Summertime

This has been the project I’ve been focusing on this summer thus far. I took it on the plane with me to France, but lacework and planes, not the best combination. Once I got home, I really began to work on it and finished the first half last weekend, but have only just begun the second half. I am really loving this pattern, although there are some issues in the pattern. It’s from Saunshine and it’s a great way to use up the rest of my Cotton-Ease stash.

While in the Loire Valley, we went to visit Chambord a palace of King Francis the 1st. While wandering through this massive stone chateau, I found a loom with many lengths of beautifully dyed wool (Sadly, the closest I came to any yarn the entire trip). I am very jealous of those with dying and spinning abilities. Sometime in the near future, I would love to at least attempt those tasks. Luckily, I found out the other day that my, um…., boyfriend’s best friend’s mom dyes and spins her own yarn, so maybe I won’t have to learn all on my own.

Back to France, I have begun a scrapblog to catalogue all of my pictures I took in order to conserve paper and share pictures with friends, etc., on-line. Check it out if you have the time, but it’s not nearly finished and will have many more pages added presently.
Anyway, I have high hopes for finishing my Sweet Tank by the end of June. I will keep the blog updated (seriously) with progress, at least weekly. Keep on having a great summer and if anyone gets bored, check out the Monthly Dishcloth KAL blog for a couple of lines of a dishcloth pattern daily!
Hope everyone is having a tremendous summer!!

A Break from the Hubbub

I have been way too busy to post in about a month. So this is a quick update since I’m tired and I’m SO ready for bed.
On May 29, I left for Paris. I spent a few days in Paris visiting the Musee des Invalides which houses Napoleon’s tomb, the Louvre (which is great to see after reading Da Vinci Code, also reread the book on a train from France to Spain) and experienced a whole new caliber of shopping. The whole time, however, I did not have time to shop for yarn. I did, however, take a picture of a few skeins in Chambord (a castle of Frances the 1st).
From France we traveled a full day to Barcelona where the heat is sweltering and I do not understand a word. French is my language which I can speak decently and understand minimally. But that’s saying a lot compared to my Spanish-speaking skills: Hola! and Quantos? and Perdonnas-mes when I run into people on the streets. In Barcelona, we looked at this beautiful mosaic park (which I will post pictures of tomorrow when my eyes will stay open), went to yet another church, went to a topless beach (I envy Spanish women’s self-confidence), and experienced a true Spanish bullfight (mindnumbingly dull, or so I thought). Madrid was our last visit and also has the best shopping in the entire world. Everything was very cheap and seemingly well-made. If I hadn’t spent so much in France, I could have bought about three times as much stuff in Madrid. Oh well, it was all a ton of fun and I should either post a couple pictures or just leave a link to my scrapblog.