Thursday, January 17, 2008

Caracol snails, and FO!


Milking the snails
Originally uploaded by OriginalTwistedSpinster
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.



Caracol snail
Originally uploaded by OriginalTwistedSpinster
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.



Caracol snail
Originally uploaded by OriginalTwistedSpinster
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 shows us his skein
Originally uploaded by OriginalTwistedSpinster
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.



Happy Feet Socks!
Originally uploaded by OriginalTwistedSpinster
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.

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Saturday, December 08, 2007

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!

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