Knit Zoo: Weariness and Wine

Well...it's official - I'm in a slump. I'm hoping this week will slide back into it's normal pattern of avoiding housework and knitting and reading, and playing on the computer. Right now, nothing seems to cheer me. I've even considered ripping one of my ancient projects and turning it into something completely new instead of completing the initial pattern. Even that doesn't cheer me much, since some of these patterns have so many years on them, I may only have enough yarn for a smaller size. Actually - reality is setting in now. I may only have enough yarn for a smaller size no matter WHAT pattern I choose!

So, I'm sipping wine and doing dishes and laundry in between reading some 80 blogs - and hoping for some cheer and inspiration.

It looks like I may have received a message from my Secret Pal, only I haven't received anything with information about them and I'm not sure how this works, so I've launched into some kind of passive aggressive worry thing. Deeeep Breath, let it go. Worry? Who me? If I somehow missed an email, someone will let me know. Right?

After our friend's Memorial service we couldn't sit around the house on Sunday, so we took off and hiked a bit. (That's an understatement). I found this site about Letterboxing. And actually this one too. I really like it. I dragged along the rest of the family (the dh-'architect', and the 4 and 7 year old) with bright enthusiasm that really didn't exist inside me, and basically had the attitude that we were going to love it - dammit, even if I had to drag them kicking and screaming to get there!

The first two boxes we hit were great! We stamped our little book and stamped their little book and moved on to the next. Then we went to find the third one which I did not have enough information about. The hike was about an hour longer than I expected and we were exhausted - and then on top of that we had to make our way back!

Ok - let me back up a minute. Unless you followed my links you may be confused. Letterboxing is sort of combination hiking, and a treasure hunt of sorts. Maybe a scavenger hunt better describes it. You basically find the clues and locations online and then you head out with a stamp and a book. You follow the clues to a buried Tupperware box (generally) that contains a little notebook and it's own interesting hand-carved stamp. The boxes are usually hidden really well and the clues will help you to find and uncover their locations. Then when you find it, you take your hand carved (or not) stamper and put your stamp with some notes in their notebook. And you take their stamp and stamp your own book. I don't have a book yet so I stamped some fine handmade paper and made notes, to place in a journal when I purchase one.

I never posted the pictures of the knitting I finished so I'll do it now: