Sesame Seed Designs » travel

Catching up

Casey — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 04:25:00 +0000

Everything is ready to be taken to the fair tomorrow! I’m so excited. I hope I win a ribbon! The only thing missing from my pile of entries is the ogee tunic because all I have finished are the sleeves and this: It’s coming out really well and I changed it from a tunic to more of a standard pullover with the addition of some waist shaping. A-lines just don’t work for me. Here’s a detail of the cabling. It’s so pretty! (A while back Anna posted a comment asking about the gauge for the ogee tunic. I don’t have her email address so here’s the answer to the question she asked. The stated guage deson’t seem to match up with the number of stitches you cast on and the measurements you’re supposed to get. The math doesn’t work out right, but everything turns out fine. The edges of the pieces have a small amount of ribbing, lace and cables, which apparently changes the gauge just enough that you end up with the right measurements even though it seems like you have a lot of extra stitches. So, my advice to Anna, and anyone else who is thinking of knitting this, is that as long as you get the same guage as stated, trust the pattern’s stitch numbers and measurements. It works out. )

Backing up a little, here’s a picture of me knitting the second sleeve in El Salvador. The cute yellow building is the hotel we stayed at in Apaneca, a little town in the mountains. Rocking chairs and hammocks- what more could a knitter want? Okay, maybe cooler weather so that I actually felt like knitting, but I didn’t want to be picky.

Finally, here is a finished picture of the pillow I knitted for my friends that got married. I am still finishing the second, but the 1st one had a special assignment.
As part of the ceremony, they got lassoed together. As my friend Cindy said, “I’t like a unity candle but we get lassoed together instead.” Yep, those are exactly the same. Anyway, they needed a pretty pillow to kneel on so my gift was very fitting. You can just barely see the corner of my (their) pillow below.I had to fancy up the pillow a little for it’s big day. I folded the flap inside and then safey pinned some ribbons to the inside so I could tie it closed. To make it look balanced, I tied some bows and pinned them to the other end as well, keeping the pillow case snug around the pillow. The happy couple loved it!
Last but not least, my secret pal deserves a huge thank-you shout out. I got this great package, along with a stitch pattern book that didn’t make it into the photo. I got some soap (I love cute soaps!), pretty needles, felted tweed to make the knucks from the latest knitty, and some really pretty hand-dyed yarn that I’ve already started swatching.
Thank you, secret pal and good luck to all you knitters who entered things in your local fairs this summer!!

Picture Time

Casey — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 22:47:00 +0000

In no particular order, here are some pictures of El Salvador. I know you came here for knitting content but I don’t have any pictures of knitting to show you right now. I do have pictures of knitting in El Salvador but those will have to wait for another day. I am making progress on my Ogee Tunic and even (with lots of wishful thinking) entered it in the fair. I really don’t think It will be finished by then because I didn’t take going on vacation into account when I planned out my state fair knitting. I have other things to enter, though, don’t you worry! As I said, I did knit in El Salvador, just not very much.

This was my 1st (and last) view of El Salvador as it’s the view from the airport window. Getting off the plane, it was immediately apparent I wasn’t in the US anymore! It was a great feeling. Mayan ruins near the location of my friend’s wedding site. It’s the rainy season so we were caught in a rainstorm there. The ruins in El Salvador aren’t as big as those in Guatemala or Mexico and they’re not completely excavated yet, but still interesting to visit. For me, the highlight was learning how they used to make indigo dye. The wedding was fun! That’s my soleil tank top that I knitted and the skirt I made. I didn’t set out to wear a totally handmade outfit. It just worked out that way.This is Apaneca, the highest town in El Salvador. We spent a few days there and it was really nice. It was cooler and less humid than the city, which was a nice break. If you look closely at the picture, the bright orange house on the left is where we stayed. The hills are covered with coffee trees as it’s one of the coffee growing regions in the country. This is Mike and our guide from the hotel taking us on a hike through a coffee plantation and the surrounding beauty. We were on our way to see some old Mayan statues that are on the property. Everything was so green and pretty thanks to the rainy season. It was really fun and I will show what I’ve been knitting soon.

I wish I were still on vacation!

Casey — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 16:42:00 +0000

Well, I made it back from El Salvador and now am back at work. Work is definitely not as fun as El Salvador! It was awesome to see my old friends and the wedding was fabulous. They loved the tree pillow and my pillowcase with the lace insert that I made for them even got a special place in the ceremony. More on that when I actually have some pictures to show you.

You could be looking at pictures right now but Blogger is being stupid.

I saw Mayan ruins, cool birds, and lots of tropical flowers. I hiked through a coffee plantation, ate lots of pupusas (kind of like tamales but better), got caught in a rainstorm, stayed in a hotel in the highest town in the country, ate breakfast for only $1, rode buses with crazy drivers, saw only 2 other Americans (other than my friends who also came for the wedding) the entire time, drank soda out of a bag, learned that my Spanish is not as good as it used to be, got stuck in the biggest market in San Salvador between 2 buses that didn’t move for the longest time, knitted while at a bus stop at what felt like the middle of nowhere, met lots of nice El Salvadorans and generally had a great time!

And now, for your knitting content, here are my answers to the latest batch of secret pal questions:

1. What is your favorite season of the year and why?
I love the fall. I love the leaves changing colors and the (usually) slow transition from flip flops and tank tops to long sleeved shirts and then sweaters and jackets.

2. Summer is hot. What do you knit in the summer?
Usually I knit tank tops and lacy things. This summer I’m knitting a wool sweater, though. Hopefully I’ll have it done in time to enter in the fair although time is starting to run out.

3. If money was no object…..what would you buy at the LYS?
Everything. To narrow it down, I’d have to say everything that’s soft. No scratchy wool for me. I love merino and angora and alpaca. Mmmm . . . soft . . .

4. What are some activities that have become family traditions for your family?
Mike and I love to go camping and every year my extended family and friends have a reunion camping at Fallen Leaf Lake near Lake Tahoe. We try to go every year and it’s a lot of fun. We couldn’t go this year because of our trip to El Salvador.

5. What is the weather right now?
It’s cool and cloudy in the mornings but sunny in the afternoons. It’s pretty nice. We missed the crazy hot heat wave that happened while we were in El Salvador and I’m so thankful for that! I do like the summer but I’m definately more of a cool weather girl.

Finally a finished picture! (and the letter M)

Casey — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 02:34:00 +0000

It’s done and it fits!! I love my corset pullover. If you like it too, the pattern is free! That makes it even better in my mind.

Yarn: Knitpicks shine sport in hydrangea. The pattern called for a worsted weight yarn so this involved a LOT of math to adjust the pattern. I love the result. If anyone is interested in the pattern using a sport weight yarn, I can hook you up.
Needles: Size 6 denise interchangeables.
Ch-ch-changes: Besides the extreme change in gauge, not too much. I made it about an inch longer (as I do nearly everything). I also omitted the cinch straps on the sides and the sleeves. I didn’t wan tto make the top any “fussier” than it already is and I also just wanted to be finished. The top is pretty and doesn’t need anything else. I love the lace edgings and its femininity.

Speaking of femininity, I mentioned last time that I have a solution for my too-big, super-feminine “modern bustier.” I haven’t yet fixed it, though. I need a little distance from it right now. I’m mad at it for being too big but it’ll eventually show up fixed.

I have a backlog of pictures to share with you so my letter M is going to be a couple of things- Monolith and Mt. St. Helens. In the last week, I’ve been to both of these famous Pacific Northwest landmarks. Last weekend my mom came up from California and we had a girl’s weekend at the beach and went here.It’s Haystack Rock, the 3rd largest Monolith in the world. A monolith is a feature that is made up of a single stone or rock (what’s the difference?) and this one is 235 feet tall! It’s in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Supposedly, puffins live on it but I didn’t see any. My mom and I had a great weekend and it was so pretty at the beach! Today, Mike and I went to Mt. St. Helens – the volcano that erupted in 1980. It used to be pointy on the top but that blew off in 1980 and covered the area in massive amounts of ash. This web site has some cool pictures of it erupting.

Today we went to the Ape Cave Lava Tubes. It’s a giant underground tunnel that was created by a lava flow when the volcano erupted somewhere around 2000 years ago. It was so cool! We climbed over huge boulder piles, navigated out way around puddles and had to wear sweatshirts and long pants even though it was 80 degrees today (it was cool 42 degrees in the cave). All of this in total darkness. Well, we had headlamps and a mag light but it was still dark! When we turned of our lights, I couldn’t even see my hand when it was inches form my face. It was cool. Here are the best pictures we managed to take. I have a new knitting project but I think I’ve posted enough pictures for today and there’s really not much to show yet, anyway.