnivore and everyone thought it was rather wild and (hopefully?) awesome. I got quite a bit done that day, then worked on it a little here and there and finally finished it today!

My, that is one full bobbin you have, there!

It was 5 oz of fiber and I surprisingly managed to fit all of it onto that bobbin. I know last night I made a comment about how it never all fits on one, but I managed it this time, even with an extra ounce of fiber to work with. I plied it from both ends in a ball format and it became this:

 

350 yards of glorious, wonderful sport weight (15 wpi) yarn in the most kooky colors imaginable. Perhaps this will become a moebius cowl of some type. I haven't decided. Also, part of me is kicking myself for even thinking of it because there's pretty much exactly thirty seconds I would ever want to use a cowl in south Texas. Seriously. Anyway, no matter what it is I am sure it will be interesting. 

This is the thinnest I have ever spun, but I have not met my goal of spinning actual sockweight yarn yet and, while this makes me kind of sad, I think I could have done it if I had taken more time to spin it and plied a bit tighter, since the plying is actually quite loose. We will see how the next experiment goes.

I do know that I want to get a wpi tool because measuring it the old-fashioned way was not fun. There is one really, really cute one on etsy and I might get it if it's still there when I get home on Sunday. We will see. I really should not run around and buy ALL THE THINGS, but I love the little smiley face. I'm a total sucker for cute little things that are also useful.

Myriad Update - May 2012

Well, part of my challenge this month was to knit one sock yarn square for my blanket for each day in the month. They are not big squares and I finished a bit early and thought I'd share pictures!

That's only the section of the blanket that I worked on this month. That's about half the width. I have another picture, which is not as pretty, but I drew in a line marking where the squares I made this month begin.

I particularly like the really big red one. I count that as four squares as it's the size of four and the same number of stitches. At first, I told myself I didn't want to make a big square because it's clunky and takes more than a few minutes to knit, but the gradient yarn is so pretty it does no justice to make little squares that don't show the color changes.

Anyway, one of these days I will take pictures of the giant, huge blanket in its entirety. It's funny because now it's at a width where most people mistake it for a scarf of some kind!

Louise's Road To Recovery Part 3

This marks a week of treatment and I think things are going really, really well! Louise is finally feeling up to running around on the couch a bit. I did not get too terribly much video, but there is a tiny bit!

You can see here exactly how serious her head tilt is, as she so kindly graced the camera with her presence before shuffling off to burrow amid the couch cushions. It's really significantly better than it was. She used to look... scary. She is doing really great! She crawled around for a little while and everything seems somewhat back to normal. She was still not exactly easy with the medication. I'm at the point of hoping she is swallowing whatever manages to get in her mouth. I'll have to see if I can find any suggestions for a better delivery system or something. She is still her snuggly self and did quite a bit of crawling about in my hair.

I don't look really awesome and great, but she was rummaging around in my hair and snuggling against my neck, as always. :)

Finished Octarine

Well, my Octarine socks have been finished! I have a few pictures, but I don't think they are as awesome as they could be. I really loved this pattern, but there is one difference I would make. If and when I ever knit these socks again, I will probably do another repeat of the leg lace pattern, then start the foot pattern as I had 20 rounds of stockinette before the toe decreases.

The yarn is awesome and fabulous. I love malabrigo! I have heard a lot about the lack of sturdiness of this yarn, so I will be reinforcing my heel a bit later on. That will be a different post, though, as I have divided up my remaining sock yarn into minis for friends who are also on the blankie path. I have plenty of strong yarn to use to reinforce, though, so it's all good.

I think the complexity of this pattern was perfect for my attention span and I do plan to knit it again. Now, to relax with a glass of wine and knit a sock yarn square or two before bed. :)

Louise's Road To Recovery Part 2

Well, I'm going to keep this short and sweet as it's way past my bedtime, anyway. Louise has been doing much better the past few days and tomorrow marks a week since I noticed her condition.

Today, I went to get her for medicine time and found her hanging out on the third floor of their cage with the others! I had noticed she was making attempts to climb yesterday and was very happy to see this. My second thought was fear she was afraid to get down somehow, but she didn't seem worried about it. I am very encouraged.

(she's the one in the back, there)

Medicine is getting more difficult for her, though. She is learning to wiggle faster than I'm learning to wield the syringe, it seems. I've resorted to seeing an opening and shooting off the syringe and hoping for the best. We will see how she does tomorrow. I can always mix it in with applesauce or something if she is getting too wiggly.

Weekend Meetups

Well, I have had quite the busy weekend regarding fiber!

Saturday

Saturday was a really great day. I met up with the San Antonio Handweavers Guild. They have a meetup every third Saturday of the month starting at noon at Yarnivore. There were quite a few people there, I was very surprised! It was nice to meet new people and learn from them a little. My little spinning wheel was quite a hit and a lot of people thought it was cute and had questions.  I also got quite a bit done, as well! I spun up some of the dyed merino I bought from WishFox Dyeworks. It's probably the only merino I have done well with thus far and I think the spinning is coming up great! I will probably navajo ply it to keep the color changes nice and consistent, since the roving is a bit wild. I would hate to lose the gorgeous colors in the business of plying it. I'd rather try to keep it consistent. Anyway, I bought 5 oz so I'm hoping it will turn out lovely with quite a bit of yardage.

Another great thing is that this particular fiber seller is part of the Phat Fiber group. Apparently, this month each purchase made from the etsy shops of any of the sellers listed gives you a chance in a drawing for a fiber box. Wooo! If you are interested in the details, please check out the thread on the ravelry group. These fiber artists do amazing work so being the nasty enabler that I am gives me warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Oh! Pssst... speaking of enabling! Yarnivore is now carrying Tosh sock and DK weight, and waiting on the worsted. I would hate to be alone in this dangerous place, you know. :)

Sunday

Today was a local LSG meetup at 2 Rivers Coffee in New Braunfels, TX. It took me forever to get there, and not just because I underestimated the time... but because I got lost. Yes. I, even with the superpowers of a GPS and iPhone, got lost. Horribly. I will say, though, that New Braunfels is hardly the worst place to get lost. The scenery is quite wonderful and it's nice to drive around there, lost or not. Also, I will mention that it is not a horribly big place, so getting lost there is kind of... special. I did eventually figure it out and we met up and had quite a bit of fun! I gave away some fiber to the daughter of one of our local hoars and also traded her some sock yarn for her blankie, which I totally convinced her to do in the first place! She had some great sock yarn for me to add.

Please ignore that purple ball toward the bottom, there. I had meant to add it to her bag and had a brain fart and dropped it into mine on accident, even though I have an entire ball of it. I'll keep it and give it to her when I see her next. When I came home, I totally ignored my sock (the almighty last few inches of it!) and worked on four squares. The blanket is looking less and less scarf-like by the day, it seems.

I took a picture cutting off the area I haven't worked on all month, so that blue square in the top left is where I started off this month. I'm submitting my blankie squares to BSGFPB this month, so I'll probably doctor a picture up at the end to outline the squares from May. I love that big red one. You can't see it too well, but it's actually a lovely gradient yarn starting at a deep fuschia color and going to a red-orange at the top. I like it.

I'm really hating the yellow light in the house. I'm going to have to definitely take pictures outside, probably on the picnic table in the yard. Everything looks so muted and jaundiced it's not even funny.