the stars at night


I spent last week in the lovely town of Alpine attending a Writer’s Retreat. It was great, I’m motivated and I feel creative again. It was also exhausting so I feel like I’ve mostly been catching up on sleep this week.

We saw some fun stuff, like these cute donkeys. We were trying to figure out what donkeys were, and mostly we got it right.

jack-assic park sign

donkey face

donkey #1

donkey #2

Donkey’s can be interbred, but the offspring are sterile so while I’m not sure of the other two guys I took pictures of, this one is donkey and zebra:

zebra donkey body

zebra donkey legs

We spent a lot of time on the Sul Ross campus where our class was held, and I saw something really funny there.

lizard and bug #1

So he’s letting me get real close to get a picture and it’s not until I take this one that I understand that it’s a bug and not a pecan he’s got. Then it’s game time.

lizard grabs bug

lizard throws bug

lizard grabs bug again

lizard prepares to run away with bug

I saw this at the motel, very cool butterfly that I have been unable to identify so far, I guess a trip to the Life Sciences Library might be in my future.

big butterfly

We did go to Marfa on Friday and have dinner and poke around.

marfa watertower palace

palace theater

old water tower

fence

brite building in marfa

Then we went back to Alpine and stopped to see the lights. We did see them, but I could not get pictures. So small, so far away. I got this instead though.

sunset at marfa lights lookout

sunset

sunset

It was great. I’d love to do it again next year!



we interrupt this program…


to bring you some non-knitting content, brace yourself. Here are some of my favorite pics from the Alaska trip.

Stanley Park

stanley park colors

Pulling into Ketchikan

ketchikan

Juneau clearing up

Juneau

Orca (or killer if you want to be un-PC about it) whale in Lynn Canal (Juneau)

orca whale

Humpback whale (we saw a lot of humpbacks and they came very close to our boat, and it was awesome)

humpback tail

Glacier Bay

glacier



it’s been a long time


I have been very, uh, lazy I guess for the last month. I just realized I haven’t blogged since I got back from my trip to Alaska in September. Crazy.

So a lot’s been happening I guess. I have been struggling with the stupid occipital neuralgia crap. It’s pretty bad right now, but I’m back to regular acupuncture and I’m considering meds. I actually filled the prescription but I’m not ready to commit to it quite yet. I want to wait a little longer and try some other options to see if I can get the problem solved rather than medicated to an acceptable level.

The trip was awesome, but I totally had PMS the whole time and felt like I was a bit of a pain in the ass. I finished the Clapotis for my mom and she loved it. C loved her headband. I finished M’s socks. So lots of good knitting. The weather was great, nice and cool. Our excursion were so cool. The whale watching especially was amazing. I will have pics up soon, I just haven’t been up to sitting at the computer to clean up the images and load them all. Will try to finish it this weekend.

I’ve decided to do NaNoWriMo this year, for reals. I have an idea, and I’ll be spending this week doing some character and plot development in prep for the kick-off. So for those of you not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s National Novel Writing Month, and I think it’s been going on about 10 years, maybe longer. The idea is to try to write a novel (50,000 words or more) during the month of November. So Nov 1 to Nov 30th @ midnight. I have sorta been signed up for the last couple of years but have never done a damn thing. This year I’m taking it a bit more seriously. I hope that I’ll be able to get my prep work done this next week because I think that will be key to me moving forward for this for real. So because I’m also going to use NaNoWriMo as a way to get my ass writing everyday I’ve decided to split this blog up again. I know. I am so fickle. I’ve been wondering how boring all the knitting stuff must be to some people and vice versa for personal stuff. Not that I have more than like 5 people that have ever read this. So anyway, details to come.

So knitting is next…



more FO’s and updates


Ok, really just one more. I finished my first ever socks! Woot. I finally realized that, yes “working one more stitch each row…” does mean row 1 is p5, row 2 is k6, row 3 is p7, etc. Sheesh. I guess I shouldn’t wait more than a week to cast on my second sock or else I’ll forget everything I figured out about the pattern. I also found that charting this out on graph paper was really helpful too. So socks are done and the second sock turned out GREAT, I figured out the weird toe thing from the Kitchner finish and I got the toe decreases in the right place this time. I don’t think I’ll re-do the first sock, since these were for me, and besides it’ll show my improvement as I move onward with sock knitting.

finished socks

I got my buttons for Ovaltine AND I sewed them on, so Ovaltine is way done now. I have made a little progress with the trim for Ella’s blanket, but frankly I do not think that is going to get done this month. That trim is some slow ass knitting.

finished cardigan with buttons

So I’m basically down to 3 WIP’s (ha more on the #3 later), go me. I actually did a gauge swatch for the $1.50 Cardigan last week, but it’s too small so I need to re-do with the prescribed needles. It’s odd because I automatically went down a needle size to do the swatch, but I guess the lace knitting is different. I think I’ll have to do the reverse stockinette in the smaller size though to make it work. Anyway, I’m going to try to swatch for that today.

I also started gauge swatches for 2 sock projects but had to abandon both. The first is for a pair of socks for M. I am using Cascade 220 though and my biggest sock needles are US 1 and I tried a few rows of that and it’s just too stiff. I think I only need to go up maybe 1 size though. I also tried to swatch for Jaywalkers but again my US 1′s are actually too big for this and my US 0′s are in my suitcase which I believe is in Dallas now. Perhaps I’ll get it back today.

So all this sock activity is based on my desire to be in a sock club. I really do see the appeal in socks now and would love to try a club sometime. The problem is that most clubs are closed or if they are about to reopen require payment now and I can’t do that because of my no spending rule. So I realized I had bought 3 skeins of sock yarn recently (before march!) plus I had the socks for M. to make with the gray Cascade I have, so 4 pairs of socks. So I decided to do my own sock club (I totally got this idea off of some Ravelry forum which I can’t remember now). Anyway, this weekend I picked patterns (free ones) for the yarns and printed them out and put each yarn in a bag with the pattern and put those in a little box.

M.’s is supposed to be first, but I’m trying to decide of purchasing new needles is ok on this no spending regime. I think he wants the socks asap, and I do think I can afford to buy them right now so I’m leaning toward yes it’s ok because I also know I’ll do his socks right away if I get the right needles. If I decide to hold off on his socks though I’ll have to wait until I recover my bag to start the Jaywalkers, either way it’ll probably be until at least Thursday before I seriously start either of these.

So back to those WIP’s I have. So Ella’s blanket I should be able to finish maybe in April if I have enough yarn for the trim. I’ve pretty much decided if I run of yarn to finish that’ll have to wait until after my no buying time is over. So if I run out of yarn it won’t be until June or July that I finish.

I’ve also got the Noro throw I’m working on (Cavendish) using Noro Silk Garden. That is a long term project that I have no deadline for and that I do a little at time on, so no rush there.

I also have this crocheted blanket that I just found hidden in my desk when I did a little cleaning last weekend. I should finish this and it might actually make a good Ella blanket too, but not until she’s a bit older maybe. At any rate I have to pull it out to see how much I have left to do, etc.

afghan

In other news, I’m doing a bit better than last week, but have not gotten back on track with my 365 project. Will try to start today again. I was supposed to be in Atlanta right now at a conference, but the crazy weather yesterday killed my plans so I’m in Austin waiting for my bag to return from DFW (I never made it to DFW, but the bag did).

Oh, and I’ll be adding pictures to this post later today…