Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Spring Break: Monterey-Santa Cruz 2010

Back from Spring Break - Monterey and Santa Cruz, California - 4 days


Spring Break is a one week school break. So my lovely wife who is a teacher set up a 4 day trip to Monterey and Santa Cruz on the coast of California, about 200 miles from Sacramento. Above is a pic of us at the pier in Monterey, near the big aquarium.


Here is number three son Oscar on left, and number two son Frankie on right. They are laughing because Oscar stumbled and nearly crashed through the mesh railing which would have dumped him onto the rocks and into the water below. Well, they thought it was funny.




Here is Frankie trying to sneak up sideways on this seagull. But the seagull saw him coming and fled.



Since we are at the world class Monterey Bay Aquarium there are lots of opportunities for one-of-a-kind photos. Here is my lovely wife tickling a life size sculpture of a killer whale (Orca). We are so clever!


The aquarium sits on the former site of a sardine canning company on Cannery Row. There is a circular tank with an artificial water current and these shiny sardines swim around and around. They open their mouths to catch food on the fly, looking like little cartoon characters or Pac-Man.


There are about dozen different jellyfish on display at the aquarium. They are so beautiful, so graceful. The shapes and colors are wonderful and inspiring.


This seagull is not intimidated by us at all. We walked right up and took this picture. It's a very handsome bird with black, white, gray feathers but then there is the yellow bill with a red spot. Elegance in simplicity.

We had some camera problems, and these are some of what we salvaged. More pictures later.

Have a good day!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Red Strap on Clipboard Loom

I've been a real slacker lately. I haven't really touched anything. Too much time sitting in front of the television with empty hands. So I forced myself to go to the shelf and grab a loom and throw a warp on it.



(click on pictures for larger view)
This is the clipboard frame loom. I threw some cotton crochet yarn on it for weaving a simple flat band or ribbon. I have two balls of red so I decided on red for the basic theme color warp and will use it for the weft. I added some off-white for contrast. I tossed in a strip of metallic silver for a central accent stripe. The cotton yarn is warped as singles, I doubled on the silver because it is thinner than the other yarns.




I'm weaving a warp faced horizontal stripes pattern on the ribbon. The yarn is warped over the loom and I'll slide the strap over the loom as I work around. This is just to break up my "weaver's block", kind like a writer's block. I'm feeling better. I was sick for a few days at the start of the month, That may have been the reason.

So that is my current project. I'll be back to the finger weaving chevron this week so I can finish the tutorial doc.

Have a good day!