Fountain at Maela
I thought I'd go back to the beginning of the Oaxaca trip. This is the fountain and courtyard inside the front door at the Hotel Maela . See those windows? That's the room Steph and I stayed in!
I took this picture later in the week, and we were staying in different rooms. This is the fountain in the back courtyard. It was evening, so this shot isn't as good as I'd like. But I want you to notice the little sign on the stepping stone (closeup in the next shot).
This is the sign on the stepping stone. I won't give an exact translation...
Sneaking in the fiber report at the end as usual: I spun up almost two ounces on the black corriedale. Jez and I went to the closing of an alternative bookstore in Riverside, my old stomping grounds, and then Mike and I went to a folk concert by John York who used to sing with the Byrds in the sixties. I could wax eloquent about aging hippies and the dreamers who still believe and sing along... but it's late. I tend towards runon sentences even more than usual when I'm tired, it seems.
Museo de Artesanios Oaxaquenos
Take a good look at that sign - the woman is carding wool! This is in Huatulco, which is right on the ocean. This shop sold all sorts of textiles, but very few of them were actually handspun.
Tonight's fiber progress: I carded up and spun about 2/3 of an ounce of the Prudence corriedale fleece. More this weekend!
Caracol snails, and FO!
I'm taking this picture from the boat -- you can see how rough the sea is on the rocks. Habecuc is putting caracol on the shawl I brought.
Steph and I couldn't climb out to where the snails were, so Eric brought a snail to us. Habecuc presses on the "foot" of the snail to make it give dye.
This is the topside of the snail. I knew you could figure that out, but it seemed rude to just give you the picture without text.
Habecuc is showing us how he wraps the yarn around his finger to paint it with the snails. It looks green, but will turn purple in the sun. You can see the stains on his clothes have already turned purple.
On Fiber: FO! (Finished Object!!) I started these socks a couple days before Christmas, and finished them today. The yarn is Plymouth Yarn Company Happy Feet, 90% Superwash Merino Wool, 10% Nylon. There are 192 yds to 50grams in the skein, and I knit them on 2.5mm bamboo dpns (double pointed needles).
I finished them in the doctor's office, and then picked up the Shards socks. I broke one of the Grafton needles, and they replaced it, and sent extras! Whoo hooo!! I cast on for the second sock, so I think things will go faster now. Funny that - knitting a pair goes faster when I knit both at the same time.
I also re-washed a few batts of the Prudence fleece. It seemed gummy and sticky-- apparently I didn't wash out all the lanolin the first time. That will get spun this weekend, hopefully.
Labels: Caracol, dyeing, Oaxaca, Snails
Turtle Shell
This is heartbreaking -- we found two turtle shells that were obviously the work of poachers. Here, Kathy is holding the whetstone they used to sharpen their knives. We confiscated it.
There was a campsite set up on the beach. Habecuc uses this when he comes here from his village. He even has a bottle buried under one of the bushes.
I hope this captures the sense of awe and bliss we all felt. I adore Steph - this shows how intrepid and adventurous she is.
Progress on the fiber front - I finished the ribbing on one sock today. It helped that I was in a long meeting where I could use an anti-fidget. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment, and will probably be able to finish the other. Think good thoughts for me-- the pain/neuropathy in the legs is flaring up. Hopefully, it'll just be a B12 or iron deficiency that's easily solved. (waving sharp pointy magical sock-knitting wands here)
Ice Queen
This is my sample for the Ice Queen. My idea was to do it as a headscarf instead of a wimple, so that I don't mess up my hair as badly. Those corners are too unsightly, and I want to round them off. That's what makes Ice Maiden so attractive. Well, that and the mohair. And the beads. Also, I think I'll add more beads along the front edge, to make it hang better, and at the (rounded) corners.
Here's the proof of concept. I thought about it like it was a Pi shawl, from the outside in. However, it means I have to graft, but that's no big deal.
This is a shot of my scribbles, trying to figure out the geometry.
Caracol Beach
This is the beach adjacent to where Habecuc collected the caracol. It's idyllic - so beautiful!! Click on the picture to go to the Flickr page, and look at the bigger version. That's our tour boat!
These are turtle eggshells -- I'm positive that the little guys made it to the beach ok. Because I can't bear to think that they didn't.
On the fiber front - I did some more sampling on the black corriedale, Prudence's fleece. I'm still not happy with the hand, so I switched from the SpinTech to the Lendrum. The singles are on the bobbin, and I'll ply them tomorrow night. Next up, washing and abusing the yarn. (ummm... I feel like I'm repeating explanations a lot, but that's what Judith McKenzie McCuin calls blocking and partially fulling the yarn)
A pair of sea turtles
Today's picture... this is a pair of mating sea turtles in Huatulco, Oaxaca. The picture is a bit blurred, but we were on some swells, in a small boat. The male looked quite blissful...
The boat captain said they float like that for hours. That must be why females have so many eggs, huh.
We saw 18-20 turtles in all, which was impressive. The sad part was finding not one, but two turtle shells on the beach, victims of poachers. I hope that seeing so many in the water means they aren't as rare and endangered there.
This weekend was not as gung-ho productive as it .... oh, wait. (smacking myself on the forehead) I resolved not to focus on what doesn't get done!
In that vein, I have both socks of the pair done up to the ribbing. I've picked the garter-stitch raglan back up and got a few rows done, but I DID get over that hump. I'm sampling on the Prudence fleece, and am thinking of doing another gansey. This is the same fleece as Tempest, whose fleece gave me the Rocket Gansey. I'm going to do a 3-ply yarn this time, to see if that pills as badly. So far, the yarn isn't as soft as I'd like, so I'm playing with tpi (twist per inch).
