Spanish Moss
This is a shot of the Spanish Moss that we collected for dye. It gives a warm tan color, very nice.
This is a shot of the mountain road we were on. See the mist floating by?
I stayed on the road and got a shot of the more intrepid hikers in our group.
Labels: dyeplants, Oaxaca, spanish moss
Flora study
This bit of red caught my eye. Isn't it gorgeous? I like the colorway, too.
The flower spikes on the agave were spectacular! One of our crew wanted to do agaves in her tapestries, so we all got lots of pictures. Yeah, sort of a lemming thing going on.
Here's a really good closeup of an agave flower.
As for fiber progress today- I went to the Pomona Yarn Lovers lunch get-together today. This is at Pomona College, and seems to be composed of staff only so far. I've got to find some students to infect, err, recruit. I knit about two inches on the Shards socks.
Tonight, I spun a bit on the Prudence fleece. This is going to require a bit of attention to detail if I'm going to match the grist.
Labels: agave, Oaxaca
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
I love Mexico...
wow, what a trip!! We didn´t get to milk snails today - seems that the reason these snails aren´t all extinct is because they are out on rocks that are too rough for women of a certain age and weight to scramble over.
I have rock rash on my butt, and I didn´t even get halfway out to the snails. God bless our tour guide Eric, he told Steph and I that there was just no way we were going to get there, and to get back in the boat. Dammitall, I was bound and determined not to let 20 yards of rocky beach get between me and those snails, not after coming all this way. Luckily, he brought us a snail to pet (it had already given its dye to Abecuc), and the boat took us around to watch Abecuc scramble over the rocks for more snails and their dye.
I bought a nice museum-quality piece of fabric out of the coyuche cotton, but I don´t think I´m going to get any seeds.
More on this fabulous trip later -- I´m keeping short notes, transferring into a journal that´s only a week behind, and then I´ll try to transcribe here. I confess, the word I write most often in the notes is SHOPPING!
Labels: Caracol, Mexico, Murex, Oaxaca, Snails
Milking Snails...
I got an amusing IM from my BIL Pat today...
Pat: Exactly how do you milk snails??
Me: Well, you sneak up behind them
Me: really quiet-like
Me: and then you yell BOOO!
Me: and when you scare them they lose their ink.
(for some reason, I didn't get any response to that.)
I think the reason he asked is in response to an email that the Roketman sent out-- we're going back to Omaha for Poor Little Dale's 80th birthday on New Year's Eve. This time, we're driving because we couldn't get airline tickets for the dates we want. It gives us an excuse to take the puppies, which we love, and to drive our new car. Yup. We bought the Cadillac SRX. Whooda thunk.
So anyway, the biggest news is that Stephenie Gaustad and I are going to Oaxaca on Friday!! I love the
Traditions Mexico tours. We get to do a side trip (a Mexican puddle-jumper airplane, how adventurous is that??) to the beach to hunt Murex snails. That's the whole reference to milking snails that Pat's talking about.
Seriously, I feel so very lucky in my life. It is so cool to be able to travel with someone who has the same interests and craziness that I do.
I ask you - who better to milk snails with than
Stephenie Gaustad?
Labels: Mexico, Murex, Oaxaca
