Fall Inspiration and Stashing

My husband and I went for a gorgeous fall hike yesterday near the Teton Range, on the Idaho side. The colors on the drive up were amazing, and nearly all the trees are in full-fall-force. The sky was cloudy and a little grey, which set the muted colors off against the hills, and really highlighted the brilliant oranges, yellows, and reds of the aspens and maples.

Fall is my favorite season for so many reasons: the colors, my birthday (and now my anniversary, too!), wooly sweaters, tall boots, the smell of bonfires and the crispy-sweet taste of freshly picked apples. Mmm. It doesn't get much better than fall.

On the way to our hiking destination, we stopped at Mountain Knits in Driggs. I promised just a half-hour, but probably took a whole hour. It's not the biggest yarn shop, but it does have some wonderful treats, including some gorgeous cashmere sock yarn that I kept picking up, squeezing, and then putting back down again. I can't really justify $88 for a pair of cashmere socks right now! As it is, I kinda spent the grocery money for the week on yarn...ooops. I'll have to forgo my morning coffe shop lattes for a couple of weeks to make up for it! So, here's what I found: This incredible merino is spun very nicely--solid, almost springy. The colors were to die for, and I was able to find these and some others for swatching out a few projects spinning in my head right now.
These colors reminded me of the aspen trees we saw on the way there. The taupe looks like the trees that have already lost their leaves, while the orange and green are the leaves going and almost gone. I love the play of the colors against the neutral.
This sock yarn is very soft in wool and polymide, and looks just like the fresh persimmons I saw at the grocery store yesterday. I love, love, love corals, oranges, greens, yellows, and vibrant blues, and this orange is to die for. These socks are going to be mine, just have to find the right pattern.
And this, from Mountain Colors in Montana, looks just like the evergreens that set off all the colors around them. The wool is very soft and kissed with just a hint of mohair, making it ever-so-slightly halo'd. I love it, and hopefully it will make some nice socks for my dad.
There were many more beauties, of course, but I have to limit myself to projects that are do-able right now. I have too much "wishing yarn" laying around that I thought I'd have a project for, but once I've finally gotten around to it, I've realized that it's not my thing anymore. eBay, start your engines...we gotta make room for the new stash!

Lazy Friday and My First Swap!

Today was lazy, lazy, lazy. I didn't have to work (yea!), except to teach one Pilates lesson first thing this morning, and I've mostly been just sitting around knitting. There are about a million things I should be doing, but...

I did run a few errands: went to the LYS to get some Bambou Soft I ordered, and then grabbed a skein of Trekking XXL, too. The fall colors (which don't show up so well in the photo) are very inspiring right now, and so luscious. I immediately cast a sock on, and the color knits very nicely, too.

We did a little shopping today, because we found out this week that DH will also be having surgery (on his shoulder). His is two days before mine. I'm kind of excited because if we both have a good recovery, it could mean a lot of fun free time together, but I'm also kinda nervous...it could be a very exciting test of a very young marriage! Can you imagine? Don't worry, I'll keep ya posted on how this progresses...

I also made my favorite things tonight for dinner--Thai roasted pork and sticky rice. I remember in Thailand, when we were getting ready to go out to the sea for five days, our guide had a bag of food. I asked him what it was and he said it was lunch for "the guys," meaning the crew. I asked again what it was and he showed me: roasted chicken and sticky rice. I was very jealous of the crew that day, even though our meal was excellent. I love, love, love sticky rice, and after so much trying, I've finally learned how to make it properly. You just need one of these cool rice steaming basket things, which I tried to find all over Thailand, and ironically enough, had to buy at the Asian market back home.
So, I'm also doing my first swap! I am so excited! I've always been so jealous, reading other people's blogs and seeing all the fun things they've sent (and received) from their swap partners, and finally, I'm in! I found Chara Michele's blog last weekend and saw that she was having a swap sign-up, so I joined. I can't tell you how happy and inspired this makes me...I'm already thinking of what to make and send. Woohoo!

So, the sock is really coming along nicely. It's been a while since I've worked with sock yarn, and at first I was getting frustrated with how slow it was, but it seems to really be taking off now. The colors are amazing; they remind me so much of our sea kayaking trip to Lake Powell last year, which I've been thinking about a lot lately. It was amazing--I'll have to dig up the pics and post about it (that was pre-semi-regular posting for me, and actually right about the time my knitting flame was re-ignited).

Tomorrow should be an exciting day. First, I heard it's going to snow (again), which will make three Saturdays in a row with snow. We're tentatively planning a hiking trip with Kodi-Woo in the Tetons, which includes a yarn scouting trip for me at Mountain Knits in Driggs. I can't wait! I need to find some really wonderful cashmere or something cuddly and soft for a project I'm planning. The sock thing is going pretty well, too, so I might find something lovely for another pair. Happy Friday! We're off to drink wine at our LWS!

Some inspiration, please!

For the past several years (maybe ten years, actually?), I feel like I’ve gotten away from my creative side and much more into my analytical side. Both are “good” sides, I think, but it’s been interesting to look back and see how they haven’t really been working in concert as much as one-or-the-other. The creative side definitely overpowered anything else for the first twenty-five or so years of my life, but gave way, I suppose, for a need to have a job with a 401(k), benefits (hello...two knee surgeries in one year ain’t cheap, y’all), etc. My art buddies gave me a lot of flack about this, as you can imagine (who needs a 401(k) when you’re young and your soul is hungry?), but in recent months, many of them have confessed that they’d sell those souls for some retirement stability. However...

I’m feeling a need to feed my creative side these days. I’m not sure what or how this happened, but I’ve been feeling a little restless lately. Maybe it’s travel that inspired this, or maybe it’s been my recent bout of frenzied knitting in as a desperate need to unwind and de-stress, but the creative sparks are starting to come out of hibernation.

I’m sure my old art buddies back home will be thrilled (and gosh, it’s a hard question to answer all the time, “So, what are you doing creatively, though?).

So, what am I doing, creatively? Well, I’ve been knitting and thinking and dreaming and designing. When I first started knitting, I was about six years old. Knitting was dorky, and it was even dorkier when I was a teenager. I would knit on and off throughout my teens and twenties, but the patterns were nothing if not dorky—well, we call it retro now.

Then this big knitting emergence/renaissance thing came, and I refused to join in—hell, I already WAS a knitter, and I didn’t need to prove how “cool” I thought it was by naming myself something edgy, I guess, and I just kinda stood back and watched for a while. Yowza.

But I can say that I was delighted at the fantastic, modern, and exciting patterns coming out of this rennaisance. Then I started a blog that I never kept up with, then I joined a couple of email lists (not specically about knitting), and then ...well, I started talking and meeting other knitters and I discovered that you can buy yarn –really cool, gorgeous yarn—and it didn’t have to come from a mass-chain retailer or a knitting shop that had inventory from the ‘70s. Wooohoo!

Then I started noticing how all this women who started knitting, like, ten minutes ago were designing really cool, wonderful stuff, and well, why couldn’t I? I guess it never occurred to me in all the more than 25 years of knitting that these patterns didn’t just land on earth somehow, that someone had to actually create them. So, why not me?

It’s strange, because I think that once you open the door, the flood just starts pouring in. My head is full of ideas, my brain is soaking up techniques, my hands are knitting furiously. It’s almost as if there’s too much going on (well, with school, work, teaching Pilates, and now, knitting, there is just way too much going on!), but that’s not really the problem—the problem is how to get it all down—how to start without forgetting. How to knit the patterns I want to knit and at the same time create the stuff I want to create, and frankly, how to get my brain to control the scroll bar on the computer so I can read blogs and knit at the same time (I’m trying now, but it’s a little awkward, LOL!).

So, here I am with my little knitting blog, joining a few groups, and trying desperately to find out certain things, such as:

It’s a “blogosphere,” not “blogland”

What the heck “frogging” is (I now know, but can’t tell you how dumb I feel in retrospect, thinking it was some technical knitting term)

What the heck “Ravelry” is (and now I know that, too, and just signed up for my invitation, Lord only knows how long?)

How to do a KAL, and how to sign up

How to take really great photos of my stuff (obviously, the fact that we’re now moving to winter isn’t helping with actual daylight)

I'm in the WSJ!

Woohoo! I have a quote in the Wall Street Journal about kayaking! A couple of months ago, the writer emailed me and asked me a bunch of questions about kayaking in Asia. Only one of my quotes made it in (and none of my pics) but how cool is that?

Check it out: Anna's Thailand Kayaking Adventure

(Almost) FOs

I've got a few things that are just about finished and ready to wear. It always seems like I have a few things going at once, but nothing totally done! I've also been hard at work on a lot of swatching and sketching for some of the ideas that are going on in my head.

And then of course, work, school, and teaching my Pilates classes gets in the way of knitting every time! (Housework, you ask? Pah! We don't have no time for no stinkin' housework!! LOL!). Thankfully, I'll have all the time in the world in a couple of weeks, because I'm having knee overhaul number two! I was so freaked out and scared for the first one, but it wasn't bad at all, and I'm just relishing the knitting time.

So, here's what I'm working on today (which is a good thing, because it snowed again today. As in inches.) I love, love, love this sweater, the design, the yarn, everything. Love it! The original pattern had 3/4 sleeves that kind of rolled on the ends, but I really wanted long sleeves that repeated the decreasing rib at the top. It's almost finished! Just a couple more inches at the neckline, then just have to sew the sleeves. I love knit-in-the-round stuff for that reason, and this is my first sweater I've knit this way.

Here's kind of a closeup of that ribbing. I wish I could explain how soft the yarn is...so amazing and just makes you want to....sleep in it!
I finished the Sunrise Circle Jacket and entered it in the Eastern Idaho State Fair (and got a stinkin' honorable mention!!!), but then after I blocked it, it was fitting a little bigger than I wanted it to, so I reblocked it...and now it's a little wonky! I'm not sure if I should just wear it and see if it works out, or re-block again. Hmmm...
And so I finished the Coachella in time for...yeah, the snow. Lovely. So, she really needs her ends woven in, but I'm in turtleneck mode, so she may go into storage with the rest of the summer clothes!
Here's the back. It's such a cool design, and I can't wait until next summer!
So, that's what I've got going on now. My LYS called to say that the Bambou Soft I ordered is in, which is for something I'm designing, and then I've got to find some other yarn for another idea I've got. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Pass the mittens, please

Winter comes early here...and by early, I mean September 29! Holy cow, it's real snow. Thursday and Friday were in the 70s, and today we have knitting mittens weather.
We've been meaning to make a coldframe for the salad garden, and so today's the day! DH has made two trips to the hardware store already today...
We'd better hurry!
I tried to get some pictures of the little husky boy running around in the first snow of the season...
...but he was just too excited!
Today's obviously a great day to catch up on some ironing, knitting, and for making some spicy Italian sausage soup and beer bread. Mmmmmm.....

Power Weekend!

I had a total power weekend! I can't believe how much I got done. It started off pretty slow, actually. I had a hell-day at work (I am so tired of being so constantly crazed/pushed/rushed that I could scream!), and so I came home at 4:00 on Friday and just slept...until my husband woke me up around 7:30 or 8.

We went to our favorite wine store/bar and had a glass of wine and a beer on the patio (just about the last night we could do that!) and then went to a little sports bar a few blocks down for dinner. It was all I could do to drag myself home and get to bed! But I was also feeling kind of wired and wanted to work on some knitting or something. Thankfully, I just gave in and went to sleep.

Saturday was fun: went to the Farmers' Market for some grape-starter bread, sausages, and fingerling potatoes (I still have no idea if the ones in my garden actually made it), and then I passed around some flyers for Pilates for Pink. My studio is hosting a few classes to raise funds for breast cancer research, and if you are so inclined, check out this link to see if there's a class in your area: PilatesforPink.com. It's great, and all the money for the classes goes to the foundation.

Then I started cleaning like a mad woman! I got so much done: about 10 loads of laundry (apparently I haven't done laundry in a while), srubbed the bathroom top to bottom, completely reorganized the linen closet (and DH made new shelve), did a bunch of grocery shopping, made a King crableg feast for dinner, made cookies, and made--yes, actually made food for our doggie, Woo. Oh, yeah, I'm the housewife-hellion!

We also went to my B and SIL's for dinner last night and had a great chat with them and with my other BIL, who was visiting from Alaska. We had breakfast with the family today, too, which was really nice.

So, on to some knitting news: I finished the little mittens, but I was going to put fun cables on them and then in the middle I realized I'd just been knitting away (stress):

I think I might tuck them into the felted bag I'm planning to make for my sister as a birthday present. They were fun, and they gave me the inspiration to try a braided cable around a chunky hat:
I love the hat! I'm going to make some fingerless mits with the same braid. So fun and bright, and will be perfect for skiing at Targhee this year.

And then I finally started making some progress on the body of my cashmere/merino sweater (which is just like heaven to work!). This is probably the third attempt, and I put a little 2x2 ribbing at the bottom so that it wouldn't curl up. It's supposed to curl, but for some reason, I don't like the curling.

I also made a few swatches for some new designs that are swirling in my head. And now I see that it's 10:30 and I have to get to bed and go to ...ugh... work tomorrow!

Soup Weather!

Yea! It's finally time to start getting serious about...mmmm...soup! I love soup, almost as much as cozy cashmere and wonderful boots. I've really been wanting to put some soup recipes together lately, and tonight was the perfect night--cool, with a hint of rain that is supposed to last all week and maybe even into next. With the Indian Summr weather that is so typical here, it's kind of a nice taste of fall.

I found an interesting set of soup recipes over the weekend, that is apparently pretty popular: it's a "soup diet" that Good Housekeeping magazine does in the fall. Truth be told, it looks like a great diet and a healthy way to lose weight, but what really excited me was all the soup-y possibilities.

You just make one big batch of basic vegetable soup, then add different things to it to make about 20 or so other combinaions, each one unique. Brilliant! The soup isn't difficult to make, and apparently freezes well, so I dug in!

The basic vegetable soup begins with the classic French Mirepoix trinity of celery, onion, and carrot:
And ends with a delicious soup packed with vegetables. I added imported French haricot verts, fire-roasted tomatoes, baby spinach leaves, zuchhini, etc. The recipe is fantastic already!
I'll keep you posted on the progression of versions. And the progression of cashmere....mmmm. There's nothing quite like soup and cashmere weather! You can check out the details for the recipe at http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/soupdiet

Catching-Up Weekend

Our weekend was a little boring and unadventurous, probably because last weekend was a little too fun and adventurous! We went to the City of Rocks for a rock-climbing/camping advenure, then to Miracle Hot Springs where my husband went kayaking with our rafting buddies. In addition to sustaining a flat tire, the dog eating a chipmunk (whole), and then acting like a crazed chipmunk in the tent all night (no sleep for mommy and daddy, that's for sure), my husband also suffered a really bad shoulder blow in his whitewater kayak. Man!

So, this weekend has been pretty subdued, but nice for catching up on things. Supposedly, that is. Mostly I've just been sitting around and knitting! The weather has been great, though...those crisp, sunny days where you know autumn is just imminent. It really makes me want to dig out my boots and sweaters, which I'm planning to day this afternoon, after we run the dog's buns off at the Sand Dunes.

The weather also puts me in the mood for wam, cozy fall projects, and I started a great cashmere-merino sweater this weekend. I did a ribbing mix on the sleeves, starting it out with a 1x1, then adding a purl to every other purl rib, making it a 1x1x1x2 sort of rib, that I took about seven inches up the sleeve.. I really like it--almost gives a Victorian quality to them.


The project is stalled for a couple of days, though, because I realized I didn't have the right size circular needle. I need a 24-inch, and all I have is a 29-inch, which isn't working at all (the body is knit in the round, and having tried the larger circ, I can see that's just not going to work). So, hopefully my LYS will have the correct size and I can back to that tomorrow.

The little Woo-Woo got to play with his "cousin," Moose yesterday. This is him questioning whether I'm serious in my suggestion that we get ready to go. He's such a suspicious little brat...too dang smart for his own good! A few weeks ago I was sick and my brother-in-law called to say he was going to pick Woo up to go play at their house. So, I got him all ready with his leash and collar, and then they didn't come over for nearly an hour! I thought the little guy was going to kill me. Since then, I think he wonders if I'm just messing with him. Twerp.

So, while I'm waiting for the right circular needle, I went to get my morning latte, some sushi for lunch, and found this sort of roving-style yarn. It's wool with a little acrylic in it, which I would normally turn my nose up at, but I've been craving some really chunky mittens and a hat for when we go hot-springing, and hopefully that acrylic will keep the wool from felting in the hot steam. Either way, the colors are really cute and I love how chunky-monkey it is.

The lack of a really good yarn store around here is about to kill me, though. We have our little shop that's been here forever and I love the owner, but I really crave having miles and miles of yarn to design around. I can go to Salt Lake City or Boise and get some good things, but I wish I could have a whole pavillion at my disposal any time I want. There are tons of designs swirling in my head, and without having the tactile ability to see what it's really like, the stuff on the Internet is great and all, but...

I used to have a subscription to a fabric mill that would send me swatches every season. I've been looking for something like that with yarn, but it doesn't seem to be a common service. I need that! I'll keep looking, and in meantime, happy Sunday!

Kayaking in Yellowstone

We decided to take off Friday night for a weekend in Yellowstone! Living so close, we do end up in the parks a lot, but we did a couple of new things. First of all, we paddled on Yellowstone Lake to the shoreline geyser basin. We actually attempted this little trip a few weeks ago, but the winds were a bit fierce and I was only three weeks off knee surgery, so much to my surprise—I couldn’t balance my kayak. Yikes! We had to turn around, but my husband actually went back out a week or two later and explored. So, now we were going together and it was such a worthwhile trip!

You start on a launch point of black volcanic sand on the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake, and start paddling to the point on the left of the lake. This is about as far as we got last time, where we saw an elk feeding along the shorline. A little later, we were lucky enough to see her twin fawns, resting on the beach. Poor little babies...they were kind of scared but were very good and kept their heads down just like they were supposed to.

Around the point you start to see the boardwalk (full of tourists) who are looking at the fishing cone and other mini-geysers around the shorline. The fishing cone has some neat stories attached, where visitors in the early 1900s would catch a fish on a line in the lake, then dip it in the boiling waters of the fishing cone and have a freshly-caught-and-cooked meal, right on the shore! Getting to see the fishing cone up-close and personal is a bit of a rare treat.

Around the point you start to see the boardwalk (full of tourists) who are looking at the fishing cone and other mini-geysers around the shorline. The fishing cone has some neat stories attached, where visitors in the early 1900s would catch a fish on a line in the lake, then dip it in the boiling waters of the fishing cone and have a freshly-caught-and-cooked meal, right on the shore! Getting to see the fishing cone up-close and personal is a bit of a rare treat. Going around, you get to see all sorts of things from the water that you can’t see from the shore—lots of little geysers and run-offs that pour hot showers down into the lake water (which is very cold). One section has a run-off that must be really hot, because it makes the lake water feel like a bath, but then just dip your fingers down another four or five inches in the water, and it’s freezing again.

We paddled along the shore to the end of the basin, stopped for some lunch, and then turned around again. I wanted a nap so bad—the combination of the hot sun, the cool breeze, the water, and a good lunch really got me in nap mode. We sort of forgot the tent poles this time, so we had to sleep in the back of the Bronco, which was sort of different, but hey, you just have to roll with the punches, right? To tell you the truth, it was kind of fun—sort of had that “pillow fort” quality to it!

The next day we decided to get out a super-secret map to the petrified forest on Specimen Ridge, near Norris, that a friend gave me a couple of years ago. The hand-drawn map has some sort of cryptic directions to it, and a neat commentary on petrified trees by Dr. Erling Dorf. The map and directions were drawn up in 1989, and from what I was told by my friend, it was a big secret that the park rangers didn’t even want anyone to know. Woohoo! A secret map to Yellowstone. So, we started off on a steep slog up the side of the hill, then cut over to the ridge, off-trail. Suddenly, a petrified stump appeared! It was so cool—then, just up a little, another, and then several others. Very neat.

Here's a picture of me, from the top of Specimen Ridge, looking down over the valley.

Dreaming in Tongues?

I must've had a really fitful sleep and been fretting about not winning the lottery, because apparently I was talking in my sleep. When I woke up this morning, my husband asked if I remembered asking him about the plywood. I didn't.

Apparently I was telling him that I needed a bunch of 8x4 plywood. Except, he said, that you would normally want to say "4x8." I looked at him and asked exactly how big is a normal sheet of plywood. He replied, "Four-buh-eight."

Weird. I have no idea how I knew that in my sleep, because if you asked me any other time, I wouldn't be able to tell you.

Fingers Crossed...

It’s Lotto Fev-ah, baby! So, since my desperate (and thus-far unrequited) plea for grant money earlier this week, Gina (http://lumay.blogspot.com/) and I have decided to become lotto partners. From now until the end of 2007, we are going to take turns buying a ticket for the Wednesday night lotto drawing, and split the winnings. There are 19 Wednesdays between now and New Year’s Eve...nineteen chances to make it big (or at least afford yarn!). Woohoo!

I mentioned it to my husband who started going off about how stupid the lottery is and something about a “Welfare 401(k)” and such, and how if I just put the money in a savings account instead, I could have all the yarn I wanted, blah, blah. So, just to make things interesting, I will also be putting the same amount of money into a high-yield/low minimum savings account at the same time. So, I guess it’s just a little stand-off between ING Direct and the Idaho/New York Lotteries. Gentlemen, start your engines!

This whole lottery thing reminds me of these office lotto pools we used to do at work. One of the secretaries, Julie, would organize these elaborate pools and collect everyone’s dollars, logging the results into spreadsheets, etc. It was kind of interesting how the winning tickets were often the ones she purchased “for herself” and weren’t part of the group lotto anymore, despite the fact that there only seemed to be one spreadsheet. At least it didn’t cause any of those office riots—we just sort of wrote her off as being silly/eccentric.

And she was eccentric! I remember one time we all went out to lunch in my car, and Julie wanted to get the lottery tickets on the way back. I needed gas anyway, so as we were going back to work I stopped at the gas station. I was filling up and reminded Julie that she was going to get lotto tickets, but she looked at me, shaking her head and said, “No...not here. I don’t have a good feeling about the tickets here.” HUH?! She was serious, by the way.

Not only that, but she would also take them (the tickets, that is) to church on Sundays to have the priest bless them. Hmmm...either God didn’t care about her winning the lottery and donating a portion to the church, or he felt the church was already swimming in money, or.....hmmm.

Okay, so here are the numbers for this week. I’ll be at a CAbi party tonight, then joining my husband and his rock-climbing buddies for pizza after, so I probably won’t get to check in until late. You can check the numbers yourself here: http://www.idaholottery.com/PBnumb.asp

Wish us luck!

Ooops du Jour! Finished!

The Ooops du Jour is finally finished and made its debut today (thank goodness it was cool and somewhat rainy out...maybe not so much for the pictures as for the fact that I could actually wear a sweater in August!). The Ooops has had a history, actually, and started it’s existence as the Scoop du Jour from Chic Knits. I found the yarn at a craft store of all places (but then again, in my town there’s only one, very tiny, LYS) and fell in love with the stretch, slightly shiny, totally chocolate aspect of it.

I wanted it in a nice cardigan with a modern, sort of boxy shape. Something you could wear over your bikini when the air gets a little cool at night while you’re lying on the pool deck (okay, so this never happens, but that’s the “feel” I wanted). I searched high and low for a great pattern and found the Scoop.

Loved the design, ordered it, and began whipping it up. I love the design, but there were things about the pattern writing I didn't love, and it was just plain irritating to follow at times. Times like decreasing the armholes---you go through this rhythm of decreases for a while, and then you get this, “oh, and by the way, you should have been counting rows all along because now you need to get to XX number of rows since the beginning of the decreases.” What?! If I wanted to go back and count rows, I could just make this up myself! Grrr....as if she couldn’t have just said something like, “knit X (X, X, X) more rows even,” and saved her knitter having to break out of the forging-ahead rhythm.

Anyway, as I was going along with the back, the front panels, and almost through the first arm, I noticed something strange...I didn’t have enough yarn! Agggh! I thought for SURE I’d bought much, more than enough (because I was planning to make something else with it, too) but couldn’t find it in my knitting bag, basket, backpack, under the seat of my car, in my desk drawer at work...nothing! Gone!

So I decided to step back and rework. I thought about it and decided I could fashion the Scoop du Jour into an elbow-sleeve pullover instead of a long-sleeved cardigan. Voila! For fun, I started calling it the “Ooops” du Jour. It worked out pretty well, the ripping went fast and after some figuring on the arms, I got them at just the right spots with enough ribbing to balance everything out and make it look “on purpose.” And that’s just about the exact moment when....you guessed it! I found the rest of my yarn! Yeah...fate can just go screw itself.

I honestly took a look at frogging the whole thing out again and doing the cardigan, but I started really falling in love with the Ooops. I think I actually like it just as well, if not better, and the shape and sleeve length work really well in my wardrobe. So, the Ooops is a hit! Oh, and I got a great compliment within an hour of donning it: I was at the coffee shop this morning (of course!) to get my morning latte and as I was walking out, my friend (and bridesmaid) was walking in. “Oh, wow! LOVE your sweater!” she says, and she didn’t even know I was knitting it. Thank God I didn’t get the dreaded, “Oh....did you make that?”

Knitting Update

Okay, so the knitting. Well, the Sunrise Circle Jacket was done...mostly. Truth be told, it was done last week, it was just done wrong. You see, for whatever reason, I made the foldy-over part smaller on one of the panels. Strange, and I didn’t really notice it until after I got the whole thing sewn together. Grr.... I kept telling myself that it didn’t matter, that no one would notice. But then I hung it up and kept looking at it and every time I would just get annoyed. I also decided to enter it in the fair, and so it really does have to be perfect...Mormon ladies do the judging around here, and those ladies really know their handicrafts. And their white bread (white bread is the fiercest competition going at the Eastern Idaho State Fair!).

It’s actually pretty fortunate that I decided to enter it in the fair, because otherwise it would probably take me another eight months to rip that section out and redo it. It’s also fortunate that I’m dying to start the Coachella, which uses the same size needles at the Circle Jacket, because otherwise I would have launched headlong into Coachella and then been up until 2 am this Thursday, getting the Circle Jacket ready for entry on Friday.

As it was, I was up until 2 am this morning with a little insomnia and wandered into blogland for a while before finally getting the surgical scissors out and re-opening the Circle Jacket. Again. Counted, added another three rows and for some weird reason only known to the knitting gods, now it was bigger than the rest. Wha...??? So, rip some more, bind off, and .... perfect! Phew! Now I just need to resew and block. Pray the blocking works. I’ll show you the real results before it goes to the Fair on Friday. I totally love this sweater, though.
In other knitting news, I did allow myself a little swatch of the yarn I’m using to make the Coachella. It’s a fun, wobbly silk and cotton mix I bought eons ago, and it was really always just waiting for something like Coachella. The swatch is awesome, but a little bigger than the specified gauge, so I’m going with a smaller size and hope it kinda evens out because the yarn is so wonky that I think it would be hard to knit it in a smaller gauge. Yeah, it’s a kinda risky tactic, but we’ll see what happens. I’m not so afraid of ripping stuff out as I used to be.

And the Ooops du Jour is completely finished. I really like it, but I’m not sure I love the yarn as much as I thought I did when I started. It’s pretty heavy, and it does sort of give me that “big girl” look that I don’t like. I would think the ribbing would help accentuate my waist, but I guess having been a former “bigger girl,” I’m still a little sensitve to that. Anyway, I’m going to debut the Ooops tomorrow, so I’ll get some pics to post.

I’m revelling in the fact that this will be my last free Monday, once school starts next week. I’ll be revellling on Wednesday, too, for my last free Wednesday. It always seems like I have something to do, and while I really like that, it is nice to have a night where you can just come home and do...nothing every once in a while. I’m seriously considering cutting back on some of my nighttime Pilates classes for that very reason. It’s so hard to do that, though, when you have people wanting (and many, needing) to work out with you. But since fulfilling my New Years’ Resolution to “knit more,” I’ve really been enjoying that and wanting to keep that momentum going.

It’s also starting to feel just a little like fall outside. We had some terrific thunderstorms this weekend, with practically torrential downpours. I loved it! I went over to Jackson Hole to pick up my hubby and his climbing buddies (and let him take me to dinner at the Mangey Moose), and it just poured! They were soaked to the bone.

It’s actually cold today too. Well, not cold so much as cool. It’s wonderful. I had my little heater on to warm my bare toes and ankles under my desk, which is a far cry from sweating my brains out last week!

Now Accepting Genius Grants

I used to watch this show called "Flying Blind." It was completely brilliant, and it was on Fox about fifteen years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Blind My best friend at the time, Michael, and I would watch it ever week and I loved, loved loved the main character, Alicia (played by Tea Leoni). But like all my favorite Fox shows (Arrested Development), it got canned because there were only 14 or so of us who could see the utter brillance. Okay, so on "FB," the character Jordan just hung out all day doing nothing, and finally Neil (Alicia's nerdy boyfriend, star of the show) just asked Jordan what exactly was it that he did. Jordan looked at him kinda funny and just said, "You mean you don't know? This! This is what I do!" and pointed to himself, lounging on the couch in his bathrobe in the middle of the day.

So, of course, Neil goes on about how in the world can he do "this," and Jordan explains that he has a genius grant. Neil is astonished! Jordan is a genius?! And so Jordan replies, "Well, I was that one night in bed with the woman who gave out the grants!"

So, I've decided that I need a genius grant. I'm not so much into my job lately, which doesn't really pay all that much and gets in the way of Pilates and knitting anyway. I found a passel of new projects that I want to make, and they're all expensive. So between the $$ and the time, I need a genius grant. Or I need to win the lottery. What is that about not winning if you don't play? Hmmm...they might be on to something. And why is it that everyone who talks about wanting to win the lottery never actually buys lottery tickets?! I'm buying a lottery ticket tomorrow! I'm sure you can't buy them on Sunday in Idaho. You can't even buy beer until 10 am...speaking of, there was a guy in line behind me this morning at the grocery store, buying beer at 10:01 in the a.m. I totally cracked up!

Okay, so the stuff I want to make (and I feel totally justified because I have just finished the Ooops du Jour AND the Sunrise Circle Jacket...more on those later). First, up, the Somewhat Cowl by Wendy Bernard. Love, love, love the design, the fact that it's knit in the round, the yarn, everything! A must-do, and soon! Am wondering if I can get away with knitting during my MBA 610 class, given that it's over a video feed? Hmmm....

Okay, and then the gorgeous Coachella, which made me gasp the first time I saw it on knitty.com. It's the cutest thing ev-ah, and I think the design is totally smart-hot. Love it! And I have some great nubby cotton-silk in my stash that'll be perfect.

I just found this one today and about died. It's the Ellie Sweater from Rowan, and knit in super-bulky yarn. I'm hoping that I can do it in brown instead of black. Isn't it delicious? Can't you just see me strutting around Park City next February at Sundance, being mobbed by Paris Hilton because she's so freaking cold she'd kill me for it? Can't you see me stradding the couch like this model (well, as soon as I get all the magazines and ironing and stuff out of the way), being ravished by my stud-muffin of a husband?

And then the Union Square Market Jacket, that I remember loving but not realizing that it was a Kate Gilbert design until last week when I was trolling for new patterns. I have say, I think she's an amazing designer. Amazing! I think I might save this one for a vacation to Greece next summer.

So there you have my little wish list. If you have a grant or want to be a yarn sugar-daddy, sign me up!

C'est la Rentrée!

Yea! It's back to school time, which is always my favorite time of year, whether I'm actually going back to school or not. This year, though, I am going back to school--my first fall semester of my Master's Degree. With two semesters down (I started in the spring, and the took summer school because I was already ruining my summer with knee surgery anyway!), I feel like I have a solid start.

This is such a great time of year for everything, though. You always feel so healthy and maybe even a little wild after a summer of sunny hiking, boating, paddling, and being outside (and I'm finally able to get out enough to pick up a little bit of a tan!), and ready for the polish of new fall clothes, the possibility of a fresh start in a new semester, and the promise to be very organized and always do your homework on time (which goes to complete hell by Labor Day!).

The French call this time of year, "la rentrée," which means time "re-enter" classes. When we were in France two years ago, we saw kids all over the place, buying their books and school uniforms. It was so cute to see them in their little outfits, taking it all very seriously but also looking little bit annoyed at the same time.

Well, today is a "Friday Off" for me (and yesterday was really only a half-day, since we had an "offsite" meeting that was really a picnic and everyone went home after!), so I'm doing some of my own "la rentrée" activities. I'm going to hop in the bath in a minute, then go to get my daily latte (the only reason for getting out of bed!), and then go to the University bookstore to pick up my books, which I'm sure will be ridiculously expensive.

After that, it's a trip to Pocatello (my hometown) to get my hair low-lighted (the sun bleaches it out in the summer), super-conditioned, and cut. I'm thinking about taking six or so inches off, because it's been so long since I've had a trim. Then a little shopping, bopping over to my parents' and my Pilates teacher's studio for a chat, and then off for a manicure/pedicure. Yea, yea, yea!

Tonight, my fabulous husband was supposed to be leading a climb up the Grand Teton but it got muffed up, so I think we're going to do a little organizing and straightening, then he's doing a big hike with them tomorrow instead. So, I will have the whole day to do stuff....what? I'm not sure just yet.

Post-Op Adventure: Stanley, Idaho

Yea! I finally got to go out and have a little fun. My knee is feeling well enough for a little sea kayaking and hiking, so we went to Redfish Lake in Stanley, Idaho this weekend. It was so gorgeous--I love Redfish, and Stanley is truly an old Wild West town. the weather started out nice and lot cooler than the 100+ temps we've been having.

We paddled to the far side of the lake, to a camping area called Inlet Campsite, where we woud spend a couple of nights. It only took an hour-and-a-half of paddling to get there (or you can hike in), but we were the only paddlers there; most people had power boats.

Well, there was one guy who swam, actually. It was pretty amazing to see that--he was training for the Navy SEALS. Once we got there, though, there were so many tents set up--we were afraid we might not get a spot! But we found one at the back--secluded from most of the others, and right along the fenceline/trail to other parts of the lake area. Very nice!
We spent most of the afternoon getting everything set up, then napping. This is why I love getting out so much--all the lazing around, reading, knitting, and napping. We slept so hard, then got up and my husband went for a little hike while I worked on my Ooops du Jour sweater. Dinner was chicken fajitas over a campstoves (there's a fire restriction right now), wine, and fruit.
The next day we went on a hike (see next post for amazing berry footage), then down to the beach for some sun, water, and more knitting (for me). Husband looking very hunky!
Sunday morning we slept in a bit and then packed up the boats and headed home. Sorry there aren't any pics of me--I guess I was hogging the camera the whole time! It was so much fun though, and I was so happy to finally get out and play a little. It kind of makes me not want to get my other knee done, because I know it just means more down time. The good news? My new knee didn't hurt at all on the hikes. Woohoo!

Berry Hiking: Stanley, Idaho

Our hike at Redfish Lake on Saturday had some unexpected treats: miles and miles of berries! I couldn't believe how many berry bushes we saw--usually when we hike, we see a few, but most have already been claimed by the bears. This was so much fun!

We saw Oregon Grapes (which we didn't eat, but I hear are good cooked, not raw):
The quintesential wild huckleberry, and there were miles and miles of huckleberry bushes everywhere! Huckleberries are best right from the bush, but also make great pancakes and jams.
Grouseberries, which are a close cousin to huckelberries, only in miniature (both the plants and the fruits). They are the cutest things, and often get overlooked because they're just a few inches high.
Here's a size comparison between huckelberries and grouseberries.
We also saw wild raspberries, which are kind of rare around here.

They're a bit smaller than domesticated raspberries, but just as sweet and flavorful.
And then we saw some thimbleberries down lower.
The fruits don't tend to last very long, and are best for eating right from the bush. The flavor is a bit like a rapsberry, but the texture is "denser."
We also saw three types of currents. These are golden, which have a very mild flavor, and we also saw red and black, which are much more sour.