Checking In

So I mentioned photo updates, didn't I? I've been a neglectful blogger as of late, posting sparsely. But at least I've had some interesting photos, right? Right? Right. Haha.

Anyway, as far as TdF goes, I've been spinning every day, but not posting pictures to show my progress as much as I should. I spun up a silk sample from Zebisis Designs that I just love. I got it in my Phat Fiber sample box in march. It's gawgus.

I chain plied it!! I was so excited to find out you can do that on a spindle! Go me! =D

I've also been wrestling WIPs, but not as much as I've been spinning. I got through most of the foot on my 2nd Leyburn sock yesterday.


Okay now that I've proven that I've been working on the competitions I want to share with you that I started an amigurumi project. It's actually really easy and I did most of it in one sitting, but it's not finished and I have no idea when it might be. It's a little snow dragon (Ravlink). So cute.


In other news, I was looking through some cardigan patterns since I have 2 sweaters worth of yarn (Cascade Ecological wool and Malabrigo). It was sparked by the fall Knit Simple that I was browsing at work. I liked several cardigans in it and since I'm on a yarn diet until Rhinebeck (Which is going well- I haven't bought any yarn, well, except for a swap but that doesn't count!) I was trying to decide if my yarn would work with it.

Then I was thinking aobut what I really wanted to make with the yarn as I've had several different ideas (If you've been reading for a while then you know that I am a fickle, fickle knitter). The Cascade was originally for the Windowpane Coat, but that was frogged. Then I knit a sleeve of the OWLS sweater (cardigan version for me!) and decided against that. For the Malabrigo I was thinking of maybe that Cabely sweater from Vogue, or something else heavily cabled and came up with Mariah unofficially but now I'm rethinking that again.

The cardigans I really liked in the Knit Simple are the 2nd and 3rd in the 9 to 5 category on the website (There's no Rav links for these yet...!!). I was like Hey, I could make the 3rd sweater out of the Cascade, or better yet the Mal! Or wait, the 2nd would look awesome in the Malabrigo. But Malabrigo pills.. Hmmm...

Anyhow after much searching I am still largely undecided, so I was hoping that you, my dear readers, would have a bit of input. Here are some of the sweaters that I've been contemplating. So for the input, lets make this interesting. How about a contest? I'm going to post my choices and I'd like your opinion on which ones I should go for and what yarn. You can give a thorough reason or just state your choices, whatever I'll be glad of the input. =)

Factors:
Malabrigo Worsted 8-10 skeins "Simply Taupe"


Cascade Ecological Wool 3 skeins (~1300 yds) "8087"



Sweaters/My Combos:

1) Shalom(Ravlink)/Ecowool- I'd put long sleeves on it



2) Oblique(Ravlink)/Ecowool



2) Urban Aran Cardigan(Ravlink)/Either

3)Brompton(Ravlink)/Ecowool

4)Mariah(Ravlink)/Malabrigo

5 & 6) The Knit Simple Sweaters(2nd and 3rd)/Either yarn:

Okay.. that's a lot of sweaters. And yes I know some of them will involve math because of the yarn differences, but I'm okay with that.

The prize! I don't know what it is yet. It's going to involve yummy yarn, though. That I'm sure of. =)

You have until Saturday July 18th to leave a comment and be entered!

Grab some coffee

Because this is going to be a big one! First of all, I just returned from my vacation yesterday. It was amazing, I had a great time. I really loved getting to spend quality time with my family, especially since I don't see them nearly as often as I'd like. There were quite a few bonding moments. For example the Pub Crawl in Key West. Haha. Yes, a Pub Crawl. I went with my BF and my Step brother.

Did I survive? Yes and no. The actual crawl was pretty tame, we went to 5 bars in 2.5 hours and had a smallish cocktail at each. Feeling a little jipped and not nearly as drunk as we'd like to be, we headed to a little cowboy bar that had 2 for $5 margaritas and $1 beers. Here I proceeded to imbibe 2 more beers, and well, I was feeling mighty fine on my way back to the boat. We all were. Then we had lunch with the fam where the BF, step brother, and I all had another beer. I also had a huge plate of fries and chicken fingers. Afterward I went back to the cabin and slept for about 3 hours.

Upon waking up, I payed homage to the porcelain goddess. Several times. I was sick all night and throwing up bile, which is something that I've not experienced before. It was not a good night.

Usually I know my limits quite well and I stop before I get there. Unfortunately I did not on that particular day. I'm thinking there were several attributing factors to the entire night of sickness.
1) It was hot and I was sweating and so the alcohol was only contributing to dehydration.
2) I had a big plate of greasy food.
3) Instead of having a big glass of water with lunch I had another beer.

The last one was the biggest mistake, I think. I didn't drink much the rest of the trip, as you can well imagine. ;-)

The other shore excursions went much better. The 3rd day of the cruise we were at Grand Cayman. We did some snorkeling around the barrier reef. It was really amazing. The water is amazingly clear and we saw lots of fish and other sea life. I, for example saw Rainbow Parrot Fish, Blue Parrot Fish, Needle Fish, Brain Coral, Yellow Tube Sponge, Lettuce Coral (I think), Common Sea Fan, Blue Tang (I saw a school of these guys), Beaugregory (I think, it was yellow on the bottom and blue on top), Bluestriped Grunt, Yellowhead Wrasse, etc etc. I saw a couple of Sting Rays at the reef before we even got to "Sting Ray City" (Really just a spot in the ocean not like a sectioned off area, the sting rays are wild), where we got to touch the Rays! They feel like wet mushrooms. It was way cool. There was an enormous ray who bumped into people (Making them scream, which was quite funny. They're very tame, so there's no real dangers unless you go flailing around and impale yourself on the stingy spike on their tail.).


Going from left to right, top row first: 1) A needle fish I saw from the boat, 2) Frisbee the sting ray with no tail 3) A crew member smooching a ray 4) Sally, the GIANT and OLD ray

When we went to the “Sting Ray City” the crew had some food for the sting rays and they came right over. For hundreds of years the fishermen at Grand Cayman would fish on the deep side of the reef and then come back to the safety of the sound to clean the fish. They would dump the entrails and other unwanted bits over the side. The rays eventually learned to associate the sound of a boat anchoring with free food and come racing over.

The next day we went to Jamaica, which was beautiful. Our excursion was climbing Dunn River Falls followed by a beach party with all you can eat/drink food and drink (included in the excursion price). The drinks were Red Stripe, Rum Punch, and Mojitos (Made with pineapple, which I thought were interesting). The food included sweet fry bread, potato wedges, Jamaican rice, jerk chicken, sausage in a yummy bbq sauce, and pasta. It was all very good. We had a good time climbing the falls, even though you are constantly harangued by people trying to sell trinkets. I couldn’t walk 5 feet on the beach without being accosted. As annoying as that is, it only speaks to the poverty level there that the citizens have to make a living that way. But they are quite insistent, and sometimes even quite rude.

The BF and I actually took a lovely picture at the beach party:

And Finally I'll show you a picture of our cruise ship, the Freedom.

Lovely time, I'd recommend taking a cruise to anyone. It's pretty economical, as the food is included (I ate like 4 meals a day, and gained probably about 5 pounds- the food was great), and there's plenty of entertainment on the ship. However, if you're not a people person, this may not be for you as you are on an enclosed space with about 35oo guests and a large staff.

And now for the knitting portion of this entry! I've joined two contests on Ravelry. The first of which is WIPs Wrestling. I'm on the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Team: Team Team. The purpose of this is to finish as many WIPs as you can in the month of July. My estimate is fairly modest, I'm going to try and finish my Leyburns and also the Parker Cardigan. I hadn't worked on it at all since the last time I showed it to you. I took it with me on the cruise and worked on it a bit. I'm now up to the arm hole shaping on the back piece. I think the other pieces should be a breeze in comparison.

The other contest I entered is the Tour de Fleece. This started yesterday, and spinners everywhere are spinning while the Tour de France is going, which especially difficult challenges on the days were the riders are doing the most difficult stages of the race, the mountains. My goal is simply to spin every day, since I've been neglecting my spinning for a while. I might try and spin a whole batt in one day, maybe. We'll see how that goes.

I believe this post has gone on long enough, so I'll get going and hopefully I'll have some photo updates on the contests soon!