Two Tropical Storms and Ravelympics Wrap Up

I've been a bit busy the past two weeks. After the last post, one might think that I've been off creating. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Life has gotten in the way.

I've weathered a tropical storm and bits of a hurricane. First, Tropical Storm Fay slammed our fair city with buckets of rain and plenty of wind. Two days off of work were spent in my pajamas, mostly sleeping and reading.

Last weekend my family and I headed to the Keys for some snorkeling. Unfortunately, Gustave brushed close enough that the waters weren't clear. Even more unfortunately, we didn't find out how murky the water was till we had taken a boat tour into the ocean, through a squall. It was a rough ride, and a few times out there we caught enough air to scare even the seasoned sea-goers. I am not a big fan of being on the ocean, and I'm still not sure how my family managed to get me to go out on a boat during a hurricane.

Other than that, the trip was a lot of fun. There was a little rain, we've all lived in Florida long enough to not let that bother us. We got to feed the Tarpon at Robbie's, which is great fun even if you're not a fish fan. Beware of the pelicans though, because they're even more aggressive than the ducks in my neighborhood. They will try to take the fish right out of your hand.

In other news, Ravlympics is over. I made a pretty good start on the Curve of Pursuit.



It's probably about 25% done or so, which is how much I could realistically hope to get done. We'll call that a success!

Gone to the Dark Side

Spinning!?!?

I can no longer resist the urge to spin.

Blame Meghan from the Stitch It Podcast and Brooklyn Tweed. After fighting this bug for a few months, it's no longer possible to resist.

So last week I ordered this



my very first drop spindle.

It's workable, but not great. The Etsy vendor isn't a spinner, and it isn't well balanced. The main benefit is that it can be either a top whorl or bottom whorl spindle.

I also went on a fiber binge. The first purchase to arrive was this little number from tehandehness on etsy.



This is "Grizzly", a domestic wool blend. It is very pretty, and the colors are so me. It's a soft muted pink, with not-too-bright teal and brown. And it's gonna become my first handspun EVAR.

I don't plan on using this yarn as anything but a decoration. It will be thick and thin and slubby, but when plied it will be very very pretty.

Over the next two weeks I want to try and post every day (hah!) with my progress.

Back Home
Last weekend I went back home for my little sister's graduation. I knit a grand total of 3 stitches (one row of a finger tip for my Dad's gloves). We were too busy doing stuff.

Like taking ATM-surveillance-quality photos of ourselves in the fish-eye lens of the side view mirror of an AT&T truck



and watching my youngest sis lead the pledge at her graduation.



What would they have done if she didn't show? Find someone else who knows the pledge? I jest. We're proud of her, there were a lot of people there, and she did great.