Playin' Catch-Up

Hello, everybody! 

Again, it has been a while since my last post.  Possibly a full month?  I really need to get a grip on this whole blogging thing. 

Pretty true in this case...



The good news is, since so much time has passed, I've got some cool stuff to report!  Here it is, list-by-list, as mentioned on the last edition of Knitting Safari. 

 My First Fiber Festival

First off, at the beginning of the last month, I got to attend the Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta. 

Since it was my first fiber festival, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I did have a handy list of vendors that were going to attend.  But let's just say I was very happy with what I had seen and experienced!  There was a live band...

...plenty of vendors selling their wares--raw fiber, yarn, and related accoutrements...

...and baby alpacas!!!   

Seriously--how cute are these little guys?!

My first booth, and possibly the one at which I spent the most time, was at Brookmoore Cotton.  There, Jill and Lita introduced me to their easy-to-spin cotton, and believe me, "easy" is an understatement.  Once they showed me the proper drafting technique,  that cotton was as smooth as butter in my hands.  I left their booth with 4 ounces of their natural green cotton silver, the spindle on which I learned to spin the fiber, and a big ol' smile!  You can visit them at brookmoorecreations.com, and see some of their pictures from the fiesta here. 

From there I wandered around and absorbed the sights and sounds of the place; I really wish I didn't have to work later that afternoon, because it was a little overwhelming trying to figure out which booths I wanted to see, what else I wanted to buy, and keeping track of time so I could come back home and get changed and eat before work.  In a nutshell, along with the spindle and the cotton from Brookmoore, I purchased a lotion bar from Inner Yarn Zen (links to Etsy page), and wool-and-glitz roving from The Fiber Ranch (link goes to their website), which I promptly spun into this loveliness in the course of one week: 

 

I might re-spin it and even out some of the bigger slubs--I was trying for an art-yarn look, but even then I might have gone a little overboard. 

 

Now that I know somewhat what to expect, I can't wait until next year; maybe this will be a catalyst for attending other festivals elsewhere. 

 

The Grand Canyon

I also mentioned last year that I was planning a trip to The Grand Canyon.  Now that I'm back in town, I feel I can freely express the details of the trip. 

 

My parents and I left the Thursday before Halloween, and drove 8 hours from our home in San Diego County to Flagstaff, AZ.  This was the first time I had driven over state lines, and my first visit to Arizona, so I had no idea what to expect.  We drove parallel to Route 66, through low desert, high desert, and mountains.  We motored through stretches of highway where there was literally no other sign of human activity aside from other vehicles and the roads on which we drove.  This was particularly surreal, and here's a screen capture from my phone to illustrate this...

 

You know you're in the middle of nowhere when your phone's GPS won't display a name for the "local" weather.

 

One of my favorite moments of our drive to Flagstaff was this:  by now we were already in Arizona, driving through high desert territory.  In the distance, we could see where the clouds were becoming too heavy to support themselves and the streaks of rain spilling down from the billows.  As we drove on, the stormy clouds got closer and closer.  I really wish I had taken some kind of footage (be it video or still photography) because it was actually really cool and pretty funny to boot, but it went something like this: 

 

Nothing. 

 

Nothing. 

 

Nothing. 

 

POURING! 

 

Nothing. 

 

Nothing. 

 

Nothing...

There was no inkling that we were going to be rained on--no little sprinkles to build upon, no clouds piling up on each other; it was just there.   It was almost like driving under a giant showerhead set on full blast.  And the storm ended just as suddenly as it had begun. 

 

We spent the night in Flagstaff, then continued on to Grand Canyon National Park.  The drive was absolutely splendid!  It had been raining in Flagstaff the night before, and there was actually snow on the ground and among the forests surrounding us as we climbed in elevation. 

 

Beautiful...



...Absolutely beautiful.

 

 

 The snow disappeared, though, as we inched closer to National Park territory and further onto the mesa.  But just because the snow goes away doesn't mean the chill doesn't.  I would estimate the high temperature was, eh, about 50-ish Fahrenheit. 

 

The visitor's center was quite lovely--very spacious, and the structures complimented the natural surroundings, just as it should.  After watching a film about the history of the Grand Canyon and its discovery, we hiked out to see the main event.  Of course one would expect the Grand Canyon to be just that:  grand.  But until you see it for yourself, neither words nor photographs can express how beautiful it is, and how dwarfed and insignificant you feel in its presence.  But here's a sample, anyway...

 

 

Needless to say, as with any other natural wonder (or even some manmade ones, for that matter), there is a lot of room for stupid people to do some stupid things. 

In Yosemite, it was people climbing Half Dome in flip-flops and wading knee-deep in the raging Merced River, blatantly ignoring signs that warned against even sticking a toe in. 

In the case of the Grand Canyon, our stomachs turned and churned as we watched reckless folks venture out far beyond the safety of the railings, risking life and limb and a drop thousands and thousands of feet down all for the sake of the "perfect" selfie. 

Just imagine people standing on that ledge while getting their picture taken.  And they're jumping. 
Yikes.  (No people were photographed to protect the identities of the foolish.)

Obviously they've never seen the book in the gift shops entitled Over The Edge:  Death in the Grand Canyon by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Myers (they have collaborated on similar books revolving around other US National Parks); it's a spine-chilling documentary of all the people who have died from falling down the Grand Canyon, whether it was murder, suicide, or a needless and preventable tragedy. 

But let's not dwell on that. 

 

The days we were there, we had incredible views and we were able to see the canyon from all different angles and in all different lighting types. from late morning to midday, to dusk. 

 

Note the contrast in color and clarity from the previous...That's the beauty of nature--it's always changing and evolving in big ways and in small, taking just moments or entire centuries.

 

 

 Our last night there, we were walking back to our hotel from dinner, and I looked out over the horizon to see a beautiful skyline of stars, including the famed Big Dipper and a faint tracing of the Milky Way Galaxy.  It was definitely inspiring, and would have been wonderful material for a stylized landscape painting. 

A note on the hotel:  We did stay at El Tovar, which is one of the National Park Grand Lodges.  It was completed in 1905, but has been constantly renovated to suit the changing times.  I'm not going to say much other than that after staying at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite, our expectations were set a little high.  But our Zane Grey suite that we stayed in was pretty cool; there was a framed biography on the famed author, posters from films based on his books, as well as a library of his novels. 

 

Overall, it was a beautiful experience, and I can't wait to venture on to my next National Park destination! 

 

Blog Building, Projects, and Jobs (oh, my!) 

Well, that's actually where things kind of slump.  For now, I only have one other blog listed on my "Favorite Blogs" list, and there are so many more that I would love to look at and add!  That's where any readers can come in:  PLEASE comment, tell me about yourselves, other blogs you like--or your blog(s) for that matter, what you like about this one, and even what you would like to see here.  

Seriously, this is cool!  I know my blog actually has an audience!  Ah, the power of the World Wide Web...

 

I think I also need to include more pictures.  I'll work on that, too.  Here's another one, just for kicks. 

 

The calm before the storm; somewhere in the high deserts of Arizona, en route to Flagstaff on the first leg of our adventure. 

 

 

As for other post ideas, I'm working on one that I hope will be a series on another favorite subject of mine that doesn't  involve knitting, yarn, and the like.  What is it?  I'm not going to say...yet! 

 

On the job-sphere, I have applied to several companies, and so far it's looking good in terms of interviews. 

 

In regards to current crafting projects, I have postponed working on the Shore Thing tank, and other projects, to start Christmas gifts.  I won't disclose what I'm making or for whom, but I'll happily share after I have given to the respective recipients.  After all, there's no sense in spoiling anything! 

 

That's all I've got for now, but hopefully it won't be so long between visits. 

 

Take care!