Ahhhhh....

It's so much fun to vacation, even if it's short! I had a great time in D.C. I won't bore you with too many details. We had a lovely dinner at the hotel restaurant the first night and then sort of just relaxed. On Friday we went to the Ford Theater, where Lincoln was shot. Then we headed to the Holocaust Museum. Once again it was really heart-wrenching and I didn't see everything I wanted to. We headed to an Italian place I had read about near the Capitol, but it had closed and was now a wine bar, but didn't serve food so late in the afternoon. So we just kept walking and ended up at a Thai place. It turned out to be quite delicious and we discovered a nice row of shops where I dropped some cash on some jewelry from an Egyptian designer - one of my downfalls! Since it was getting late in the day, we decided to just check out a few of the monuments:



I do love the reflecting pool! I got to see the Korean War Memorial, which I had never visited before. It was really nice. It was a windy, cold day in Washington and we weren't dressed appropriately, since we thought it was going to be warmer, so we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel. We had dinner at Legal Seafoods and laughed our asses off. Such a fun day and night! I had the best traveling companions!!



Saturday we went to the National Museum of the American Indian. We had heard about the Eastern Market from the Egyptian store the previous day, so we decided to check it out:



We loved it. So much fun jewelry and arts and crafts. If I lived around there I would buy food there all the time. I love the Farmer's Market and it would be great to have it available year round. I only bought one necklace since I'd spent so much the day before. There was an artist there with purses made from book covers and luckily he was busy talking the whole time I was there or else I would have ordered one of his Nancy Drew books and paid way too much. After the Market we headed back to the Mall area to look at a few more government buildings and then had dinner at The Bombay Club - as always, the best naan ever. It was a much nicer day, but we were pretty worn out and I had some monster blisters on my feet, so we headed back to the hotel again. We watched "Walk the Line" on pay per view. I really enjoyed it. The acting was wonderful, but the writing was a bit sketchy. I really thought they oversimplified some things and there was no need to make Vivian Cash such a bitch from beginning to end. Johnny was married to her for years - she must have had some redeeming qualities.

I didn't get much time for knitting over the weekend, but I did finish most of the leg of my second Jaywalker. I also finished "Knit One, Kill Two". I liked it for a nice fun mystery. I could figure out the killer pretty easily, but that also means that it made sense, which isn't always the case in some mysteries. I will definitely keep reading this series. I decided to pick this one up next:



My friend gave it to me right before the controversy broke and I'm still interested in it. So far I'm really liking it. His writing style is really unique and fits the book well.

Progress

I mentioned yesterday that I went to Joann's Etc for buttons. I also picked up some Paton's Classic Wool since it was on sale for $5 per skein - a great price!



I already have two different brands of worsted weight wool in red, so it wasn't something I really needed, but they only had red and gray and I already have gray too. Plus, I love red.

I finished the first Jaywalker last week. Not in time for the big contest, so I joined the Jaycrawlers group:



Thanks for the button from the Hedgeblog! As I mentioned before, they are a big hard to get on - takes a little wiggling. Once they are on, they fit perfectly and are so comfortable! The best fit I've ever managed. Here they are:





Yeah, that's a Christmas tree in the background - I'm a horrendous housekeeper. I don't turn the lights on any more. I vow to put it away before March arrives.

Last night I finished the first sleeve on Laura's cardi and started the second:



I need to block that baby a lot. All of the edges are curling under. Plus, it's pretty loosely knit, so I need to steam her to make those stitches more even.

My last film class tonight, so I won't get much knitting done. I'm going to Washington, D.C. on Thursday for a long weekend - maybe I'll be able to finish the second Jaywalker. I'm getting excited about Project Spectrum starting up next week. I'm going to explore a number of different crafty pursuits in the color palette each month.

Another Catch up Post

Once again, the week just flew by so I have a big long post of stuff. I know it's more fun to read a bunch of little posts, so I apologize in advance. Valentine's Day was a nice day. I had dinner with Bill and his family and then went to my film class where we had nice treats. I got some very nice Valentine's:



This one is my favorite, probably my all time favorite:



I love that kid!

Wednesday was my usual knit night, and I almost finished the first sleeve on my sister's cardigan. I'll wait to show a picture until I actually finish it though. I may be able to get this to her in near proximity to her birthday! I stopped by JoAnn's etc. and found the type of wooden toggle buttons I've been looking for.

Thursday I took a Chalking class at Archiver's. As I've mentioned here before, I don't really like to use chalks. I had originally signed up for a Valentine's class but I had to work so I couldn't make it so I took this class as a makeup. I really liked the papers and ribbons we worked with and ended up buying a lot of the paper:





I may try doing this technique with the chalk pad that I used in another class instead of the traditional chalks. I just find them too messy and I like bolder colors and more precise lines better.

Saturday was our monthly AK Knit Together. We met at Yarn Cafe this time and as usual, it was a wonderful day. It was bonechilling cold outside, but toasty warm on the couches next to the fireplace. I probably could have stayed there all day. I managed to only buy the new Nicky Epstein felted bags book, the new Interweave Knits and a green clear Chibi. I almost finished the double knit scarf, but I'm going to wait to show that until it's finished also.

In the evening I saw this film:



This is a French thriller about a man who hosts a tv talk show about books. He's married and has a son. He starts receiving videotapes that show he is being watched and filmed. The tapes eventually lead him to someone from his childhood. I have to admit when I first left the theater I was very disatisfied. The film ends very abruptly and there's no real clear solution to who is sending the videotapes and what all the film means. However, my friend and I talked about it all the way home and there were people standing outside the theater hashing it out too. Any film that keeps you talking and keeps you that involved is good. As soon as I got home I jumped on the internet to get more info and try to sort everything out. I'm still not 100% sure about it, but I've got my theories and I am still thinking about it days later, so I like it more and more. There's a whole layer of political ideology in the film that I missed in part because I'm dense and in part because I'm not that familiar with French politics. There was often news about the middle east and war in Iraq in the background I knew that was meaningful, but I just didn't connect the dots at first. So, if you enjoy challenging material that really makes you think, I highly recommend Cache.

Sunday was my nephew's birthday party. I made him this cake:



My brother had this cake when he was a boy and Michael wanted to have it for his birthday. My step-mom still had the pan, so I was happy to make his wish come true. I heard him tell Red that I had made the cake especially for him, so I think he was pretty happy. The party was fun and Michael got a lot of loot. I had to leave a bit early to go to Book Club. We had a smaller group but a really good discussion of the book (The Three Junes). Maybe smaller is better for that type of thing. I think the book had a lot of topics that were possible to talk about too. It seemed like everyone liked the book to one degree or another.

Speaking of books, I finished "True Story". I did like it a lot. I liked the first half better. In that half the author dealt with his own story of being fired from the New York Times and the nature of truth, etc. Particularly interesting at this poitn with the whole James Frey controversy. The last quarter of the book is mostly the trial of the other man for murdering his family. It's fascinating but not quite as compelling. As the man recounted his many, many deceptions and frauds to the author, it did make me feel like whatever problems and difficulties I had, at least I wasn't as fucked up as that guy. I really have no idea how he thought he was going to sort out his life. Just for fun I started reading this book:



If you're not familiar, it's another knitting mystery. This time it's set in Colorado. There are a lot of similarities to the Monica Ferris books. This time it's a niece who is called in from out of town when her aunt is killed. Her aunt didn't own the yarn shop, but she had sold the house the yarn shop is in to the shop owner and still lived in a cottage on the grounds. So, of course, the niece gets to know the regulars at the yarn shop and is drawn into the knitting world while she tries to sort out what happened to her aunt. There's a follow up book out already, so it seems pretty clear that she'll end up learning how to knit and staying on in her aunt's home. I've only just started, but I'm enjoying it so far. There writing seems a little better than the Ferris books. I'm still not that connected to the characters yet, though. There was an odd scene in the knit shop when the main character meets the regulars and they have this whole big discussion about their weight and eating. I guess that's probably what a lot of women talk about when they get together to knit, but it was a little strange.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had a super cute picture of Finbar, my valentine, to post, but my stupid computer reformatted my diskette with the pictures on it. Oh well, you know what he looks like. This morning after I let the dogs out I was still tired so I went back to bed. Finbar jumped into bed and laid right next to me and started licking my face - almost like he knew he was my Valentine!

I also had some cute pictures of Lucky on that diskette. I got Bill to take some more and they're not so cute, but what are you going to do? First, here's a picture of the bell sleeve:



I sewed all the ends in on Sunday and it's now an official finished object!

Project Name: Lucky Clover Lace Wrap Sweater
Designer: Melissa Wherle
Pattern Source: Stitch n Bitch Nation
Yarn: Peruvian Collection Baby Silk
Yarn Source: Elann
Date Started: 3/15/05
Date Completed: 2/12/06

Comments: This sweater took me longer to knit than anything else I've ever done, but I finally finished it! I had to rip out the neckband and knit it a little longer and re-sew it in, but I think it turned out pretty well. This yarn is absolutely wonderful and I'd definitely use it again. I may need to replace the ribbon inside because it keeps coming untied.



Sorry about the red eye. I was in a dark office for these pictures trying to get pictures really quickly. Here's another view, without my evil demon eyes:



You can see in the previous picture that I was wearing my beaded wristers underneath. This is a little chilly to wear on a cold day like today. It's very comfortable, though and looked good with black dress pants yesterday. Since pretty much everyone liked the purple shell, I decided to stick with that.

So, pretty excited to FINALLY finish this sweater. I'm very happy with it and it was worth the long, long journey. Usually when I finish something, I spend the rest of that day ironing because I have a TON of ironing, but my ironing board was piled with junk, so I decided to do some scrapbooking instead. It was fun to work on for the first time in a while. I'm the slowest scrapbooker ever, though. So many things to do, so little time!

FO

I'm not participating the Olympic Knitting, so this was just another weekend for me. I am enjoying seeing everyone's flurry of productivity, though! I didn't have time to even knit one stitch on Friday. I did enjoy some fun knitting activity on Saturday, though. I checked out the Swedish Knitwear exhibit at the American Swedish Institute. The designer, Gerd Kreij, raises the sheep, spins the wool, dyes it and then knits it up into these gorgeous, extremely fine gauge masterpieces. Now that's a project! There were a lot of gorgeous sweaters in the gift shop to drool over also - now I really want to make another Fair Isle sweater!!

After the museum we had lunch and knitting time at a fun new coffee shop/restaurant called "The Bad Waitress". It's on 26th and Nicollet, one of my favorite neighborhoods. The decor is very 70s inspired and we managed to snag a couch. The food was pretty good and I really liked the "Voodoo" mocha I had. Best of all there is a jukebox - I love jukeboxes! I'll definitely be heading back there again.

I went over to my brother's place afterward and made dinner for the fam and just sort of hung out. It was a fun night! It's a bit chilly around these parts these days and Finbar is still partially bald, so I bundled him up in blankets yesterday:



Isn't he adorable? Today I'm going to be working in the ends on my Lucky Clover Lace Wrap. After almost a year, I'm finally done. I am very satisfied with how the band came out after I ripped it out and knit it 15" longer. It's hard to take pictures of yourself wearing a sweater, but here are a couple of attempts:



Much better v-neck this time! Here's another attempt:



Last week I was on a mission to find the perfect shell to wear underneath. I originally thought white would be good so you can really see the lace pattern, but after trying it with white I'm not so sure. Since the fronts cross across each other, you really only see the white over the breast area, which is a little too "breast-centric" for me. The purple one I'm wearing in those pictures is nice, but maybe too close in color. I may have to see if they have this in another color. I tried a brown tank with a built-in bra, but I didn't have enough support and said breasts looked really saggy. Another brown one with beads around the edge was pretty nice. I also tried a green crinkled tank and it worked ok, too. I'll post better pictures once I can rope Bill into taking some for me.

The Nature of Knitting

The nature of knitting for me is such that at the beginning, I'm all excited about the new project - excited about the great pattern I've picked out, excited about the fantastic yarn I'm working with, full of promise that I'm going to create something wonderful. Then in the middle I fall into this little lull where I feel like I'm the slowest knitter in the world. I'm more of a process than a product knitter, so it's not like I don't like what I'm knitting or I feel the need to start something new, but I have some need to success and start to feel a lack of it in the middle. But then there's a milestone reached and I feel much better. Like those Jaywalkers - I'm almost to the toe, so I can see real progress. I reached a milestone on my sister's long cardi too:



I wish Laura were here to try it on and to model it for you. I was a suitable "model" when I first started it, but once it got past my rib cage, it's way too small for me. As you may remember, this is a top down hooded cardigan. My first top down design and it is kind of fun. It's a PITA now that I'm knitting around and around on the sleeves to have the weight of the body on my needles. Here's a closeup of the sleeve I'm working on:



Dark blue stockinette sweater makes for terrible blog pictures - sorry!

I've also been meaning to post something about our local SNB Group. I'm sure you've all heard about the big Stitch N Bitch controversy. The Twin Cities SNB group was deleted from Yahoo, but we got a new one started - come join us if you haven't already.

I'm sure 99% of you will be watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies tonight and a lot of you are Olympic Knitters and will be firing up the needles. I'm sitting out of the competition because I want to keep making progress on what I've already got started and I'm not watching the Opening Ceremonies. I'll be watching the end of my all time favorite show tonight:



I'll be laughing through my tears. Won't you please take a look at it and then write to HBO or Showtime, asking them to pick it up?

And FINALLY! I was tagged for the Music Meme way back in December by Susan. I had the holiday madness, then vacation madness and now I'm finally getting around to it.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

Songs

One - U2

Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day

Black - Pearl Jam

Train in Vain - The Clash

Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

Blood & Roses - The Smithereens

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

Ok, I'm so late to the boat on this, I don't know who to tag and I don't have time to check and see who hasn't been tagged. If you haven't, please consider yourself tagged and let me know that you've posted so I can check it out.

A Night at the Theater

I had a lovely time last night dining at Loring Pasta Bar and then seeing "Indian Cowboy" at Mixed Blood Theater. Loring Pasta Bar is one of the most romantic, lovely restaurants around - if you're going out for Valentine's Day, this would be a good choice. I had a tortellini with marina sauce and sausages that was really delicious. I also had a great salad with pears, blue cheese and walnuts that was delicious. For dessert I tried a chocolate espresso torte that was just ok. The play was a good one. It's a one man show about the life of a man from India who travels to the U.S. to become an actor. The actor was very skillful in portraying several different characters. The whole play was set to live music which was really effective. The actor was only lighted by several candles, which I didn't like so much. It was a really thought-provoking piece and I especially identified with the main character's self-searching for what his identity is and where he fits into the world. That's a struggle that I have quite often too.

After the play I came home and watched the Grammys on the west coast feed. I was glad to see U2 awarded so well, although I'm still quite bitter about being shut out of the concert here by the damn scalperman who bought up all the tickets right ahead of me. I didn't really enjoy Mary J. Blige's duet with them on "One" either. Loved Bruce's performance and Sir Paul's. It reminded me of one of the highlights of the last time I saw him and he performed "Helter Skelter". I couldn't help but wish U2 joined him on Helter Skelter since I love their version of it too. I really loved the tribute to Sly and the Family Stone - that may have been my favorite performance of the night. The big finale piece was ok. I love the idea of Bruce and Bonnie Raitt performing together, but they were on opposite sides of the stage. While I was watching the Grammys, I made some good progress on my Jaywalker socks. I'm still in love with this yarn and I'm glad I made the Jaywalkers with them. I love the zig zag pattern:



much more than the plain stockinette:



That fuzzy white stuff is snow - we're having a big of a snowfall right now.

Speaking of weather (ok, bad segue), I saw Word Clouds on a lot of blogs and had to create one of my own:



I love it! My favorite stuff on there, although I don't know where autodiscovery came from. I also would make some of the bigger words smaller and the smaller words bigger, but as it is, I would buy a shirt if they had one in a style that I wear.

HFO

I have a Half Finished Object - the first sock of a pair:



These are my "car knitting". The pattern is from Socks, Socks, Socks. I used a self-striping yarn instead of following the manual striping in the pattern. I steam blocked it with my steamer, which worked like a charm! The stitches are set so nicely now. I do not like the fair isle heart pattern on the leg, though - it doesn't have the same give as the rest of the sock and is the fattest part of my leg. Hopefully it'll fit well on someone with thinner calves.

Every year I try to see all the movies that are nominated for the major Academy Awards. This weekend I saw this one:



It was ok. It's a pretty light movie. I'm sure if the Windmill Theater were something I was familiar with and had fond memories of, I would have connected more. Judi Dench is nominated for Best Actress for her work in this film and I thought she was just ok. I really like her a lot, but I didn't feel like this character was much of a stretch for her.

On Saturday I checked out The Yarn Garage. Wow. This is a very different yarn store. It's jam-packed full of fun and interesting stuff. There are lots and lots of different yarns stuff in everywhere from floor to ceiling. It was somewhat overwhelming to me. There also is other fun stuff like vintage clothes and necklaces. There are a lot of cool bags and notions. The store is split into two different rooms and attached to a flower store, so the middle room smells like heaven. The owner, Stephen, is incredibly nice and helpful. There were a ton of really cool yarns, but I managed to limit myself to just a couple of things.



This is Mango Moon Wooly. It's a bit rustic, but I couldn't resist when I read the label, "Provides safe shelter, health care and education to women in Nepal". Of course I loved the green and yellow color, too. I'll probably felt a bag with this stuff, so it doesn't matter that it's not all that soft. As you can see, it smells a bit wooly, which Finbar loved!



On the other hand, this stuff is really nice and soft. It's Artyarns Ultramerino 8. Such a nice hand and beautiful colors. I bought enough for a scarf. I also bought a cute bag from Lantern Moon:



I love Lantern Moon stuff and I don't have many bags this big, so I think I'll use this a lot when KIPing on sweaters. I also was positively pre-disposed to buying a Lantern Moon product because I just had a fantastic experience with their Customer Service people. It also is a company that gives education and income to local women - this time in Vietnam.

Celebrating Winter - and Art!

Another much smaller celebration of Winter that is taking place in Minnesota is the Art Shanty Projects. There are a bunch of shanties (ice houses) on a metro lake with an artistic twist.



The shanties are actually pretty cool. There is one decorated by a group of high school students. One houses karaoke. In one you can trade a story for some hot cocoa. This one looked really cool:



It's called "After the Fall" and tells the story of philosopher Giordano Bruno.

This one is from the Black Arc Shanty and featured a wonderful performance piece outside involving some sort of funeral dirge for fish.



Here's my friend Florence beside a very large fishing lure:



And here she is in front of my favorite ice house:



Yes, it was a Knitting Shanty. As you can see in the picture, it was extremely well insulated, so it was as cozy as could be. They were knitting blankets for Project Linus and giving knitting lessons to those who don't know how to knit. Florence took in a quick lesson:



and we knit on either end of a very long community knitted scarf:



It was a super fun exhibit and I'd recommend the trip out if you live in the Twin Cities. There's a slide show accompanying this story in the local paper.

Before going to the Art Shanty Projects I took a class on the Shapely Shawlette pattern at Needlework Unlimited. I fell in love with the beaded version at the store and bought the pattern, so I figured I might as well take the class when the designer, Judy Pascale was scheduled to teach it. I really enjoyed the class. Judy is a very enthusiastic teacher with a lot of energy. I learned a couple of really neat tricks, too.

In the evening, I took in a movie with another friend



I really liked it! I am not a fan of Scarlett Johansson, though, and she really bugged me in this film. It's a mystery/thriller kind of, so I don't want to give away any key plot points, but I wonder if I would have felt differently about what happens in the film if another actress were playing her part. I really liked the story, though, and was thoroughly caught up in the mystery and plot. This would also be a good film to watch for movie club because there was a lot of stuff to talk about - like how much store do you put in "luck" or what is more important, great passion or love. Or in this film, does love even enter into it - was it really lust v. passion? I was captivated by Jonathan Rhys Meyers - he really reminded me of Joaquin Phoenix. I know not everyone likes Woody Allen films, but this is not typical of his work and I'd really recommend it.

Celebrating Winter

I came back from sunny, warm Mexico to sunny, not so warm Minnesota just as we started celebrating the ice and snow, the Winter Carnival. I know our friends from the warmer climes don't really understand why you would celebrate Winter in Minnesota, but that's just the way we are. After I dropped off Finbar for his surgery, I attended a conference in downtown St. Paul and during a break I checked out the ice sculpting in the park across the street. It's pretty cool to see how they create these artworks.



It's kind of hard to tell, but he's using a chainsaw to cut the ice. The Winter Carnival hadn't actually started yet, so there weren't many sculptures yet. This was the prettiest one:



I like that one because you can see some of the pretty buildings downtown as well as some trees without leaves, which I love. Here's a prettier picture of the sculpture, though:



Of course, it wasn't too cold because I wasn't wearing a coat when I took these pictures. In fact, we went through a nice warm spell when I returned from Mexico, so we have almost no snow. I drove by this park again on Thursday and all of the ice sculptures were sad little blobs of ice. So sad!

As I've mentioned before, I get together with some women from law school every now and again for dinner and a movie. We had a slight communication problem in planning the movie portion, so only two of us ended up at the movie. Happily, I was one of them and it was a great movie!



I really liked this film a lot. As I'm sure you all know, it's about a group of men who are secretly dispatched by the Israeli government to assassinate 11 men as revenge for the kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. I found it really exciting and was on the edge of my seat often. It also is really dense, with a lot of symbolism and heavy content. So you could enjoy it on either or both levels. There are a lot of parallels to be made to the political situation today, especially with Hamas winning control of Palestine. I thought Spielberg did an excellent job of showing how violence just begets more violence and doesn't solve any problem, but also showing why Israel felt the need to respond by intercutting the athletes' kidnapping and murders throughout the film and certain debates by characters. Eric Bana was really excellent as the leader of the team, who starts as an idealistic patriot and ends up completely paranoid and anxious.

After the movie we met up with a few of our other friends and had dinner at Restaurant Alma. It was my first time there and I loved it! Everything I had was really delicious. I started with a Warm Brie and Belgian Endive Salad and then had a Cavatelli Pasta with a Pheasant Ragu for the main course. So good! For dessert I had to have the chocolate souffle with the chocolate ganache because I was still obsessed with the souffle I had in Mexico. It was almost as good as that one. This restaurant is a little pricey, but I would highly recommend it.

Back to Reality

Luckily, shortly after I got back to the Twin Cities I had our monthly TC AK Get together. This month we met at Needlework Unlimited afterhours again and as usual, a great time was had by all. Time just flew by! I wasn't going to buy anything since I spent so much on vacation, but since I didn't have any yarn buying opportunities in Mexico and I fell in love with a couple of things, I indulged myself:



Some beautiful and soft Cashmere Silk blend from Jade Sapphire. I think it'll end up being a scarf.



A few skeins of Alchemy Mohair Silk. These were so gorgeous, it was difficult picking out a color. I was thinking about a lacy bedjacket for this, but I don't have enough yardage for the pattern I was considering. I'll have to decide whether to buy another couple of skeins or make a shawl instead. I'm leaning toward a shawl.

The next day I had my Movie Club and we saw this film:



LOVED IT!!! You must see this movie. Everyone really, really enjoyed it and we had a great discussion afterwards. I'm not going to do justice to how good and interesting this film is by describing it, but I'll try. It's a documentary (of course) about this guy in Illinois who grew up on his family farm. His father died when he was just starting college. He continued to attend college full time and run the family farm. It was the 60s and he brought a lot of his hippie friends to hang out on the farm, which raised the eyebrows of his rural neighbors. Eventually the farm goes bust with the family farm crisis in the 80s and in the 90s he moves on to organic farming and a Community Support Agriculture (CSA) farm. It's an amazing portrait of the life of a really interesting guy and so many different themes are covered - farming and the impact of agriculture on the environment, being an outsider, sexual identity, family relationships, balancing work and family and so much more. Check out the website if you're interested in finding out more.

Last week I also had to take Finbar in to get a fatty tumor removed from his belly. It was gigantic and I was afraid that it might start growing into his organs, so I decided to have it removed. I was so anxious about putting him under for the surgery, but everything went very well. The tumor was even bigger than the surgeon originally thought - it ended up being 6.5 pounds. He has a huge scar up his whole belly and another one under one of his hind legs because they removed another one from there since they had him under anyway. He was recovering so well they let me take him home that evening, but he was pretty drugged up:



Poor puppy! He's doing really well now, although he looks pretty funny with half a naked body:



He'll get his stitches out on Monday. Everytime I see him sitting on the couch I have to kiss his bald spot or cuddle up with him because I imagine it feels a bit chilly!

Clean Up

So, just a few loose ends from the trip. As you can tell, I loved the trip and I thought Yarn Cafe and World Class Travel did an awesome job with setting up the trip - everything went very, very smoothly and I think everyone had a great time. I would definitely recommend taking one of their trips and I more than likely will do another one. The next trip they're planning is to Norway in August. I'd love to make that trip, but I'm not sure if I can afford the time away and the money. They gave everyone a nice little goodie bag when we arrived, also:



In the background you can see the bag with the two logos embroidered on the pockets. It's a nice bag and it was really handy for dragging my knitting, book, water, camera and sunscreen to the beach and back. We also got a journal to record some thoughts or knitting notes, a cute pink baseball cap to shade our eyes and a fun skein of yarn. There was some candy, also, but I gave that to the boys as a souvenir. They also included a number of discount coupons which I will be using. We also received gift cards if we were found wearing the hat at certain random times. There was also a scavenger hunt for a big gift certificate to the store - I didn't have much luck, but I helped a really sweet, very enthusiastic young woman who ended up winning! It was super fun and I can't wait for the next trip I go on with them!

I cast on for a pair of Jaywalker socks while I was in the airport:



They are knit with some Tess' Designer Yarns that I got last year at Maryland Sheep and Wool. I don't know what this color is called, but I'm calling it Tequila Sunrise. I love the design with the yarn! As you can see, I made the leg a little shorter - I don't like my socks to go too far up the calf. I was worried about fitting it over my heel, but I was able to make it with a little wiggling.

As I mentioned before, I finished up "The Three Junes" on my trip. I also started a new one:



This was one of the books I got from my sister for Christmas. It's non-fiction. It's written by a guy who was a reporter for the New York Times but was fired after it was revealed that he had created a child profiled in a story about child labor. The next day he found out another man had killed his wife and children and fled to Mexico, passing himself off as the reporter. At a time when he was questioning his own identity, the reporter was fascinated to find out that this man had taken on his identity. He contacted the man after he was arrested and they formed a relationship and this book is the result. It's about the reporter and the murderer. It's an easy read and really interesting. The whole James Frey/Million Little Pieces controversy also ties in and is interesting with this book.

Chichen Itza

Sorry about the break in my vacation tales - time flies even when you're not on vacation! The comments I've gotten from people have been so nice - I know it can be boring to hear about other people's vacation sometimes. This post is going to be photo intensive, so I apologize if you're on dial up service. My more regular posts will continue next time.

On Day 3 in Mexico I took time away from the knitting group to take a tour to the ancient Mayan archeological site "Chichen Itza". For those not familiar with Chichen Itza, here's a description I stole from Mysterious Places:

Deep within the jungles of Mexico and Guatemala and extending into the limestone shelf of the Yucatan peninsula lie the mysterious temples and pyramids of the Maya. While Europe was still in the midst of the Dark Ages, these amazing people had mapped the heavens, evolved the only true writing system native to the Americas and were masters of mathematics. They invented the calendars we use today. Without metal tools, beasts of burden or even the wheel they were able to construct vast cities across a huge jungle landscape with an amazing degree of architectural perfection and variety.

We started off bright and early in the morning on a nice bus. It was very comfortable, with food and drink provided and I spent my time on the bus knitting, so it was a pleasant drive into the jungle. Here I am before we took off - you can see my newly manicured nails:



As you can see, I brought a nice big bag along since our first stop was a Mayan village to do a little shopping. We drove through Valladolid, a more famous Mayan town, but did not stop there. Here's a photo of a couple of my fellow knitters from Minnesota who also took the trip to Chichen Itza doing some shopping:



The man in the white shirt between them in Luis, our tour guide. He is Mayan and so passionate about his people and their history. He was extremely knowledgable, interesting and funny. I loved the whole trip, in large part because of what I learned from him.

After the shopping we stopped at a hotel and had a bit of lunch. There was a lunch buffet and I tried a bit of everything and it was all really good. I was afraid to eat too much, though, because of the heat and humidity. There were also some native dancers to entertain us during lunch:



After lunch we travelled to a nearby cenote. Cenotes are sinkholes deep underground. As you can see in this picture, people can swim in them:



There are cenotes all over the Yucatan Peninsula. The owners of the land where this cenote is had dug a stairway underground so that we could walk down to the edge and jump in. It was really beautiful.

We finally arrived at Chichen Itza about mid-afternoon. The most famous structure in Chichen Itza is the big pyramid, "El Castillo"



As you can see, it wasn't too crowded while we were there. Here is a closeup of the snakes that are flanking the steps on each side:



The pyramid was constructed so that on the equinox days, the shadows fall on the columns rising up from the snake heads to create a diamond back snake body. Pretty amazing that they were such fantastic architects. In the above picture you can see the steps that rise up the pyramid. Up until about a month ago tourists could walk all the way up the steps to the top of the pyramid, but it was really damaging it. You can still walk on the steps on some of the smaller buildings and I can't imagine even being able to walk to the top of that massive building.



You can see that the steps are barely wider than the width of my foot - definitely not as wide as the length of my foot. The steps aren't wide, but they are very tall - much taller than the stairs we're used to. The pyramid is almost completely straight up, too. I think going up might be ok, but coming down would be terrifying. It was an incredibly impressive site - it's about in the middle of the site, so you walk through the jungle and then all of sudden there it is and it's HUGE!

Another impressive building is the Temple of the Warriors. Surrounding the temple is the Plaza of 1000 Columns:



I was quite taken with the site of all of those columns lined up.

The other famous structure in Chichen Itza is the ball court.



You can see the ring on the wall that the players had to pass the rubber ball through without using their hands, heads or feet to score. It's believed that the captain of the winning team was beheaded as a sacrifice to the gods - a great honor. Outside of the Ball Court was the Platform of the Skulls, which is where the Mayans displayed the heads of their conquests and of their sacrifices:



Here's a closeup of the carvings on the platform:



There were a lot of Mayan people selling handcrafts throughout the site. I bought some jewelry, some pottery, an embroidered handkerchief and a few other trinkets. It was an awesome day and I wish I had a lot more time to explore the site. I have one more picture to share, since I'm a crazy dog lady:



Yes, no matter where I go I find wild dogs. This guy struck several different poses for me to photograph, but this is the cutest one. I love dogs with their heads on their paws!

After that long day being a tourist I had a late dinner at the Asian restaurant in the resort - it was so good! I had all Japanese food and it wasn't exactly the way I was expecting, but I loved it. I had gyoza, which was fried and crunchy, but still good. Then I ordered sushi, which I expected to be nigiri but was actually a roll. I don't usually like salmon rolls, but this was excellent and I should have ordered more. For the main course I had a teriyaki chicken with noodles and an ice cream dessert. Yum, yum, yum!

Our final full day at the resort was spent knitting, reading in the hammock and on the beach. It was such a nice, relaxing day. We all had dinner together at the Italian restaurant and it was again absolutely excellent. We started with a stuff mushroom appetizer, then a great salad, then had a tri-color pasta course - it was a pesto sauce, an alfredo sauce and a marinara sauce on different pastas, so it looked like the Italian flag. The main course was Osso Bucco and dessert was a chocolate souffle with a chocolate ganache and a side of Bailey's ice cream. Oh, my, goodness! To die for! After dinner, a group of us went into Playa Del Carmen to check out the nightlife and do some shopping. We checked out one source of yarn that we had been told about, but it was just acrylic and cotton stuff - none of it was very nice. I had a little mistake in translating pesos into dollars, so I spent a lot more than I wanted on some shoes for my niece, but I got some really nice stuff, otherwise. I think the most popular item I bought in Playa Del Carmen were the wresting masks. Ben and Red loved them - they are familiar with Mexican wrestling from the cartoon "Mucha Lucha".



On the last day I just did my final shopping around the shops at the resort, enjoyed one last breakfast and soaked in a little sun. We had no problems with the plane ride back and it was darn cold and I was inappropriately dressed when we landed!