On the Next Episode of "Will it Knit?"

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for "Will It Knit???" First up, we have...



100% Peruvian wool. Of course it knits! This is a scarf I'm making for my brother. It's almost 5' long at the moment. Still some more work to do on it, but it's almost done.

And next we have...
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Plastic bags??? Yup. I'm making a mat out of plastic grocery bags. On size 35 needles, whee! It's fun. It's an adventure. It's a good way to recycle plastic bags. And it's just plain goofy.

I'm trying to stick to one project at a time, but of course that's simply not possible for me!

A visit to Chimayo.

Today I decided that it was time to visit Chimayo, which is a small village north of Santa Fe. The main draw of the place is the Santuario, which among other things, is said to contain miraculous dirt in a hole in the ground in the back of the church. The sacristy is full of crutches of people who have been healed by the dirt. Also, there are major pilgrimages there during Holy Week. It's a really beautiful place. It was pretty quiet today, and it was really peaceful.

I took a bunch of pictures from the grounds, so here are some of them. Many people tie crosses to the fences, and they fascinated me, so that's mostly what I took pictures of.


On the road to Chimayo.

Fauxdobe rules.

I have been living in New Mexico for about four whole days now. It's been an interesting experience thus far. This place is a different world.

I thought that it might be nice to put up some pictures of the new living arrangements. Also, this weekend is the Santa Fe Fiesta (which is a very big deal here), so I plan to put up some pictures of that as well.

Ok, so here it goes:

This shows the entry way as well as my favorite part of the living room, the fireplace. I'm super excited about this.



Here is the rest of the living room. Still working on that whole "home decor" thingy.


I love the balcony. This is the view from it. As you can see, my apartment complex is completely fake adobe (that is, fauxdobe), as is pretty typical for buildings in the whole city. The landscaping here is unnaturally green because the management waters like mofos, but generally the landscape is various shades of brown.

Kitchen/dining. I've gotten a dishwasher! As well as a programmable coffeemaker, which appeals to my lazy side. Nothing like waking up and having the coffee already made.


View from the kitchen window, with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the background. This window faces west, so there are some awesome views of the sunset. Also, the weather tends to blow in from the west, so some pretty spiffy cloud formations can be seen here as well.


Bathroom. Pretty standard.


And finally the bedroom. Haven't quite finished unpacking yet. But it's pretty nice.

So that's my place. I'm working on finding a job (had one interview this week and another next week). I joined a parish today. I'm trying to get used to the culture here. I need to brush up on my Spanish. Everyone here is bilingual, to the point where they switch languages every couple words. Makes for an interesting time. Getting used to the weather. It's quite predictable: 70's during the day, afternoon thunderstorms, 50's or so at night. Tonight it's been raining for a while, which is pretty weird.

This is turning out to be just the adventure I was looking for. So far, so good!