Southern Skies

The Southern Skies pattern is now available! Southern Skies is the sister shawl to Celestarium. 

Southern Skies is a pi shawl knit from the center out and is an accurate view of the night sky from the South Pole.

It requires 1200 yds/ 1100m of fingering weight yarn. I've used Cephalopod's Skinny Bugga! in the Charaxes Tiridate colorway. So if you are interested in a copy of the pattern, it can be found on ravelry.

A big thank-you to Wei Siew of Kiwiyarns Knits for modeling this shawl.

Let's Have A Yarn Day

I've been looking forward to today's adventure for quite some time. When I learned that I might be able to come to New Zealand, I let my blog friend, Wei Siew of Kiwiyarns Knits, know about it. So we planned to meet up. First thing on the list was to take pictures of the Southern Skies shawl (Due to be released in the next day or so). We stopped by the Dominion Observatory to see what kinds of photos we could get. Although this wasn't a final pick, I quite like the photo.

Next up was a trip to the Holland Road Yarn Company. I've had a burning desire to visit after reading Wei Siew's multiple blog posts about all the yarn she finds there. This shop is run by Tash, the granddaughter of Margret Stove. She is wearing a Rocky Coast Cardigan. 

I've been drooling over the Knitsch yarns for quite some time. Tash dyes them herself and I had a very difficult time making up my mind over what colors to buy. Of course in the end I went with my life's philosophy on yarn: When in doubt, buy it all.

Photo credit to Wei Siew.

You can really build up an appetite after looking for yarn, so we went to John's Fish Market for fish and chips. I'm pretty sure this is the best fish and chips I've ever had. Everything was fresh, the batter was crisp, and the seasoning was spot on. There may be another trip to it in the near future. Possibly tomorrow... I hope.

The fish market also happens to be across from the beach. So we took our lunch, sat on a bit of driftwood, and watched the seagulls fight amongst themselves over who would get first go at our food. One gull puffed himself up and ran at every other gull. (I think he is the second from the right in the photo.) The chips were too good to share, so I didn't.

Our next stop was a really special one. Wei Siew arranged for us to have a tour of Woolyarns. This is where the Zealana yarn is made. I'm quite a fan. In the past I've made the Druid Mittens and Fireside Sweater out of their yarns. Here we've got some raw possum. It's really soft. I know this because I was allowed to touch it.

Having worked at a mill, I really enjoyed seeing some of the equipment again. There were a few machines I never got to work with, but wish I had. The first neat one was a machine that automatically cut out knots in the yarn and spliced the two ends together. I didn't even know that was possible. But that would explain why I've yet to find a knot in my Zealana yarn. The other neat machine was the one that made yarn into center pull balls. I had always been curious about how that was possible. The height of the tubed area determines how the yarn ends up. There is a shorter tube for donut sized balls of yarn. 

After Woolyarns, we headed over to Wei Siew's for dinner. She even showed me her yarn stash. And as any knitter knows, the yarn stash is a sacred realm. Only the most worthy are allowed to enter. I must have entered into a holy order or something, because I was allowed to leave with some of her stash. A few bits of Royal Stansborough yarn and, get ready for this, a whole sweater's worth! Of Stansborough! This yarn is pretty tough to find. As in I bought the last 6 skeins at Holland Road Yarn Company.

Here is the official haul from yesterday. The top step were all gifts and the bottom step was damage I inflicted on myself. 

Top step L to R: Little Wool Co, 4ply in Lime; Flagstaff Alpaca, 8ply in North Isle on Marl; Little Wool Co, 8ply in Peat; 11 skeins of Stansborough Mythral in Takahe (Thanks Wei Siew!)

Bottom step L to R: Knitch 100% Merino, a pair of each in Looking Glass, Charlemagne, Yellow Brick Road, The William, and Odelay; Stansborough Mythral, first column is Manuka and Rata, second column are both Royal Kokako, third column is Kokako and Takahe.

So all in all, it was a great day. The only thing I forgot to do was get a picture with the both of us in it. Ah well. Now I have an excuse to visit my blogging buddy again.

Colossal Squid, Glowworms, And Eels

Today's big adventure started with a train down from Chris' place to downtown Wellington. From there we walked along the streets. I spotted this statue of John Plimmer and his dog Fritz. (It was the dog that got me to stop. Looked a bit like Scooter.)

We took care of some boring things that needed to be handled. But as soon as that was all finished, this procession happened along. Turns out we were on the streets of Wellington on graduation day. And apparently part of graduation includes having all the graduates march down the streets of Wellington lead by a troop of bagpipers. Everyone in the procession wore a silly looking hat. The higher the degree, the sillier the hat.

The rest of our afternoon was spent at the Te Papa museum, which houses the only specimen of Colossal Squid. The whole museum is pretty neat and worth spending time at. But this was the main reason I wanted to visit. The Colossal Squid lives up to its namesake. I spread my arms apart to see how long it was, and I hardly could reach the length of its body, let alone the arms. Let's just say that I wouldn't want to meet one in the wild. 

After the museum we headed home for dinner before departing on another adventure. This time to go look at some glowworms. Chris recommended a new spot to check out the glowworms. It was only after we reached the shifty looking car park that Chris let us in on a secret: he'd never been there before. So we got out of the car (meanwhile we spotted a large, but apparently friendly dog) and headed into the darkness. It didn't take long before we found them. Never mind that we had to climb up a steep hill off of the trail in order to get a good picture. That is what adventures with Chris are all about.

Our second stop was more familiar to Owen and Chris. We descended down a million steps and eventually found another group of glowworms. For those of you not in the know, glowworms are the larval form of a fly that attract potential meals with their glowing bottoms. If prey comes too close to the glow, they are trapped in sticky lines of web.

But those of us bigger than an insect can just enjoy the show.

After the glowworms, Chris lead us down to a stream where we spotted an eel. There is no picture of the eel because despite Chris saying, "Don't worry, the eel is coming to the other side of the bridge," the eel decided instead to headbutt a rock until it had burrowed under it. And so ended the magical day of Colossal Squid, Glowworms, and Eels.

Rivendell

Before I left for New Zealand, Tyler gave me a pair of socks. The pattern name is Rivendell, and I promised to take pictures of them in New Zealand. What I didn't realize was that I'd actually be able to take pictures of them where Rivendell was filmed. 

Photo credit to Dad.

So here you go Tyler; the socks made it to Rivendell.

And just in case it wasn't clear that this is where Rivendell was filmed, here is a sign post in both English and Tengwar. I was pretty surprised with how little space the set took. All of Rivendell was put on a small patch of the Kaitoke Regional Park.

After we finished looking at where the set had been, we went for a hike. The light was magical. I can see why the location was chosen for Rivendell.

 

There were quite a few interesting plants. I spotted a silver fern, which is a symbol of New Zealand.

At the end of the hike was a swing bridge. The worst position to be on a swing bridge is in the front. It doesn't matter how reserved the second person is on the bridge. The urge to jump and make the bridge tremble to scare the first person is too high. Poor Dad. Chris and I were both behind him.

Watch Out For The Trolls

Day three in Wellington was the beginning of a big adventure. We took the ferry to Matui/Somes Island and hiked all over. On the island we had a great view of the island lighthouse. In the distance, we could see the TV tower we hiked to on our first day.

As we hiked along, Owen spotted a Tuatara.

We all saw a bunch of Kakariki all over the island. This guys was nibbling on something tasty.

There were boxes all over the island that were designated Weta houses. I find Wetas to be rather unsetteling. They remind me of the Jerusalem Crickets that we would see at the wool mill. I didn't like the Jerusalem Crickets either.

After visiting the island, we went over to the Weta workshops to have a look around. I got caught unaware by a troll. 

By this time, we were all pretty tired. But after dinner it was suggested that the group go visit Mount Victoria to catch a view of the city at night. 

As I looked up, I got a good view of the Southern Cross. In a few more days, I'll be releasing the knit version. But until then, we'll all have to just enjoy this picture.

Boom Rock

Our friend Chris has been secretive for months over where his birthday party would be. On our second day in Wellington, a huge group of us were loaded on a bus and went for a long drive. 

After going through paddocks, passing many sheep, and finding what seemed to be the edge of nowhere, we reached our desitination: Boom Rock. The view was quite impressive. Chris had been worried all day that the weather would be unpleasant, but it was clear enough that we could see the South Island.

Activities at Boom Rock included shooting at clay pigeons. I let them all live this time around. We also got to try knife throwing. I was a bit better at that.

Picture Credit to Dennis. I wasn't going to do this, but Dennis wouldn't let me get away with not trying to shoot some clay pigeons.

As the sun set, the clouds moved in and we all hunkered down for a warm meal and to tell stories about Chris.

Middle Of Middle Earth

We survived a total of 26 hours of travel... and one shrieking child seated behind me on the 12 hour flight. Dad laughed. He felt that it was divine retribution for when I was little and shrieked for hours on a similar flight. Regardless, Dad and I have arrived safely in the Middle of Middle Earth. Or so it says on the outside of the Wellington airport.

Actually, both the Auckland airport and the Wellington airport are decked out in The Hobbit themed decorations at the moment. Auckland went with more of a dwarven theme.

Wellington went with a giant Gollum catching a giant fish.

We had a lovely lunch with Chris and his friends before we all went on a hike to the top of Mount Kaukau. Features include a TV transmitter and tremendous wind. It was so windy that sometimes I'd step forwards, but the wind pushed my foot back to where it had originally been. 

But the view was amazing. And it was nice to have a good leg stretch after such a long flight. 

 

As for knitting, the TSA didn't care about my needles. But as it turns out, I only knitted during layovers. I still managed to knit the entire leg of my first Sleepy Hollow Sock. Who knows. I might have a pair of socks at the end of the trip.