A Truly Memorable Vacation

A wonderful trip indeed.

Both Carl and I had a bit of anxiety as we set out for our trip to Thailand in January. We have been together for over two years now and this was the first time he was going to meet my family. I wasn't all that worried to tell the truth. I know he would be well received.

It was beyond expectation.

We went to a memorial service for my late grandmother at a Buddhist temple where her ashes were interred the Sunday after we arrived. This is my family's annual pilgrimage so to speak. It is almost a command performance. When my grandmother was alive relatives would gather at my parents house (She lived with my mother who was the only daughter.) on her birthday. It became an annual tradition, a family reunion to speak.

Now that she is gone, the family gathers at the temple to remember her and then go to my oldest uncle's house (who is now the patriach of the family) for a luncheon.

I had not been to one of these gatherings in years. The timing was never right. This time not only did I show up, but with a new family member in tow.

Needless to say, more relatives showed up to meet "the new guy."

The surprise was this cake. Sorry I didn't ge the picture before it was cut, the it says "welcome to our family."

That's my mom:

We had a lot of fun. Here is my sister, me, my niece and my sister-in-law.

The day before we went out to dinner. I have not seen my dad smile like this in a long time!

We were in Bangkok for only a couple of days before heading south the the resort town of Krabi. One of my cousins has a hotel right on the beach and she graciously gave us a room with a great view.

Krabi is a small resort town on the Andaman Sea coast on the west coast of southern Thailand. It is a sleepy little town compared to the world-renown island resort of Phuket, which is right off the coast. We are glad we chose to go to Krabi instead of Phuket. What it lacks in glitz and glamor is more than made up with beautiful beaches and all the charms of a small town.

Here is our Phra Nang Inn Hotel

That's my room in the bottom left picture. Here is the view from the balcony:

Those boats are "long-tail speed boat" - water taxis that will take you out to the outlining islands for a day trip. You can also charter one out for a day.

We took a day trip to Phi Phi Islands, about a 45 -minute boat ride out in the Andaman Ocean. This is Maya Beach, where the movie The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was filmed in 2000.

Phuket, Krabi, and Phi Phi Islands all were hit badly in the New Year tsunami of 2004. Now there are evacuation route signs posted all along the beachfront.

And this is the "Chicken Island."

The islands off the coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea are predominently lime stone, hence a lot of interesting rock formations. This so-called "Viking Island" is so-named because of pre-historic cave paintings resembling those found in Viking caves in Europe.

The island itself is more economically valueable because of the concession to the gathering of the nest of the swiftlets for the infamous bird nest soup - an extremely expensive Chinese delicacy that is allegedly highly aphrodisiac. How anybody gets amorous from eating bird barf is beyond me.

I was so fascinated with the rock formation.

From the one in the middle of the sea:

This one is at the end of the beach in front of our hotel:

But this is my favorite rock:

In fact we climbed over one rock to get a better picture of it.

Me an my rock!

Carl, of course, couldn't care less for the rocks.
He'd rather be with his Kindle.

So I started to knit socks, naturally.

But Krabi doesn't just have only sand and sea to offer. Next: the Hot Springs of Krabi.

Stay tuned.

Happy Bunny Year

Finally it hit.

One week after we came back from sunny Thailand (I have yet to post pix and stories.), the Washington areas finally got hit with the first snow storm. We had been lucky but that wasn't the case last Wednesday.

I don't know how much snow we had, but it was very wet and heavy. And it cause a heck of a traffic jam throughout the DC Metro areas. Fortunately I got home before it hit but it took Carl four hours to drive 15 miles home from work Wednesday night.

Then Thursday morning we woke up to this across the street:

Two huge pine trees had fallen across the driveway of our neighbor's house right across from us. Two other are leaning precariously toward the transformer. We decided the neighbors needed help and opted to telework. I sent in my work from home. Fortunately we did not lose power. The trees did not hit the power lines.

As soon as daybreak Carl set out to work.

The first attempt had the chainsaw stuck in the tree trunk and broke the chain.
Break commercials.

After a failed trip to the Home Depot and Lowe's in search of a replacement chain we finally found a Stihl dealer and got a new chain and blade.

Back to work.

Finally! And I caught it on camera too!

There's my man!

The neighbors could get out now. And Dominion Power promised to take care of these two guys who are leaning precariously over the transformer pole.

Let's hope they get there befor the next storm hits, which is supposed to be Tuesday.

Another good year!

My Christmas to-do list is as long as Santa and even though it is dwindling down I am knitting and spinning as fast as I can. Therefore there won't be much blogging in the next few days.

However, I must tell you again it has been another wonderful year for me. We are having a time of our life and I hope you and your loved ones are too!

Happy Holidays to you and yours. I hope this coming holiday and the coming year find you and your loved one happy and healthy!

Three-way fractals

My three-way fractal socks are finished.

They don't look as stripey as the traditional two-way fractals. I think it was also because the original fiber was not all that stripey to begin with. I am very happy with it nonetheless.

I tried another three-way fractals with a Blue-faced Liester/silk blend top from All Spun Up. The fiber has more distinct color repeats, so hopefully it will show up more when knitted up. Presenting Miss Crabtree:

I got about 150 yards, light-worsted weight (about 11 wraps per inch) out of the 4-oz braid. I have a full sweater-worth of this fiber (24 ounces) but I doubt I will make a sweater out of it. Most likely I will split it up and make several accessories out of it. I may just do only another three-way fractals and spin the rest two-ply for a lace shawl. Or navajo-ply... the possibility is endless.

Whatever it is will have to wait until after the holidays. The gift spinning/knitting must begin in ernest now, as I have quite a list. There are several November and December birthdays in between too!

Here is a first November birthday present for a knitting friend:

Alpaca/merino blend from Pigeonroof Studios. This was my first time spinning alpaca and I like it a lot. Will have to get more alpaca fiber. I got really good yardage too. Over 500 yards fingering out of two 4-oz braids, two-ply.

This sec0nd one is also a birthday present. It is a hybrid. No spinning here. I combined three mittens/gloves/fingerless gloves patterns to get these:

The original pattern is the "texting mittens" from the October Spin Off magazine. I combined that with the Urban Necessity Gloves and the Fiddlehead Mittens. The yarns used are Cascade 220 Superwash and Noro Kureyon. I like these a lot. I might do some more with a combination commercial/handspun yarns.

In the meantime I have to get cranking on hats, scarfs and socks for the holiday gifts. And a sweater for my mom.

See you behind the (spinning) wheel.

Fiberholic

That's what I am.

I went a little overboard with fiber buying last week.

At least I finished a hat. And it is not handspun!

Well, what can I say.

My name is Aporanee and I am a fiberholic.

A picture paints a thousand words

The Hyperbolic Coral Reef is here!

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Exhibit opened at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History on the National Mall in Washington DC on Sunday. It was originally scheduled to open on Saturday, but a watermain break on Constitution Avenue right in front of the museum caused the delay of the opening.

I walked over from my office after work yesterday.

Situated in the Sant Ocean Hall of the museum, it is a sight to behold.

The original reef was the brainchild of two Australian sisters, Margaret and Christine Wertheim of the Institute for Figuring in Los Angeles. Christine is a mathematician and Margaret a fiber artist. Christine came up with the idea of using crochet to explain hyperbolic plane to her students. Margeret saw what her sister did and thought it looked like a coral reef. The two sisters are from Queensland, home of the Great Barrier Reefs. They thought it might be a good idea to use this fiber craft as a means to show people the beauty of the coral reef and raise the public awareness of the
dangers coral reefs around the world are facing from global warming, natural disasters and pollution.

Thus the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef was born. The first one was displayed in Australia. The idea took off and subsequent reefs were made and displayed around the world.

The Smithsonian Community Reef was made by over 800 men, women and children from the National Capital Area as well as contributors around the country who heard about the project. There are over 8,000 pieces. The youngest crocheter was three; the oldest 101.

The exhibit will be on displayed until April 24, 2011.

Go take a look. Take a camera with you.


Here are some eye candies.

The are all kinds of colors. And then there are the white corals. The white corals are dead corals, or known as bleached corals. It is the biggest problem corals around the world are facing right now and it is caused primarily by the increased temperature of the water in the tropics. The warmer temperature causes algae to grow and the algae feeds on the corals, killing them. The dead corals lost thier colors, thus the "bleached" status.

Most people don't get to see the coral reefs up close and personal. Most people also don't realize the importance of the coral reefs to the survival of the ocean life. The reef is the largest hatcheryand nursery. More than half the fish in the ocean mate, lay eggs, feed and spend their juvenile years around the coral reefs. It is the biggest food source for the fish in the ocean.

The Smithsonian reef is the largest ever made. There are over 8,000 individual crocheted pieces.

And among these I managed to find Bill's reef.

It brought tears to my eyes. Bill loved the ocean. He was an avid diver. He loved the reef. His remains are a part of an artificial reef in the Chesapeake Bay. And now his reef is a part of the Smithsonian.

I am proud to be a part of this.

Look! Look! Look!

It's not blue!


The three-ply fractal is done!


I got about 210 yards out of 4 0z of polwarth roving. 14 wraps per inch, so it is more of a sports weight rather than fingering. I don't think it will be as stripey as the two-way fractals. I am not sure I will knit socks from this, though. I have another 4-oz braid of coordinating color so I might spin that up and see what I can do with both of them. Maybe gloves or mittens.

Tuesday musings

We took a quick trip to Philadelphia this weekend to see the Cleopatra exhibit at the Franlkin Institute. Awesome! Didn't get much knitting done and only took a couple of pictures. But in all a very enjoyable weekend.

And the Foucault's Pendulum at the Institute.

I did manage to get the TTL Soctoberfest Mystery Socks 2010 started:

Of course it's blue. What did you expect?

More fun with fractal

The fractal Lavalette is finished. It blocked out really nicely

I used all of the yarn. About one foot left!

I think I am keeping this for myself.

I have another fractal spinning/knitting in the pipeline. This one is going to be the famous Girasole blanket. I have 24 ounces of this beautiful merino/silk roving dyed for me by the talented Midnight Purls.

There are six 4-oz braids. I am dividing them into three pairs. I have spun up the first pair. The first braid was divided into two equal parts and then spun across the web one after another onto one bobbin. The second braid was divided into two halves. The first half then divided again into two and the second half into three parts. Then they were all spun onto the second bobbin one after another starting with the thinnest strips. Then the two bobbins are plied together. The idea is to have the shortest repeats of colors first for the center part of the blanket. Then as the row grows the color repeats will become longer. I plan to divide the second pair into one and two and leave the third pair whole. I hope I am doing this right.

I like the result of the first pair any way.

I was charging the solar-powered ghosts for the Halloween decoration and couldn't resist.

I need to get the second pair of braids on the wheel but in the meantime we are having a three-ply sock yarn spinning challenge at my LYS, Uniquities. I figured this would be a good time to try three-way fractals.

The fiber is polwarth that I got from Corgi Hill Farm.

The fiber was divided into thirds. The first third was spun whole across the web. The second part was divided into two and the third into fourths.

I don't think the finished yarn will be quite stripey as the two-ply fractal.

And have you noticed something?

IT'S NOT BLUE!

Fractal fun

Move over, Noro!

Last week I took a spinning class in fractal spinning at my local yarn store, Uniquities. Loads of fun! We learned how to manipulate the roving to get self-striping yarn a la Noro.

I got this progression-dyed roving from Wild Hare Fiber which I divided lenghtwise into two halves. The first half was spun across the web onto one bobbin. The second half then was divided into fourths, then spun one after another onto the second bobbin.

Then you ply the two bobbins together.

The resulting yarn is a self-striping one, with parts solid, parts tweedy with colors flowing into each other. In other words, gorgeous.
And the fun continues with the knitting:

I want to try three-ply fractals next.

A tale of two pairs of socks

Labor of love indeed.


Last year Carl asked me to knit him a pair of black socks.

"Plain black socks," he said. "Solid. Simple. So I can wear to work when it's cold."


Plain black socks, I grumped.


Plain black socks.


I cast on a pair in February. Plain black socks. With a little ribbing thrown in to keep me from dying of boredom. Nine stiches to an inch, 32 rows to an inch... plain black socks.


The socks got knited, millimeter by millimeter, in between a dozen other projects, until August was rolling to an end and it dawned on me that Carl's birthday is next week.


I'd better finish those darned black socks.


Finished them I did.


Not only that. I said to myself: Now that I knitted him a pair of plain black socks, how about a pair of plain brown socks to go with them?


Plain brown socks, eh? Not on your life.

The black pair was knitted in commercial yarn. Took me six months.

The brown pair, on the other hand, was hand spun and hand-knitted. Took me six days.

Labor of love indeed. I must love the man.

Bill's reef

Drum roll, please.

The last two corals are added to the set.

Another set of tube corals in Noro Kureyon:

And I couldn't resist throwing in some handspun. This is the leftovers from the sock yarn I spun from a superwash merino roving from Perchance To Knit:

And now, to recap.

The corals:

The product:

Bill would be proud. I know I am. A reef made for him. After all, he is an Eternal Reef in the Chesapeake Bay.

And if you happen to be in the Nation's Capital, come see the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Exhibit at the Smithsonian this October!

It's looking really, really good

Bill would be proud.

I have been crocheting like a mad woman, and the result is very rewarding.

Three corals this week. Two little ones from Noro and a huge spiral hyperbolic crocheted on the double with Diakeito Diadomina.

Another small tube coral with Noro Iro:

And this is a long spiral hyperbolic single pane crocheted on the double with Diakeito Diadomina. It took six balls of yarn -- a whopping 732 yards!

So far, so good:

Yes, Bill would be proud.

Charlotte's Web -- the finale

I couldn't be more pleased!

She is done. And I am very happy with the whole process.

Let the pictures do the talking.

The raw materials:

The process:
And the product:

Yes!