11.21.06

Surtidos post

Posted in books, knitting, travel at 12:26 am by wendy

(assortment post)

See, the title has a little to do with what is probably my most exciting piece of news (to us). I’ll get back to it in a moment.

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Meanwhile, this is going to be random.
Look familiar? Maybe not, it was a long time ago. Amy sent me a wonderful feel-better package with this Fleece Artist 2 ply fingering weight BFL and I immediately started a top down raglan and relatively jammed through it, got halfway through the last sleeve and…stopped. Picked up something else to knit. What? I don’t know what.In my year end panic I’m in a frenzy of resurrecting UFOs, and this is one that’s pretty close to done, so it’s back in the mix. I’ve completely forgotten how many sleeve decreases to do, and I may even read my knitting to match it as I go, maybe. The little froggy stitch marker is part of a set of six I bought off etsy.com–the same seller has these cute sheepie stitch markers too. Instead of jump rings she uses a continuous wire so there’s nothing to snag. The frog being practically my scot, me gustan mucho, almost as much as the ones Mary-Kay made me (those are my good luck charms for troublesome knitting).

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Holy cow! The New Testament read by Johnny Cash! You can listen to a sample on audible.com of him reading from Matthew. He did a great job.  But hey, I loved his version of “Hurt” too, so no surprise there.

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I should have mentioned in my last post:That multi-color green & brown self-striping Noro lookalike that Snuggle found so appealing? That’s Boku, by Plymouth Yarns which I bought at our local Two Sisters and Ewe. It’s 95% wool, 5% silk, 99 yards/50g, a similar gauge to Noro’s Kureyon or Silk Garden. It’s tweedy, so I think the silk is probably tussah noils, but I don’t care. It feels very much the same, maybe less dense feeling, oddly. Not much vm and no sericin, but I did find a knot. It’s $2 cheaper per ball than Kureyon, and feels about the same, although I admit that my disdain for the Noro probably means I’m not the best judge of comparisons.  Anyway, it takes ripping well.  I ripped it back to the ball and restarted, doing a baby gansey based on Knitting Ganseys.  Sort of tradition with a twist, if I want to sound all pretentious about it.

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I am so excited. I love Mexico. It’s a great country, with an incredible climate range–nearly any kind of environment you might desire, it is within Mexico’s bounds, forested highlands, jungle lowlands, desert and wetland… It’s an understatement to say that it is “too bad” that it is a country that was/is subject to some amazingly effective systematic oppressive regimes and cultural indoctrination, but we love it. Nick and I are going on this tour. I know that tours probably have the same reps as cruises, but, as veterans of this tour, we can definitely vouch that if you choose well, you’ll get access to activities and people that you (probably) couldn’t get just traveling alone (or “alone” in a couple). As with our last Mexico vacation, we’ll probably go down a week before and stay more time after to do more exploring in Mexico, since much of our tour is in Guatemala and Belize, although it starts and ends in Cancun. We’ll probably fly in and out of DF, and take buses or internal flights back and forth. We want to check out Guanajuato (ever read “Next in Line”? I used to be a huge Ray Bradbury fan), San Miguel de Allende, Puebla, Mérida again, and whatever else seems to be along the way. We’d really like to go to Oaxaca City again, but Nick’s not comfortable with the whole plainclothes policemen shooting into crowds thang. Fuddy-duddy. Anyway, we’re reading and thinking, planning and talking, a bit of the best parts of a trip– and hoping fares drop a bit soon. I don’t want to wait too long, but the fares seem a little high right now. I’m really enjoying The People’s Guide to Mexico. I’m not sure if we can really pull off the mochilero schtick, but we’re dang well going to try. We’re going to be down there about a month, so we’ll have to pack light. We schlepped way too much stuff around last time.

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Wheee!

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