Monument Valley

Monument Valley is another intriguing and incredibly weird place. Even from far away, it looks foreign to the landscape; like aliens might have put it there.

We began our tour (after deciding taking a hire car on sand roads was a bad idea) at lunchtime, and it was hot. So beautiful though, and closer up,  you start to resolve the Mesas into shapes. For example, the Mittens:

I was keen to come here, but perhaps not as much as my OH, who has seen a lot of Westerns in his time. Also, according to Wikipedia, this was where Forrest Gump ended his cross-country run. It has been a long time since I saw that film.

Anyhoo, the Valley is also populated by Navajoes - we saw none except our guide for the tour, I don't think you're really allowed anywhere near where they live - and beautiful wild horses, here trying hide against a similarly-coloured rock.

We had a good long tour and covered a lot of ground, and saw many vaguely familiar sights - here is the Totem Pole:

Overall, a brilliant day; I would recommend a tour as you can cover more ground (and don't write off your hire car!). Only advice is to check what timezone they're on here, it can be different to the rest of Arizona and Utah. And remember your sunscreen!

Time for a little craft

Though I am sure you are finding my holiday snaps incredibly exciting, I thought at their halfway point we would have a little interval, and talk about some crafting I did while I was away. I did try to do the May Cross-Stitch along but failed spectacularly - after that month, it did look basically the same as it did at the beginning (in this post). I took it to the USA and managed to find some time in transit and in the evenings to crack on with it, and so by the end of June it had blossomed into this:

Sorry to brag but I am well proud of myself! My first big cross-stitch, first that needed an embroidery hoop, first in about ten years that had that many colours in it.... But my ambition did not stop there. I assembled the materials...

... and then had a massive PhD-related freak out that involved pulling a couple of very long days, but after returning from one of them my mum had turned it into this:

Done I think using these instructions, I can answer questions if needed but anything too technical will have to wait until I see my mum again. It was done for my Nana's 80th birthday and it was kind of from all of us, so I don't think it's too bad. And the recipient was very happy with the result, hooray!

Antelope Canyon

Our next day in the States was mainly spent doing Antelope Canyon. It is a slot canyon, formed by flash floods that occur when incredibly heavy rain falls during a thunderstorm  - basically the only way they get rain in this part of the world. We did Upper Antelope canyon, and after a bumpy and dusty ride in a truck arrived at the entrance. It was of course much taller than  I had anticipated.

We arrived just in time to miss the 11am tour but booked onto the 12noon one instead - which was a good move, because when the sun is at its highest, you get these light beams that cut through the canyon. They were amazing and awe-inspiring, but sadly difficult to photograph; here is the best one I have:

Aside from the light beams, the walls themselves form so many interesting colours and shapes that it is worth going at any time of day to see it. A bit like cloudspotting, the shapes change with time (as you move about) and your imagination can resolve tenuously familiar shapes. There were also just some shapes I just liked that weren't really a thing, here are some of the better snaps: 

Thanks for stopping by! And sorry for the delay with this post, I am resolved to crack on and sort this out this week. 

Grand Canyon

This post has been a long time coming; I took a ton of photos here and I do not think there is one that does it justice. It is impossible to photograph. Especially when you've only had your camera a week. Yes, one week. So they may all be overexposed, some a bit wonky and a lot taken with different settings that all look exactly the same to me, but it is important for me to tell you. I was here.

And it was totally awe-inspiring.

PS. Do try to spot the person sitting on the outcrop in that last one.

Denver, CO

I have been a little busy lately, and I totally apologise for my neglect of this blog; I've been to busy having fun (and working). I'm on a trip to the USA for a summer school, and did a little travelling before it started. Our first full day of the holiday was a Sunday in Denver, which was lovely and quiet (plus jetlag meant we did get up a little earlier than most sane people!). It is a lovely city, though we kind of thought it was mainly for residents and less for tourists; or at least on a Sunday, some of the main sights were closed. Though we did get to see the Big Blue Bear:

He looks into the Convention Centre (the lobby bit, not the bit where you'd actually give a presentation. That would be intimidating, having a 40-foot, blue concrete grizzly bear watching you), and is officially called I See What You Mean, but he does seem to just people-watch over the lobby. There are worse ways to spend your time I guess.

Here is a bit of a shot of some Denver skyscrapers (sorry about the guff on my lens in the top-left); so not how UK cities work but still very photogenic.

We spent most of the morning in the Denver Art Museum, which is brilliant and we got tired before we ran out of things to look at. There was an Yves Saint Laurent exhibition on, which we went to. So. Many. Pretty. Dresses.

Denver is not far from the Rocky Mountains, and as soon as you get above the level of most buildings they start to dominate the view to the west. Beautiful (though unusually cloudy).

We had a good long wander around most of the city centre, did a trip to REI and walked through the 16th Street Mall and did have just enough time to pop into this amazing bookshop (but sadly not enough time to purchase anything).

I did enjoy Denver, with it's lovely laidback feel and love of beer, food, and activity; people seem to cycle and walk more than I had expected. But there were bigger things to come....

FO: Ziemlich Kaffee und Kuchen

After my cross-stitch disaster, I did actually finish something this week. Knitted of course - after all, who doesn't change craft when something is driving you up the wall? It is a lovely frivolous shawl called Afternoon Tea, a recent free pattern in Knitty.

When I saw the pattern I instantly saw this skein of yarn magically turned into it. This did not take much imagination though, as there is a sample that looks very similar indeed.

I was hoping I could go all Austrian, knit it while I was in Vienna and call the project Kaffe und Kuchen (lit: coffee and cake. Normally eaten in the afternoon so it approximates to afternoon tea). However, I had quite a lot of work to do actually, so the amount of knitting time that week was less than usual. I think I knit maybe four rows of it. That is all the knitting I did that week. No wonder I went a bit mad when I got back and finished the thing in double-quick time. And why this is nearly Kaffe und Kuchen.


This is probably the best representation of the colour, apologies for the blur:

Yarn: Old Maiden Aunt 100% superwash merino in leanan sidhe. Lovely yarn to work with, beautiful colour. Maybe a bit prone to letting the needle through the yarn but that might have been me!

Pattern: Afternoon Tea by Helen Stewart. Easy-to-follow pattern that I had no trouble with until the blocking instructions; it says you need blocking wires, and I don't have them. As you can see in the first picture, it probably would have been best blocked with wires not pins!

Mods: I added an extra repeat to the edge, as I had plenty of yarn left. By the actual edge though I was lacking in yarn, so cut out the final bit of pattern (there is meant to be another row with YOs every other stitch) and after casting off had about 6 yards of yarn left. I'm not sure how much longer it is as a result but I do prefer the edging on mine (if I do say so myself). 

Simple, sweet and frothy. Just how I like my coffee and cake!

May Cross Stitch Along II

I have a confession to make: I don't like fudging cross stitch. Maybe the odd stitch, but I have made systemic errors in this project and it is driving me up the wall. It looks exactly the same as it did three weeks ago. There has been a lot of going back and taking, and I have tried my best but I still see errors everywhere. Or maybe I'm lost in the giant pattern, I don't know. But it is either going to the bottom of the giant list of things I have to make, or it is going to need concentrated effort. My current plan is for the latter, so I'm taking it to America where I hope I will have the light to do it. If not, I'm hoping the light evenings will help once I'm back home....