Fiber & Personal Musings

For those fiber enthusiasts amongst my readers, there is fiber related content below.

For friends and voyeurs, here's some personal content. You'll have no doubt by now notice that I have not gotten around to posting much about what we've been doing here since TNNA ended. Mostly hanging out with friends and doing touristy things, but also checking out the real estate and job markets.

Last time I visited San Diego, I stayed for 10 years. I'd do the same today, and not even go back to Colorado to get my stuff, if I could. But at this point in my life, I am not mentally ready to start over at ground zero again. I've been in a funk all week, at the same time as being thrilled to be here, and I've been awake every night trying to figure out what I think about all of this. So what I'm writing now is an attempt to figure out what I think by putting it into words.

After I moved to San Diego from Tennessee in the late 1980s, I had recurring nightmares that I somehow left California and got stuck somewhere else in the country and could not afford to get back to the West Coast. When we moved here, I thought I would stay here forever, because it is my favorite place of anywhere I have ever lived (and, incidentally, since I've left, it is the only place I have left behind that I've ever missed). So here I am living my nightmare, except that I also love my life in Colorado. I just don't, I have come to realize, actually love Colorado. In fact two of my friends in Longmont are also from San Diego, which is undoubtedly just a coincidence, but I am going to pretend I think it's some kind of a sign.

So, anyway, today Dom and I sort of decided to start looking for a condo here. A small palce that we can buy as a second home and maybe retire to when our CO house is paid off and we are sick of gardening and yardwork. Dom said, "I knew this would happen if we came here. That's why I never suggested coming here for a vacation before." He jumped at the chance to leave when I said I wanted to go to Colorado, because he always wanted to own a house and we were never in the right place at the right time to be able to afford on in California.

So, I'm still not sure what I think. I don't see how I could ever have quit my day job and written two books and supported myself as a freelancer without moving to Colorado and drastically cutting my expenses. And I didn't start missing San Diego until last year, after visiting Vegas and getting a whif of nearby California on the breeze. So, as usual, I have no regrets about the decisions I've made that led to my current situation, but, DAMN, I miss this place and the people here. If I left Colorado, I don't think I'd miss it at all (although I would miss some new friends, that's not the same as missing the place).

OK, enough whining and thinking aloud. If it works out, we'll buy a condo as a second home here and on the jacket copy for future books, I'll say, "Donna Druchunas lives in Colorado and California." Now Dom just has to find a job that is as portable as mine, so we can come here for a month as a time!

Now here's the promised fiber content. I have not searched out any yarn shops here, because I'm on the "knitting from your stash" bandwagon until September (with an allowance to buy yarn when I am in England and Lithuania). I haven't knitted all week, either. I did bring a sweater with me to work on, but during the trip here I sat or stepped on my bamboo needles and broke one, so I've been resting my hands.

One day during our trip (I've totally lost track), we went to the Mingei International Museum at Balboa Park. They have an exhibit called OF GOLD AND GRASS — Nomads of Kazakhstan, which opened October 21 and continues through April 15, 2007. This exhibit included some wonderful felted rugs. The signs near the rugs said they were woven felt, but they were obviously not woven. I am always amazed at the errors in museum descriptions of textiles. (When I was researching The Knitted Rug, I could never trust museum descriptions of crocheted and knitted rugs without examining the stitches myself.) These rugs were, on close inspection, made directly of matted wool fibers that were felted without being woven or knitted into a fabric beforehand. I have seen this process demonstrated at the Estes Park Wool Market in the past, but I have not yet tried it myself. I enjoyed this exhibit, especially because it showed the rich history of the people of Kazakhstan, in contrast to the ridiculous depiction in the film Borat. I also learned from an article in the San Diego Downtown News that Kazakhstan is actually a very progressive country for the region, and women there work, drive, and are able to recieve an education. Sort of like Iraq was before we "liberated" the people there. (One thing I don't like about my Colorado self is the negativity that has largely consumed my outlook. I don't blame Colorado or myself for that, however, but the state of the world since 2000.)

The second fiber tidbit is from the San Diego Zoo. While we were there (walking, incidentally, up and down steep hills with no problem breathing, something that does not happen in Colorado!), we saw Takins. Granted, these are not the most exciting residents of this zoo, but they are most likely the closest relative to the musk ox that is alive today. In fact, the sign at the animals' enclosure, said they are sometimes considered a type of "forest musk ox". Just like the musk oxen in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, these animals have evolved a double-layer coat of fur that protects them from extreme cold. They have an outer coat of guard hair and an inner coat of down, although I have never heard of their fur being used for creating yarn. They are hunted for meat, however, and have been losing habitat quickly from development in China.

In the wild, Takins live in the same areas as the Giant Pandas, who are probably the most popular resident of the San Diego Zoo. The Pandas (like Koalas) looked fake to me, even when I saw them up close and in person. They are just so cute and cuddly looking that it's hard to believe they are real, wild animals and not animatronics. Good thing I'm not a conspiracy theorist, huh?

Again, excuse me for any stupid typos and check out more of Dom's photos here:

San Diego Zoo photos

Whale Watching photos