Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Goodbye to Santa Fe...
Knitting in the Plaza
Goodbye to the beautiful terrain...
Tent Rocks. I call these formations "Queen's Court"
Goodbye to the delicious green chiles...
Goodbye to the stunning sunsets...
I'll miss you guys the most.
So until we find the road to Santa Fe again...goodbye!
Filed Under: Travel | Santa Fe
Monday, October 30, 2006
Last night the car decided it wasn't leaving Santa Fe.
What a horrible sound metal makes when it is dragging on asphalt. Shudder. At least it happened as we were pulling into the parking lot at 15 mph, and not say, as we are hurtling on the freeway at 70 mph come tomorrow. If this gets fixed by then.
Look at that rusted underbelly. The last several months the car has been doing baaaadly. We're hoping to milk another two years out of it. The good thing about being back in Boston is that we won't have to drive anymore. Hang in there buddy!
Here's a much prettier, rust-free photo.
Filed Under: Travel | Santa Fe
Sunday, October 29, 2006
FRIDAY NIGHT
Margaritas, chile rellenos and sopaipillas at Maria's
Dottie takes a swig of her first margarita...
...and doesn't quite make it to her sleeping bag...
"Uuuuuhh..."
SATURDAY
Sight-seeing and shopping around Santa Fe Plaza...
Left: Vintage Route 66 that runs through the Plaza.
Middle: Jewelry vendors in front of the Palace of the Governors. I did all my Christmas shopping here!
Right: Dottie models a pair of hammered silver earrings
...then green chile hamburgers - again! - at Bobcat Bite for a late lunch.
Bring your knitting, no matter the time of day, the wait is loooong
A woman sat next to me in the booth at Bobcat and ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. I know it's on the menu, and this is America and all, but I'm going to make a wild assumption and say it's there mainly for the kiddies who come in. With their highly carnivorous parents. Then...
WOMAN: I'd like a side of potato salad with that as well. Oh wait, does that have meat in it?
WAITRESS: [...] Uh. No. I'm sorry, but. Who puts meat in their potato salad??
WOMAN: Oh I know! I'm a vegetarian, just had to be sure!
WAITRESS, and ME: ?!
SUNDAY
Breakfast at Cafe Pasqual's, downtown Santa Fe
ME: Two eggs on corn tortilla, topped with fresh peas, fresh tomato salsa, feta cheese, black beans, green chile, and side of fried bananas.
DUCK: Chorizo burrito
Like Bobcat Bite, Cafe Pasqual's came at the recommendation of Scout. Thank you for making us as dependant on green chiles as ever! We'd passed by this place many times before but somehow I forgot about it. Thank goodness she brought it up last week when we were at her house, because this place is FAN.TAStic. A little on the $$ side, but totally worth it. There have a been a lot of great places that did not come up during my food research, whether it be in travel books or online, and Pasqual's is one of them. Strange. I'll have to revise my list of Best Restaurants. We're thinking of going back for dinner tonight to make up for our ignorance.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, or right after I finish this post
Laundry, cleaning, and packing.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAH. Check out the yarn and WIPs and FOs I've accumulated since being here.
Most of them are from the usual online orders, a few are gifts, a few skeins are from the wool festival in Taos, and a couple skeins are from Needle's Eye here in Santa Fe. Those would be the bright blue and orange skeins at top right, colors of the sky and of the adobe walls, to remind me of our time here.
:-( Sniff sniff. But on the very bright side, The Boys await our return. OK not anxiously, but we can pretend.
Filed Under: Postcards from Dottie | Travel | Santa Fe
Friday, October 27, 2006
"How do you do?"
Dottie is a sweet little knitted kitty cat who is seeking a little adventure and fun overseas. Guess who will be the provider of said adventure and fun?
ME. Of course. Because I'm just chock full of both those things. Right?! But hold on I'm getting ahead of things...
"Across the pond and across the country in 2 days!"
Dottie hails from London. Yep, she has already had a bit of traveling under her knitted belt just to make it here.
"Hi. Let's party."
Dottie came with her own "sleeping bag" (hee hee), two Lion Bars (make that A bar. I just ate one) and a surprise skein of sock yarn from Curious Yarns!
So what is she doing so far away from home?
WELL, Dottie is here as a Travel and Adventure Ambassador on behalf of her mum, who is unable to travel and adventure herself. Just last week Hazel sent out a request for an adoption and I immediately responded. Like her, I agree this will be a very amusing swap. After a small flurry of emails, Dottie was quickly produced, packaged, dispatched, et voila! Here to party!
So for as long as Dottie is having fun, I as her host will be showing her around this grand country of mine, and post photos of her various shenanigans for her owner to see.
It's kind of like stealing your neighbor's garden gnome and sending photos back of him in various locales. Except this was a consentual swap, a drama-free and efficient adoption process. (Madonna probably should have considered adopting a knitted cat as well.) (Wait! I kid!)
"Hmm this loft is a bit of a mess."
Dottie has arrived just in time to spend a drunken last weekend with me in Santa Fe. Lucky girl! This afternoon we'll be doing some Christmas shopping in the Plaza, sipping margaritas and chowing on stuffed chiles at Maria's, and if I'm conscious enough afterwards, we'll get some knitting in before the night is over.
And in just a few days, Dottie will be on an exciting if butt-numbing 4-day road trip through the vast states of Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts - WOW! - before we settle again in Boston where I will introduce her to The Boys, the joys of steamed lobsters, clam chowder, and baked beans 'n molasses.
And, because this trip should be as much instructional as it is gastronomical, I will show her various sites where long ago American insurrectionists laid some whoopass on the Crown of England!
This is going to be a lot fun, and I imagine I'll be taking a lot of pictures of things I normally wouldn't otherwise. Sometimes I'm too lazy to whip out the camera, sometimes I have problems deciding whether a shot is worthwhile, other times I'm too self-conscious. Like taking a photo of your entree at dinner.
Not that photographing a knitted kitty in public won't seem a little odd, but she's an excuse to be just that. I can say, "I'm doing this for a friend! For a good cause!" You know? And hopefully Hazel will enjoy seeing them!
Just a few more hours until we take Dottie out and about. Until then, she surveys her new surroundings: the faux adobe, the brilliant sky and the snow-covered mountains in the distance. Soak it all in Dottie! For we won't be here long! More adventures await...
Filed Under: Postcards from Dottie
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Bleh.
Yet another mismatched pair, using Socks That Rocks. But these socks ain't so rockin'. The manly Poma using size 3 needles turned out much too big, so I decided to try out the stretchy Cable Twist Sock. Now it looks too small. Duck tried both socks and assured the fit was fine for both. Silly man, how is that possible? Meh. I'm not so happy with either at the moment.
And that's all the exciting knitting news I have.
Let's talk food again instead.
Pizza from Uppercrust Pizza, topped with Canandian bacon and duh, green chile.
There are only 5 days left in Santa Fe. 5 days to stuff our faces silly with as much green chile and sopaipillas as possible. Because we sure as hell aren't going to be able to find anything like New Mexican cuisine back home.
Here are our favorite restaurants in SF and our favorite dishes:
Maria's, for their spicy red chile salsa, steak and chile rellenos plate, and of course, their knock-you-out margaritas.
Guadalupe Cafe, for their ancho chiles stuffed with goat cheese and walnuts and smothered with more cheese and more chiles, their sangrias, and most of all, their sopaipillas. I've had sops in half a dozen places are so, and they're not all made the same! Some are too hollow, some are stale, some too crunchy. GC makes theirs with the perfect blend of doughiness and hollowness and crispness. I'm going to miss you guys the most!
Bobcat Bite, for their mouth-watering 10oz hand-ground-on-the-premesis-that-day hamburgers, topped with cheese and green chile of course! We were there for lunch yesterday and yet another small camera crew was on hand, filming back in the kitchen.
Green Chile Burger from Bobcat Bite. And a little grilled chile on the side. HOT!
The Chocolate Maven, for their chile hot chocolate, their desserts, their breakfasts, their sandwiches...
Mu Du Noodles, for their delicious pan-Asian menu, and for when you need a break from another chile-smothered burrito/enchilada/burger.
I'm not ready for a break from the green chile just yet though. Sigh. I'm going to miss those little spicy suckers.
Filed Under: Socks | Travel | Santa Fe
Sunday, October 22, 2006
I love our little Cultural Weekends here in New Mexico. I mean yes, the whole point of CW's has been to experience and see things we've never before, and yet somehow every weekend the new things we experience and see have consistently FAR EXCEEDED our expectations. We're like, ?!!?!!! From little things like the dancing poodle and the sopaipillas to big things like the bat flight, meeting online friends and the chance run-in with tarantulas, every little New Mexican adventures have just been incredible.
This weekend so far has been no exception, even as we stick to Santa Fe. For Sunday brunch we finally went to the famed Chocolate Maven after visiting there several times after work for their spicy chile hot chocolate. We were afraid the wait would be long at this popular joint, but the largish group of people milling around outside wasn't because the place was packed, but because the Food Network was inside filming a segment near the front door. Everyone approaching was asked to wait until they finished.
Giada filming a segment at the Chocolate Maven for her new show, coming in 2007.
Ever watch Everyd@y Italian? I've only seen it a couple of times myself. I'm not sure if it's one of the popular shows on the FoodNetwork but I do know that the host of the show is such a HOTTIE. Icy green eyes, an Audrey Hepburn nose, and rows and rows of perfect teeth. I'm in love! And she was really nice. They were shooting her going through the front door for the "first time," and after about the 20th entrance she yelled nicely to the director, "Can we let these people come in and eat now??"
The waiters and pastry chefs, the manager and owner of the place were all giggly about having the Food Network show up (apparently it was very last minute. The network called Friday to say they were going to be there today to tape), and everyone was excited at the prospect of being on camera.
By pure luck Duck and I got seated at a table near her's, where they would film her ordering hot chocolate and eating homemade granola. The owner said to me, "You might be on camera, will that be OK?" and I was like YEAH HUH!!
It was so interesting to watch the filming process. They had a little discussion as to how the waiter would suggest to her the Mayan Chile Hot Chocolate when she ordered a regular hot chocolate, which would make a nice segue into what a chile hot chocolate was and at the same time, show that that was the bistro's signature drink. She wanted to keep the waiter's explanation of it simple and quick.
"Just say something like, 'It has a lot of spices and comes with a kick', otherwise my audience will just tune out." EEENteresting.
She had a little sip of the hot chocolate (licked her lips afterwards and kept drinking more after the camera stopped rolling), and then a bowl of granola topped with fruit, and after shooting her commentary on that a couple of times, they had the waiters bring around a new mug of hot chocolate and a new bowl of granola for their close-up glamour shots.
Duck and I were sitting sort of behind her table. There were a couple of shots where they had the waiter sweep in from behind me (to serve her the hot chocolate and then the granola) so that with any luck, my frontside and Duck's backside will be on TV!!!! Duck's right earlobe is gonna be famous!
And yes I did manage to appreciate what I was eating in between bites of ogling Giada's movie-star profile. I had Cottage Cakes (pancakes made from less flour and more cottage cheese, and lemon rinds) and Duck had a sandwich consisting of ham, green apples and gruyere. Holy crap it was good. And then to top it all off, at one point Giada -- yes we're on a first-name basis -- turned around, we locked eyes, I grinned, she flashed a gorgeous toothy smile and winked.
HEE HEE HEE PRETTY LADY WINK AT ME!
After they finished filming the eating part, they were going to have Giada get up from her table with the camera following her out of the room. Which meant that I was going to be in the shot again heh heh!
But just at that moment when she swept behind me, I uncontrollably decided to PICK MY NOSE. They did another take, and again I pathologically HAD to touch my nose. And so naturally the camera man decided he didn't want to follow her out the room. She would get up, and instead of following, he would train the camera up and just focus on the pastry chefs working in the adjacent room (you can sort of see the work area behind the glass wall behind where Giada's sitting).
They did that take a couple of times and then the director decided she should wave at the pastry guys as she got up, and they would wave back. Good idea. Except the two pastry chefs were like, actually busy making stuff and couldn't really pay 100% attention to what was going on in the next room. They couldn't get that shot. At least not linearly. She would wave, but then only one of the chefs would see and wave back. Or she would wave, and this time the OTHER chef would wave. Or she would wave, and both of them would ignore her. Ha ha!
So they had to shoot them waving in a separate shot, after she was long gone. They waved to the director, but someone in the editing room will make it look as if they were waving to her.
After our meal, we were at the counter paying for some desserts for dinner at Scout's tonight (the adventures never end!). They were shooting Giada's entrance into Chocolate Maven*again* but before the camera rolled, the camera man leaned over to us and said "Thank you for putting up with us, we really appreciate it." Are you kidding?! It was the most awesome Sunday morning we've ever had!
So this new show is called something like Weekend Getaways with Giada. They're filming a few more restaurants in Santa Fe, and then will head to NYC, Honolulu, Chicago, Cabo, in that order. Not exactly geographically logical, but it seems like fun. Who wouldn't like to travel and eat for a living??
The show doesn't air until sometime in January 2007, so STAY TUNED!
Filed Under: Travel | Santa Fe
Saturday, October 21, 2006
HEE HEE LOOK!
taken from perezhilton.com
She was snapped in front of phildar! (Otherwise, who cares?!)
Filed Under: General Knitting
Friday, October 20, 2006
Well, they're gonna have to. I tried to knit something else, I did. A fast and easy pattern, but I was bored. I just didn't have the motivation to knit it, even though the sock yarn (Socks That Rock) are fast becoming my favorite. So I ripped out what I started and soon there will be another Pomatomus in this world. But for a man. Pomantomus. Heh heh.
Only 10 more days or so til we leave Santa Fe.
I have to admit I am starting to miss home a little. We went to see The Departed (aka The DePAAAHted. GREAT MOVIE by the way) recently and I can't believe I'm saying this but the Boston accents made me all homesick. The indescribable, almost unbearable, barely imitate-able unless you're from Boston, Boston accent. I thought about the state trooper and the city cop who live on either side of our cul-de-sac. They're accents are SO THICK and SO HORRIBLE, I always giggle and wretch at the same time when I hear them talk, but I miss them.
Those crazy Bwohston Myassachooosetts cwawps.
And I miss the boys.
Even if they may not miss me too much.
Filed Under: Cats | Socks | Pomatomus
Thursday, October 19, 2006
6:20 pm:
6:25 pm:
6:27 pm:
Filed Under: Travel | Santa Fe
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Last night:
A bottomless glass of wine, MI-5 and Matthew Macfayden on the tele, and good progress on your second plummy Ripple Weave sock. That's what is called a Perfect Evening. Although, it is a bit of a mental challenge to keep up with the complicated plot, the complicated pattern, while just barely maintaining sobriety. So if you try this at home, proceed with caution!
I wish I had a British accent. I wish I were a spy.
This morning:
Pattern: Ripple Weave Socks from Vogue Knitting Fall 2006
Yarn: Sundara Somewhat Solid sock yarn in "Plum Over Slate", one 350 yd skein with yardage leftover
Needles: US1 dpns
Love the socks, love the yarn. I am all over this twisted ribbing stuff. Are there any more out there, aside from Pomatomus? Maybe I'll sit down one of these days and come up with a twisted rib pattern of my own. Maybe. Til then, I have to think very hard if I will give these away and to whom. Sigh. No one is worthy. No one.
Mods: I did 2.5 chart repeats for the leg. It turns out 350 yds is plenty to have done 3 full repeats. (I have enough leftover which I'll use for cuffs and heels on variegated socks in the future.) I reduced the length of the heel a little bit and therefore picked up fewer - 15 - stitches for the gusset. It was kind of loose on the first RW sock I made. This pair now fits perfectly. On me. So I guess I'll have to keep it.
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Socks | Ripple Weave
Monday, October 16, 2006
New Mexico is not so much the Land of Enchantment as it is the Land of Making My Eyeballs Explode.
Check it out. That is not a sunset, but a sunrise, from this Saturday morning. It just makes me want to weep. I was up early enough for once, and though it's the first sunrise I've seen here, I am sure it is the most magnificent sunrise ever. And that was just outside our door. Thank you for doing this just for me! We were already running a little late to Scout's, but there was no way I could get in the car without taking a million pictures of this flaming cloud here first. Sigh.
HOW AM I EVER GOING TO LEAVE HERE?!
When I think of the "process" by which we chose to come to New Mexico, I have to laugh. Because I mean there was no process. There was no thoughtfulness, very little knowledge, just a hunch. Two months ago when this little adventure wasn't even a twinkle in our eyes, we were sitting at a bar in Martha's Vineyard talking to this lovely older couple from Phoenix, when suddenly I asked them, "Have you ever been to Santa Fe?"
Why did I ask them this? Because they were from the Southwest? Up until that second, I never gave Santa Fe any thought. Ever. But there we were, and had we not met this friendly couple, who talked up Santa Fe, encouraged us to go, to explore, now, we wouldn't have come. Certainly not as quickly as we did. We would have diddle-daddled and talked about the possiblity of coming, endlessly, until I gave birth to triplets and the possibility died.
I wish I exchanged business cards with them, because I'd be sending them a basketful of puppies right now as our thanks. You guys were right. So right. We went, we ate, we saw, and it was amazing.
Anyway, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. We're still here, there's still more to see. And definitely more to eat.
So Saturday we were on our way to Albuquerque for Breakfast and Balloons at Scout's. It was pretty, puffy cloudy in Santa Fe, but the clouds became thicker and less friendly as we approached ABQ. We saw only two balloons in the sky from the highway, already one hour after ascension was supposed to take place, so I kept my fingers crossed that there would be more to see. By the time we parked at her house, more balloons started to take flight, luckily, but that photo above was the best shot I could get.
Hmph, I guess we'll have to come back next year!
Scout 'n me.
Thank you for having us over!
What a gracious, hospitable host Scout and her lovely family are, to invite us to their place and feed us breakfast burritos and coffee so early in the morning. If there's one thing I've learned on this trip, it's that there certainly are wonderful, truly good people in this world. And also -- it's never too early for green chile! Especially when it is smothering a heaping pile of hashbrowns! Hashbrowns and chile! Just when I thought we'd had all the "chile + x" equations out there.
GODDAMN I'm going to miss green chile.
I nearly kidnapped Scout's little Supergirl. She showed me around every inch of her room, her soccer team pictures (SO CUTE!) and introduced me to her fish which I was informed as "almost dead." I choked back a laugh. Didn't want to appear insensitive. But HAHA! Cutie. Pah. Tutie.
And her son? So well-mannered and charming as to apologize to me for the "mess of the bathroom" after I emerged from it. Ha ha, what mess? Scout I was so close to eating your children you have no idea!!
To top it all off, she gave me a skein of Socks That Rock. I was JUST perusing about it on the web too. I've already started making socks from it:
Scout had to get to work that morning so we just followed her to Village Wools, and hung out there for a little bit before we parted ways. (For now. We want to get together again, if only so Duck and I can bring a whole keg of beer and a kitten to make up for showing up at her house empty-handed on Saturday. Bad bad!).
It was really our first time in Albuquerque since coming to NM so Duck and I decided to hang out there a little longer. We drove to nearby Petroglyphs National Mnmt. I don't know what was wrong with us, but we found the volcanic rocks so near a metropolitan city more interesting than the drawing ON the rocks themselves.
After a few petroglyph sightings (which were not easy to come by) we were like, NEXT!
So then this revealed itself:
"Look, but do not touch. It took me like hours to do my hair this morning."
We saw not one, but TWO tarantulas while on our walks along the trail. That is exactly two more tarantulas than I've ever seen, in the wild, in my life. This second one Duck nearly stepped on. I was walking behind him when suddenly that black bristly thing came crawling out of a hole in the trail with Duck just to the left of it, and my breath became all jagged and raspy. Duck was like What WHAT WHAT?! But I couldn't speak. I was all, Huuuuhhhh aaahh eeahha uhhhh.
Luckily Duck took a couple of steps in the opposite direction before I finally found my voice. And then got close enough to take a picture. Duck was already headed for the hills. Which is funny because usually at home, I'm the one who screams when she sees a teeny tiny spider and he's the one who has to remove them. I guess this one was just too big and hairy for his liking.
It's true, it isn't natural when a spider has hair long enough to brush. But I was fascinated with it. It's not everyday that you're just taking a walk and hi! Tarantulas!
Ah yes. In case you haven't figured it out, New Mexico rocks.
Filed Under: Travel | Santa Fe
Friday, October 13, 2006
It will be a miracle if I can one day manage to finish socks back-to-back for a matching pair, instead of jumping from one sock yarn to another.
Ripple Weave socks, one in blue Wildfoote and one in plummy Sundara Yarn. I think I know which I like better between the two...
But what about these?
Poma vs Ripple in the World Series of Sock
Ripple and Pomatomus are very similar in design. Both have accentuated patterns from the raised bumps of the twisted ribbed stitches, both are yummy squishy to wear.
But if I had to choose, I'd say Pomatomus wins feet down (ha ha. sorry. ok bye). I've finally had a chance to wear my little rose Poma's since finishing them this summer, and when I do I can't stop staring at my own feet. I can barely walk. My gnarly, Smeagol feet are gooorgeous in these things!
I do like the way the ribbing continues all the way through the toe on the Ripple sock. I'll have to replicate that in my next pair of Poma's.
New additions in el yarn stashio:
Two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn from the littleknits.com sale. I can tell already that these babies are a home run. The yarn is soft, is wonderfully beady like Koigu and Sundara Yarn, except that it is oh so plump! So succulent! So US3 or US4 dpns!
So about to have another mismatched pair of socks in no time!
A new segment of Cultural Weekend is about to commence, once again. The weeks here are just flying by, so fast that before we know it the car will be packed and we'll be installed back East again. I've already convinced Duck that we need to stay in Santa Fe for an extra week. It wasn't hard sweet-talking him into another week of green chiles and carne adovada, but for whatever reason Duck was convinced we'd only want to be here for 6 weeks. Nuh uh! I haven't nearly had my fill of sopaipillas, chile hot chocolate, Tent Rocks, and of course the stunning, spectacular sunsets.
Since being here, blue and orange has become my favorite color combination.
So for this Cultural Weekend, we'll be experiencing some more fun and new things. First, we will get to see a lot of hot air balloons flying about in the sky over Albuquerque. I have only seen one balloon in the air at any given time, and even so that one was tethered to the ground.
Second, WE WILL BE GOING TO STRANGER'S HOUSE FOR BREAKFAST! This is a huge deal, being the jittery bug-eyed hermits that we are, so all-caps was necessary. Also I'm excited.
We haven't even stepped into her house and already she's all "Would you like another breakfast burrito?" and "One or two sugars with that coffee?" and "Stay as long as you'd like!" Scout is so super friendly I am in awe. It also highlights the fact that I'm super not. I mean I AM friendly. I mean I have POTENTIAL to be friendly,given enough sleep. And tequila shots. I know, too many parameters. So to be so naturally effervescent! To actively seek out people to befriend, while sober! That is something.
Let the weekend begin! Ooooo and happy Friday the 13th! Of October!
Filed Under: Socks | Ripple Weave | Travel | Santa Fe | Yarn Stash
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Plummy Ripple Weave sock in different lighting.
Left: taken outside Carlsbad Caverns
Right: Taken at the Bat Flight amphitheatre at dusk
Check out the plummy goodness. I'm making fast progress with this
Ripple Weave sock, mainly because I can't put the yarn down. I'm at the
toe right now, it will be finished today and I'll have a complete pair
of non-matching Ripples, hooray.
Here is some small progress on the Capelet Sweater:
I don't know why the stitches look so uneven between rows, as if
there were a couple of rows of twisted stitches thrown in. Maybe I had
gotten so used to doing ktbl's from knitting the socks? Boo.
But here are my initial impressions on Rowan's Tapestry: it feels
disconcertingly like human hair. Hair that's been shampooed and
conditioned with Finesse for that shiny, silky soft touch-me bounce. I
mean it's NICE. It's just a little too alive or something creepy. But
it's nice.
For this here Capelet Sweater I am following the instructions loosely. Even after all my number crunching,
the numbers on all the charts and illos still don't add up. There
is definitely one typo and perhaps a few more but can't verify if this
is so. All I know is that it's confusing. I mean if the Japanese
readers themselves can't make heads or tails, what hope does one have I
ask you? But whatever the construction isn't exactly rocket science, so
I think I can wing it.
***
We had a fantastic weekend. We drove all up and down New Mexico.
First stop of course was up an hour north to Taos for the wool
festival, on Saturday. Can I say I wasn't exactly into it? I will say
it quietly: I wasn't into the wool festival! Don't be mad!
I think if I were a spinner I would have found all the stalls of raw
wool much more interesting. Most everything was very raw and very
scratchy. However I did go gaga at the Brooks Farms Yarn's booth, with its rainbow colors of beautiful wools. It was by far the most popular booth. The two skeins I bought is their Primero Yarn in 100% kid mohair.
After Taos we came back to Santa Fe, packed a small bag and headed
south to Carlsbad - 4 to 5 hours drive - with an overnight stop in
Roswell. I thought we could take in some alien sights in the morning
but there wasn't much aliens to see unfortunately so we continued on to
Carlsbad Caverns, and made it there in time for our guided tour.
This place is very, very cool. My bad blurry photos doesn't do the
place justice. I deliberately tried not to include people in the shots,
but now I wish I had, just to give the place a sense of scale. The
caves and the decorations in them are just immense.
After several hours in the cave, we hung out back on land to wait for dusk, and the start of the Bat Flight, where the resident bats swarm out of the cave for their nightly insect feeding.
Oh you Bat Flight how I will never ever forget you! It is by far the COOLEST thing I have ever seen in my life.
You sit in this small amphitheatre constructed at the mouth of this cave
where the bats dwell, a ranger gives a pre-flight talk about bats,
first about bats in general - they are not evil blood-suckers, they are
not mice, they are not birds, etc - and then about these bats here in
particular. Mexican free-tail bats. From Mexico. And some other bats
from Brazil. Or something.
I was looking forward to this part of the lecture; I wanted to know
their history with this cave. Our ranger was about to go into all the
details when she turned and suddenly lowered her voice and whispered,
"Everyone shhhhh....they're coming..." and I swear all the hairs on my
arms and neck stood up on end.
Not my picture! Taken from the NPS site, I give them FULL CREDIT!
A couple of bats fluttered out, then within seconds it was a small
swarm, then it was a whirring CYCLONE of bats swirling around the
mouth of the cave for like, one or two rotations before they shot off
into the horizon. The sun was setting, the clouds were red, and this
was the backdrop for the black, roiling stream of bats flying far into
the distance. It was the most amazing and beautiful thing I've seen in
my life. And the more bats that flew out, the longer and dense this
stream grew, the faker it looked, like CGI rendering of locusts from a
documentary of the biblical plague on the History Channel or
something.
We sat there for 40 minutes, or as long as there was enough light to
see, and in that time the bats continued to swarm out of the cave
unabated. In fact the tornado seemed to get bigger and bigger each
minute. The exodus can last as long as 2 hours before the cave
completely empties. Can you imagine?? How many bats were in
there, that's what I wanted to know! The website says there are half a
million bats living in the cave, but I'd say it was much much more than
that. Bajillions! How much surface area do they cover when they're
hanging upside down in their cave? Imagine that scene?!
It's too bad we were not allowed to take photos. They banned cameras
this year, fearing "interference" with the bats' "echolocation."
Waaaah. Poor bats. I wanted to take a photo, many photos, SO
BADLY. I thought maybe I could turn off the flash and take a shot
surreptitiously from under my arm, but there was a second ranger there
playing the role of BADASSED BAT BOUNCER who stood with her sunglasses
on and shoulders and jaws squared at various points around the
amphitheatre, watching us. She was scary. So I didn't dare.
But you can see pretty cool pictures of the bat flight here.
Filed Under: Socks | Ripple Weave | Travel | Santa Fe
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Foliage near Taos
Me, at the Taos Wool Festival
Take-home goods: Two 500 yard-skeins of mohair from Brooks Farm
And now we're off on a mini-road trip to Carlsbad Caverns in southern NM, to visit the bats. All the bats! Hi bats!
Filed Under: Travel | Santa Fe | Yarn Stash
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Finished one Ripple Weave sock using Wildfoote. First time with this yarn, first time with the pattern. Wildfoote is not bad. Not the softest but definitely not the itchiest I've used. The fit of the sock is great save for the gusset. It's the first time I've knitted a sock where the gusset was too big. Will pick up fewer sti |