Yarn & Fiber Colors for Weeks 29 – 30

Oh, again a bit behind in posting, so here are the colors for Weeks 29-30!

Roving, roving, roving – keeps those spindles turning . . .

COLLEGE DORM is 64 ct Merino roving in the colors of my college dorm linens. Mom took me shopping for my freshman year and I ended up picking out a bed set that was probably more ‘boy’ colors with grays, teals, purples and black, but I loved it! (My purple towels did have girly embroidery on it, so I made up for it with the bath supplies). If I remember correctly, that bed comforter was later passed down to my little brother who . . . hmm . . . may still have it?

VINTAGE CHRISTMAS is a South American Wool top that’s great for beginning spinners. As I get older, I gain a better appreciate to all things vintage and I just love seeing the Christmas decorations from an era gone by where the colors are more muted but still reflect the magic of the holiday season.

LANIKAI HIKE is inspired by a photo I took last spring during the famous Lanikai Pillbox Hike. I love how the aqua complements the brown in this merino/tencel roving – just like water and earth . . .

BUTTERFLY DUO 2 is a variation of the original colorway which didn’t have any green in it. This is Peruvian wool and is also great for beginning spinners.

Last of the rovings is BLOOD ORANGES, a wonderful merino/bamboo blend. I had never even heard of BLOOD ORANGES until I took a trip to Italy more than a decade ago. At a farmers market near the Campo dei Fiori in Rome, I purchased a few oranges to try them out and was hooked with the first sweet bite of the ruby red orange. I made sure to buy more and snacked on them all trip long.

The wife of one of my colleagues is also a yarn fanatic so I have to smile when he is talking about things like pages in a script and says comments like “Well, we’ve got enough yarn in these pages, we just have to see if there is enough to make a sweater”. Now, how cool is that??? Perhaps I can bring my UFO (unfinished object) sweater project into one of our meetings . . .  But I digress, now back to yarn:

RAINY DAY EIFFEL is my first attempt at dyeing up yarn in this colorway. I’ve done a few in roving, but not yarn. I think it turned out pretty 😉 This is a merino/tencel fingering yarn:

VERTIGO BLINDS is a merino/cashmere/nylon fingering yarn what was inspired by a photo I took during a photography class. This was taken during an afternoon, just as the light was coming through the vertical blinds. I loved how the blinds cast shadows in all directions on the window seat and I placed a circular candle holder in the frame just to break up the lines. This yarn has various shades of gray, black and blue-black.

The inspirational photo:

BUTTERFLY DUO is the original colorway inspired by a pair of butterflies I saw at a Butterfly Farm in the Carribean. This is a merino/silk fingering yarn:

The inspirational photo:

ROMAN CHURCH is a superwash merino fingering yarn inspired by a photo from my 1999 Italy trip. I found this church while walking around and the ornate features on the facade and dome were such a great complement to the blue sky. Now, if only I could remember the name of the church . . .

The inspirational photo:

POI is a superfine merino/silk lace weight yarn in the color of the Hawaiian food made of the Taro plant. if you’ve ever been to a Hawaiian luau they will most likely have a small bowl of Poi for you to try and the consistency is usually paste-like, though for most people, it is an acquired taste. Some of my friends like Poi with a fair amount of sugar added 🙂 Seeing that purple is my favorite color, I draw from the color of Poi and bring you this wonderful lace yarn . . . hold the sugar.

And lastly, a bit of handspun yarn. A GRAY AREA was raw alpaca fleece that at I washed, dried, hand carded and spun into a really soft lace weight yarn.

Enjoy!

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Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific

When I was younger I wanted to be a marine biologist/dolphin trainer because I absolutely loved dolphins. My very first personalized car license plate was TURSIOP, which is a truncated version of Tursiops, the Latin Genus name for Bottlenose Dolphins. Yes, I was a geek . . . 🙂

My love for dolphins and marine life continued to grow even though I didn’t become a dolphin trainer, so it’s not surprising that I love aquariums.  One of our local aquariums is in Long Beach, California and opened in 1998.  Just before it opened to the public I went on a special tour of the aquarium with a few colleagues because of the movie we were working on and the need to see jellyfish up close for reference. Parts of the aquarium were still under construction and many tanks were vacant but it felt like seeing an empty movie set – you knew it would eventually be filled with life and energy!

Here are a few photos of the fantastic marine life currently on display at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific.

SHARKS!

JELLIES . . .

SEA DRAGONS (ooohh, I see a future colorway for yarn!)

A big CRAB dinner!

Beautiful POISONOUS FROGS

Various sea life

If you’re ever in Long Beach, definitely stop by the Aquarium.

OH, and in case you were wondering, the movie we needed reference for was the 1998 movie SPHERE, based on Michael Crichton’s book of the same name.

Images of Kauai

It’s been almost 5 years since we last visited the island of Kauai, so I thought I’d share some photos of that trip.

Waimea Canyon is called the ‘Grand Canyon’ of the Pacific. Here the views of the rugged mountains and deep canyon are absolutely breathtaking as they taper off to sea. I took this photo from a look-out point along the road.

Kilauea Lighthouse is a great tourist spot and was instrumental in helping to navigate ships heading to/from the Orient in the early 1900’s. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1976 and has been a tourist attraction ever since. In 2010, the Kilauea Lighthouse won a spot in a multi-million dollar contest to restore historic landmarks.

And lastly, Lumahai Beach is another one of Kauai’s gorgeous beaches.

(Kauai, Hawaii | September 2006)

Hasliberg

As the weather is getting warmer I thought I’d share more beautiful winter scenes from Switzerland.

These are from our trip to Hasliberg where I learned to ski. In the Swiss Alps. From a Swiss Ski Jedi Master. It was AWESOME! The photo on top is a view from the road in front of the family ‘hut’.

This is the road in front of the house where our friends would expertly ski and snowboard down and make a perfect-10 stop right in front of the house. It was like watching the Olympics.

From the house we went up to the Bidmi Ski station and that’s where we had our lessons on the bunny slopes along with other Swiss children 🙂

Once you get there, you can basically ski, sled or board anywhere there is snow. We, of course, had our cameras out like total tourists and were taking photos of everything. Here are a few of the wonderful scenery.

(Hasliberg, Switzerland | December 2010)

 

Firenze At Dusk

I’ve been conversing a lot about Italy lately so I’m posting one of my favorite photos taken with my 35mm SLR.  The hubby and I went to Italy after finishing a project and visited Roma, Firenze (Florence) and Venezia (Venice).  While in Firenze we met up with some friends of ours who were taking their honeymoon in Italy. The wife knew of a spot to watch the sunset, so armed with wine and cheese we walked to a bridge, hopped over the wall where there was a small platform just above one of the column supports. Apparently this was a popular spot to hang out. There we drank our red wine, dipped our Parmesan cheese into honey and watched the sunset on the Arno River.

(Firenze, Italia | Settembre 2004)

Mount Titlus

One of the afternoons on our Switzerland vacation was spent at the famous Mount Titlus in the town of Engelberg. I’ll start with my favorite photo then chronicle our adventure up (and down) the mountain.

This is a view from the top of Titlus, which is 10,000 feet elevation. There were plenty of birds around and I waited until this beautiful black-winged fellow flew into frame. It was -9 degrees C (15 degrees F) @  10,000 feet so I was freezing, but what a view!

Starting from the beginning, this is a view of Engelberg from the first gondola ride. (There were 3 different cars you had to get on to get to the top!)

A view of the platform for the 2nd gondola car. You can get off here and ski, but a lot of folks are heading to the top. Most of these people are in ski attire!

So, the artsy-type in me loves this photo. It’s another view from atop Titlus with a lens flare.

One exhibit they had at the top was the Glacier Grotto – where they have carved through a real glacier, fitted it with color lights that flickered in time with the music (which you choose). We were amazed to actually be IN a glacier, especially after seeing them from far away last summer on our Alaska cruise.

Sunset. This is the same view as the photo two above, except without the lens flare 🙂

Being this high up, we were above everything so these fluffy clouds look like bodies of ‘water’ in between the mountain tops.

When it was time to go, we were one of the last to leave (had to catch the sunset!) so we watched as the day turned into night during the 45 minute ride down the mountain. This is Engelberg @ night. Magical.

(Mount Titlus @ Engelberg, Switzerland | December 2010)

Fürigen Yarn!

This is by far one of the funnest yarns I’ve every spun! The brown is a natural Corriedale, the white is undyed Peruvian wool and the blue is Peruvian wool that I hand dyed.  I spun each color separately then plied them together to make a 3-ply worsted weight yarn. It’s rather heavy at 4.90 ounces (!) for 139 yards.

My inspiration for this one is the wonderful town of Fürigen in Switzerland and this photo of the house overlooking the lake is one of my favorites.

This yarn is available on the shoppe, though if no one takes it, I might just have to keep this one for myself . . . LOL!

Lanikai Pillbox View II

It’s about that time again that the hubby and I get ‘homesick’ for Hawaii – it happens about every 3 months or so. To help assuage our homesickness I thought I’d post another photo or two of the view from the Lanikai Pillbox Hike.  The photo above shows the houses along Lanikai Beach and the Mokulua Islands in the distance.

This photo shows the far right side of the beach with the dark area being in the shade.

And this is more a ‘straight on’ view of the water, similar to the other photo I posted from this hike.

Oh, it is time to go back home!

(Lanikai, Oahu, Hawaii | March 2010)

Fürigen

Here are some photos of our family’s town in Fürigen, Switzerland. The photo above is the sun setting over Hotel Fürigen, which is not open now, but scheduled to be re-modeled into apartments as well as hotel rooms.

The photo below is the same sunset only an hour or so later. We walked to a look-out point and this is looking back towards the hotel (I think that’s the hotel in the center-right of the photo).

As we were walking to the look-out point, I took this photo of the lake as seen from the front of a house. This gorgeous house is actually a vacation rental house, so you can rent it out and wake to this view everyday. Swoon . . . .

Another view of the lake.

I took this photo in the town of Stansstad where we stayed at a local hotel. The snowy area up the hill is Fürigen.

(Fürigen, Central Switzerland | December 2010, January 2011)

 

Images of Lucerne

It had been about 20 years since I last visited Lucerne and it’s still just was beautiful as I remembered. This time the streets were snow-lined and the air crisp rather than filled with summer blooms, and still a great great city.  Here are some images of famous landmarks.

This is the 8-sided tower adjacent to the snow covered Chapel Bridge, which is the oldest wooden bridge in Europe. There are over 100 hand painted panels on the inside that were completed in the 17th century. According to my guide book, this tower has served as a lighthouse, prison and treasury.

Another snowy view of the Chapel Bridge and tower.

There is a beautiful medieval wall that goes along the north side of the Old Town which was built to fortify the city.  The towers are impressive as are the views of the city from atop the hill.

I love how all the tops of the towers are different. Photo by Jake.

Another view of the wall and foreground foliage.

A view of the neighborhood and city.

The Lion Monument is a tribute to the Swiss Guards who gave their lives while guarding the Tuileries Palace of Louis XVI in Paris in 1792. Taken with a flash, this photo captures the afternoon snow fall.

This photo is just to show you the scale of the monument.

And lastly, Lucerne at night. At the center of the photo is the Jesuit church.

(Lucerne, Switzerland | December 2010)