The Richmond trip, and an FO

So I'm going to try to put this together quickly since I want to go to bed, and it's 1:40am. I took about 300 pictures, so it was kind of hard to reduce it down, but I think I managed.


Since I left my last post with Socks, I'll start this one with him too. Like always, he came right out to see me when I got home. Socks is at least 16 years old--he showed up at our house when I was in 7th grade and has been living in our yard/garage/screened porch ever since--he's been in the house too, but doesn't like being stuck inside. He's also rather territorial, and, when he was younger, was known to fight off other cats as well as raccoons, so being inside the house with other cats wouldn't work either.


As soon as I went outside to take pictures he came out and wanted attention, and started rolling around on the ground, getting as dirty as possible. Because that's what he does.


If you drive through Virginia this time of year, there is wisteria EVERYWHERE. Drive down 295--you'll see a ridiculous amount. This wisteria is in Maymont Park, in the Italian garden. If you look in the picture on the right, down at the end under the dome is where I got married.


Yep, right there.

I also really wanted to see the new bears at Maymont. Some of you might remember the 'incident' a few years ago where the two bears that had been in the park for years were euthanized. It created an uproar in Richmond (I was completely fucking pissed--I had been to the back of the bear enclosure, within a few feet of one of the bears, and that kid would've had a hard time getting over the first fence by himself), but by that time it was too late. Since then Maymont has brought in two more rescued bears, and improved the fencing around the back of the enclosure--which I had to go check for myself. As usual, the bears were pretty close to the fence, and one was happily playing with a stick.


This is one of the new bears (the other one had moved into a crevice where he/she was hard to see)--these pictures were taken from the front of the enclosure with my crazy zoom.


There is also a new statue as a memorial to Buster and Baby, the two bears that were put to sleep. It was also nice to see that a blue heron and a family of ducks were also hanging out in the bear enclosure, which has its own pond.


I also had to go see my favorite tree, which is a giant mulberry which has grown around a part of a wall. If you want to go see it, it's between the mausoleum and the back of the bear enclosure.






This is Herbie. My parents have had him for about a year now, and apparently he's gotten a little skittish around people he doesn't know. The picture on the left isn't particularly good, but you can see the expression on his face, which is how he looked at me for pretty much the entire trip. Except usually it was only about half of his face peeking out around a corner. He pretty much would follow me around the house and watch me, so I guess he wasn't that afraid.

It was a really good trip. I also finished Brie's hat while I was in Richmond.

A hat for Brie (#21)


Pattern: Shedir from Knitty
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% cotton, 20% wool), Lime Light, 1 skein
Needles: US #6 (4mm) circulars
Modifications: I changed this one up a bit since the Cotton Fleece wasn't feeling as soft when I tried it on US #3s, so I changed to US #6s. I cast on 96 stitches and did 6 repeats across the row. I also knit all knit stitches through the back loop to make the cables more defined. I did 4 repeats of the main section instead of 5, and omitted most straight rows between decrease rows. It might be a tiny bit long for Brie, but she can always roll it up.

You can read about how Brie is doing on Nittany Knits. I really hope she likes her hat.