Jaywalker!

In my absence I've mostly been out in the woods being eaten by mosquitoes. Subsequently no pictures as I couldn't stop long enough to get my camera out. Otherwise I've been knitting a bit. I finished a pair of Jaywalkers in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silkie - Fairgrounds. I don't think they make the colorway anymore, but I bought it at Stitches West. I've got them on right now and they are SOFT!

I attempted to knit them once in just plain knit, but the way the colors pooled was awful. Thank goodness for patterns :)

I've also been working on a baby blanket for a coworker. It's one of those center start square ones. Only trouble is that you can't tell at all what it looks like on the needles. The yarn is BIGBaby by Muench Yarns; acrylic so it's perfect for babies and it's all squishy and comfy!

Oh, I found some pictures from camping. These are from the 4th of July hike that Drew and I went on - up 4th of July Creek, camped on top of Icicle Ridge for 2 nights, then down Icicle Ridge. It was way more intense than I probably should have done, but it was fun, nonetheless!

Junuary Sweater

I guess the only thing good about Junuary is that it might actually be cool enough to warrant a big thick wool sweater such as:
However at the moment it's over 80° inside and that doesn't really make me want to wear this bad boy at all! Might have to wait for JAnuary...
I love it!! See?

Well, ok, the buttons aren't so good, but they will be changed. I would love to be better at choosing buttons, but it's like choosing a good birthday card. It can take me HOURS. Will need to get Martha's crafty eyes :)


Quick Specs:
Pattern: Cable Sweater; Knit.1; Spring 07
Size: Small body, large sleeves (I don't have twig arms, ok?)
Yarn: 60% wool, 22% silk, 11% alpaca, 7% cashmere; it's something I scavenged at Ross, so not really available. However, the original designer was David Bitton and it started it's life as a rectangle w/ sleeves and a hood... snag as many as you can if you find them
Approximate Quantity: 1 original sweater
Needles: 6US Addi Lace (started w/ 6US Clovers, but I wore the points off)
Time: 2.5 months
Damn I'm good!

Oh, Drew and I also hike in style. I proposed a night hike on Saturday to christen my new pack. We went along Ingles Creek for about 1 mile, threw out our sleeping pads and bags, and promptly drank a bottle of wine (note unbreakable wine glasses!) and ate 1/2 a box of grapes. Perfect Saturday night :)

Sockotta!

Oh man, it's finally nice outside! It's been rainy and barely above freezing for the last eon.* I hope this nice stuff holds cause I'm more than ready for it, my tomatoes are more than ready for it... and I think the whole valley was done with winter and nasty weather 3 months ago.

Just in time for beautiful weather I finished my 1st pair of Sockotta! Holy cow are they comfy and cute! See? (Your eagle eyes may notice that they don't match. You're right. They'll be in my shoes...)

I've got a dress on, but I don't know that I'll take the socks off quite yet :) They only took me 2 weeks to knit - one week a piece and almost exclusively knit on the bus.

I did a very nice looking eye of partridge heel, but it knit up tight and stretchy. Does that make sense? Regardless, I knit until the heel flap was 2" long, but it probably stretches out to 2 1/2" and it's so tight that the pick-up edges pucker a little. Why am I not so bothered by this that I'll reknit? Because they'll be in my shoes (again). And no one I know will be concerned with the fact that the heel is a little funky; they'll be excited that I made them! On the other hand it does mean that I'll do things a little differently next time.

I've got another ball of Sockotta in a pink/orange colorway and am thinking about an afterthought heel to avoid disrupting the pattern. Just knitting a short row heel in might be fine too, as I don't notice the disrupted pattern much on these. Of course the other colorway has different patterning too. I may also do another heel flap, but knit it either in a standard k1, sl1 for each knit row so as not to have the offset of eye of partridge. Though I LOVE how the EOP looks! I'm not going to block them, though, and I'm certainly not blocking a heel flap while they're on the needles, so the option to block it to the stretched size is NOT happening! So, we'll see. I guess I could just plain knit a heel flap w/ only slipped stitches on the edges for pick up. Who knows I could even do a contrast heel and toe. Tons of options, I guess :)

I'll be hiking in these babies ASAP and while I'm hiking I'll have more sock knitting in my pack for snack/meal/camping time knitting! Three cheers for portable knitting!
Hurrah portable knitting!
Hurrah portable knitting!
Hurrah portable knitting!
And the crowd rejoiced.

*It's been above freezing, but so windy it's been too cold to leave the house w/o long sleeves or some type of jacket until today. And it hasn't really been an eon, just an unbearably long winter!

The Dumb

This is how I've felt at work lately... Bad news, I know.

A big sweater

At the moment I believe the sweater is at it's biggest. It's taken over my living room :)

Today Drew & I went to visit Camp and then for a walk up to Hidden Lake. It was a complete blast! Soon we'll be to the camping-and-knitting stage :)

We even saw something I've never seen before. It's a Fairy Slipper wild orchid.

I knitted on my newest sock most of the weekend and Drew thought it was adorable. I'm not sure how long that attitude will persist, but I'm milking it for all it's worth at the moment! I suppose it means I need to knit him some socks, though... I needed to take a break from complicated projects so I got going on Sockotta from Plymouth in a green/blue color way. I love that it's self striping even though it's not coming out exactly the same with all of the stripes. I'm excited for some cotton socks to hike in :)

Sweater Fever

I decided to have a weekend for myself and Memorial Day Weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity! Saturday was spent manning Cashmere Cottage Yarn. How can I say no to a chance to work for yarn?! I thought I would get a bunch done in the sweater department, but after working on it non-stop on the bus for the last few weeks I was a little burned out. I did manage to teach myself to use the niddy noddy! I've made it to the 2nd half of the hood - the home stretch! Once the hood is done it's time for blocking and assembling! YAY.

Clearly I'm sick of the sweater as I decided to stash some more sock yarn using my store credit. I'm thinking that Socketta will be really nice as it's 45% cotton, so I'm assuming it will be a little cooler than the nearly 100% wool guys I've done before. Can you find it in the stash? I didn't realize what it was like until I tried to put it in the drawer! Time to get busy on the stashed yarn, I guess!

Rounding out my personal weekend were going to the races in Ephrata last night and then watching my friend kayak near Dryden.



This morning, though, I sat on the couch and watched 4 hours of America's Next Top Model while knitting on the hood! After hardly knitting at all yesterday while working in a yarn store (what could be more inspiring?? Or maybe it's just really distracting) I kicked it into high gear this morning and was able to get from the middle of one side over to the end of the decreases on the other. It's knit as one piece starting at the left shoulder and working over the top to the right shoulder. I may be tired of knitting on the sweater, but I still love it! I think I'm just done looking at brown yarn. Can't wait for some little variegated socks!

CraftyCougDates

Ok, I've been knitting on the bus, yes. But I've also been going out on dates! Here is what I saw on such an occasion yesterday:

Wedge Mountain and Leavenworth, WA.
It's difficult to see, but the branch on the near left pine tree just above the trees in town is pointing at Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat (where I work) AND the Fisheries Resource Office (where Drew works).

And some flowers we picked along the way!
What is more adorable on a mountain date than a bouquet of flowers in your water bottle? Ranks right up there with wet grass and pine trees!

Lest you think I've gone all starry eyed, behold sheep!

The lambs aren't sure what to do with the collie, but Tess is very sweet and trains them with almost no nipping

Then we watched Sue spin for a few minutes. I'm still learning by osmosis at the moment, but maybe someday I'll learn to spin, too!

This is the yarn shop we went to in Ellensburg. I guess I should tell you what I was up to - on Monday I went with almost 50 other knitters around North Central Washington checkin' out fibers! We started at Cashmere Cottage Yarn, ate breakfast at the Anjou Bakery, then off to Fiber Trends, on to Ellensburg for the sheep farm, Dancing Ewe Yarns & Teas, & Dakota Cafe for lunch, and we finished our tour at Icicle Ridge Winery.

Here look at Ellensburg!

One Smart Cookie

Well, 3 smart cookies, really. Behold the graduates!



I couldn't be more proud of them! Kate, Clark, and Mikaela.
Congratulations and now you get to start new lives!

As if a weekend of college graduation wasn't enough - see the grannies on swings!
Grandma Dorie

Grandma Gerri

I hope this is how I remember my grandmas! They can be so unpredictable :)

After all that I couldn't have asked for much more. But I got to go antiquing w/ G. Gerri Monday afternoon instead of working. Then this morning I found these:

There was no name as to who they are from, but I deduced that they are from the nice guy I met recently. Man is he winning points or what? So sweet!

In April I...

Got quite a bit done on my sweater.

Saw the world's smallest Rhododendron.

Tested all of my camping gear (well, not the tent) in the living room.

Had my very best friend over for the weekend.

And conquered a mountain.

Well, and met a really cute, nice boy, but he hasn't been around quite long enough to be snapping pictures and putting them on the internet. I like him! I don't want to scare him away! Although when it's done I'll post a picture of the soapstone pendant he carved for me. It's beautiful and such a surprise!!

For Xstitcher

I guess my grandma was telling my cousin, x-stitcher, about my projects from when I was in CA. I don't know that I properly posted them before...
Anyway, Rachel, here are some things I've done, but haven't posted!
Hedgie

Socks that I finished... uh... in June :)

And their fancy stitch pattern

Socks I finished while I was at Grandma's house

Nice lace stitches & eye-of-partridge heel

I think there are others, but this is what I've got pictures of at the moment. More of the sweater will come soon, too!

It doesn't get any better

That's right, the best smell in the world is:
wet grass & pine trees
Mornings at work make me want to quit for the summer and work at camp again. It makes me so happy I could almost cry!

Being a left handed knitter is a challenge when making a cardigan. For me the left front is actually the right and vice versa. I'd really like for it to button properly, but the directions just say to space the buttonholes evenly. It recommends that you mark on the left front where you'll put the buttons then make buttonholes at those marks on the right front. Well, if I'm actually knitting the right front then I need to use my math brain to calculate where the buttonholes belong.
Do you know when I realized this?
After I'd already had 2 glasses of wine.
Fortunately 2 glasses of wine is not enough for me to make rash decisions. So I did the only thing that makes any sense when you can't knit because you've had too much wine, but you've still got enough sense left to realize that attempting to knit is a bad idea.
I had a third glass of wine.

Bunnies!

Is it spring yet?

I went to town on the sweater, but it still won't be done in time for the show.
So I've started this
It's a cable tube that will get closed up at the bottom, a lining and handles. It's based on the Chinese Charm Bag from S'n'B, but I'm using the cable pattern from the sweater. I am really liking it and I think I'll put it up for sale and see if anybody else likes it :)

I skied last weekend at Mt. Baker w/ Caitlin. I demoed Salomon Guns. They were fun times and completely changed my outlook on twin tips! I'm 90% sure I'll be buying some this summer. Just have to get something a little more girly than dark blue and gray w/ skulls and ravens... and hey! when I've got that option, I need to take advantage!

Then we went to the North Fork Beer Shrine on the way home

and found this!
I present the long lost Blues Sister, Caitlin.