k-brow: vacation minutiae

So today was possibly the most thoroughly "quintessentially perfect k-brow on vacation day" I've had thus far, this vacation. Slept in til 7:30 (very late for 5 am rising me), knitted on Must Have til 10am, then off toAla Moana Center for a girls day out with my bud Charlene. We were there to get her kennel name embroidered on a whole bunch of garments; I was artistic consultant, for what that's worth. Charlene had a whole file of cute poodle clip art to choose from, and the work did come out nicely. Perusing the mall, a leisurely lunch at Neiman Marcus' cafe, the exchange of late holiday gifties, then home for a long, muddy dog frolic. I could have done without the mud, but otherwise the beasts were on their absolute best behavior. Home again to find P cooking from some new Mexican cookbook, in a way that used things I've never dared use, like real dried chiles, masa harina, and running onions through a blender...smells heavenly. Drank red wine, and am now contemplating the further corraling my runaway school stuff to make room for Auntie Jan's arrival in the spare bedroom. Okay, it was not the beach, and still no sun, really, no sun since well before the solstice, I think, here in Nuuanu. But Ala Moana was warm and dry. Ala Moana Center, for the non-Hawaiian readers of this blog, is a huge open-air mall, that is pleasurable, in that it combines mom-and-pop stores, extreme high-end shopping (think Fendi, Cartier, Tiffany) with quirky Japanese stores like Shirokiya and Sanrio. It is not the banal "mall" one thinks of as "mall" on the mainland, but more of a real Honolulu Destination. It's got a performance stage, bars, restaurants and is across the street from a huge park and beach park that seem to be part and parcel of its charm. I love me some Ala Moana.

Must Have is coming along nicely. Acornbud has finished all its component pieces, I'm still working on the back of the sweater. I knew it would be this way, though, so no sadness on my part. The grey yarn is still charming me, with its softness, and sweet sheepy smell, and I've learned so much about reading my knitting, how cables work, and how intuitive knitting can become.

In other news, I've used the niddy-noddy fromMs Pam to skein up some of my bumpy purple handspun. I have a few other skeins of it; these two just happened to make the photo. I'm having fun with it, though I don't exactly have a plan for yarn that ranges from cobwebby fingering weight to chunky fluff all in one skein. I've never been know for my consistency in any area of life, and maybe this spindling effort is representative of the true, inner me. I will say one thing, though; it is therapeutic.