Adventures in Paradise

Chilly Weekends

For Thanksgiving weekend, I blew off my family and friends, ignored the stuff I need to do to get ready to move and flew to Utah for a ski weekend all by myself.  Probably not the best of timing since there had been almost no snowfall, but the resorts were making snow.

There were only about three runs open while I was in Park City, one of them the go-to run of my childhood, which was challenging to my adult self who hadn't even looked at skis in nearly four years.  (The top of the run was hard to photograph from the lift but is rather steeper than this bit.)

And after three days of going up the lift and watching people on the alpine coaster, I bit the bullet, paid the $20 and rode it myself.

It was a blast - worth the money for one ride, but unless I was with a child too young to ski all day, I don't know that I'd do it again.

I was there for three days worth of skiing without a single flake of snow.  This weekend though, out with my high school group for the Alexandria, VA Scottish Walk?

Sigh.

Friday Night Sights

Wandering my way around the city after work tonight...

The Downtown Market opened up this afternoon, making it officially the shopping season here in the city.

And right around the corner...

Cops out in full force, since this is pretty much right where the Senator's daughter was car jacked on Wednesday night.  Which is very strange given that I think I was having dinner right across the street when it happened.  I walk around the neighborhood at all hours of the night and have never felt particularly threatened.  Irritated, but not threatened.  Then again, I don't drive in the neighborhood, so maybe that's the difference.

And then there was this...

 

The cupcake trend hits the streets...

Up next, more ways I'm avoiding both the holidays and my impending move!

On the Needles

I do knit, really.  Just not a lot at home any more - between work frazzling me and the trapeze, I've been coming home late and exhausted.  But I have the train, and lately the nice people at medical have been zapping my left shoulder with a topical steroid twice a week, and I can knit then, too.

I have been working on this sock off and on, and am just about ready to cast off...

 

It's my first cabled sock and I'm quite pleased with it.  Now I just have to make the second one.  Since Wednesday is the final day of flying outdoors and the indoor rig won't be open until January (after I'm gone, of course,) I'll have some extra time on my hands in December.  My shoulder will appreciate it, too.  And in honor of that, I'll show you a picture from my penultimate (ultimate, if the rain continues this week) flying session  - just after my turn around, at the point where I'm supposed to force my body up and over the platform.  The guy working the board usually provides an aim point...

Change of Plans

Remember when I was going to make that Japanese Knot Bag out of the elephant fabric, and I was going to have it done before Thanksgiving?  I finally got around to actually working on that bag today, what with the deadline hanging right over my head.  Only there was a little problem.  The Knot Bag pattern is written for a fat quarter and it turns out that the fabric I had was a regular quarter yard.  I could get the pieces cut out of the fabric, but the elephants would be standing on their heads!

That would not do, so I went on a hunt for another bag pattern that would be easy to construct and still look cool.  I found the Noriko Handbag, which fit all my criteria.  It was easy and pretty - though I did pass on the tassel.  I didn't have the right stuff and neither I nor the intended recipient is fussy enough to really enjoy tassels.  I started and finished it this afternoon.

I went with green ribbon and thread and a button that I got in a grab bag from a fabric store not too long ago.  For the lining, I used a combination of the two fabrics I'd liked - the green silk and the gray feathers.  I think it works out nicely.

I'll deliver the bag either Tuesday or Wednesday this week.  (Probably without the yarn - she's a knitter, but I think making an bag and giving yarn at the same time is a bit much at this point.)

Another adventure ...

Today was a fun adventure.  I made a trip from my home in Saratoga to Woodland CA to the Yolo Wool Mill to pick up the llama fiber they had processed for me.  I came home with 6 pounds of yarn!  22 skeins of a beautiful, warm brown fiber that I can't wait to start knitting up.      The boy in the background is my search dog, Sweep.

Now I have to find a jacket pattern that appeals to me.  If anyone has a beautiful, possibly cabled, zip front pattern for a worsted-weight fiber that they can recommend please let me know.

I also dropped off 32 pounds of alpaca fleece that I was given for helping during the shearing at Alpacas by the Sea this Spring.  I can't wait to get this back!  While I was at Yolo I got a private tour of the facility.

The washing machines are from a laundromat supplier.  
  They had them specially adapted to wash the raw fleeces.  They never tumble ... the water is just run through the fiber to clean it.  Then there is an extractor to pull out the water before the fleece is put on the drying rack.   Once the fleece is dry it is run through the spreader (in front of the washers in the first picture)  to open it up before it heads to the carding machine.     This isn't the machine they will use for the alpaca, but the lighting was so much better here that I chose to show this one.  Once the carding is done the fiber goes on to the spinners.  
  I'm having mine done in a 2-ply DK/Sport-weight.  They will be adding a little merino to it to make it easier to spin and to knit with.  There won't be much and they will choose a fleece to closely match the different colors of the alpaca.  The red suri (6 pounds of it - it is a very heavy fleece) 
  and black/red huacaya 
  may be a little difficult to match.  The grey and whites will be easier.  After it is spun and plied, they will wind it into hanks and call me to pick it up.  It's going to be just like Christmas all over again.  Yay!!

Sweep got to play with their resident border collie, Lilly.  AND ... he got to see sheep for the first time in his six years.  He looked at them and immediately went down into the Border Collie crouch and stared at them like a good BC should.  Amazing.

What a fun day!