YAY miguel is here

YAY Miguel got here, and he is a great mentor. Wes pent the first day he was here dyeing and it was a lot of fun. Then in the afternoon we had a meeting discussing what we were going to do.

In the morning we went to IPAC when we got a magazine and an invitation to the magazine launch.

Yesterday we went to a yarn plant where they process wool in to top then to yarn. I am not saying which company it is.

At lunch we had this casserole thing with potatoes.

Then in the afternoon we went to Calicampo to start getting ready for the workshop. We also got some yarn YAY.

Birthday and ayrn

Personal Note: alot of my normal wit is missing from my blogs lately and I acknowledge that.

Well today we spent the morning dyeing and well we got super frustrated having people tell us what we were doing wrong in another language ( as this wasn't so helpful).

Then we when we were getting ready for lunch we celebrated one of the ladies birthdays. Where no one knew the words to Happy Birthday ( there was a tape that we later deciphered had funeral, waltz and wedding music on it), the part where it turned to Spanish the whole room erupted.

We then came home and had tasty lunch

Here is yesterdays lunch:

We went back to work and put taped on tags.

We got home, and here are our samplers from yesterday.

In Katies defense I had lots of pictures where I looked like I drank too much dye as well..... But she is engaged and I'm not.

WE talked to Erica and Trish from TANGELWOOD they seem to be having a tone of fun…. And might be sending us some emergency yarn because well we don’t have any .

Yarn and lost house

After the fiasco getting cake, we woke up Sunday morning with some of it gone. HMM. On Sunday we went and had Chinese food. It was good but an odd thing about Chinese food in Peru is that you get a pisco sour with your food.

It was pretty good food. Until we started talking about me having bad dreams and that it might be a good idea for me to see the card reader friend .The skeptic in me laughed but the part of me that wakes up every morning at 3am was curious.

So we went shopping and bought food. Then we went to the movies and saw a funny movie

It was funny because it was in Ohio and the people were crazy. Katie had to explain not everyone is like that.

We then came home to find out a lot of our cake was missing.

My mom was going to buy this perfect house in Arcata that was perfect it was new, had a place for me to dye, it was beautifully landscaped, it has land for animals it is very new and pretty cheap for being in Arcata.

Well the day before the inspection shell pulled out. This pissed me off because this trip in PERU hasn’t been as good as everyone said it would be and it gave me some light of hope when I got home. Now I have to go back and live in my crappy one room apartment . I have gotten a better shower here and so am very annoyed.

I also went to the card reader who told me I had a spirit and that is why I have had bad dreams for 10 years I am not sure if I believe that or if I do if I would want to get rid of my spirit. SO all in all not such good times at all here in Peru.

We got to dye yesterday but it was after having to knit the sampler. The extra yarn I had that I was going to use to make a different smaller sampler had gone missing.We also got to dye more yarn but haven't gotten any yarn.

Not this best thing right now.

Cake and Cochineal

Cochineal and cake

Well,

We went Saturday morning after F it Friday…. To a farm that the Paz family owns it is is 45 minutes south West of Arequipa. There starts to be red rock and white sand. It was a nice little trek even if it was a little scary watching big trucks pass each other on curves.

When we started to get close, I saw Prickly pear cactus, and Alejandros told me they are TUNA. I try not to look alarmed. But the cochineal bugs are on a piece of paper that is tacked on to the Tuna, then they have three months and they cover the plant making it white. Then the cochineal ( the little bugs) are collected.

They also grow alfalfa which is leased out in a topa, there are three topas in a hectar. We saw sheep, pigs, cows and chickens. Katie liked the little lambs alot.

Then back to Arequipa where we had out tasty Spinach pumpkin bean soups, and a fried fish dish with sweet potatoes.

We then took a long siesta.

We went to go look at a church that was beautiful. But we all know how I am with churches, and I was afraid I might burst into flame. I think everyone could tell I was uncomfortable so we left.

Then we went and had Turkish food for dinner, in Peru. ? I know. I had honey, pecan crepe with Honey ice cream and a café Au lait and Turkish bread. It was all very good, Katie had some vegetable cheese dish.

Myen and Alejandro were then nice enough to take us to get torta ( cake). The tortas we got are perfect. One is chocolate with cream and strawberry, the other is a sponge cake with a local fruit mousse with fruit on top (this is my favorite).

We then watched the End of the Affair which sucked because my speakers on my computer aren’t for watching a movie with two people so I had to keep telling Katie what was going on.

Forget it Friday

Forget it Friday.

Well it was Friday all right and Katie and I were elated that the weekend was coming…. We went to work and sat there. I worked on 8 new pastels and finally before we went to go to lunch

This is lunch a soup then the second is like a salsberry steak with tasty potatoes.

We were told that we could start putting together the colors for our own color way. We did. Then we spent all after lunch mixing the colors and dyeing our own really frelling big skein.

After we had colored it we, had asked if we could keep it. This is where the forget it Friday became the other F word Friday. Because we work with some people who think that yes is no and no is yes. This is a problem. We asked if we could keep it to make a scarf, it is enough to make a scarf trust me. He said yes we were happy, ( we are interning with a yarn company and haven’t gotten any yarn). Well we couldn’t really take it , first he said we could take it home and knit the swatch for the book, but then it was just no.

So after the terrible taxi ride home ( there is a long rutted road, and there is another way to take, but only like 3 out of the 40 taxi rides have taken this way). WE walked in the house grabbed two empty bottles of beer, ( you have to take them back to get new ones, I think we took four) meandered down to the corner and asked for four cervasas, I think they thought we are crazy gringas but we were beyond caring, due to F it Fridays.

So we had dinner came upstairs to find our nice laundry then started in on the beer.There was more but we had to take them back to get more.