Prance Past The Poppies

These socks have been a long time coming. Back in 2014 I was knitting away at these socks. Life got in the way as it likes to do. But with the help of my friends, the socks have been tested and tweaked. I am pleased to finally show off the Prance Past The Poppies socks.

Knit from the top down, Prance Past The Poppies are inspired by the California Poppy display that can be seen in Antelope Valley, California around March and April. These poppy socks are meant to be a cousin to the Fern Canyon socks, another California inspired pair of socks.

So forget about tip toeing through the tulips. It is much more glorious to Prance Past The Poppies.

The Prance Past The Poppies socks are now available on ravelry, bear-ears.com, and craftsy.

California Poppies Everywhere

This past weekend I went to visit my brother. On the way down south, we stopped by the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. 

This year was much better than last year. First off, it was green, and second, there were poppies.

Although there were quite a few poppies at the preserve, there were carpets of poppies outside of it. I've never seen an area that was just plain orange.

I got my jumping picture. And being the pro that I am, I remembered to tuck in my shirt on the first photo. 

This is probably the first time I've remembered to tuck in my shirt on the first photo

I also was able to get poppy sock pictures by the poppies. They came out really well, if I do say so myself. 

Poppycock? Nope, They're Poppy Socks!

Sometimes it feels like I have absolutely no upcoming designs, and sometimes the exact opposite happens. At the moment, I have four designs that are in various stages of completion. This past weekend I was able to complete a photo shoot for the hat/mitt combo. I'm hoping to have them out by next week, all going well. The Police Box Sox are being tested. And now I'm knitting like a crazy person to get a pair of California Poppy themed socks done. Why, you ask? Well, it looks like unlike last year when the Antelope Valley Poppy reserve looked like a desert, this year there are poppies. I'd been toying with the idea of poppy socks for a bit, but when I realized that not only are there poppies this year, but we will be going south at just the right time, I knew that I needed to make the socks a reality.

So far I've figured out 10 ways to not make poppy socks. In fact, yesterday, I'm pretty sure I knit an entire sock's worth of stitches. Unfortunately this did not result in a complete sock. One of those half-socks in the picture below is destined to be ripped.

I'm just hoping that all this effort is worth it. Poppies are notoriously picky about weather. So even if we get to the reserve and there are poppies, they might all be closed. Of course none of that matters if I don't manage to knit a pair of socks in time. No pain, no gain... right?

Poppies, Floating Rocks, and Smilodons

I just got back from a wonderful vacation. My parents and I went down to see my brother's guitar recital. On the way down we went to check out the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. This is the time of year when the hills are supposed to be covered in poppies. I was a bit skeptical as we drove up because the hills looked a little too brown. Turns out the rains didn't come, so they all died. Dad bought a postcard and we walked up to see where the poppies would have been. 

 There are more poppies in our backyard than in Antelope Valley this year.

The next day, after the recital, we visited the La Brea tar pits. We all thought that the constant bubbles coming up from the pits was some sort of Disney magic. Boy are we used to a manufactured world. The bubbling occurs because of built up methane gas under the pits.

Before we checked out the Page Museum, I noticed that we were next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. There is a piece out front called Levitating Mass, which consists of large granite rock displayed over a lowered walkway. The opinions on this piece are extremely polarized: you either think it is the best bit of art since Michelangelo's David or that it is a waste of money. I just think it is a very difficult piece to get a picture of it if you've left your wide angle lens in the car.

The Page Museum is pretty neat. There are a large number of skeletons, including these two Mastodons. It is a mum and her baby that got stuck at the same time.

I learned that Smilodons, or Saber-Toothed Cats are often incorrectly called Saber-Toothed Tigers. They aren't tigers, they are cats. 

My last day in LA, my brother and I went to Disneyland. There are no pictures because the only thing I brought with me was chapstick. We were there nearly the entire time the park was open. Highlights include getting seats closest to the edge of the water in my favorite restaurant, the Blue Bayou, beating Christopher at Astroblasters after he bragged about what a great shot he was (95,000 points to his 69,000), and the sad whimper Christopher made when his sunglasses disappeared on the last turn of the Matterhorn. I think the highlight of Christopher's day was when we went on Splash Mountain and the wave missed him, but entirely drenched me. 

I didn't knit or touch the computer the entire time I was in LA. It was a true vacation and I savored every moment. Now back to work.