Preparing for Battle

My weapons are ready...



My target better watch her back!


LIVE IN FEAR - Kill or Be Killed!

Maryland Sheep and Wool Fest

I went.

The following pics pretty much sum it up, but here are the rest of them, if you're interested.









As always, it was a blast. I am so glad I got to say hello to so many old pals and make a couple of new ones. And next year, I will fly from wherever to get there.

Cruise report... Stitch n Beach 2008

OK, sorry this has taken so long, but I came back from the cruise RIGHT into a long weekend of SXSW with a band as houseguests and then life and lots of other shows and cute boys and well, you know how that can go... But here are the pics and some notes. Anyone who cares to, can thank my resident stalker, Michael, for gently reminding me to post about the goddamn trip already.

To cut down on loadtime (is anyone still on dial up out there?) I am only posting one pic w/ a link back to the albums for each day.

You will see a shit ton of pics from the Dr. Stitch class of a yellow swatch and a cable... that will become a tutorial in the coming days, stay tuned!

THE KNITTING CRUISE

My trip started out with some friends in NYC.



View the NYC album here.

These guys are in a great band, Katy Mae, and they stay with me when they come to Austin. We went out drinking and I learned how to play Bocci and Wii. (I am a very good Wii bowler, but not so hot of a Wii tennis star.) They would be back at my place two weeks later for sxsw.

The first two days on the ship were at sea. We had one day of rough seas, spinning and knitting classes, and our first "formal dinner".


Here, Debbie is teaching us the tricksy tricksy double knitting techniques required to pull off the Uncle Argyle scarf from Son of Stitch n Bitch.

See this album in its entirety, here.

Land HO... First stop was Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos. This was the horseback riding day. Grand Turk has two things going for it: John Glenn's space capsule was hauled ashore there, and there is a Margaritaville. Otherwise, it is new to the tourist trade and a fairly mellow rural little island. But boy, was it GORGEOUS. That night, back on the ship, we had the yarn tasting. I have already purchased two or three yarns from the bits I tried out.





The rest of the pics are here.

Before we made our next landfall, we started a lovely little capelet in brushed alpaca. By lunch, we were at the island of Tortola. Here I went sea kayaking and tried out my camera's scuba suit for the first time with a little snorkeling. Shannon violently threw me from my kayak a couple of times on account of how much talking I did in spinning class, but the day was overall REALLY AWESOME.


Ramona knits lace now!



See the rest of the day here.

Our third stop was in St. Maarten. I went scuba diving... it was AMAZING. Other stuff might have happened, but I don't remember anything else that day...



More scuba pics here.

Our fourth island was St. Thomas... but my excursion for the day took me to St. John and a US National Park and biosphere. I went on a great little eco hike, and that evening finished up my capelet.





See a cool spider and some endangered coral (plus a snap of the dread bikini!) here.

The last stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico. My travelling buddy, Ramona and I decided to do an excursion together. We took a historic tour of the city and saw El Morro, the Cathedral, and the narrowest apartment in the world.





More pics of fabulous architecture and weird sculpture here.

Back at sea, we had more classes and a lovely group dinner (so sad to say goodbye), and the last stitch n bitch. (Incidentally, this was the first snb that Ramona and I attended--we were generally pretty anti social for most of the trip. But, we had a GREAT time hanging out together so I can sleep alright.)







More pics of cables and knitters eating here.

Lastly, and quite anticlimactically, it took two miserable airport days to get OUT of NYC because of all the snow in Ohio and Atlanta (Carrie and Amy, I'm looking at you two... How could you let that happen??)



The rest of those sad pics here.

Whew. That's a lot of typing for now. Moral of the story: It was AWESOME and I would TOTALLY do it again.

(But she never even said how the cruise was...)

More soon, I have been so busy lately. Need to remedy that for sure... But in the meantime, some startling news:


(from one of my new favorite webcomics: xkcd.com)

Really? Seven!!??

There will be no pictures of my new bikini

I'm just saying, is all.

I have actually been taking a shit ton of pictures lately, but hardly a knitting one at all.

For anyone who was worried, I did have a Valentine:


(Actually a good friend, we did Jager shots while her beau played a show. Good times.)

I have gone on a couple of date-type activities, but none that warranted any Vday activities. I am really not ready for another boyfriend. But what I AM really ready for is the CRUISE!

Here are the knitting classes I'll be taking:
* Drop spindling (ok, not knitting per se)
* Double knitting
* Knitting a mesh beach bag
* Sweater design
* Knitting a lacey capelet
* Fixing knitting mistakes
* Beaded knitting
* Knit a top down stashbuster sweater

And here are my off boat excursions:
* Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos - Horseback Ride & Swim
* Road Town, Tortola - Sea Kayaking at Peter Island
* Philipsburg, St. Maarten - Discover Scuba
* St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. - St. John Eco Hike
* San Juan, Puerto Rico - Old San Juan Historic Walking Tour

Could you just die? It sounds like everything a vacation should be... And I can hardly wait! I plan on taking a billion pics, and keeping a journal on board. I have seen some really great post-travel posts... So the bar is high, but I will do my best. In the meantime, here are some more silly shots of what I have been up to lately...


Watching friends play (Mr. Lewis & the Funeral Five, my favorite local band)


Makin' band buttons


More glam shots... I am totally addicted


Watchin more friends play, with friends


Dancin


Arts 'n' Drafts!


Drinkin


More bands (if you haven't heard of Black Joe Lewis yet, you will. Check their hotness on myspace. They freakin' rock!)


White Ghost Shivers are particularly fabulous...


The Platforms gots it goin on

And many more. I am about to have to slow down the show-goin, since triathlon pre-training will start just after the cruise. (My liver can hardly wait.) In the meantime, I have plans to see music on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday while I can! I will try to post once more before the ship sails--once I figure out what knitting to take.