Longest Post Ever

This is just a warning that this is going to be a very long, very picture-heavy post. I've been really busy recently and I'm just going to throw it all out here in one post.

Last weekend I was sick as a dog, but that didn't stop me from getting together with my knitting buddies for some much needed knitting/relaxing/coffeeshop time. Though this time was slightly different. Jill wanted to learn how to spin up the roving she bought at Rhinebeck. So I brought along some drop spindles and some practice roving and the spinning fun was had by all!
And when I say all, I mean it. Liz, who swore to us she couldn't start spinning, she didn't want to, she didn't have the time for it and a million other excuses, decided after watching me teach Jill that she just wanted to try it.

Not just try it in fact, but take it home. Yep, she's hooked. And when she found out just how hooked she was, she realized that she was probably going to be spending money on some roving in the near future.
This is how most people react when they learn they're addicted to something. Don't worry Liz, it's perfectly normal!

After knitting Jill and I went to the mall for a bit of shopping and I found these... Not only are they the most hideous pair of boots I've ever seen, but when you look closer you see they're outer shell is knitted. I don't know about you, but I can think of about a million better uses for knitted fabric than for a pair of quite ugly, ugg-like boots. But then, maybe that's just me...

So I mentioned elephants too didn't I? Yes, elephants were involved this week when my classmates and I took a field trip to the zoo in Syracuse. We all were given a behind the scenes tour of the elephant barn and the tiger holding area. To say that it was awesome, would be an extreme understatement! First we went to the elephant barn and actually got to be in the pen, with the elephant, no bars or anything between us and this huge animal.
You really don't have an understanding of just how huge these awesome animals are, until you're right there, right next to them. A picture just doesn't do it justice.

The keeper was showing us a lot of the different behaviors they have her trained to do so that they can perform basic husbandry. For instance, he had her turn around and lift up her foot to have it worked on, because elephants feet are very sensitive and need care just like horses hooves.

One of the most spectacular moments though was when we each got to go up to her and pet her trunk. Of course, we had to be behind the bars for this because of safety issues. It was the coolest experience and hopefully just the beginning of what I'll experience in this program.

We really had an awesome time. After the elephants, we went to the tiger enclosure and went behind the scenes of where they sleep at night. That was pretty interesting to see.

Then we had a couple of hours to tour around the zoo. We had some fun playing with the tigers through the glass. They were really interested in my friend's umbrella. He would run from one side to the other and the tigers would chase it and get up on the glass. I took some video of it, unfortunately blogger doesn't upload video!

The penguins were incredibly cute too. They were really interested in our fingers and would follow them while we moved them back and forth along the glass. Too cute.

The whole day was such a great experience. It pretty much confirms how much I love this program and that it's definitely the direction I want to go.

So, you want to know where the mondo-mitten comes in? Well, I finally finished them up, including the linings. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of them. But I do have a picture of all the sock yarn I bought from Knitpicks. I went a little sock-yarn-happy. Don't you think?