Art & Books: February 2006 Archives

The AIAS (American Institute of Architecture Students) club from Cal Poly went on a field trip on Saturday to Hearst Castle. It's a nice trip: if you like guided tours and a few tidbits of historical trivia, it's a nice way to spend an afternoon. A little pricey, of course, but just don't make the mistake of planning to eat at the visitor's center and you'll do OK.

I took a lot of pictures, but most of those were note-taking pictures rather than artistically arranged photographs. So I give you a brief selection from our tour (we took Tour 2, which is Hearst's private apartments, the two libraries, and the kitchen; I didn't choose the tour, but that was the tour I happened to be most interested in).

Here's the view from the second floor over the court where guests arrived. A nice view out over the hills to the ocean.

Technorati Tags: antique kitchens, hearst castle, julia morgan, california

On Friday I finished the Flower Petal shawl. Those points were fun, a nice dessert after the long hard slog through the last several rows.

Here's a terrible photo, with a medicine bottle for scale. I need to wash it (not in the least because it got all furry by being on the floor) and block it, but I will wait until the apartment is dogless to do that.

Technorati Tags: crafts, handmade, knitting

I started the points on the Flower Petal Shawl last night. It was a relief to finally start them because at the end the row length was 300 stitches. I don't usually knit things that are that wide, and my brain was not happy with the prospects.

The points go much faster than a row was, so I got four more done today, for a total of six so far (I may do one or two more tonight; I'd really like to be done with the shawl already). I only totally messed one up, and then I was able to salvage it.

I took some pictures tonight, but they look like hell, because the lighting in my apartment is terrible. I'll have to lay the shawl out tomorrow at school and try some pictures of it there, so the light will be better.

Technorati Tags: crafts, handmade, knitting