Tien Chiu

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Travel panic

So, it’s T minus 5 days to the China trip, and travel panic is starting to set in. Me being me, I am blithely unconcerned about plane tickets, money, passports, whether I’ll have the right clothing, whether I’ll get lost in a foreign city and be totally unable to communicate with local passersby, and so on. Those are but minor details. No, my particular manifestation of motion sickness is: four or five days before I leave, I am guaranteed to go majorly nuts on the subject of what craft(s) to bring.

In practice I know I will wind up taking my knitting, because it’s the most compact method to create absolutely gorgeous finework while on a plane, bus, etc. (I would take cross stitch, but the counted cross stitch kind – which is the only kind that even vaguely interests me – takes too much attention.) But first I have to go to my local fiber arts shop, Carolina Homespun, and spend two hours looking through absolutely everything in the store to confirm that yes, knitting is the best thing to take with me. Nutty but necessary, I guess.

I never worry about anything except what craft to bring. I guess it’s because I’m perpetually terrified of boredom.

Anyway, some of the stuff I’m considering (but will probably not buy) includes kumihimo disks and Weavettes . Not to mention sock patterns – I do have lots and lots of sock yarn, or stuff that could be used as sock yarn, which I could knit up mindlessly.

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China

T minus 24 days to our China trip, and B. and I are preparing.  B., by virtue of being newer at this, is being a lot more organized than me, planning out what clothes, etc. he’s going to bring.  I should probably also be thinking about this, but since I’ve been working crazy hours, the China trip hasn’t quite registered yet in my psyche.  I also am not sure what to pack, because I don’t know about the weather: I know how to pack for the tropics, but not for cooler weather.  In particular I’m not sure what to do about warm pants, jackets, etc. – I have jeans, but they take forever to dry when washed.

Fortunately (?) we will not be traveling in my usual happy style, which means that we’re on a group tour and will probably be staying in decent hotels instead of the shoestring places I tend to frequent otherwise.  This probably translates to washers and dryers, making the whole clothing thing easier.  Nonetheless I’m a little nervous.

We’ve ordered a couple travel guides to China, and it’ll be interesting to see what they have to say.  B. and I wound up getting multiple entry visas good for one year, so who knows – if we like it enough, maybe we’ll go back next year.

I have finished my prototype at work and am now going back and trying to learn a little bit about the theory of object-oriented programming.  I’ve been working with a lot of stuff that I don’t really understand, and it would be nice to be able to work with precision instead of using the “try this and if it works, save it!” method.

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We now restore you to your regular programming…

I’m now in London’s Heathrow Airport, en route to San Francisco.  I had a great time in Ghana – check out my Ghana blog for the details – and am on my way home.  Home! Land of hot showers, dependable electricity, and real coffee.  I can hardly wait.
Ahh.  I have now caught up on the last 21 days of blogs, news, and so on.  I feel refreshed, like I’ve FINALLY had a decent cup of coffee and a newspaper (both are sadly lacking in Ghana).  If I can just get a hot shower and a change of clothes, all my worldly desires will be met.  Just a few more hours, and then…. 🙂

I made significant progress on the entrelac shawl – I knitted the first row (four blocks) in knitted lace (or is it lace knitting? I can never keep track of which is which) – every other row purled, for a stockinette stitch base.   The second row I decided to do exclusively in patterns from Heirloom Lace (sorry, I’ve forgotten the author’s name and am too lazy to look it up right now), complex Shetland garter-stitch patterns.  I knitted three patterns, started the fourth, and realized that I was running out of complex Shetland patterns.  I didn’t feel like reverting to simpler patterns, so I spent part of yesterday
cannibalizing bits and pieces of patterns from Heirloom Lace into a new, extremely complex pattern that I’m looking forward to experimenting with.  Shetland lace is relatively easy to design since the yarn-overs are mostly paired with immediate decreases, meaning you’re working with a pattern of lines and holes, rather than the more complicated types of lace knitting.  It makes it easy to swap in/out patterns.

I do feel I’m getting a better “feel” for lace design; I’m glad I undertook this shawl.  It’s a nice venue in which to work out new patterns (and find out what an existing pattern looks like), without having to commit to an entire shawl’s worth.  I strongly recommend
doing it as an exercise – it’s like swatching, except that you get a usable end result.

Anyway, my flight is coming up soon, so I’ll wrap this up here.  Welcome back to civilization, one and all – I’ll miss trekking through the tropical sun, but it’s nice to be going home at last.  Washing machines! Hot showers! Cats! Clean fluffy towels!  Fresh milk, and hot coffee!  Yay!

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Switching over to my Ghana blog now

We’re now at T minus 8 hours, and I’m doing the last of my preparations.  My small travel lock has turned up missing in my final inventory, so I’ll be stopping by REI later today to pick it up, but other than that everything seems to be there.  This will be my last post in my regular blog until I get back from Ghana – please check my Ghana travel blog, though, as I will be updating it regularly.

Whee!  We’re off to see the Wizard…

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T minus 33 hours…

As promised, Chez Panisse was really good, though whether it was worth the $100/plate price tag I dunno.  At any rate, it was a nice romantic evening with excellent food – first a plate of seafood bits (Sweetwater oysters on the half shell, Dungeness crab leg, some very tender squid, and yummy shrimp), then potato gnocchi with chanterelle and hedgehog mushrooms in a very delicious sauce.  Both B. and I threw table manners to the wind and mopped up the sauce with some bread, it was that good.  Then we had quail with mashed parsnip (tastes a lot better than it sounds) and some concoction of pancetta with bitter greens.  Clementine souffle with an excellent dessert wine for dessert.  Excellent food.

Along the lines of excellent food, I have promised to take B. to The French Laundry.  It’s a simple matter (NOT!) of getting reservations.  They take reservations two calendar months in advance and it’s damn near impossible to get them.  Time to spend some time dialing for dollars.  Too bad I can’t bribe the maitre d’ over the phone.

But all that can wait until I get back from Ghana.

Ghana!  Yes, it’s just over 1 day before I get on a plane to Ghana, and I’m nervous and excited.  My project has a major review coming up tomorrow, which doesn’t help – essentially, I finish the review with the execs, check in with my manager, check in with the program manager who’s subbing for me while I’m gone, and then I’m outta there.  I’ll be giving my presentation in my travel clothes, with a money belt around my waist!  LOL.  If anyone asks why I’m dressed in short sleeves and flowing pants, I’ve got a great story.

I have finished transcribing my Barbara Walker charts and am just about ready to get started with my entrelac sampler shawl. I’m refraining (with effort) from starting it early…I definitely want it to be a “travel shawl” so will wait until I’m at the airport to start.  Meanwhile, I’m rereading the Ghana guidebook so I’ll have a better idea of where I want to go/what I want to do.

Ghana!  Can’t wait.