Saturday was fun. Jody and I went to the Kid 'N Ewe festival in Boerne (after an endless time getting my car inspected, where I recruited two new knitters). It was a beautiful drive through the hill country and we saw a LOT of new development--looks like my dream of having a cruddy house all alone in the hills won't come true--there will be ranchettes with antelope running around them everywhere by the time Lee and I can buy anything. Every couple of miles along the road between Austin and Boerne, there is a new subdivision of houses with acreage, surrounded by very high fences. All the signs advertising these upscale locales have pictures of the antelope and other exotic African creatures that roam "free" throughout the place. It is apparently the latest trendy thing.
The only exotic animals we saw in person were angora bunnies, cashmere goats and the aluminum wildlife in Wimberly, where we stopped at one of those roadside vendors. This place was pretty funny, and I have a lot of photos on Flickr of them. Oddly, the vendor actually sells some very nice fountains, furniture and such on their website--they just chose to bring along the cheesy animal statues to entice the trendy semi-rural residents of greater South Austin. While the warthog was my sentimental favorite (it's a long story, but that was my nickname in junior high school), Jody was quite enamored of the enormous painted rooster. They are both pretty cute, huh?
We did not spend all our time hugging expensive kitschy statues. We bought yarn, and lots of it. Plus we watched the competition for best cashmere goat (these are the ones that make mohair yarn--confusing, isn't it?) , which is what the top picture depicts. Leftmost goat won, though we were rooting for the white one, who at least should have gotten "loudest and most reluctant competitor"--he was NOT interested in participating, but his elderly handler really wanted to win. Mostly we stayed inside the rather plain facility and enjoyed touching lovely products (there was some crap, but not too much). I bought alpaca yarn that was hand dyed and came with a photo of the animal who donated it. Maisie. And some naturally tan wool whose contributors' names were also noted. I like that. Jody and I had an incident of "star struck" when we found the woman who distributed Jojoland yarn, who had brought all sorts of incredibly lovely shawls and garments that she had designed and made herself (yow). She was a very nice Chinese woman who seemed very humble but let me tell you, she overflowed with talent! I got a couple of her patterns and a LOT of the yarn. But, this is not the knitting blog, so I'll stop with this. You can read more on the knitting blog, when I get that done!
I got pretty wiped out once we got home, and was not as perky on dealing with family issues as I could have been, but it all worked out. We seem to be having scheduling issues, especially Lee and Tuba Boy. But, Sunday dawned another day, and it was "Suna Has Issues" day. I had to go to church, because I was supposed to lead some songs, but Lee felt bad and didn't go. I corralled the kids into going, but foolishly took an open cup of coffee. Which I foolishly sat on the slanting dashboard of my Subaru. Which then spilled all over the car, Tuba Boy and my hand knitted top. ACK. My Hero Lee took my car in and got it detailed (which of course, caused it to rain just enough to mess up the exterior). But wow, the inside is smashingly lovely now. And does not smell like coffee. You know, I think that was the first time I brought an open coffee container into the car. It will be the last!
The rest of the day was better, though I was a bit frantic about cleaning up in anticipation of dinner guests, but then Lee's poor friend Rick went BACK into the hospital again (he has been in an out with internal bleeding for months), so that got canceled. We fed Debate Boy and our kids the lovely meal, and it was excellent. I even made bread.
I'm all off kilter today due to taking the boys to a dental appointment. So, I am writing this quickly and in a blathering fashion at "lunch" so I can make up time at work. It's one of the last two rehearsals for the Round Rock Community Choir concert tonight, so I am trying to rest up and be ready for that.
1 comment:
Ooooh, your alpaca yarn sounds lovely. I brought back some llama yarn from a llama ranch in Colorado, which had a yarn "store" in the barn. Instead of a dye lot, it came with a picture postcard of Alarco, the animal from whose hair the yarn was spun. Two years on, I still have the yarn -- it is too soft and lovely to commit it to any single knitting project :-)
Sorry Sunday had so many crazy bits. Yay for you going to church, and entertaining, and coping after the coffee disaster. That last one might have made me throw in the towel for the day.
Love from Elisabeth xx oo
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