Barcelona

The beginning of September saw a return to travel. Now some of you may wonder if I ever really stopped traveling, and the answer is no, but I had told my bosses no travel over the summer and I like to pretend that only four trips in two months was practically no travel.

September through November is what we like to call "conference season" with nearly every major scientific discipline holding a meeting of some sort during these months.  That meant 3 conferences in 3 countries in 11 days for me, starting in Spain (which in my opinion is never a bad place to start).

The first conference was held in northern Spain and travel was surprisingly difficult to arrange.  The closest airport was 90 minutes away by car and only four airlines serve it, none of which have connections to the US. In the end I had to choose a major city to fly into, book a connection on a commuter airline, then take a bus. I chose Barcelona, partly because it had the most logical connection, and partly because in 1995 I had a really great day in Barcelona and I have been in love ever since. 

This left me with an 8.5 hour layover in Barcelona. While my first instinct was to find a nice lounge where I could sleep the day away, I decided instead to stow my luggage in an airport locker and go explore a small quadrant of the city.  I will admit I also had a secret motive; I do an international sock swap on Ravelry, and in the last round there was a new member from Spain who posted about some really cool yarn she picked up in a shop called "All You Knit is Love" in Barcelona. As long as I was coming that far, I figured I had to stop by, right?

So I hailed a cab and had him drop me near the main cathedral in what is known as the Barri Goti, or Gothic quarter. I was immediately greeted with two of my favorite things about Spain

yes, Gaudi and Picasso. I found myself really noticing a lot of the motifs in the stonework and in the wrought iron in the cathedral and surrounding neighborhood.  I keep thinking someday I will translate these into lace or twisted stitchwork. 

 

Can't you just imagine these as lace edgings or motifs in a shawl or sweater? I spent a couple of hours wandering through the cathedral and down La Rambla. Most interesting find: a Boqueria--quite literally a meat market--and yes, people were eating what I can only describe as meat-sicles on sticks made from chorizo, jamon serrano and other cured meats.

A real meat market, European style

Walking down La Rambla

From there, I made my way to the yarn store, which took me on a great path through some side streets and some souvenir shopping. Funny story there about bargaining for a good deal on a t-shirt and adamantly explaining why I did not need one for my husband.  They did not buy the I-am-not-married-and-therefore-have-no-husband excuse, so I finally had to tell them he is a mal hombre and not deserving of a gift. Now why they would believe I have a bad husband over believing I was single is beyond me, but I just went with it. The things I won't do for a discount on a t-shirt. But I digress.

I finally found the yarn store after several twists and turns (cursed Google maps!) and met Jennifer, the owner of "All You Knit is Love". I had wondered why a LYS in the middle of Spain had such an American name and sure enough it is because Jennifer is an American.  Her parents actually live in Cape Cod, only a couple of hours from where I reside, and Jennifer promised she makes it to the states at least once a year and could hook me up if  I decided later I needed more yarn.  I ogled the big basket of the locally produced "Greta and the Fibers" sock yarn I had come in for, and after promising to limit myself to 2, and deliberating for over an hour on which two, I eventually left the shop with four. I know. I have no impulse control whatsoever when it comes to yarn.

Jennifer, the owner of "Knit"

Wall of Malabrigo and Greta and the Fibers. I spent a long time here...

 After that, it was a quick lunch of tapas--yes, that is a meat and egg salad, chef's speciality of the day--and yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it and the lobster risotto that followed.

 

After my late lunch, I decided I had better get back to the airport, and my wonderful day in Barcelona was at an end. I claimed my bags and headed off to Santiago de Compostela and some well-deserved sleep, but that is a post for another day.

 

Spoils from my day of shopping in Barcelona--a scarf, a Gaudi t-shirt, and four skeins of Greta!



Verb

There are some places that just nourish your soul, and AVFKW is quickly becoming one of those places for me. 

I "discovered" this shop shortly after a pattern was published in Twist Collective using one of their yarns.  It is located in the north part of Oakland, CA, so far north in fact, I would actually consider it Berkeley, and I try to stop by whenever I am in town on business, which is quite a lot lately.

The simple reason is, I always find something there to inspire me.  Aside from her own yarns, from which I had made several great pairs of socks, Kristine carries a great assortment of unique yarns (this is where I first dicovered Pluck MCN Primo and Fiberspates Scrumptious, after all) but also a great assortment of fabrics and new techniques from her travels.

Case in point, I was in here the first week of August after a trip to my favorite customer in South San Francisco (yeah, the summer of no travel thing is really not working out as I had hoped). A while back I got it into my head to make the Crane Creek jacket from a yarn a bit lighter than what the pattern calls for (both are fairly scratchy natural wools). I had a flash of crafting brilliance and decided what this jacket needed was a spot of color and softness, and that what I should do is hold two strands together--one of the neutral colored wool I had already purchased and one of, say, raw silk. So I headed out to Verb to look at some Habu Tsumugi silk I had seen on my last trip.

Kristine, the owner of AVFKW, consulting with a customer on a dress design

I found my silk and more, finally settling on a denim blue to complement my brown wool (though once I start knitting I fear it may obscured the diamond textured pattern a little).

I also could not resist some of Kristine's signature Creating in this great geen and purple colorway, plus the matching green and purple colorways.

But the truly inspiring piece of the day was some wonderful fabric recently arrived from India discovered during Kristine's recent travels. Apparenlty, this is made by local artisans in India who first take the length of fabric and create a design by knotting thread in a certain direction or randomly. The fabric is then dyed, dried, and the yarn removed, leaving a star-like pattern where the thread was removed and in some cases shirring as though the fabric were smocked.  I fell in love with this yardage, and then with these scarves, but I could not think of a single practicle thing I could make from it, so I resisted, thinking I would be back in 2 weeks and if I still wanted it I could come back then and get it.

Well, I did go back to the bay area 2 weeks later this time traveling with a colleague, and despite my best efforts, I was not able to find the time to drive across the bay to Verb. I had been madly debating all week--tea stained fabric or purple scarf?--but alas, since I could not make it to the shop, I feared it would be neither. I was bitterly disappointed since I also wanted some more Creating in the Octavia colorway when I I realized I was just being silly. I just picked up the phone and gave them a credit card number, and a week later the gorgeous purple scarf was mine.  The workmanship truly is amazing, and I am already plotting my Octavia sweater with alternating purple/green ribbing border. Or perhaps a baby blanket? Right after Crank Creek...

Summer recap

At long last, the repair work on my house is finished.  Or rather, I should say was finished this summer.  I moved back in the weekend of July 4, and I still don't have things completely straightened out, but at least I have a kitchen! Someday I am going to be one of those people whose home is company ready in 10 minutes or less, but for now, I think it may be a while before I have things back together.

I had planned to take the entire summer as a travel-free time and just get back in the swing of things, but work and life always intervene.  First, a short trip to Quebec City.  It is only a 6 hour drive--and a beautiful one at that--so when an opportunity for a work trip arose, I grabbed a friend and we made the drive.

I never did find a yarn store in close proximity, but I did plenty of other shopping. I managed to return with some pewter jewelry, a Canadian leaf Christmas ornament, and some artwork.

 

We also made it to Chute Montmorency, a waterfall higher than Niagara, but with less water volume, though I delined to climb to the top. In reality, we were in a hurry to get back for a concert that night, but I will admit, the climb looked a little bit daunting.

Fil

What was I doing again? It has been so long I can't remember.

The spring went by in a blur--four trips in four weeks that really kept me on my toes. First conference in Vancouver, then a quick trip to Mexico City, followed by a foray to San Francisco to visit my favorite customers, and finally an international sales meeting in Berlin.




The olypic torch on the Vancouver waterfront at the convention center

There is a ton to catch up on, including the end of my flood construction, but first a little story about Mexico.

Way back in 1989, I visited Mexico City at the start of a work-study program and had the time of my life doing a whirlwind tour in 2 days with some fellow students.  This is the first time I have been back since then, and I had shared some of those great memories with our local rep.

This is Octavio, our Mexican sales rep and my guide and chauffer during the trip.

I had told Octavio about my earlier trip, and a particular restaurant we had visited that I had loved, so during the second day of my visit, we finished work early and Octavio surprised me with an impromptu tour of the zocalo and a visit to the Casa de los Azulejos for my favorite enchiladas suizas and fresh guacamole.

Palacio de las bellas artes, Mexico City



Casa de los azulejos

 Octavio is one of nine children, and is so named because he is the eighth.  He's a great guy, and very sharp.  Over lunch, I was asking about his family, and he mentioned one of his sisters had been an archeologist, but had retired from the field and decided to start her own business.  And what type of business might you ask? Turns out, she opened a yarn store. I must have started involuntarily drooling at that point, because Octavio paused his story and asked "Wait--you wouldn't want to go see it, would you?"  I gave the most emphatic 'yes' that I could muster with a mouth full of enchiladas, and off we went.

After a short drive through downtown, we arrived at Fil to visit Octavio's sister Rosio. I knew right away I was going to like this place :)

Octavio confessed that his wife, mother, and mother-in-law were avid knitters, and he asked if I had a basement full of baskets filled with yarn that I never intended to use.  Technically, I do not have a basement, but the rest is pretty accurate. Bottom line: Octavio gets me.

Fil is a light and colorful little shop, and I had the time of my life. Rosio had some wonderful custom cabinets for yarn storage built for her by another brother, and I was drooling over those as much as the yarn selection.

Rosio was kind and incredibly knowledgable, so when I asked if by chance she had some locally sourced yarns she would recommend, she pointed me to some real gems. 

I discovered Estambre del Bosque, a little free-trade company located near Aguascalientes, and a wonderful new linen/viscose blend called Natura Marina.  The natural colors were beautiful, and it had a drape like many very expensive linens I have found.  The best part? A little under $3 USD per skein!  I am not kidding.  I could not find yardage listed anywhere, and I cannot even find the yarn on line, but I am guessing it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 yds/50g.  I bought all she had of a light silver color, and am hoping against hope that is enough for a summer tee or sweater. Just in case it is not, I also picked up three more skeins of a darker gray and will resort to stripes if needed.

My other gem was Omega Nilo, a cotton/silk/linen blend that had the same texture as some Riveting I was eyeing not too long ago.  I don't want to make any of you jealous, but let's just say I left with sweater quantities of 2 yarns and spent less that $50 USD. Best. Yarn. Shopping. Day. Ever.

Rosio also gifted me with a small skein of some local handknit. We were changing subjects quickly and I am the first to admit my Spanish is a bit rusty, so I didn't quite catch whether she spun it or it was spun and dyed by one of her patrons, but it is handspun from some local raw wool.  It has some great character, so I will have to find something cool to make from it.

I was so entranced with my Estambre del Bosque, I left it in my suitcase for my back-to-back SanFran and Berlin trips (I only had one day in between DF and SF, and left straight for Berlin from SFO, so one less thing to unpack was welcome) and cast on the Radian Yoke sweater the second I finally finished my second Grace socks. 

After Berlin, I had to put it down for a couple of weeks while I attempted to put my house back together, but I picked it up again last week and am racing to the finish so I can start my Olympics project.  I was concerned about having enough, but I am past the waist increases and am only about 1/3 of the way through skein 4 (I have six total, plus three of the dark), so I think I am going to be fine as I have only vents, hems, and sleeves remaining.

Next up, the aftermath of the flood, and I seem to be craving wool.

Long Time Gone

The last few months have been crazy, crazy, and as a result, it has been a very long time since I posted.  So here is the five minute catch-up:

Went to Colombia in February.  Got to work with these awesome people.

They took me salsa dancing (yes, I salsa dance, but only in the Carribean) and to hear Mariachis

And to a lunch literally on the river where these guys serenaded us.

Then on a quick trip to see Cartagena de Indes, where we saw cool stuff like this...

And this...

Along with some medieval implements of torture:

In March, my house flooded. A utility worker opened the wrong combination of valves, which resulted in large quantities of canal water flooding our lobby and several units, including mine.  All my stuff got wet (the downstairs stuff, at least)...

so now my walls look like this...

and I have no kitchen, because all my cabinets and appliances got wet. 

We are mid-renovation now, and I have been trying to balance travel to exotic places like Nashville, Woods Hole, and Durham with selecting new cabinets, countertops, appliances and flooring, all while having no kitchen or living room, and all the downstairs stuff piled in the upstairs while I sort through the wet stuff.

It was all going fairly well, until I remembered I had signed up for a sock swap and had to get something mailed by the end of April.  Sadly, I remembered this mid-April, decided I would try and do a quick, project that I narrowed down to these three yarn choices:



In the end, I chose neither and did something else entirely, but I did send one of these along as a swap goodie.

I love how the final socks turned out, and I think my partner will love them, but I did finish three days late :(   So for the first time, I am a bad swapper and I hope my partner is not too upset.

I ended up liking the swap socks so much, I decided to make a pair for myself while I still had the pattern memorized.

In the meantime, I will get back to the fabulously colorful thigh-high stockings I started for my niece, foolishly choosing a singles yarn in a light fingering weight, which means my row gauge is much smaller than I am used to, so there are many more rounds and it is taking forever.

She asked for the wildest colors I could find and the tallest knee-socks I could knit, so we will see how it all comes out.

I should also probably get back to my camino alpaca lace knee-highs at some point as well.  They came out quite wide following the pattern, so they don't reach the knees or stay up even on my wide calves. I am procrastinating picking out the lace so I can change the overall number of increases.

I will pause now for a small moment of sadness since this weekend is MD sheep and wool, and it is the first one I have missed in several years, but with my renovation nightmare plus conference earlier than usual, there was just no way to make it work.  Hopefully I will be back next year.

That's all for now, folks. At least until I upload my swap sock photos.