Venus de Milo as Spinster!
This was the final slide that Dr. Barber showed - her hypothesis is that the missing arms were holding a spindle.
You know, it was a great presentation. Dr. Barber showed many slides, and tailored her presentation to spinners. She had to fuss a bit with the slide projector... it was a change from the high-tech presentations I'm used to at the Colleges.
I'll write more about it tomorrow -- it was a wonderful day, quite nice weather until the clouds rolled in around 4pm. Lisa V and I went shopping for Japanese knitting magazines at Mitsuwa, and ate at the food court there.
I am in a bit of funk, though-- some careless words were said that I take exception to, and I need to work past it. Suffice it to say that I won't be volunteering to organize any more guild or other conference functions. And that's all I'm going to say.
Street vendor
There were lots of vendors selling little wooden dollhouses, and others that were selling mosses by the tubs full. This lady was selling both. I couldn't figure out what was going on. (see next picture)
How cool are these? To have your Nativity Scene framed by fresh mosses, lichens and bromeliads? Can you guess how badly I wanted to bring some home with me?
There's a half of a bobbin's progress to report tonight. But tomorrow - wow. The Greater Los Angeles Area Spinning Guild is hosting a presentation by Dr. Elizabeth Barber, author of "Women's Work, the first 20,000 years" and "Mummies of Urumchi". I'll have lots to report!
Wait, where did tonight go?
I love this little guy- simple, understated, but clearly in the moment.
Tonight's fiber progress was fair- finished the last half of last night's skein, and did about 1/4 bobbin more. I looked up and it was 10:45 and I hadn't blogged yet. Where does the time go?
But I looked at the spreadsheet and I like the progress... Hey, sometimes you don't reach those unrealistic expectations, but when you look at what you DID accomplish, you go Whoa. Check the total - 15.27 oz!! Almost a pound!
Santa comes to Oaxaca
Back in Oaxaca City, I looked up and saw Santa doing an imitation of Spiderman! Wait, maybe it was Spiderman in a Santa suit. oooo... but then he wouldn't be Spiderman, he'd be Arana Hombre! (put a tilde on that n, sorry)
This was in the zocalo - the town square where everyone comes to socialize. Also, the cathedral was right there too. The zocalo was wonderful - the cathedral on one side, restaurants and shops on two sides, and a museum on the other. hmm... I should do a lengthier sequence on the zocalos after I do the Christmas pictures. I love the strangeness of Christmas in a place where the symbols and presentations are so much different than here in the States.
Fiber progress: If I finished the last half of the bobbin from last night, and did another half tonight, that's like a full bobbin, right? (snicker) Glad I made that resolution against expecting too much of myself. I starting thinking "Oh, but it would be better if I'd done all of this bobbin too..." Hey, I'm good enough (and you don't need the rest of that Saturday Night Live skit!)
Huatulco Saturday night
"We won' rip you off a lot" - gotta love it. Doesn't mean I'm going to shop there tho.
But it does seem to come right out and say what everyone does in Huatulco. I finally realized that you could bargain vendors down, but not by much. And if you count your change, you realize that you didn't pay what you agreed to. Next time, I'm going to have the tour guide coach me on how to handle the situation when you don't get the right change.
In Huatulco, we stayed at
Mision de Los Arcos (slow connections beware, it's flash-intensive) - I highly recommend it! This was right outside our room.
Steph at the door to our room
Originally uploaded by OriginalTwistedSpinster Steph is going in to the room - I have to admit, I would have taken pictures of the room but we were pretty messy by this time! Plus, we were hanging damp dye samples all over... and there was beach sand...
On the fiber front - I got half a bobbin spun. I have to laugh - I did pretty well until I started surfing my Flickr album for pictures! First, I had to download the rest of the Oaxaca pictures, then I wanted to find a website for the hotel... it was a pretty bad case of "Oh, but first I ought to..."
The Beach in Huatulco
Actually, this is just one of the beaches in Huatulco. This is one of the locations where the Mexican government went in and displaced fishing villages in order to develop resorts. There are people think it's good as well as those who don't... You can't deny that it brings lots of tourist dollars, and not just for the government.
Our intrepid adventurers! That's Eric at the right. I was seriously impressed when he swam out to that point of rocks and back.
Is this the picture of bliss or what? And no, that wasn't a margarita that made her look that way.
Today was quite productive, fiber wise. I got two bobbins spun, for a total of four, at 9 1/2 ounces. Plus I re-washed a couple batches more. I'm ready to be done spinning on this already. I don't know what the yardage is, but I know I'll need at least 16 ounces. I'll aim for 24 ounces to be safe.
Caracol on my shawl, and getting organized
It's not a very good shot, but this is what Habecuc dyed on my cotton shawl. You can see the difference in color - at the right, it's turned purple in the sun. It goes on green.
And it really smells like the ocean -- well, like seaweed that washed up on the beach a week or so ago.
Hey, look at me! I'm getting organized!! hmmm... you will need to go to Flickr and click on "All Sizes" to see this large enough to read the numbers. Suffice it to say that I spun 2 bobbins of the Prudence fleece so far, at over 2 ounces each, and measured and organized skeins that I spun last fall for the Cowichan/Salish sweater.
