The Clog Saga and "Double Vision"

Well I didn't make my goal for a Friday update this week, but here's what's on and off my needles this past week. Unfortunately, the saga of the clogs continued well into the week. I did make myself go out in the cold back to the yarn store Saturday. I drove thirty minutes out there only to discover the yarn Cari picked out a few weeks ago was discontinued and they didn't have anymore. Not only did they not have anymore but I didn't have the ball band with me (and I didn't even know if I still had it at all) to get the color number from it. Since we didn't know the color number we couldn't even look it up so she could make a note to call the company on Monday morning to see if they had a stray ball in the warehouse. Extremely frustrated, I left. I started to head home and then decided that Knit Wits was only another ten minutes away, so on the off chance they still had a ball, I turned my car in their direction. Of course they didn't have anymore! But after telling Sharon (owner) that I wanted/needed four hanks of the sumptuous Magic Flute color of the Misti Alpaca Chunky Hand Paints (can I just say ... yarngasm?) that Regina got the week before, plus Regina needed another one, the next time she ordered ... well, Sharon found a whole nuther bag of the stuff and instead of spending $5 on a ball of wool I spent ... never mind, I don't even want to go there. But this color is so awesome Cari and I both needed a scarf with it. (More on these later.) Despondent I left Knit Wits after spending way too much money on awesome yarn still not able to finish the clogs. And I didn't know if I'd be able to get any more of that color - ever.

Bright spot - I found the yarn label (ball band) in my basket and called Sharon with the color number. She said she'd put it in her network and see what she could come up with. So Cari's clogs still sat. In the meantime, however ... I had this alpaca calling out to me. No it was yelling at me to play with it and fondle it and make it into something. I caved. It won. After trying several different patterns and needle sizes the Misti Alpaca Ribs and Ruffles pattern was what the yarn wanted to be worked in.  Truly, it told me so. Each hank is only 109 yards, and working with a 10.5 needle, well it works up pretty quickly. I finished my scarf and immediately picked up the same yarn to make Cari's. I didn't intend to use the same pattern for both scarves, but in the end I did just that. I loved the first one so much and it was too perfect to do anything else with the yarn. So here's the "Double Vision:"

I had seen some felted pot holders in one of my knitting books earlier in the week. I also saw some neat mitered coasters in another book. So I thought I'd try making the mitered coasters with wool and felting them to see what they'd look like and if they'd be functional. That's what I pulled out to work on at S&B Friday morning. Wow, I was thrilled at how fast they knit up and had one almost finished by the end of the morning. Liz went by Knit Wits and called me later saying Sharon had found me a ball of the wool (for Cari's clogs) and it was in!!! Asked if I wanted her to pick it up for me! Well, yeah!! I was about ready to throw in the towel and just finish those last four rounds with the cream I was using for the cuff. So I was able to finish the second clog Friday night and I felted them today! I'm pretty happy with how they turned out - hopefully, Cari will be too.

I also managed to whip out three more of the coasters and felted them along with the clogs this morning. Pretty happy with how they turned out too!! Think I'll make Cari some and throw them in her care package to mail later in the week.

Future projects? Same as last week: the owl (maybe I'll get that pattern this week and knock that out), my entrelac stole and my kimono - oh, still need to get some more wool for a couple more pair of clogs I promised over Christmas. Michael's has it on sale this week so maybe I'll swing by there, buy some and get started on another pair.

'til next week ...
QB

On and off my needles ...

In an endeavor to be more accountable in my knitting, my goal is to blog about what I have (or have not) accomplished each week on Fridays. Since I have "Stitch & Bitch" on Friday mornings I'll take a few minutes at the end of the day to log my projects. So, what's off my needles in the last week? Let's see, after a trip to Knit Wits Saturday morning I simply had to drop everything (not that I was doing that much but still ...) and play with the delicious Misti Alpaca Chunky Hand Paint hanks that insisted on coming home with me. I played with several different stitch patterns and needles sizes before deciding on a simple 2x2 rib with a twist and the following is the end result. I love it!! The alpaca is so incredible soft and squishy!!

Oh, but before I started playing with this new alpaca I made myself seam a cowl I finished the night before. Mom bought me two beautiful hanks of chunky alpaca during our weekend trip to the Outer Banks in September (for my birthday) - lime green and a light teal. Actually, I had honestly forgotten about them in all the frantic Christmas knitting. When I got home from S&B that Friday I immediately pulled both colors out and wanted to get them made into something. Initially I planned to use them together in one project but decided against that in the end. The green was calling the loudest to me so I chose a very simple cowl pattern I knew would knit up quickly. I can't wait to wear it!

And the light teal made a beautiful cowl in the classy herringbone stitch. I need to find a couple of perfect buttons to set it off, but it's otherwise done.

I also finished a dishcloth out of some pretty Plymouth Fantasy Cotton using a slip stitch pattern and size 6 needles. I need to start another one but just don't enjoy knitting with cotton because it has no give and is hard on my arm and shoulder. I'll get them done eventually. Here's the first one:

OK, so now for what's still on my needles:

Later during the week I pulled out another ball of yarn that's been in my stash for, well let's just say quite a while, shall we? It's pretty and soft and chunky but for whatever reason I haven't been able to find the right pattern for it. I've played with this particular yarn quite a few times trying to figure out what it wants to be. This week I decided it was time it joined society and quit living in seclusion in the yarn bin. After trying a number of different stitches and needle sizes it finally told me it wanted to be knit in a modified rib - 1x1 - but all the knit stitches are knit in the stitch below, creating an elongated stitch. I think I'm finally really liking the way it's turning out: (later edited: I frogged this project. just wasn't happy with it in the end. gave the yarn to Heidi to do something with.)

Cari's felted clogs: Apparently I've been dragging my heels on these. I did finish the first one early in the week. That consisted of seaming the bottom of the first sole, weaving all the ends in, making the second sole, attaching it to the first sole and seaming it. Clog one down. One more to go. After completing a few smaller projects and getting that sense of satisfaction, it was time to bite the bullet and pull out the yarn to start the second clog. I did that at S&B this morning. I needed to see if I had enough yarn to finish the second sole or if I had to go buy more yarn. Good thing I did. I had very little yarn left after just the first sole (you have to make two soles for each clog - that makes the bottoms twice as cushioned). Sighing, I left S&B and went directly to the Yarn Basket (where Cari found this yarn) to purchase another ball of the burgundy. Fran said she didn't have anything else going on and wanted to keep my company so she hopped in the car too. As we were browsing the fiber someone came up behind me and covered my eyes. Well, I knew it wasn't Regina because she was home sick so my other choices were limited and I figured it was Karen. She had an appointment this morning and didn't make it to S&B but stopped by to see if an order for the cotton she likes had come in. We all ended up going to Panera for a spontaneous lunch! I love when my Fridays come together like that!

Tonight after dinner I sat down to start the second sole, just so I'll have the hard part done when I get to it. (Have plenty of that pretty burgundy left too - hello stash!) I started the top of the clog and as I was working it I was getting this sinking feeling that I may run out of that yarn too. Ugh! Why oh why didn't I pick up that long ball that matched when I was there today? But alas, I didn't. And now I'm going to have to go back to get another one. (I'll have plenty of that left over too since I only have about 4 rows left.) First off, it's going to be damn cold tomorrow and I really hadn't planned on going anywhere. Secondly, I really wanted to finish this clog and felt the set this weekend. If I don't go all the way back out to the yarn store tomorrow, that won't happen. I'm ready to cross these off of my list and move on. I guess next week you'll find out what happens, huh?

The other two things still on my needles are my black kimono sweater that still needs to be seamed and my entrelac stole. I'll eventually get back to them - I promise!

Other projects looming on the horizon? Well yes, of course. I'm itching to do socks again and I'd love to make Morgan a little sweater, I have some fun yarn pulled out for a black scarf striped lengthwise - for me! I want to get some more of that gorgeous hand paint alpaca. There's another colorway screaming at me to come home and be made into another wonderful scarf (and Cari would really like that colorway too - so I need to get enough to make two scarves!) That's all I can think of at the moment. Oh, I need to pull stuff together to knit a little owl for my niece Ayla. I've picked out a pattern so need to get going on that too.

It's almost midnight now so that's all for this week. I'll add pics tomorrow. Next week I'll talk about what podcasts I've listened to lately as well.

TTFN,
QB

Home Sweet Home

As I sit on the plane flying home reflecting on this incredible, wonderful, beautiful, exhausting week we’ve had I can’t help but be filled with mixed emotions. We could’ve spent so much more time at each park we visited, but I don’t think our bodies could handle any more days. We’re all exhausted – a good, satisfied exhausted, but exhausted nonetheless. Mom and Cari began the trip with laryngitis and coughing. Mom’s voice came back in a few days but she still has a congested cough. Cari hasn’t felt her best but has managed. Bob started feeling bad Wednesday, even opting out of going to Universal on Thursday and stayed behind in bed instead. He plugged along at Hollywood yesterday but is still feeling like crap this morning. I am so thankful I haven’t felt any of this so far – I’m not quite sure how I’ve managed to escape whatever this mess is living with all these sick people all week, but at least if I come down with it now I’ll be home.

We have gone hard this week – every day. No need for a gym these last seven days. I know we’ve managed to walk at least three miles a day – and most of that walking with a backpack on my shoulders that I’m afraid to guess how much it weighs and a Nikon D200 with a zoom lens hanging around my neck – I need a massage. I’m taking the rest of the weekend off. I’ll pick back up Monday … maybe. I can’t wait to get home and get caught up on the rest of my journaling and start editing photos. I managed to journal the first two or three days but the rest of the week I only made bullet point notes. I have well over 1,000 photos to sift through – and that’s with already doing a major weeding out of only so-so images. It’s going to be a challenge to pick only the best of each attraction/event to edit and print. I bought a 200-photo Disney album. Do you think I can get it down to 200 photos? Then I’ll have to go through again and choose the ones I want to use for scrabooking. I’m also ready to get back to eating normal. That was the biggest downside this last week – our food choices were pretty limited.

My top three for the week:

            Harry Potter Land and having a Butterbeer (Islands of Adventure)

            Photographing the Castle at night (Magic Kingdom)

            The Hulk roller coaster (Islands of Adventure)

Bob's top three for the week:
           The Extreme Stunt Show (Hollywood)
           The Whale Show (SeaWorld)

           Buzz Lightyear ride (Magic Kingdom)

Cari's top three for the week:
          The Hulk roller coaster (Islands of Adventure)
          Harry Potter World and having a Butterbeer (Islands of Adventure)
          Rock'n Roller Coaster (Hollywood)

Mom's top three for the week:
         (still pending...)

Home …

Dropped Mom off and picked up Peanut, stopped by Panera to pick up some lunch and it was about 1:30 by the time we got home. After eating I got a small burst of energy and managed to unpack most of my stuff before crashing. We all crashed. Bob’s still sick and crawled directly into bed – and has stayed there.

Hollywood

Bob still wasn’t feeling good this morning but not as bad as yesterday so thought he could make it through the day with us. It’s funny, early in the week we were leaving the condo much earlier – we got a little later with each day. I guess that’s exhaustion talking. Cari and I were really excited about riding the “Rock’n Roller Coaster” again this time. I didn’t remember much about it except it was pretty much in the dark most of the way. That’s another ride where the lines fill up fast so we made a bee-line to get Fast Passes. Along the way we passed random acts in the street, Dorma Nesmond (she was a hoot) and Eva somebody with her director. Honestly, I think I could’ve made a day out of just walking the streets and watching those little random acts. They were very entertaining.

After getting our Fast Passes, we headed to the theater to wait for “Beauty and the Beast,” a 30-minute musical performance. As always, the talent was amazing, the costumes incredible and the whole show was wonderful. Surprisingly, I got some decent shots – the lighting was so bad I really wasn’t very hopeful. Once again it was time to eat so we found a little place and got some lunch.

We still had time before returning to ride the coaster so just walked around to see what jumped in front of us. The tribute to Walt Disney jumped. I remember going in there before but, again, there’s never enough time to see everything. It was fascinating to walk through and read the trivia about the man himself and how it all began and see the artifacts preserved from the beginning. Then we were ushered into a theater to watch a 30-minute documentary, narrated by Walt Disney, about his life.

Bob, Cari and I had been through building before (didn’t see the film though) and were still awe struck at the ingenuity and creativity of this man. To think about how he changed the world with his dream and his vision is mind-boggling. To see the beginnings of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy & Pluto – well, it just makes you smile. This was yet another spot we could’ve spent way more time in had we had it. There was so much to see and read, but the Rock’n Roller Coaster was calling our names …

I won't lie, I was a little - just a little - apprehensive about riding it. Not enough to not do it but I did have butterflies. Those butterflies multiplied as we got closer and saw the "limo" take off. OMG, it goes from 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds. That's how the ride starts. Whew! Alrighty then. And that's also when they take your photo. Needless to say, I lived through it - and enjoyed it! Bob had gotten Fast Passes for all four of us knowing he and Mom wouldn't ride, so Cari and I took theirs and immediately went again! Since we knew when the photo was going to be taken we were ready ... and the result was priceless. One more thing we could cross off our list. :)

While Mom and Bob were waiting for Cari and I to ride … twice … they each struck up conversations with others waiting. Mom talked to this older lady beside her who had such a fascinating story. I don’t know how old she was but I’d suspect in her 70’s. She was there with her daughter and kids and visits Disney quite often. In fact she said she had ridden the “Tower of Terror” just three years ago. Good for her was all I could say. I won’t even ride it – neither will Cari. She said once was enough. LOL She spoke perfect English, not a trace of an accent, so we were surprised as she was telling us she only learned English as her children did. Her parents were Canadian and only spoke French. Said her mother was beautiful and lived to be 87 years old (I think). Said she was married at 15 years old, started having babies soon after and had one child a year for 22 years! Can you believe that? That woman gave birth 22 times! Um, ouch! I can’t even imagine! She still has eight siblings alive and they are all close. Oh and there are 57 grandchildren. I can’t even wrap my head around that.

The timing was just about right to catch the street show, “Disney Channel Rocks!” so we started walking in the direction of the big hat to, hopefully, get a good spot. I didn’t know many of the songs since I don’t watch the Disney Channel very often these days, but still enjoyed the performance. The main stars were paraded into the area on a rolling stage preceded by backup dancers/singers. Towards the end they asked the kids in the audience to join them and they had a ball.

The “Extreme Stunt Show” sounded interesting and fit into our schedule so we started walking in that direction. Thank goodness we got there as early as we did because the stadium filled up while we sat waiting for the show to start. I don’t know what I expected but it certainly wasn’t what was delivered. There was so much to see as the cars darted in and out from different directions, spinning around, burning rubber and squealing tires! I think my jaw dropped at the beginning and stayed dropped throughout the show. It was like watching a well-choreographed dance team, except instead of dancers it was drivers with cars – fast cars. And these drivers knew exactly how to execute their maneuvers, within inches of where they needed to be. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Ramps, fire, explosions, jet-skis and more were involved. At the end of the show they showed the clips of a real movie using the scenes we just saw. It gave us a new appreciation of what goes into filming these kinds of scenes. There are tons of cameras, people and equipment. They way they customize the cars was fascinating. They had the engines mounted in the back and taken all the fluff out so they were light in the front, which makes the car able to spin and maneuver easier. One of the cars went backwards at a high speed during the chase. We watched in amazement as this driver spun around, went up ramps, in between buildings and back out again. I’m telling you, it was unbelievable. Towards the end they showed us what made all of that more feasible – the engine was in the back and the driver was facing the back. Too cool!!

“Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!” would be the last thing we could cram into our day and it was located close to the exit, which worked for us. A “cold front” came through on Thursday and the high temps were in the 60’s. As the sun started to set this afternoon and the winds kicked in it was downright cold … at least for Florida. We just had our new hoodies on and we were freezing! The show was okay. I’d give it three stars out of five. I guess after the stunt show we just saw it would be hard to measure up. There were three different scenes involving stunts from the movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” They picked quite a few members from the audience to play extras and they things they had them do were pretty funny. By the time it was over we were tired, hungry and freezing and we still had to ride the tram to the car, then find something to eat on the way home.

You wouldn’t think finding a decent restaurant to eat dinner in would be such a feat. Obviously it is. An hour after we left the park we pulled into Subway. It was the easiest, healthiest thing we could find. We still had to go back and pack since we’re leaving at 7am in the morning.

Top 3:

Mom - Walt Disney, Stunt Show, Beauty & the Beast

Cari - Rock'n Roller Coaster, Stunt Show, Walt Disney

Me - Rock'n Roller Coaster, Stunt Show, Walt Disney

Bob - Stunt Show, Walt Disney, Indiana Jones

Loot List:

Nada - we're all broke

Universal

Bob started feeling bad yesterday so it wasn't a surprise this morning when he told me he wasn't going with us today. After several attempts to be on our way, we finally made it and arrived at the park about 10:15. I know we've been doing this all week, but it still blows my mind that it costs $14/$15 to park your car for the day. WTH? In my simple logical mind I deduce that if you pay these exhorbitant prices for park tickets, said tickets should include parking ... because how can one attend the park without driving to it - and it you drive to it you have to park your car somewhere! It irks my nerve - my last nerve no less. AND, my point in sharing that was that by the 5th day of walking parks we are nearly walked out. So, ... we paid even more to park! Another $5 on top of the $15 parking fee (which brings it to a grand total of $20) for "Preferred Parking." You'd think that meant up close and personal wouldn't you? Me too. Let me just tell you how far away we still were from either entrance. Well, I guess I can't. I don't know exactly but I can tell you it was a long walk. You know those moving walk ways airports have? Well we had four of those on our journey from our parking space to the front gate. Islands of Adventure was first on our list because Harry Potter World is there. Even if we didn't get to anything else we knew we wanted to see that part of the park. None of us had eaten much breakfast because we had purchased the Dining Plan and were just going to eat in the park. By the time we got through the gate and anywhere to eat it was around 11:00 - so we decided to just find somewhere for lunch. I haven't talked about this but we've also been collecting pressed pennies throughout the park. When we saw this Suess Landing penny we immediately started pulling quarters and pennies out.

Seuss Landing was the first section in our path and we were simply delighted to see so many of the Dr. Suess characters sort of come to life before our eyes. It was just beautiful, cute, adorable and amazing. It seemed at every turn we saw something else better than before. Even knowing Harry Potter World was around the corner (and we were pretty damn excited about that) we just couldn't drag ourselves out of Suess Landing. It was, by far, one of our favorite places.

 We rode The Cat in the Hat, which is a ride through the pages of said book. I think we all could've done without the spinning but other than that it was delightful!

 After going through some of the other shops (and trying on various hats just for fun) we found the Trolley Train Ride. It was just plain cute.

See? Isn't it adorable?

 You know we had to ride it. Amazingly, there weren't that many people there. It was nothing like Magic Kingdom - you were packed like sardines in that place. I took this picture as we wound our way through the line - you can see us in the mirror:

 When we took our place in the "shoot" Mom noticed the following sign:

Fro? No photography? I'm sorry but I just don't understand. This ride didn't take you into a performance, or theater, or anywhere else we hadn't already seen - and photographed. This ride just took you high above the rides and attractions. So what, we can't take pictures of these same things just because we're 12' in the air? Makes no sense to me. And since my camera was attached to my hands at all times, my index finger must have had a muscle spasm or something because here are a few of the photographs I didn't take:

See the coaster in the background? That's The Incredible Hulk!

And look way back there - that's our first glimpse of Hogwarts!!!

All the rides wind you through their gift shop before leaving so you know we had to have a bit more fun shopping and looking at all the fun stuff. Sadly, we knew we had to move on even though we could've spent a lot more time in Suess Landing.

The Lost Continent was next and we walked right into Poseidon's Fury. The line for the show has you winding through the ruins of the Temple of Poseidon towards and under sea battlefield for a spectacular special effects display between Poseidon and the evil Lord Darkenon. The show begins in theater #1. To enter theater #2 you have to walk through a tunnel of swirling water. It was incredible! This particular feature was not an effect, it was real. You could feel the mist from the water. Of course Poseidon prevails and the prisoners (us) are released from the underworld. As much as we wanted to explore the other attractions, the clock was ticking and Harry Potter was just around the corner.

It was so worth the wait! All we could say is "Wow!" over and over again. It felt like you were in the middle of one of the movies in Hogsmeade. They did such an awesome job of reproducing the village. Unfortunately, unlike the rest of the places inside the park, Harry Potter World was elbow to elbow. We would've loved to go into more of the shops and just browse but it was way too crowded. So we just moseyed along and enjoyed it from the streets. We got in line to ride the Flight of the Hippogriff, a mild roller coaster. I think the longest we stood in line to do anything was this ride. I even took a few shots from the coaster. The ride inside of Hogwarts was a simulation and we didn't want to risk feeling sick the rest of the day so we didn't do that. But before leaving Hogsmeade we had to have a Butterbeer. It has the flavors of a shortbread cookie and butterscotch and was so yummy! The guy who poured them for us said that J. K. Rowling sampled over 75 different flavor combinations before approving this one. They still don't have a hot Butterbeer yet because she hasn't found any she likes. We walked through to Jurassic Park, found a bench and sat down to rest our aching feet (my neck and back) and enjoy our Butterbeer. That was definitely one of the highlights of my week.

Flight of the Hippogriff

Buckbeak (the Hippogriff)

View of Hogsmeade from the coaster

 There were a few things in Jurassic Park we may have checked out if it wasn't as cool as it was and we weren't getting tired. The river raft ride looked like lots of fun but people were wearing ponchos and getting wet. It was in the 60's and we just weren't up for that, so we moved on. From there we walked through Toon Town, saw some familiar characters and some unfamiliar. Broom Hilda was one of the characters milling about. She was so cute!! One of the funniest moments was when she sneaked up on this unsuspecting woman resting her eyes. A small crowd of passersby gathered waiting for her to realized Broom Hilda was there. It was priceless! I wish I had kept shooting to capture her expression. Thankfully, she was good-natured about it and laughed right along with the rest of us.

 The Incredible Hulk Coaster loomed in front of us as the last ride before leaving the park. Cari and I looked at each other and grinned. Mom said, "Go ahead, I'll watch your stuff." So we did. What fun! I timed it. It took us 14 minutes from the time we got in line to walking away from the ride. And it was awesome. Both Cari and I said it's the best coaster we've ever ridden. We found Mom chillin' with her iPod when we got back. She was enjoying her new Disney music. She's so cute. If we hadn't been leaving the park I'm sure we'd have ridden it again ... but we still had Universal Studios to try and cram in before heading back to the condo.

Off to start the trek to Universal Studios we left Suess and HP behind. Since we had eaten lunch early, an early dinner sounded good. We walked through the streets, found a little Italian place and got some spaghetti - not good spaghetti but it filled a void. Probably not the smartest idea, but we ended up getting in line to ride Twister. It lets you experience what it would be like to be a storm chaser, showing and reproducing clips from the movie, "Twister." It was quite interesting and informative. Thankfully, it was pretty mild too.

We had walked past Shrek 4-D on the way in but were too hungry to stop then. Since we knew for sure that was something we wanted to do, we started walking. It was worth it. In fact it was one of our favorite things of the day. The 3-D movie puts the you right in the middle of the story where you experience water, wind, moving seats and other special effects.

Mom with Dora

I'm sorry Bob missed Universal and the Islands of Adventure. I'll look forward to going there again and exploring both parks in more detail. There were so many things left we wanted to do and experience. But you can only do so much in a day.

On the way out we stopped here and there to do some more shopping - found a couple of good bargains and started the long haul back to the car - the car parked in preferred parking - the car parked in preferred parking that was still a L-O-N-G way away. Since "Pubix" is next to the condo we stopped and bought some fresh blueberries, strawberries, cheese and crackers. The food options this week had not been the healthiest and we wanted some good food. Bob was feeling some better and joined us at the table for our feast. Exhaustion was rampant. This was our fifth park in as many days and we could feel it. We all were in bed early.

Top 3:
Mom - Suess Landing, Harry Potter / Butterbeer, Shrek
Cari - The Hulk, Harry Potter / Butterbeer, Suess Landing
Me - Harry Potter / Butterbeer, The Hulk, Suess Landing

Loot List:
Mom - Dr. Suess t-shirt, Mug
Me - t-shirt, mug, photo album (Publix)
Cari - hat & Disney cards (Publix), Universal cards, Harry Potter cards