Balloonatics

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta 2009 - enjoy! (you can click the icon with the 4 little arrows - bottom right corner of the slides - to make the slide show full screen.)

Photo Intensive

The problem with taking 675* digital photos while on vacation is that you have to edit all those pics when you get home. I'm about 2/3's done - can't wait to be finished and post a balloon slideshow. Soon . . . .*I'd have broken 1000 easy if the 3rd day of ballooning hadn't been rained out.

Finally - Balloons!

We were up at 5 a.m. (way, waaaaaay too early for me) and on the balloon field before dawn. We missed Dawn Patrol (try again tomorrow) but were there for the initial launch and the fly-in - where balloons launch from off-site, fly to the field, and try to drop weighted flags onto targets; closest one wins the prize. I worried that Addy would get scared when the balloons inflated - it's very noisy - but she was fascinated by everything. Daddy got her a light-up light saber - she called it her 'hocus pocus' (as in magic wand) - and she was good to go.

Most of the morning went well - lots of balloons, lots of color, and lots of shopping in the 1/2 mile (!!) of on-site vendors - but we did witness one horrific accident. A balloon flying onto the field clipped a tent, the passenger fell outand the pilot crash landed the damaged balloon right in front of us. The pilot suffered minor injuries but the passenger was badly hurt. (News video is here.) On a positive note, we were impressed with how fast emergency service personnel responded. The balloon was barely on the ground before it was surrounded by police, fire and Fiesta personnel.

Tomorrow is our second balloon day - if the winds die down enough for them to launch in the morning. Crossing fingers for a successful, accident-free day.

A Good Day

Petroglyphs (Dick persists in calling them 'ancient graffiti')Lava Fields

and Addy.

(Click to enlarge; her new apron says 'The Boss')

Life is good.

Travelin' On

Dick spent a couple of hours in the UFO museum in Roswell. He keeps trying to tell me that he's not a 'believer', he's just 'curious'. Riiiiiiiight.

We woke to light drizzle but the rain cleared up as we left Roswell, leaving overcast skies and cooler temps. When we stopped in Lincoln, home of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County Wars, we thought we'd be there for maybe 30 minutes. It's a very small, historical town. Two hours later - after visiting a weaving/spinning shop and talking to a woman who turned out to be our next door neighbor's cousin (not kidding. Very small world.) and eating some excellent pecan pie at her brother's house while listening to the history of their home/restaurant built around 1886 by one of the principals in the Wars - we headed up into the mountains and the ski resort town of Ruidoso, where we're spending the night.

Tomorrow we head slightly south to the Three Rivers Petroglyphs, Valley of Fires lava beds, and (time permitting) an abandoned ghost town, before moving on - finally - to Albuquerque and ADDY time!

Dragonfly sculpture in Roswell

Beam Me Up

Sitting in a hotel in Roswell NM, watching the full moon high overhead. Just perfect for hubby's pilgrimage tomorrow to the scifi holy land.

We spent most of the day at Carlsbad Caverns. We planned to do just one tour - the 1.25 mile, 1.5 hour self-guided tour of the Big Room (which is the size of 14 football fields!) - but it was so neat, we decided to do the Natural Entrance cave too. That was another mile, hiking straight down over 750' into a bat cave,

Going down and down and . . .

taking the (now paved) path used by the original explorers.

Looking back up

Lots of stalactites and stalagmites and popcorns and soda straws* and bacon and more. Didn't see any bats but the second cave smelled strongly of bat guano.

We'd planned to spend a second night in Roswell, but after checking the distance still to Albuquerque, we're leaving tomorrow and driving halfway - stopping near the lava fields and petroglyphs around Lincoln (Billy the Kid's old stomping grounds.) Then it's on to ABQ and the balloon festival!

*Ever wonder when and by whom straws were invented? We did, so here you go.

Traveling

El Paso is very flat, very brown, and very boring scenery-wise. Our flights from LAX to Phoenix and then on to El Paso went without a single problem. We've never flown US Airways and I was worried how it would go. (didn't they use to be something else? Can't remember which airline they combined with, but I do remember I *hated* flying with them.) Based on this trip, I'd fly with US Airways again anytime. Only airline I've ever seen that pushed out of the gate 5 minutes early.

We're spending the night in Carlsbad NM. Tomorrow we visit Carlsbad Caverns; I've never been before but hubby was here when he was about 10. Many, many (many) years ago (birthday joke; happy birthday, sweetie!) Then it's on to Roswell to connect with the mothership.

Not Monogamous

With projects, that is. Seems like when I finish one, I start 3 -- or 4 -- more. Good way to keep from being bored.

Project #1- baby blanket to be gifted in October. Two strands of baby-weight yarn held together, worked with a "J" hook. Love this ripple pattern. Still debating whether to put a big, fancy border on here or go with something simple. Probably decide based on the amount of time I have to meet the deadline.
Project #2 - a sweater for Addy. I'd like to have this done so she can wear it when we meet up in Albuquerque on Sunday. Think I can make it? The sweater has another row of circles below the white ones seen here. If my super-secret idea works out, it should be super-cute. And if it doesn't, there's always the frog pond (for that row, not the whole sweater.)

I'm really pleased with this new pattern from Patons Yarn. It's an true intermediate-level pattern, with side-shaping and lots of other goodies. I'm glad there are lots of easy patterns out there for beginners; but it's nice to have more interesting/challenging patterns for the rest of us. So thank you, Patons!

Project #3 - a sweater for me. I've had this pima silk yarn in my stash for awhile, and I put this sweater in my Ravelry queue over 8-months ago. Finally put the two together. Since I'm getting gauge exactly, it was obviously meant to be. It's a very traditional cardigan design, which is exactly what I wanted.

Wooden Goodness

Look what hubby made me! A holder for my collection of fancy crochet hooks. The entire thing is walnut, one of my all-time favorite woods. Dick turned the spindle from a piece that was harvested in 1947 and has been drying for the past 60+ years. It's perfect for displaying my little pretties. And now that I've got pictures of the gorgeous holder, I can start loading it up with hooks.

Pattern

Just added my Feather and Fan Scarf pattern to Ravelry. You can get it free here or get a PDF file of the pattern here: download now. This one came about when I fell in love with a knit feather and fan shawl at my favorite yarn store. I'm a slow knitter, so it would have taken me forever to make. But with crochet I could make it and wear it the same week. I love the drape and texture of this scarf; it feels so elegant in Blue Heron's Rayon Metallic yarn. And it would be easy to enlarge to make a shawl (directions are in the pattern.)I've got 10 of my patterns on Ravelry now. I feel so designery.

Addy-isms

I've always loved how little minds work, especially when it comes to language. If you click the photo below, you'll see Addy - all decked out in her grandma's favorite color - with her Cinderella umbrella. Or as Addy calls it, her "Cinderberella".

Whole New Meaning

This gives new meaning to 'tying one on'. Rather than re-thread the loom, I'm tying on a new warp so I can weave another overshot rug. 319 weaver's knots later, I'm ready to wind on. Sure beats spending the next three days re-warping the loom.

Moving On

The waffle towels are done - and I've decided to move on. I left the old warp on the loom so I could tie on another set of towels - but I don't love this weave structure enough to bother. If I did another set, I'd just rush through them so I could get on to something else, and what's the point in that? Especially when I found a pattern for overshot placemats that uses the same fiber I was going to use for the towels. Overshot rules!

Done

The third towel is done and the whole bunch are off the loom and in the washer. Once they are dry, I'll cut them apart and hand-hem each one. Now I need to decide if I want to do another set of waffle weave towels in the brown and pink I bought in Solvang - the benefit here is I could just tie on to the current warp and not have to rethread all the heddles, saving several hours of work - or start an entirely new project like a scarf or shawl. Decisions, decisions.

Waffle Up

The first of the three waffle weave towels is done and I'm halfway through the second. This is the 'Martini' colorway from Halcyon Yarn; I'm not quite sure how teal blue relates to martinis but I'm not complaining since it's my favorite color. The weft for the third towel is the darker green that's on both sides of the blue above.

I was going through crochet withdrawal - I haven't had a project on the hook for almost a week - so I started a baby blanket tonight. It's a feather and fan pattern using two strands of stashed baby yarn held together, one white and one a variegated blue. Since I have more white than blue, I'm going to do stripes with two strands of white every three rows or so. If it turns out like I'm picturing, this will be a gift for a friend's soon-to-be grandbaby. If it doesn't, I'm sure it will find a good home in my LYS's charity bin.

A Waffling We Will Go . . .

The waffle weave towels are on the loom - finally. Seems like it's taken an unusually long time to get these warped, between changing out the heddles, working with finer threads (8/2 cotton) and taking a hiatus while Addy and Rachel were here. The threading pattern was simple - an 8-thread repeat - but it gave me fits off and on across the entire 402 thread warp. Tomorrow the pattern weaving begins. Cross your fingers for me.