Saturday, June 16, 2007

A Yarn of an Adventure

Jessica and I went on an adventure the other day. Dad & Michelle are out of town, out of state even, as he drove her to swim camp. So Jess & I went looking for some yarn, Mission Falls Cotton to be precise. I called down to our regular shop in Plano, The Woolie Ewe, and they didn't have it. So I started phoning around. I found a shop a few miles further south of The Woolie Ewe and I called them and they didn't carry it either, but they suggested a shop in Fort Worth yarns unique. Well, I searched "yarns unique" in Ft Worth in the White Pages and didn't find it. Hmmm. Then I tried "yarn shops" in the yellow pages in Fort Worth and there it was "Yarns Ewenique." The computer is such a slave to correct spelling!

So Jess & I drove down to Yarns Ewenique (I love that name) all the way in Fort Worth on the day that she didn't have her evening swim practice. My new nav system surely helped! I do not know my way around Ft Worth at all. The traffic was terrible! The shop closed at 5 and we were panicking that we weren't going to make it! It took us over 2 hours to get there. We managed to arrive 45 minutes before they closed. Whew!

Yarns Ewenique (Did I tell you I love that name?) is a cute shop! It is stuffed with yarn and the ladies there were most helpful. We had a lot of fun looking at and squeezing all of the skeins of yarn. Jessica found some Rowan country yarn that she liked and a new kind of knitting needle neither one of us had ever used, Daisy by Crystal Palace. It is a lightweight plastic needle. Both of us knitted with it at home and liked it. It comes in cool colors too!

I did find my Mission Falls Cotton and they had lots & lots of colors! I think I saw nearly every one. I was looking for it cuz I want to knit this baby blanket that I saw on the internet and it was done in that yarn it stripes and they left all of the ends hanging off. Then they braided the ends together for fringe. I thought it was a great idea--although you couldn't let the baby just sleep with it cuz of the fringe. Too tempting to chew on! Anyhow, the colors they chose were sorta dullish and drab. I wanted to swap some of them out and make it a little more cheery. I looked at the yarn color card on the Mission Falls website, but you just never know when you are on a monitor. So I really wanted to see them in person and choose them all together. I hope it comes out okay. Jess approved of the color choices! Unfortunately, they didn't have the pattern book I needed, so I have ordered it and am waiting for it to arrive so I can get started. Yarns Ewenique gave us the cutest bag with our purchase! It has a sheep on it knitting!

Afterwards we went to the Apple store at Willowbend to pick up a computer game for Jess that she was just dieing to get! There were actually a couple and she did not call ahead! So after fighting the traffic to get from Fort Worth to Plano, they only had 1 of the 3! She kept insisting that they would for sure have all of them as they just came out. Well, they told her that a lot of the times that means that they get shipped that day. So we made up for it at Macy's and found some great sales. Plus she needed some khaki pants for volunteering at the hospital this summer. So it was nice to find a good deal on those.

(No pics since hubby has the camera with him...)

Wasie

Sunday, June 10, 2007

It's Black & White-almost

I realized I never did put up a photo of my Black & White Happy Blocks. Black & White was the theme for June. And by the way, I was one of the two winners! I found that out after I returned from London. How's that for a nice lil' homecoming?! I am busy receiving all sorts of lovely little packages in the mail every day!! What fun is that!!!!

Here's my Black & White Happy Blocks Photo:


The next month-July-has red, white & blue for the theme. But no patriotic fabrics since some of the gals are not residents of the USA, and if they win the blocks, we don't want them to have blocks with all of these US flags all over them! For example, one month a gal won from Australia. The blocks are very cool and are pictured in an album in the forum at block central.

EEEK! I went back and looked and I never posted up a photo of my May blocks! May was a pretty hectic month what with the end of school and getting off to England... Well May's theme was flowers. You know, April showers bring May FLOWERS!

Here's my 4 blocks. (I always make 3 of each: 1 for each of the 2 winners, and 1 set to keep. That way at the end of the year I can make a quilt out of all of the different blocks that I made.)








Happy Day,
Wasie

Stonehenge Rocks!

On our last full day in London we took the train out to Salisbury and traveled to the Stonehenge site. It was pretty amazing. They are still figuring out why it was built and there are many theories from astronomical to a calendar to purely religous. I learned alot about the site that I didn't know before. For example, there are large mounds of dirt surrounding the stones throughout the area and they are burial sites and both men and women are buried in them. Also at one time a wooden structure was in the center of the stones. And they also believe they have figured out how they lifted the stones upright using a system of wooden platforms. It is totally unbelievable that they went to so much trouble over so many years to work on this. So it had to be terribly important.

Here is a photo of me with the girls at Stonehenge.


After Stonehenge & Salisbury, we jumped on a train and went up to Bath and saw the Roman ruins and the still functioning waterworks. It was awesome how much of the structure was still preserved. It was also cool how the Romans had worked out the plumbing which is still being used today. The hot springs underneath still services the large pool.


The water is green now because the roof no longer exists and it kept the UV rays from the sun from reaching the water. The sunlight allows the algae to grow. In the Romans' era the water would have been clear. If you pump up the water from underground it's clear.

Here is Jessica at the Roman baths. In the background you can see an abbey that was right next door to the Roman baths. We didn't have time to visit it. Awesome architecture everywhere!


Here is part of our group on the top of the double-decker bus taking a tour around the city of Bath.


This is the "most photographed bridge in Bath." Well you can't miss an opportunity like that, can you?



Happy Sightseeing!
Wasie

Monday, June 04, 2007

Hey! The London Bridge didn't fall down!

We're back from our week-long trip across the ocean to London. I went with my daughters and their girl scout group that I assist. We had a marvelous if wet time! We saw lots and lots of attractions, but not nearly everything. So I guess that's reason to go back and to bring dad! We also went to Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace), Salisbury (Stonehenge), Bath and Paris. What's that? You thought Paris was in France? Well, it is! We took the high speed train and went through the chunnel (channel tunnel) under the English Channel. It took about 20 minutes to cross the English channel or should I say burrow?

On the looong plane trips I did manage to get in a bit of knitting. They did allow size 15 circular knitting needles. Mine were also not very long--16 inches and plastic. The flight over was 9 hrs the flight home was 10 hrs. On the way there I finished up a scarf done with tape yarn. The brand was Sensations CARLO.

On the flight home to Dallas, I made a roll brim hat using Plymouth Yarn Yukon both print and solid. It is a very bulky yarn so I totally finished it up. However, Gatwick airport in London had greater restrictions for carry on baggage and I was afraid they would not allow my little scissors this time. So I put them in my checked suitcase. That meant I couldn't clip each color of yarn so I had the skeins still attached as I went until I arrived home and could clean it up.

After I get my photos from the trip sorted -- there are only hundreds and hundreds, literally -- I'll start posting a few for ya. And tell you some stories.

Cheerio!
Wasie