Ancient temples

I've been in Sydney for a week now, and really love it so far! It actually reminds me a little of my hometown--Chicago. I mean, it's really completely different, but the way it is organized feels very familiar. I started working 24 hours after I arrived, and haven't had a lot of energy to write on the blog--which is a shame, because I have such a backlog of things to tell! I'll start off now telling you a little about my favorite part of my Southeast Asia trip: Angkor Wat. I had been wanting to see the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples for ages. In the past few years it has become much more accessible. If you have a little cash to spare you can fly direct to Siem Reap, Cambodia (6km outside of Angkor) from Bangkok or other nearby hubs. I had planned to come alone, but met an Australian my first day in Bangkok who decided that it sounded like a fun trip, and came along. We spent three full days touring the ruins. The more popular sites were teaming with tourists, despite the fact that it was the low season. However, there were some slightly-less-spectacular sites were you could be virtually alone. It was really, really amazing--surreal even. I would highly recommend a visit!

I took about 300 pictures over the three days I was there. I would happily sit each of you down for the full slideshow--there are many excellent ones! But I have a feeling I would lose all of my readership pretty quickly if I did that. I'll try to pick some of the more inspiring highlights.

'To give you a sense of how monumental these ancient (Buddhist and Hindu) temples are, the first doorway is somewhere around 7ft tall. The steps on this temple (Ta Keo) were very steep and plentiful. My muscles ached for days after climbing to the top! On a conservation/restoration note, many of these temples were actually completely taken apart and rebuilt as part of a conservation effort!! Can you imagine?

At the Bayon temple, over one hundred giant faces (7-9ft tall) are carved into dozens of towers.

The iconic trees of Ta Prohm. This was my favorite of all the temples. As a former biologist, current conservator, I'm very interested in biodeterioration. Ta Prohm was covered in all kinds of biological materials, including these gigantic trees. Apparently this one was in Tomb Raider, but I don't know anything about that.

The biodeterioration of the temples really lends itself to some gorgeous images. Greens, orange, black--all kinds of colors have developed over the delicate stone carvings of the temples.

One of the many wonderful things about visiting the Angkor temples was that they can be appreciated on so many different levels. As you arrive at each new temple, you are impressed by the scale, the shapes, the colors. As you go closer, you climb steps, enter through passageways, and find all sorts of interesting and beautiful details. I found myself wishing that I had a sketchbook with me. I would love to sit for hours in one spot, and see things through the eyes of an artist: capturing each small detail and relationship in order to really appreciate and understand what I see.

A taste of what's to come

I'm in the Bangkok airport waiting for my flight to Sydney, so I thought I would start to share a bit about my trip. I started out with a few days in Bangkok, Thailand. Unfortunately I caught a pretty bad case of food poisoning from the airline food (thanks American!) I hadn't had a bite to eat in Thailand, and yet I was laid up in my guest house room for a full day. Once I had that out of my system, I was free to enjoy some of the sights. I spent several hours at the Grand Palace/Wat Phra Kaeo. I took a lot of detail shots throughout my trip. I often find the textures and shapes to be really inspiring later in my art/craft work.
This last one is the backpacker street I stayed near--Th Khao San. It's kind of nuts, and not at all authentic, but some people love it!

Travelin' ligh

Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand! I so desperately want to update by blog with stories and images from the places I've been visiting, and updates on the craft front. Unfortunately my internet connection is too weak to upload photos at the moment. Hold tight for a few more days and I'll start writing updates when I arrive in Sydney! I hope everyone is enjoying a nice summer (or winter for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere!)

Breaking news...

We interrupt this irregularly scheduled craft blog to bring you breaking news on Meghan's whereabouts.

I'm currently sitting in the Tokyo airport waiting for a flight to Bangkok. I'll be traveling through Thailand and Cambodia for a couple of weeks before heading down to Sydney, Australia for a couple of months. I know it can be a bit annoying when bloggers go on and on about their travels, but I hope that a few of you might find some photos interesting, and fear not, I will be knitting! On my plane ride from LAX to Tokyo I got a nice start on my yellow vintage sweater.

I hope everyone will be enjoying an excellent summer!

Color

A tile from my ceramics days.

How do you pick out colors for your clothing projects? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. As someone who has done a lot of sculpture, I tend to fall in love with shapes, textures, and other structural aspects while color is more of an afterthought. When I did a lot of work in the ceramics studio, for example, I would often dread glazing my artwork. The colors could be unpredictable at times, and I was so nervous that I would ruin all of the hard work I put into sculpting the clay. Now that I've gotten into sewing and knitting clothing for myself, I find that I'm still a bit wary of color. I realized that for my current sweater--Joy, I picked out a color (purple) that I don't have much of in my wardrobe. While in some ways this is a very logical way to choose a color, I think it would make more sense to pick out a color that I know looks great on me. The thing is, I'm not sure I've ever really given much thought to what colors look good on me. I tend to love neutrals, or pseudo-neutral colors. These aren't thrilling to knit with, but would make a much more versatile finished product. I also realized that I was avoiding knitting too many sweaters in the same color, since this seemed like a silly thing to do--but really, who cares? I can have five different gray sweaters--as long as that makes me happy. I've been taking note of the projects I love on Ravelry, and their colors. Often, a simple, plain color can be just the right thing to highlight the lovely lines of a particular pattern. Here are some examples of my recent favorites [ravelry links]:

katiehellon's flair
winterwren's short sleeved tunic
zeitgeistyarns' herringbone sweater
siggasif's gradient
gotiks' silver streak
olgajazzy's camel silk jacket

Victoria and Albert Vintage Patterns

Have you seen the fantastic free vintage patterns available on the Victoria & Albert Museum's website? There are a couple cute sweaters, including the excellent one above, as well as a variety of hats and gloves and other things. I'm thinking this would look excellent in yellow and white stripes.

Works in progress

My craft life is moving at a snail's pace while I pack up my apartment, and prepare for my big trip this summer. But, I have been making some progress despite all of the other stresses. Joy only has one sleeve left (plus finishing, collar, etc):


And here is the first peak at the Hayfield Jumper. I'm loving the stitch pattern, but I'm a bit suspicious of the *bright* yellow yarn I chose. It always seems like there are very few choices between pastel yellow and super-bright yellow. I think this will work out, but it might look a bit 80s--we'll see!