Espero y espero

22 Feb, 2009

Spent most of yesterday waiting in the airport as I finished sock #1 and started sock #2. I finally met up with Tomasz at the Holiday Inn. We stayed the night at the Hotel Vitoria, which was very nice, clean and with breakfast included. Dinner was meat, potatoes, and beer at a restaurant nearby. The two of us have agreed to a joint scientific study of the quality of wine at different latitudes in Chile. We know this is very scientific because we are scientists. We woke up an hour later than we meant to and are headed North to Til-til.

Collecting happened on the road to Olmue, 10-15km from Til-til at Puente La Laja near a stand with good empanadas. We found wild blackberries and wild grapes not far from here. The owner of the place with good empanadas. We found some Chusquea and a good spot with lycaenids and some of our little browns. Collecting was surprisingly good for a place so dry.
Huesillo - "little bone" a drink of peach juice with two whole peaches in - very sweet. The "little bone" refers to the peach pits.

Evening:

We arrived in Las Trancas late at night and are staying in a little cabaña. There is bamboo here and we will be collecting tomorrow, possibly staying a few days here. The corkscrew is MIA and hopefully, we will have proper glasses tomorrow, hopefully in celebration. The place is all but empty and very quiet. On the way in, we saw scores upon scores of people headed out of the countryside and back into the cities. Their summer break is done and it's almost time for classes to begin.



The two scientists in the field:

Leavin' Nashvegas

19 Feb, 2009

Husband drove me to the airport and I talked the whole way because I was so excited. I don't even remember what I talked about and it's probably not important, but I was really excited and a little nervous. Anyone who knows me understands why. There was a time I wouldn't even dream of stepping this far outside my comfort zone. Anyhow, I took a picture of my "Chilean Butterfly Traveling Bracelet" that was made for me by Miss Beady. To quote her:

"Brown with a little red or orange, and some of them are silver." (That's how you described your study species.) This bracelet has been designed with the colors of your butterflies in mind. The brown beads are Czech glass. The orange/red/peach beads are all coral. Coral offers protection and prevents ill fortune and illness. The turquoise beads are real turquoise. Turquoise is native to the Andes mountains in Chile. (Although this turquoise is not from Chile. It is from Arizona.) Turquoise is a symbol of friendship and provides strength and brings good fortune. I hope this bracelet witll protect you and bring you strength on your journey.

The other one is a beetle (yes, it's a real insect) from Miss Jenn. It glows in the dark. I love it. I wore both of these on my way to and on my way from Santiago and it helped tremendously to know that there were dear friends thinking of me and wishing me well, even if they were in another hemisphere.

Arrival at Miami:
According to my notes, from the time I arrived at the Nashville Airport to my arrival at the Miami airport, I knitted three inches of my Chile sock. On the flight down, there were two people from Chicago sitting near me, both Cubs fans. I saw palm trees, though far away, and for the first time since last summer, the city I was in was having temperatures of over 80*F (26*C).


I met a knitter from Chile named Milenca who lives in Chicago, but was visiting family in Santiago. We chatted for a bit on this and that and she told me where to find a yarn shop. This was extremely valuable information. Thank goodness for knitters the world over.

20 Feb, 2009

From here on, I'm going to try to take directly from my notes. I may add a bit, edit, clarify, or skip over parts as best pleases me.

Morning:
I had to give up my snack food at customs - a total waste, but not worth the fines. I've checked in to my room at the Airport Holiday Inn, within walking distance from the Airport. Quite a change in environment. I'm sweating like a sweaty thing. I'm going to have to venture out into the world to get cash, get my car, and eat. I'd rather hole up here, but I don't have the luxury. Perhaps I'll visit the yarn shop Milenca recommended. It's on the Plaza de Armas, so it should be easy to find.
Evening:

I hired a cab and went to downtown Santiago. I spent most of the afternoon wandering around, getting good & lost, but eventually found my way back to the Plaza de Armas. I was feeling kinda down, not having eaten or found a yarn shop, so I went into a place called Marco Polo and ordered a Coca-Cola. I'd started the heel flap of sock #1 in the cab and was well into it at this point, working on it as I sat in the restaurant. I shoulda done this to start with. I conversed as well as I could with the waitress about my knitting, ordered a sandwich and water (Santiago is very dry), and instantly relaxed. I made myself do it and it ultimately paid off. I got directions to where teh yarn shops were, picked the one where there were ladies sitting down and making stuff, and bought eight skeins of alpaca. It's Peruvian alpaca from the same company as the store I went to in Cuzco and cost roughly $3.75 a skein, but the yarn itself is hardly the point. I went out into the world - the Spanish-speaking world - and managed a sandwich, one or two conversations, and alpaca yarn.

Patricio, my cab driver, even held the sock for me for a picture. I'm sitting in my underwear because it's so damned hot and considering whether I should go eat. I'm not hungry, but all I've eaten today is airplane breakfast (which wasn't bad, actually) and most of a chicken and ovocado sandwich.
...I could have wine...
Later:
Sleep: 1, Wine: 0

There goes my carbon footprint.

I've just flown in from Santiago, and boy are my arms tired.

AHAHAHA!HA!...ha!...ha. eh, heh...achem...

After two weeks of hunting butterflies, I'm back at the ol' homestead. I haven't slept in something like 36 hours (overnight flight and I'm a light sleeper, despite the two glasses of wine on the plane), so I haven't got the spare neurons to put together much of a blog post.
At any rate, eleven hours of flying and fourteen hours of waiting, give or take, and I'm back home safe with all butterflies as they should be - in my suitcase and as intact as they ought to be.
I'll really update when I've slept some. I haven't even uploaded any pictures.
For now, I'll say that the plane ride from Santiago to Miami was very nice. I watched Kingdom of Heaven and The Day the Earth Stood Still and other than the lack of sleep, it was a good flight. If you're ever flying to South America, I highly, highly recommend LAN.

I will have more later, in bits and pieces as I upload photos and translate my notes from my field journal. Now, I think I will sleep until a reasonable hour tomorrow morning.

Poco a Poco

Finishing is...well, it's seeming kinda slow. The DNA scarf wasn't even halfway done at the beginning of February and now I've got almost 4/6 repeats of the DNA pattern before I start the center ribbing. I'm thinking about doing the Chromosome cap to match it, but I haven't settled on a gloves/mittens pattern yet. I want to knit a chullo, something with llamas and butterflies, maybe a greek key, in "Dear Gods, my eyes!" colors, but Kadollan is right. The chullo is just not going to go with the DNA scarf in the way that I want it to.
I've finished one and a half repeats of the center panel of the Daily Llama, the socks are still on hold, and the BSJ is pretty close to done. It's my at work knitting, so it's kinda slow going. I only work on it while I've got something loading or I need a break to stave off raster burn. I think I'm going to walk in today. It's meant to be in the 70's this afternoon and it's 47*F now, which is close enough to my 50*F threshold. I really need to get my legs moving again. I'm going to be running after butterflies at 4,000m (that's over 13k feet up), so I can't really afford to have weak legs. Altitude meds didn't help last time, so I'm just going to not take them. I still have my emergency antibiotics, and I'll be taking some tylenol and something for my stomach. Fifteen hours of flying is stressful for the stomach. Another thing I don't look forward to is the lack of sleep. Movement wakes me up, which makes it hard to sleep next to another person and to sleep on a moving vehicle. I thought that perhaps I could sleep in a plane, but a plane is a moving vehicle and the best I can do is shut my eyes for a bit.
I'm still kind of in denial about the whole trip and feeling a bit like Bilbo Baggins. I don't particularly want an adventure, but it seems I'm going to have one anyway. It's a little too exciting. None of it will be real until I'm on the plane. I do have my equipment, though. My very own net that's mine. That's kind of exciting.

Good things

So, I just gave Shelby (my postal carrier) his fingerless mitts. The cat had stolen them and hid them in the livingroom, but I finally found them and delivered them post-haste to the intended recipient. "I can't believe you made me something!" he said. Of course I made him something. I'm very thankful for the way in which he handles my mail. He needed them, too. It's 27*F (-3*C) outside today and dude needs something to keep his hands warm and his fingers free. It matches his uniform, too. It's made with Bernat Alpaca in grey with a blue trim.
He gave me a hug.
So, since it is February for Finishing (as I mentioned before), here are some of my UFOs:

First there's the DNA scarf, pictured here next to an unfinished book. I can read a little before I stop processing words into ideas and then I have to put it down. With the scarf, it's cabling, so I have to pay attention to get anything done. I've been working on it in the mornings and I'm very nearly done witht the third pattern repeat. It's knit in Knit Pick's Palette in Red, double stranded. I'm going to do a hat and gloves or mittens to go with, but I haven't decided on the pattern yet.

Then there's the Daily Llama. Again, it's cabling and I have to sit and pay attention to it as I've mentioned before. The color's a little off in this picture, but the cabling shows up pretty well.
I'm liking this one so far and I like cabling. I just wish I had more time to sit and do it (and actual cable needles). I swore off lace while I'm in grad school, but failed to mention anything about cables. I suppose I have created a niche for complex knitting in my brain that must be filled with something at all times. Lace goes out, so cabling comes in.


Then there are socks. I've set these aside for the latter half of the month when I'll be out of the country so that I have something small for airplane knitting that won't take much time or brain. The ones on the left were cast on on Jan. 31st so I'd have them started before February and the ones on the right are knitted for the January Pants KAL/CAL.

Lastly, there's the BSJ.
I'm not sure about the colors. It's right on the border between cute and questionable, but since returning were as tedious as go o'er, it's getting finished. I'm definitely making the pattern again, if for no other reason than because people are going to continue to have babies.



I've decided that when I make an Etsy shop, it will be called "Classify" and my slogan is "A diversity of handmade goods." So here's the first thing I made to go in said hypothetical Etsy shop. It's a wee notions bag with a zipper, made from yarn leftover from my weaving project. Speaking of which, I need to have of more fleece so I can have of more yarn so I can weave more. My tapestry skills are not that great and I much prefer weaving on my big loom, but the former takes far less yarn than the latter.
I love my woven robe thing. It's wicked warm and I love it I love it I love it.

February is for Finishing

It's that time of year again, to count your UFOs and take note of which need to be flung, frogged, or finished in the month of February. I tend to be conservative, as knitters go, in starting projects. Some people who read this blog (I'm looking at you, kadollan) find my lack of UFOs disturbing, but I find that it is a healthy level of unfinished stuff for me.
I have two projects that take up a fair amount of neural RAM, the daily llama and the DNA scarf. Both are cabling and both require that I sit down and pay attention to what I'm doing. I have two socks, one of which was cast on last night in preparation for my trip to Chile in the middle of February. I also have the Baby Surprise Jacket, which is kind of in the middle range of complexity. I will have pictures at some point for each of these.
Anyhow, that's five things. I've decided that for the first half of February, I'll focus on finishing the cabled projects and for the second half, I'll work on the socks. I'll definitely finish the socks and may not finish the cabled projects, but hope to at least get a little farther along. I've been working on the BSJ at work during knit breaks so that my eyeballs don't explode from looking at a computer screen too long. I'm not certain about the colors, so we'll have to see how it turns out.

Daily Llama

The Llama has decided to be a kind of rectangley thing that is to be made into a purse/bag thing. I finally have a design I like, edged in a textured stitch and with an Aran vibe to it. I hope it turns out nice. I think it will and I think that I might write up the pattern and sell it for a dollar. I'm not sure about my pattern-writing skills, chart-writing skills, or whether the pattern is something someone wants. But I figure that if somebody wanted to give me a dollar for it, that would be okay and then I'd have a dollar.
The bag itself is meant to be sold. I have to figure out how much to ask for it, but I've got time yet. I think maybe I could do a couple embroidered hankies as well or some quilted popholders. I like making popholders.
Oh, the selling stuff.
I don't remember if I've posted about this here, but I may have talked about it other places. I want a laptop. I can get a refurbished one and I get a discount for being a student, but it will still require pennies I don't yet have. My plan is to make some stuff, save some pennies (literally pocket change in a little elephant bank on my desk), and if someone wants to buy some stuff from me, that would be neat and then I'd have some dollars for a laptop. I have twelve dollars now and that's just from pocket change.
As for the Llama, it's been quite the lesson in mindfulness. You have to pay attention when working cables, so I have to just sit and pay attention to nothing but the llama while I'm working on it. Otherwise, I have to tink a row. I had to tink one of the rows maybe four times because I wasn't paying attention.

Made of Love

Husband bought me this fiber, so I spun this yarn and made these gloves, but there was more yarn, so I wanted to make something really spectacular. I'm making mittens. They're a little snug because I didn't give any ease in my measurements and didn't sufficiently account for how much fair isle draws up, but that's alright. I can wear them and they're just beautiful! I love this yarn so much.
So. very. much.
These mittens are so warm and so full of love. My mom recently said of the gloves I made her, "When I put on my little knitted gloves I feel so loved. It's like you are wrapping your little hands around mine to keep them warm. It is hard to explain. I also love my socks, but there is a really special feeling I get when I put on my gloves. You must have blessed them." I cannot tell you how awesome that is.
Do you believe?


I'm a rainbow, too.

Llama and the illusion of control

I have this llama fleece, right? There are parts of it that are really really soft, but there are a lot of guard hairs in it and a goodly amount of VM. I could try to picky-picky through it and make a big mess trying to remove these imperfections, but I'm not going to. It is what it is. One big thing I've learned in the past few years is to let go of the illusion of control and I think my spinning skills have improved because of that. When I first started spinning, it was very even, very thin, and very tight and now it's a little lumpy, a little thicker, and a little less tightly wound. Just like me. Well, I'm not really any lumpier or thicker, but I am less tightly wound. Anyhow, I like the yarn better that way and I like me better that way.
I have this stupid broken bit in my brain that is very confused about the right order of things. That part of my brain is convinced that I can have control over every single little detail I touch, up to and including every single fiber being spun into yarn. I don't listen to it as often as I used to and it seems the less I listen to it and the more I let go of this idea of control, the easier things are. They yarn is lovlier and I'm happier.
So, I'm going to let this llama be what it is. It's llama with VM and guard hairs in it. I'm considering making a stuffy llama out of it so it won't be something worn next to the skin, but whatever I decide to make, I'm going to try to do something that appeals to the nature of the yarn rather than forcing it into something that isn't going to make me happy.

An updated stash is a happy stash

I could use more yarn, though. It took me maybe fifteen minutes to update my stash on Ravelry to include almost all of the yarns I actually own. What I need is sock yarn. In a serious way. How am I to stash shop for socks when there's no stash to speak of? It's...it's... no less than appalling! I have monies for yarn. I get $60 in spendy cash every two weeks. I have $35 unspent buckaroos in my purse as we speak.
So why? Why do I have no sock yarn?
I simply just have not been shopping for yarn. I have not been perusing, finding something shiny, and purchasing. I've been knitting faster than I've been acquiring yarn and getting rid of or trading the stuff that I really don't want (crap yarn that I don't love, mostly).
The above stash picture is some palette from Knitpicks I got for making a scarf, hat, and mittens combo. I'm strongly considering a chullo. I should have a chullo.

¡Año Nuevo, Vida Nueva!

Happy New Year, all!
It's kinda cheesy to say that each new year brings new promise, but it does. It's nice to think you can leave all the crud of the past year behind you and start new. Sometimes I do that daily, sometimes hourly, but the new calendar year is nice for just dumping whatever emotional baggage you have to stuff that happened in the last calendar year and look at the world with new eyeballs.

Yuletide knitting went fairly well. Here's a couple things I made. Above is a pair of fingerless mitts for big brother and to the left, a washie for my mom. I made a lot of washies this year and gave them with fancy soaps. I didn't make anything big or complicated for anyone because my brain has been hijacked by school. There were two items that kind of fell flat. I made another pair of fingerless mitts and a pair of socks out of a yarn that, as it turns out, is kind of crap. The socks were also too small, but it was not my fault. I swear they were the right size when I finished them. The little dude grew between the time I finished them and the time they were given to him. Next time, I shall make them too big.

Now that I've taken the better part of December off, I need to get back in the lab, but I do feel refreshed and ready to take on the world! Well, maybe not the world, but I'll be taking on much more of the world this year than I generally take on. I'm going to Chile and perhaps also Argentina in February and at least to Poland, and possibly also to London and Munich in the summer. I'll be chasing butterflies as usual. The ones in Europe are already dead and preserved, so they'll be easier to catch. I'm very excited, of course, but it isn't quite real yet. It's not real 'til I'm on the plane.

I'm having a stash crisis. I have...very little in the way of stash. There's one skein of sock yarn and some little random bits of things. There's some palette that's already dedicated to a project (hat, scarf, and gloves/mittens combo) but that's really it. I've ordered some sock yarn for January socks. They'll probably be plain ol' socks, but they'll be blue handknit socks and that will be awesome. They're January socks 'cause I have this plan to knit myself one pair of socks for each month, animal fibers for cold months and plant fibers for warm months.

So far, it's being an awesome year. We just got back from eating out at La Siesta and we did it with budget money that was leftovers from grocery money. At the end of the pay period, whatever is leftover in the grocery envelope goes in the dining in/dining out envelope. No cash in there, no restaurant food. Leftovers from the gas money envelope goes in a car stuff envelope. Sometimes we have enough for tires, sometimes a tree air freshener, but it's a system that works for us. Anyhow, I paid everything I could pay, including every medical bill I was aware we had, and we still had $200 left in the bank. WOOT! I went to OfficeMax and got some stuff, including new plastic envelopes for the above envelope system and a stapler.

Crunch time and the formation of new traditions

Every year, I get knitter's delirium and forget that there are only so many days in December before Yule, Christmas, and Chanukah. I've done a little better this year, making washies for several people I know and love and giving those with fancy soaps. I like fancy soaps and I can give them every year! Whee! Also, the people at Tennessee Gourmet are no less than wonderful. You should buy their stuff. I sent some gifts from there, but the shipping was crazy whoa, so I called them. Their gal, Sue, not only got my order down from $140-something to $102-something, but her follow-up email made me feel like a real live person instead of just an order number. Thanks, Sue!

Anyhow, I'm short by three or four gifts at this point and there's no way I'm going to get something handmade for those people at this point. There's just too much to do between now and then. Fortunately, we're going out into the world today and have pennies enough that we'll be fine.

So, John, Iris, and I have been a family for more than seven years and I'm not sure why, but we never managed to form holiday traditions of our own. I've been content to participate in the traditions of others and happy that I've made Yule part of my annual winter holiday thing, but the three of us didn't really have anything that was just for us. I thought of traditions as something that kind gradually form over time, but this year, we made a conscious decision to have family breakfast, just us, on Christmas morning. While the day of our Yuletide family breakfast may need to be fluid to allow for participation in other things and for work schedules, that time is just for us. It's something to build on and make our own.

Another new thing is Chanukah with my sister-in-law. Iris was introduced to Chanukah through John's parents, but they don't really have a big to-do at any of the holidays and have since become Mormons. I don't pretend to understand Mother of John, so I'm just going to go with it. Stepdad of John seems to just go along to get along. He's got a California surfer dude vibe to him... probably because he used to surf in California. Anyhow, my SIL is whatcha call a Jewish American Redneck and I love her so much. She asked us if we would be staying in East TN for longer than just for Christmas since Chanukah overlaps both Christmas and Yule this year and she wanted to know if she should hold back a few gifts for Iris for the days of Chanukah we'd be there. Iris is so excited about celebrating all the holidays (except for Kwanzaa, she says), but we never get around to Chanukah.

We'll have a tree and presents and lights for Yule, a tree and presents and lights and pancakes for Christmas, and latkes and presents and lights for Chanukah.
Happy Holidays, y'all.

Clicky and close

Here lately, I've had a bazillion things running through my head like each one is one of those is a stock ticker with the latest update, only there are so many stock tickers that you can't see the newscast. There are several things I'm working on finishing and each time I manage to move past one of them, I clicky and close one of those tickers. I think you might be able to see Tom Brokaw's eyeballs now.

One of those things was a map and presentation for my ArcGIS class. I finished the project, it was fabulous, it was beautiful, and now I'm done. I finished the rough draft for my proposal, but haven't edited it yet. I finished my Seminar class, a pair of socks, lots of washcloths, and I've almost finished sewing one Yulemas present.

One of the bigger things I recently finished was a length of weaving that I absolutely had to have done before Yule. The weaving is done and I cut it in two yesterday so that I could sew the two pieces together. Cutting it made me a little lightheaded, but I had to and I did it. The most amazing thing about this project was that I could not have done it alone. I had help from Dear Husband, Kadollan, Bubbo's Pants on Ravlery, Peaceful Pastures, Matt and Jaime at Wooly Knob Fiber Mill, and even little Iris. She helped me ply some of the yarn I used. Thank you, all of you, and thanks to the nice woman that sold me the loom. I definitely could not have done it without her.

Every yard of yarn used in this (approximately) four yards by 23 inches of fabric was handspun by somebody. I spun all the warp threads, but the cool funky colored stuff was graciously donated by Andey and the pinky red was a trade with bittlerely on Ravelry for spinning the most lovely batt. I almost kept it, it was so pretty. There's only one that was a handspun in my stash that I don't know the origin of.

I am so pleased with this. I can't tell you how happy I am with the fabric. I made lots of mistakes along the way, but hopefully have learned from them so that next time I weave, I'll do even better.

Here's a random side note that is almost completely unrelated to everything I've posted about so far. Iris asked me to braid her hair the other day with one on each side, leaving mostly down hair, according to her instructions. She ended up looking like Elrond's great great great granddaughter. So cute.

Dear and darling readers,
Please pardon me while I fall off the face of the planet for a while. My brain is full. Dear God, my brain is so full.
I'm not doing NaNo, but I'm poking at my story about Elves
The Holidays... 'nuff said.
I have another thing I'm working on that's kind of huge for me
Then there's school.

Dearest wodentoad? You're one o' them - unless you're one of a something I didn't mention. You tell me which one you are, 'cause (in theory) you'd know better than me.

Everyone needs a washcloth...almost

I've been making a metric f***ton of washcloths for the season of gift-giving. With Jews, Mormons, Catholics, Pagans, agnostics, and a Deist in my family, it gets complicated. I don't mind having an excuse to give pressies to my family members and friends and such and it doesn't really matter what you call it. Anyhow, I was going to take a picture or several pictures or something, but I must needs charge some batteries first.
I knit during my Seminar class wherein we sit and discuss some controversy in biology for about an hour, twice a week. I'm the only one there that knits and it seems that my fellow graduate students are just fascinated by the whole thing. One girl, Leslie, came in late and whispered to the person next to her:
"What is she making?"
"A washcloth."
"Another one?"
Of all the topics we've discussed in this class, the male reproductive organ and my knitting have been the most consistent.
In weaving news, I have more than two yards woven. Since this was the absolute minimum that I needed, I feel like I can breathe a little. I've got more than two to go yet still, but it's nice to have that first two yards done. Right now, my spinning is just barely keeping up with the weaving, but still keeping up. I just finished setting the twist on two hanks of alpaca and I've started some lovely and rilly rilly soft llama.
I'm considering making a scarf for the president-elect later on out of the llama. 'Cause he needs a llama scarf. You know 'cause I told you.

wow. just...wow

Once I speculated that we might someday, in the future, when I was older, maybe elect a president who wasn't a white male. I thought we'd grown and changed as a nation. I believed in us and I believed that we were more than black and white. I was told that it wouldn't happen. Not in my parents' lifetime, not in my child's lifetime, but it happened last night. I believe that it is the power of optimism, of humility, of the willingness to work hard that won this. This is huge.
The best part, according to exit polls, "Race really wasn't that big a factor."

I am proud of us.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled knitblog.

NaProWriMo

Many of my dear friends are doing NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated - and I am not. I'm in grad school and it would not only be irresponsible of me to do that, but I would crack. Someone would put me in a hug-me jacket and off I'd go to the land of padded rooms and one way observation mirrors.
So I've decided to declare this National Proposal Writing Month so I can get this over and done with. I've already started writing, so I have a jump on my NaNo brethren and sistren. Except I'm totally lame and have only 637 words, including a page of references. Many of them are really big words, but even still...
Also, as a defense mechanism, I'm working on my own fiction story. I'm not doing it in any NaNo capacity. I just want to write this story a little here and a little there 'cause it makes me happy.

In fibery news, I've hurt my wrists weaving. On the one hand (ha) I've got over a yard of fabric in three days, on the other hand, ow. It hurt to spread peanut butter. I seem to be recovering and plan on weaving for shorter amounts of time so this doesn't happen again.

Weaverbird

I hope you enjoyed reading about my Adventures in Peru. Now it's back to your regularly scheduled knitblog.

Except that today it's weaving. I finally finished warping my loom and am now able to weave on it. I find that I like weaving twill more than tabby, but I haven't done much more than that yet. There are six treadles (those are the pedals to make the yarns go up and down), but I only know how to use four at a time. I'm not terribly concerned about it yet, though eventually, I'll want to make more interesting patterns. Considering that when I got said loom, I started with parts and not even all the parts and some that had to be replaced, I'm exceedingly pleased and tickled and happy and joyful that I now have a working loom. The fabric I'm weaving was meant to be rather wider than it is, but I didn't correctly calculate how many threads I'd need and ended up about 14" short. I think I'll just go with it and not worry too much about it.

I'm using 100% handspun yarn, most of it my own handspun, but some from Andey on Ravelry and at least one that is definitely handspun, but I don't know the source. I also put in it the first yarn I ever spun. I thought it appropriate to use for my first weaving on a big loom. The bumps and slubs of the handspun yarn makes the fabric just beautiful. I just love how it looks.

This last weekend was the fiber festival here in the 'Boro and because I have this 100% handspun weaving project, I went on a holy quest for fiber. I came back with three bags full. I got one fleece from a sheep named Sophia, some purple something, and some grey something that I'm going to ply with the purple. We watched a sheep shearing, had some apple cider, and did not agree to help a farmer with his nature trail in exchange for wool. A good time was had by all (except the cutie little sheep who seemed mildly annoyed).

Oh - I do have a bit of knitting to show. These are socks I made for little one out of Tofutsies I bought for my birthday. The picture isn't very good because she absolutely could not wait any longer to put them on and I haven't had the chance to take another picture of them. I finished weaving in the ends on one and she put it on her foot while waiting for me to weave in the ends on the other one. I think this is a definite sign that she likes them. I'm also knitting a pair of socks for Kadollan's little man in a dudely green color and I finished one fine gauge washcloth in a blue mercerized cotton and one Warshrag ala Mason-Dixon Knitting. I don't have pictures of everything yet, but I have now made a whole stack of cotton washcloths for gift-giving purposes.

I long for a cardigan...

Speaking of which, the time to finish my ManSweater is NOW. It's frikkin' cold outside.

Adventures: Day 11 & 12

Sept. 12
There wasn't supposed to be a "Day 11" but there was. No breakfast. I ate a granola bar and some cranberries, but I wouldn't call that "breakfast" exactly. We went to the Airport to try and find a Delta representative - no luck. We were "very helpfully" directed to a travel agent who booked us a flight and wanted an insane amount of money in cash. A. We didn't have that much in cash B. Couldn't get that much in cash and C. Wouldn't give him that much cash, even if we could. It was something crazy like $5K. We were booked on an airline we'd never heard of that had a two bag per person policy. I'd like to note for the record that three traveling scientists will probably have more than two bags each. "No problem" says the travel agent. Just to be sure, we checked with airport information to see if the airline was real. It was...unfortunately.

While Andy went to downtown Lima to find a Delta representative, Josh and I entered locality data for some of our study species. No lunch. It's a tedious job, but it helped get my mind off of the fact that I missed my baby so much. When he returned, there was bad news. We would not be flying home on Delta because their flights were all screwed up by Hurricane Ike. We don't like Ike. So, off we went to the Lima airport, again. We went to check in and not only did we have too many bags, but we had to make sure they were each under the weight limit. There was cursing and juggling around of items and bags, but we eventually managed. Nobody was happy. No dinner. Also, no knitting. Apparently, I can knit on the flight *to* Peru, but not *from* Peru. I was not happy.

Having checked in with some time to go before our flight, we go to eat. At this point, I'm in the shaky blood sugar dropping no coordination stage of having had nothing but a granola bar and some cranberries early in the morning. We go to the food court and have some Peruvian fast food, including an Inca Kola. This stuff is really sweet and it's a good thing, too. As I sucked it down, Andy says "You're like a hummingbird!" True facts. I have a metabolism like whoa. Twenty minutes later, I feel much better, but I'm not quite in the place where I believe I'm going home.

Eventually, we made our way to the gate and I took one last look at souvenirs. There's one shirt that has a cartoon alpaca, Incan dude, and conquistador lined up hip to hip. This was the funniest damn thing I'd seen all week. At this point, I was out of cash, so I didn't buy the shirt. Oh, I wanted it, though. "Perhaps they're conga-dancing..." says I, grinning.
"Yeah...they're 'dancing,'" says Josh. I've never heard him say anything funny before or since, but this made me laugh. I take final peek at the overpriced get it while you can alpaca store, but just for purposes of window shopping. I'm twitchy at this point 'cause I have no knitting. Josh could tell. It was like going through withdrawal. I saw a woman winding yarn into a ball and considered doing something... I'm not sure what, but something. We'd already been through security, but they searched our bags again before we boarded. I'm not sure what that was about, but whatever. I just wanted to go home.

This flight was as awful as the flight to Lima was nice. No beverage, snack, or dinner, unless I wanted to purchase something. No, I did not want to purchase something. No little pillow, no movie, no sleep. I can't sleep in a moving vehicle. At best, I kind of close my eyes and half snooze. I couldn't see the ocean until we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, but at some point during the flight, I finally feel like I'm on the way home. At this point, Day 11 fuzzes into Day 12. We go through customs and as the lady stamps my passport, she says "Welcome home." Never in my life have those words meant more to me. I almost cried, but didn't because I didn't want the guys to think I couldn't handle the tough stuff. I'm of the opinion that crying doesn't mean you can't handle it, but rather that it's okay to have emotions about the tough stuff. In customs, there was this poor stupid man with limes in his bag and a number of other food items. The customs dude tried to explain, "We regulate all of this stuff! No, you can't have this! No!" We re-check our bags and get ready for the next flight. No coffee. Josh bought a pack of gum and shared to get that "God, we've been traveling" taste out of the mouth.

Ft. Lauderdale to Atlanta was a short flight and we ended up on the exact same airplane we'd just flown on. They changed flight attendants and they seemed nicer than the Lima to Ft. Lauderdale crew. The plane was not nearly as full, so that was nice, and because they booked my seat twice, I had to move to a vacant seat. No problem. I picked a row with nobody in it so I could have some time to myself. All the being jerked around for two days, the crap flight, the "Welcome Home," everything, came out at once. I cried quietly almost the entire way.
I sucked it up before we landed and really did start to feel better once in the Atlanta airport.

Collecting our baggage took for God and Ever, but at least there was coffee. I was so happy, I drank it with no sugar. There were giant fire ant sculptures on the ceiling of the baggage claim area and finally, I had my knitting again. I chatted with random woman #3 as we waited and eventually we had our bags and a rental car to drive from Atlanta to Murfreesboro. It was cheaper and quicker to do it this way than to try and book another flight into BNA.
Remember in Cusco, when all they had was a tiny little compact car at the rental place? This was the car we took up and down mountains, around winding gravel mountain roads. In Atlanta, when we would be traveling on paved highway and no more up than Monteagle, all they had at the rental place was an SUV. I was amused. It wasn't the kind of vehicle I'd do any actual mountain driving in, though. This thing was big to be big. It was the epitome of conspicuous consumption and I think it would cry if it got its tires dirty. It was that kind of car.

We stopped a couple of times, once for Taco Bell and once because traveling is rough on the intestines. The Appalachians looked different to me. They were tiny, small little hills, hardly mountains at all. Everything looked different, too big, too much, too wasteful. Damn but aren't we a fat, rich, spoiled country and most of us don't even realize it. I didn't understand myself, really, until we were on our way home. I felt really rich, really fortunate to live in the US, and a little spoiled.

Home. I was finally home. I walk in and the house is clean, dear husband is folding laundry, and dear daughter is so excited, she shuts the door in Andy's face (we opened it again). I had missed her so much that I just hugged her for a very long time. That evening, we went to D&D as usual and I kind of verbally vomited out an account of my trip, distributed gifts, made a first level character, and promptly fell asleep.

Adventures: Day 10

Sept. 11
I'd forgotten completely what day it was and now that I think about it, perhaps our trip home was jinxed somehow. So we got from Cuzco to Lima just fine and had several hours to kill before our flight home. Here's Andy trying to work with Peruvian bureaucracy and failing. Kieth (redheaded English dude who was confused about the sock before) had a projector confiscated, so we were trying to get it back for him. I knit while Andy took care of this and Josh just sat down and people-watched.
Since that was an exercise in fail, we hung out with our friend Gerardo at the Museum of Natural History in Lima. They have this big reproduction alligator (note the sock) and where they found the fossils of this guy, they also found a tortoise shell with a bite mark on the shell that matched his teeth. In the background of picture #2, you can see an artist's interpretation of the 'gator vs. tortoise. They had big whale bones and other such interesting things, too, but I didn't get a picture of those. All of what I saw was outside, which I thought was weird, but they don't get much rain there, so weathering from rain is not much of a problem, I suppose.
There were also a number of interesting plants and trees. The one pictured below was my favorite. It's a coffee tree. If there is ever any tree that should be hugged, it's this one. I love you, coffee tree! I still don't get the thing about instant coffee they have in South America. I mean, they have access to the good stuff, so why drink the crap? Anyhow, it was neat to see a coffee tree with beans on it and banana trees with bananas on. It's like the thrill of going to the farm where your food is grown, except times a thousand. Right after my imaginary fiber tour of South America, there will be an imaginary culinary tour of South America wherein we sample all the wonderful things that grow there. Coca grows there. Whenever I had coca tea with breakfast, I'd get this feeling that I was doing something harmless, but slightly naughty like staying up past my bedtime or having ice cream for breakfast.
Gerardo took us to this fancy place for dinner where we had pisco sours (I had two, which was more than plenty) and really really good food. I tried some ceviche and had some seafood thing for dinner. I was so stuffed and schnockered by the time dinner was done.

I was wearing the happiest sweater ever that I described before, so Gerardo says, "You know your sweater is like the flag of Cusco..."
"I know." says I.
"...which is very similar to the homosexual flag."
"I know." says I.
And then while I looked over the menu, I saw several items with "bruja" in the name. "Do you know what bruja means?" says Gerardo.
"Yes, it means 'witch'" says I.
"...it means 'witch'" says he.
"I know." says I.

I told this story to dear Husband who then says, "I'm a gay witch in Cuzco, okay?!"
-which is not entirely accurate, but damned funny.

Anyhow, after dinner, we whiff over to the airport only to find that the check-in counter was only open for an hour...which we missed. Our plane was still physically at the airport, but we could not check in. The customer service people tried to explain this to me in Spanish while I am schnockered. I'd like to state for the record that this is not the best way to deliver bad news. Long story short, we were stuck in Lima. So, we got a hotel room. I'd like you to note the heart-shaped headboard and the fact that this picture was taken from a strategically placed mirror - one of many. Classy.

In other news

My loom is very nearly up and running. I'm waiting on delivery of a part and I need more yarn - a lot more yarn. The project I'm working on is hand spun yarn only and I have a deadline. ACK! Anyhow, the loom takes up a fair amount of space in the office, but it's totally worth it to me. Dear Husband isn't as sure about it as I am, but we made a deal involving video games, so it's all good.
In other other news, I met Ann and Kay of Mason-Dixon Knitting! How cool is that? They are made of awesome and I want I want their new book. Husband, Daughter, and I all went to the Southern Festival of Books "for his birthday." Yeah, that's it. We were going for his birthday. He caught on pretty quickly, but had a good time anyway. I'd like to go next year just because - whether or not there are any knitting authors there. I keep meaning to link them in the sidebar, but I haven't yet. I generally click on BFF Jill's link and then on her Mason-Dixon Knitting link. Btw, Kade, you totally should blog. Like, seriously. Go now.

Adventures: Day 9

Sept. 10th
I woke up to dear Aunt Flo and insufficient equipment to handle her. I had some, but not nearly enough. Claudia had already gone back home, so it was just me and three guys. Andy's Spanish is quite good, but dude - he's my boss. I can't be asking him to go get supplies for me. Josh doesn't speak Spanish at all and I really don't know Gerardo well enough to ask him to get feminine products for me, so it was all me. I asked for directions to the pharmacy, found out what time it opened, found the pharmacy, and managed to communicate (though not well) what I needed - in Spanish, by myself. WOOT! Victory!
I returned victorious and we soon left for a collecting day.
Or shall I say a not collecting day. We were at about 4,000 meters or so (12,000 feet) and we found a spot that looked promising. After running around for a bit unsuccessfully, it started to hail and rain. And it was cold. Running at 4k meters is not ideal, by the way. So we piled back in the car and drove some more. And then we kept driving. We drove almost all the way to Lake Titicaca (snicker) but not quite. At one point, I say to the guys "Okay, I have to stop now." Not only did I have to pee, but was in danger of leaking. We stop at a gas station and as I go in, Andy says something like "Fortify yourself," as though to suggest that the bathroom might be below my expectations. Actually, it exceeded my expectations. It was a clean hole in the ground.
This was the kind of toilet where you squat to pee. I've been in outhouses more advanced than this, but it was fairly clean and there was a trashcan. The odor of the place wasn't vile, either. I thank the Gods for small favors.
So, we drove back to Cuzco. The countryside was lovely and reminded me of pictures I'd seen of the American West (having never been there myself). We saw flamingos and we considered stopping in this one town where the specialty was cuy. I never did have any cuy while I was there. Maybe next time.

And now, for these commercial messages

So, first I was a little weird about buying shoes online because you like to try them on to see if they fit and so on and so on, but
I frikkin' love these shoes:






I've had mine for about two months and I got a pair for Iris as well. They're no more expensive than a pair of shoes at the shoe store (particularly when they have a good sale like...now. Go now.) and they're wicked cute.

Also, I want some of this.

Adventures: Day 8

Sept. 9th
No pictures from today, unfortunately.
It was nice to have a warm shower in the morning after having been on the road for a bit. We had a modest breakfast at the hotel, which was blessedly included with the room. I ate fruit and bread with coca tea and that seemed sufficient. There was no collecting to be done, so we had a day to be tourists. My first stop was Michell for some alpaca yarn. I really wished I'd been able to purchase some from the lady before, but this would have to do. It was clear that they cater to gringos, but I was determined to purchase some nice yarn in the land of many alpacas. I got a kilo of a natural tan colored yarn in a light fingering weight, possibly lace weight, for about S/ 100 - which is 2.2lbs for $30-40 USD.
Nice.
I split it with kadollan when I got home 'cause I promised her yarn.
We went about town, looking at old Incan walls and shopping. I purchased the happiest sweater ever in rainbow colors, a bag for collecting, and a used bottom whorl spindle that the person tried to pass off as "antique." I only paid S/ 10 for it (about $3), so that was good. Andy bought for me a wee llama finger puppet at lunch. They were adorable and he insisted. That went to kadollan's eldest who has a thing about llamas.
There was dinner and then bed.

Adventures: Day 7

Sept. 8th
We collected some moths on our way to breakfast at the tiny little restaurant in Quincemil. Gringos, it seems, get cheese sandwiches while everyone else gets vertebrae with rice or omelets. It could be that we simply arrived too early, but breakfast was sparse nonetheless. There was instant coffee and Claudia, my roommate, had acquired some bananas, which she shared with us. She's an undergraduate at a university, I forget where, and she has this crazy hat that looks like a sleeping animal on her head.
Anyhow, we loaded up and left after breakfast, stopping to chase butterflies just a couple km outside the town. We didn't find much, probably because it was too early, so when Gerardo and Claudia caught up with us, we moved down the road a bit. There's a picture from this site with me and my net, but I don't have it. I'll post it when I get it, though. The jungle is just gorgeous during the day. There are banana trees and all kinds of interesting plants besides. I recognized the banana trees because they had bananas growing on them. I hadn't seen bananas growing ever before, so I just thought that was the coolest. It would have been awesome to have a plant press, but probably difficult to bring back specimens.
Our second stop was so much fun, I can't even tell you. There were so many butterflies that at one point, I had one that I'd just caught in an envelope I held in my mouth and another in my net. Again, no pictures because we were too busy chasing butterflies.
The third time we stopped, it was because Andy had seen some Heliconius butterflies, his favorite group, and he just couldn't stand it any longer. What he found was a Heliconius and it's mimic in the same place. I promise you that it was a wicked cool find. I didn't catch much at all, but it was kind of fun to watch the guys running around. That's Andy in the 1st picture and on the left in the 2nd picture and Josh on the right in the 2nd picture.
Since we were in the Amazon Basin, there was nowhere to go but up. So, up we went.
We stopped at another site where I managed to snag a couple butterflies - even in the group that our grant is paying us to study! I was kind of excited about that. It was a bit too cool for them, so again, we didn't find much.
About two in the afternoon, we stopped in this one town to try and find a place to stay. Gerardo talks to the children in the town to locate someplace with a couple of rooms where we can stay. They had this wicked statue (I don't have a picture of any of this) of a condor attacking a cow. We were directed to another part of town where there was supposed to be somewhere we could stay. Gerardo went down the hill to investigate, so we waited at the top of the hill. While we waited, we saw a family slaughtering a cow. It was kind of interesting to see. I'll see if I can get Andy's pictures - his are better than mine because he kind of doesn't mind looking like a gringo tourist. Gerardo comes back up the hill, shaking his head. "Not to be recommended." he says, and we move on.

And up we went some more.

...and up some more.

...and after that we went up some more.

I can't very accurately describe how much up this is. It feels like you're at the very top of the whole world and then drive up the mountain. The haze in this picture is not just fog, it's a cloud. It's not even a low cloud.
As you can see, there's not very much here, but there are people and animals living even at these great altitudes. It's not the most robust existence, but they're there.
After a while, it became apparent that Gerardo's truck was not well. He ran out of gas far before he ought to have. At this point, it was beginning to get late and the temperature was dropping. Josh stayed with Gerardo and Claudia while Gerardo's driver, Marcelino, went with Andy and me to get some gas. It was about 55km to the nearest gas station. 55km is a long way as I soon learned. It's an even longer way when half the distance is one lane winding mountain roads with rapidly diminishing daylight and then dark. It must have taken an hour and a half to go from hither to yon and another hour and a half to go back again. I tried to stay awake, I really did, but between the altitude and the fact that I hadn't had a good night's sleep in some time, I ended up kind of awake, but unable to open my eyes for most of the way back.
We all managed to get back to the gas station together and we once again tried to find a place to stay. We once again failed. At least from here, the rest of the road was paved. We kept driving for most of the night and finally found a small hotel in Cuzco so late in the evening that it was beginning to get early. There was talk of getting something to eat, but I was so tired that I faceplanted in the bed and didn't get up until the next morning.

Adventures: Day 6

Sept. 7th
Wherein we start our grand adventure.
We drove and we drove and we drove out on our grand adventure over hill, over dale, etc. etc. across a pretty good cross-section of Peruvian landscape. Our destination was Quincemil. I had no idea where Quincemil was on the map and so contented myself to ride along in the front seat ('cause I get carsick) and take the occasional picture out the window. I couldn't knit, so I just kind of watched the scenery and took pictures.

Anyhow, there was a weird Incan wall...thing. We weren't sure what that was about. I'm just certain that building walls is some sort of compulsive Peruvian thing because the entire country is made out of rocks. You know, more than usual on the surface.





There were a number of "Urban Zones" with big speed bumps, presumably for the Enormous Fuel Trucks of DOOOOooom (more on that later). They use the term "Urban" really loosely. Pictured here is one such "Urban Zone." This one is one of the larger ones. Wherever there stood two buildings and more than one chicken, there was an "Urban Zone" and a dead policeman. No, not an actual dead police officer, a really big speedbump. They're called dead policemen in the vernacular.


We went up the mountains and just when I thought there wasn't any more up to go, we went up some more. You can really feel the change when you go up so quickly. At 15,000 feet, I fell asleep for just a minute and woke back up on the way down. The view was breathtaking, and not only because we were way up the mountain and there was no air. It really was beautiful. Never have I been so close to the clouds and still on the ground.


There were alpaca everywhere. Even where there was apparently nothing else, there were alpaca. There were also sheep, but mostly alpaca all over the place. Peru is silly with alpaca. I hadn't found any yarn at this point, so I made up a little rhyme:

Fiber, fiber everywhere
and all the wool did shrink
fiber, fiber everywhere
and not a stitch to tink.

I saw women there with their herds carrying (and using) drop spindles, though I didn't take pictures of them. I just feel weird about taking pictures of people without asking their permission and I didn't want to be disrespectful. Anyhow, it was really kind of awesome to me to see people living this very simple life and making yarn like people have done for thousands and thousands of years. One of these days, I'd like to do a fiber and fabric tour of Peru. There is so much to be learned here.
Also, there were quite a few horses, though Andy couldn't fathom why. I'm not entirely sure myself, but he asked me kindly to take a picture of them for him, so I did. You can see the shape of the earth behind this one where animals have been walking up and down the mountain for gods only know how long. It seems on the surface that most of the animals were quite healthy and while we did see the occasional mangy sheep, it was a rare occurrence.


There is a huge project to pave the road we were traveling - I'm talkin' HYOOOGE - as in, there's a city that was built just to house the road crew. While we were traveling, we had to stop for about thirty minutes or so while some enormous machinery was moved up the narrow gravel road. We did get the opportunity to see the beautiful cloud forest. This is not just a name. It is literally in the clouds. It kind of reminded me of the Smoky Mountains, except...more up. Much more up. I got a good chance to look at the vegetation and realized that I recognized absolutely nothing. I found something in a family I recognized, but that's it. It was a weird feeling not to know the plants.
So, the fuel trucks of doom... DOOM I tell you! And on such a narrow road, there's extra doom. Have you ever been on a narrow mountain road where one side is sheer cliff and the other side is mountain? It's like that, only x1,000. So, one of these fuel trucks is coming up the mountain as we're going down the mountain and we, being in a tiny little compact car, were obligated to move aside. Bigger gets the road. So we move aside to a tiny bit of space on the cliff side of the road, but we were not quite far enough over. So, Andy backs the car up and we feel a little bump. We're stuck. The fuel truck guys get out and try to help. Josh gets out to help. and we manage to get the car back up on the road. We thank the fuel truck guys, Josh gets back in, and we go on our merry way. "Do we want to know how close that was?" says Andy. "No. No you don't." says Josh, who at this point has the big eyes. You see, we had one wheel off the cliff and it was nothing short of a blessing that dear Josh didn't go tumbling down. There are times when you pray, like when someone you know is sick or when you have a difficult exam coming up, and there are times when you pray, like when you almost drove off a cliff.
Having narrowly averted danger, we proceeded down the mountain into the jungle. We hadn't really intended to go to the jungle, but there we were anyway. We finally found Quincemil at night in the jungle and managed a place to stay. It was a little hostel in this backwater town and to say that the room had four walls would be exaggerating. It was more like a stall with two beds. We had some dinner and beer before we bedded down for the night. Dinner consisted of french fries and microwave pizza, but it was hot and it was food. We walked back to the hostel and as I climbed into bed, I thought to myself. "Gee, I hope there are no bed bugs."