Category Archives: travel

Step away from the knitting…

Posted on September 6, 2011 | 15 Comments

Just for a little while! It’s been a string of warm sunny days in the Pacific Northwet. DH and I decided to get out for a bit on Sunday. Multnomah Falls was our original destination, but it was packed for the holiday weekend and we had to do a quick destination revision. I remembered we had once hiked at Wahclella Falls, and the smartphone google machine pointed us in the right direction.

Come on, you know you want to! The hike is an easy mile in and mile out. We last did this with young kids, and it felt like many more miles back then.

The trail goes alongside Tanner Creek, and has lovely shady spots to hang out. But the mosquitoes know you’re there. We didn’t linger at this spot. It’s not much further to the falls.

It was cool and perfect on a hot day. And we enjoyed the hike out as well.

hanging over the ravine

When we got home, I looked for the pictures from our last trip here. Apparently it was 16 years ago.

That tow-headed toddler? He’s a college freshman. The other kiddo? College grad, working dude. And DH on the left? Still DH, 29 years next week. Happy anniversary!

What did you do with the end of summer weekend?

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Posted in travel

Tagged wahclella falls

Back from another adventure

Posted on July 19, 2011 | 7 Comments

Well, that was a bit of radio silence! I was off chaperoning 20 teens on a mission trip through Sierra Service Project. It was my last chance to experience SSP with one of my kids, since this was the Teen’s last year. Both of my kids have loved working with this program, and I wanted to see it in action. Most of SSP’s work sites are on Native American reservations. Our site this year belongs to the Shoshone-Bannock tribes in Fort Hall, Idaho.

My team’s project was to extend a wheelchair ramp for an elderly homeowner. The original ramp was too steep.

I was lucky to be paired with another chaperone who actually had experience doing this. Three of the kids on our team had prior SSP exoerience, and two were newbies like me. We de-constructed the original ramp, saving most of the materials for re-use.

What’s for lunch?

I learned that using a circular saw is pretty much like using a sewing machine: follow the guide and go!

And a reciprocating saw is a lot like my electric knife.

Fort Hall is in a high desert area. The sun is more intense at 4500 feet, and it’s a lot drier on the other side of the mountains. (gratuitous outhouse art shot)

Our weather was mostly sunny, but Tuesday brought beautiful thunderstorms and curtains of rain.

Music is part of the program, and the Teen always loves being a part of it.

And Thursday night’s spiritual walk witnessed a beautiful sunset and an even more beautiful moonrise.

We finished our ramp!

Blaine, the custodian at the school we stayed in, shared his grandfather’s ceremonial headdress with us. His grandfather made it sometime between 1890 and 1915. These feathers are eagle fathers, with horsehair decorations at the tips.

There are also owl feathers on the back of the headpiece.

The beadwork is precise! There are also beads at the base of each eagle feather.

It was a privilege to talk with Blaine and learn about this beautiful piece of art.

I did knit all week long, and am almost done with the first of three skeins of Euroflax sport on my Ruffle Tank. No pic of the knitting, but here’s my Lantern Moon sheep tape measure enjoying some time on the Snake River.

Oh, BTW, I’m having a “name my sheep” contest on the Lantern Moon blog. Come on over to the LM blog and give me your best shot at a name for my tape measure! You can win a sheep tape measure of your own, as well as Baabs the scissors keeper. Contest ends Wednesday night, my time, so be quick!

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Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged SSP

Another pretty place

Posted on July 8, 2011 | 9 Comments

but this time I forgot to take a picture with the sheep!

I took this one instead, as my friend P contemplated the roaring cataract of the Middle Falls on the north fork of the Lewis River.

The Lower Falls were rather gorgeous, too.

We had a late spring this year, and the water is high and fast. Here’s what it looked like in 2009 (different angle, but you get the idea). That year, we took the kids across the river to play behind this very same waterfall. Not this time!

On a hike between the two waterfalls, I could hear the musical tinkling of rocks rolling down this cliff. The erosion has created quite a sculpture.

I liked the Dr. Seuss quality of the lumpy moss on the dead tree standing by this nurse log.

And I never get tired of this view.

It was a quick overnight camping trip; we’ve been camping with the same families for several years, and last week we realized that this week was the only one where we could all go at the same time before the kids head to college. The other families stayed for two nights, but I could only do one. It was fun, anyway. I did get some knitting done on my ruffle tank, and now it smells like a campfire. Good thing I’ll be washing and blocking it when it’s done.

What else is up? I’ve been playing Words With Friends, with several friends. Addictive and a productivity sink hole, but I love it anyway. Everybody’s playing, including Bells from BellsKnits and Kay from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Kay just beat me two in a row. C’mon, you know you want to play, too…

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Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged Knit, swift reservoir

Here, there, and everywhere

Posted on July 5, 2011 | 9 Comments

July is a crazy month (didn’t I say that about June?), but it’s all fun. Sock Summit is coming at the end of the month, and everything else leads to that!

I ran away for 24 hours over the weekend to Gig Harbor, Washington with a couple of friends from way back. We stayed in a lovely B&B on the water, caught up, laughed a lot, and then went to our respective homes in 3 different cities.

Don’t these clouds look like the basis for a lace pattern? (Always thinking about knitting!)

My first blueberries of the season are ripening. I like blueberries and lime, so I squashed some in my gin & tonic, and the drink eventually turned a lovely pinky-purple. (Is this a sign that I should drink faster?)

Mt. Rainier at sunset graced our dinner.

And my Lantern Moon sheep tape measure came to lunch on Sunday at the Tides Tavern. Great halibut fish & chips!

I learned a valuable knitting lesson on the way home. When you join two pieces of knitting to knit in the round, it’s just like beginning anything in the round. BE CAREFUL NOT TO TWIST! It wasn’t twisted when I joined it, but I forgot to check on the subsequent round, and when I got a couple rounds past the join, I knew I had a problem. It didn’t take long to fix, but it was car knitting time lost! All better now.

Where are you going this summer (or winter, for our friends down under)? What are you knitting?

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Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged gig harbor

A cavalcade of FOs

Posted on February 24, 2011 | 17 Comments

This past weekend was Crafty Mom weekend at the beach. This was the 10th year for some of us, and it was highly productive for me.

I finished my Heather Hoodie. It’s not blocked yet, but I love it already. It’s big, squishy and warm. And it weighs a ton. It has 9.5 skeins of Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky, which means 950 grams, or 33.25 ounces, or nearly two pounds…

…but it doesn’t feel that heavy when I put it on. Working on the button bands was making my hands tired, with all the hood and front stitches crammed on a 26 inch needle.

I started the button band with a full skein of yarn, and this is all I had left when the bands (including around the hood) were done.

This sweater was supposed to be a vest, but I wanted sleeves. I changed the straight armholes for a modified drop shoulder, indenting about 2 inches at the underarm. After seaming the shoulders, I picked up stitches at the sleeve cap for no-sew set-in sleeves and knit them flat to the wrist. I’m happy with the result.

What else did I work on? I finished my Athena with my leftover Chroma Worsted. I think this one is for me…finally!

I finished a cowl in Dream in Color Classy, the color is Deep Sea Flower. I can’t really show it to you yet; I was re-knitting a new design that’s going…somewhere.

I took pictures of an FO in this pretty Pico Accuardi Dyeworks Worsted; the color is Rodgie’s Midnight Dancing. I can’t show you the FO of that, either, but here’s the wrong side so you can admire the yarn.

And I started a new project for Sock Summit, but there’s no picture yet. Mostly I was just trying to get it started. I’m using Knitted Wit‘s Bling yarn, the bluer one on the left.

But enough about me. Carole made a necklace that everyone wanted, so she made a bunch!

And of course the view was spectacular. I woke up on Saturday morning, and where the sun had set the night before, there was a pink orb over the horizon. It was a perfect moon set.

Twin Rocks was pretty as always. They remind me of a sea serpent.

Although it’s trying to be spring here, there was snow on the hills, and it’s snowing tonight, too.

I could watch the sea and the sky forever. Always changing, but constantly lovely.

How was your weekend?

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, travel

Tagged Athena entrelac, crafty moms, heather hoodie

Sunny, fake i-cord, and a survey

Posted on January 31, 2011 | 13 Comments

The Teen and I went to Tucson this weekend to visit the University of Arizona. We loved the weather: sunny and warm, 70 degrees f.

The flora was quite different from PDX.

It was an Honors visit weekend, and they did a great job of promoting the Honors College and the UA in general. The engineering department presentations were stellar. It’s a pretty big university (30,000 undergrad) which makes for a vibrant campus. We both really liked the school. It’s good to know that this is a viable option. Next month: more college visits. ‘Tis the season!

I knit through a lot of presentations, and finished a project which I can’t blog yet, but will blog soon. Meanwhile, here’s a tiny bit of another project I can’t blog yet. Do you ever use knitted cord? You can knit a tiny 2 or 3 stitch i-cord, which can be really tedious. Or you can crochet a chain, but then it’s not knit, and it looks a little unfinished. Or…

you can cast on a bunch of stitches, and on the very next row, bind them all off. That’s my new favorite cord.

One more knitty thing: My friend Lorajean (Knitted Wit) is conducting a survey to help her decide how to shape her business. If you complete the 10 question survey and share it to Facebook or Twitter, you’ll get a coupon for 40% off in her store. You get a discount, she gets your helpful information, everybody wins.

Go!

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Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged knit cord, tucson, UA

Friday TNNA report: The fun begins

Posted on January 12, 2011 | 7 Comments

I went to the TNNA trade show with Lantern Moon, and it was busy, fun, mind-blowing…the list goes on. I went wearing four hats: LM blogger, PDXKnitterati blogger, designer, yarn shop teacher. I was inspired in all of these aspects of my fiber life! We went down to Long Beach on Thursday, and landed during a gorgeous sunset.

The Lantern Moonies (10 of us) all stayed in this house across the street from the beach. It was much more congenial than staying in a hotel. And you really get to know your fellow Moonies when they’re also your fellow roomies!

On Friday I helped set up the LM booth.

I visited my friend Lorajean and her baby O. Pico Accuardi Dyeworks was there, and they were also distributing her yarn line, Knitted Wit.

And at the end of the day, it was time to kick back with some knitting!

There were some knitting lessons for two new knitters…more on that later.

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Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged TNNA

‘ukelele and more music

Posted on December 30, 2010 | 14 Comments

Just to be clear, we did make it back in time for Christmas. It was theTeen’s last appearance as guitarist/liturgist in the Christmas pageant run by the youth. He’s a HS senior, and I’m having empty nest syndrome already…

(incoming flock of angels, just had to share)

But not so much empty nest syndrome that DH and I didn’t abandon him to his own devices for a week so we could play and Christmas shop in Hawaii. DH and I took a ‘ukelele class with this guy one afternoon.

It was easy to pick up a few chords, and as I tell my Pastries, three chords makes a simple song. Since there are only 4 strings, it’s a bit easier than guitar. I can play a barre chord! DH fell in love with the instrument, so I offered to buy him one for Christmas. We shopped here, based on the recommendation of one of my guitar buddies.

Lovely instruments, but we weren’t quite ready to buy.

We went to a show at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center and saw slack-key guitarist George Kahumoku, Jr., and Daniel Ho, who sings, plays piano, ‘ukelele, slack-key guitar, and I don’t know what else. Both of these talented gentlemen have won Grammy awards for their work. Uncle George even let us hold them for a photo op.

When we came home to rainy Portland, it was time to jump right back into Christmas week activities. We finished our uke shopping at Artichoke Music, our favorite local music shop. (We bought our first guitars there many years ago.) There weren’t a lot of ukes in stock (a run on ukes for Christmas, who woulda thunk it?), so we ended up buying a Fluke. Interesting construction, made in USA, big happy sound. It’s very sturdy and DH will be able to take it on his many travels. A winner!

Here’s one knit related thing in this post. Sharon won this vintage learn-to-knit booklet in the white elephant gift exchange at the Lantern Moon holiday party. I love the expression on the knitter’s face.

What’s your favorite knitterly gift this year?

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Posted in music, travel

Tagged grammy, ukelele

Tempus fugit

Posted on December 30, 2010 | 7 Comments

Time flies!

DH and I escaped the pre-Christmas bustle and spent a week on Maui. It was warm, and mostly sunny. Perhaps not the most knitterly weather, but I managed, somehow. Here’s the view with and without knitting.

It was a perfectly relaxing week, which was just what we needed. The guidebooks all say that you should go up Haleakala (the volcano) to see the sunrise. You’d have to leave at 3 a.m. to make this happen, and drive a long winding road. In the dark. We decided that the only way we’d see the sun rise over Haleakala would be from our front porch. The sky was glorious just before sunrise.

And the sun itself wasn’t half bad looking, either.

We did go up Haleakala one afternoon, and it was beautiful in the crater. There are so many colors of sand and rock! We hiked down a bit; coming back up was a lot more work. We started at 9700 ft., but I forgot to check my iPhone altimeter to see how far down we had gone. (Yes, there’s an app for that.)

On the drive back down, the clouds had come in and the sun was shining on the water in a most hazily glorious way. I couldn’t tell where the horizon was because of the clouds. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at, because it was so bright, so I just took pictures and hoped for the best.

Here’s my other favorite sunset of the week, down in Wailea.

September…

Posted on September 14, 2010 | 17 Comments

September is my favorite month. Not only do I have my birthday, we also have our wedding anniversary. Here’s what we looked like 28 years ago this past Sunday.

I also love the beginning of the school year in September. The Teen is a high school senior, so it’s the last of the first days of school. We celebrated with a trip to Black Butte Ranch in Sisters, Oregon, with three other families. Next year the kids will be scattered to different colleges, so it was the first in what will be a series of last hurrahs.

The weather was perfect. Crystalline blue skies, high 75, low 35 (fahrenheit!). Perfect for biking (Mt. Jefferson to the right, Three-Fingered Jack to the left, Black Butte cut off to the extreme right)…

crafting…

or lazing in the backyard hammock.

This is Black Butte, a volcanic cinder cone.

And the two snow-capped mountains are two of the three Sisters. The third sister (Middle Sister) isn’t visible from here. The closest mountain is Belknap Crater.

But what would a knitting blog post be without knitting? We stopped at the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters. It’s mostly a quilting store, but there’s an exquisite little yarn section.

I’d never seen this tilli thomas yarn before. The beads are on thread plied into the yarn. Gorgeous!

I did look at the fabric, too. I loved how this was put together.

I started a new knitting project, too.

Can you guess what it is? More on that in the next post. Gotta run!

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Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged black butte, Knit, sisters

Category Archives: travel

Step away from the knitting…

Back from another adventure

Another pretty place

Here, there, and everywhere

A cavalcade of FOs

Sunny, fake i-cord, and a survey

Friday TNNA report: The fun begins

‘ukelele and more music

Tempus fugit

September…

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