It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

At the first of the year I talked Smith into buying me a Gray Mist Bohus kit as a combo Christmas-Birthday gift. The kit has been sitting in plain view (no out of sight out of mind) for a full year and nothing, zero, nada knitting has been accomplished. I'm determined to change that in 2009. The main reason for the delay, for the anxiety surrounding this project, is the shear magnitude of stitches…surely a design knit on size ZERO and 1.5 needles will have eleventy-ZILLION teeny, tiny, super fine stitches to knit.

After thinking, stewing, drooling and desiring this sweater, I feel much better about starting it. There will be no deadline, no rush to finish, only enjoyment of the process.  Its time has come and with zero days left in 2008, starting a sweater on size zero needles sounds like good luck.  In an attempt to calm my excitement about NaKniSweMoDo I got a head start (can you call 3/4 of an inch a head start?) and cast on the neck band.  The yarn alone will make this pattern worth knitting as the angora content makes a soft, buttery fabric...ooohhhh yeah.  (One thing I've learned this year is just how much I love the feel of angora.) 

And so, away I go, starting the journey of a lifetime, knitting an heirloom sweater of a zillion stitches, a journey that starts on size zero needles.  Wish me luck.

Happy New Year!!

Still Enjoying the Holiday

Thanksgiving was lovely and I want to hear all about your Holiday, too. Was it relaxing or full of too much family and food?

I'm going to catch up on the ABC Along with a very lame "X".  I could not find anything in Utah or think of anything as creative as Norma's  "X".  After G00gling for X related names here in Utah, I found a  neighborhood not far from us had a Xanadu Circle.  Poor little boring Xanadu Circle...at least they have a fairly nice view.

Smith grew tired of hearing me talk about Laurie's and Terry's iPods and as soon as he started his new job he bought me one of my own.  I've been listening to The Zookeepers Wife and while I'm not sure it's aptly named (it seems to be more about Nazi ideology, and the zoo, than Antonina) I am enjoying it.  I love my blue iPod because I can knit and read at the same time. I have never been talented enough to do both at the same time.

Isn't she pretty? 

A Small Collection

Off and on over the last few years there have been one or two objects of desire that have captured my imagination.  At first this cause an increased my desire to gather them close and start small collections. I learned quickly that I'm not about "the quest" as much as a collector should be and I quickly lose the drive and the "collections" languish. 

You all know how I love the weather and how the sky infuses my daily life. That love was the reason behind this small collection of wind chimes. Our patio is partially covered by a roof  which offers the perfect place to hang the chimes and, as luck would have it, the wind often swirls through the open area.

The wind chimes have been collected as we travel and when I look out and see each one I remember when and where it was acquired. This clanging, sturdy bell is a reminder of our trip to Martha's Vineyard in 1992.  It's one of the noisiest in high winds.  The color has been faded by years in the weather, but nothing else has worn.

This is our oldest chime and it's rusted over the years, as it was meant to do.  It's been hanging here since the early 1980s and what I knew about the maker is lost in the ether of time.  As with the other chimes, it is noisy and easily rung by a gust of wind. 

If the winds kicks up when someone is in the guest room the chimes are taken down or the guest will never sleep. Together they produce a cacophony of sound.

The most melodious wind chime reproduces each note of an octave.  Its silver tubes rarely play a known melody, but more often create music of its own design...tunes to send out on the wind.

The hanging fish are my very favorite of all the wind chimes on the patio. Their sound is not beautiful, and as you might guess, they sound like clanking terracotta pottery.  The fish were purchased from a catalog  years and years ago (long forgotten which company) and about 2 years ago the thick string they hang from broke during a winter storm. The fish hit the cement of the patio and shattered to smithereens. A Google search produced the website of the designer who still had several of the same wind chime in stock.  He was so pleasant and, also, delighted to know I loved the chime so much I wanted to replace it.  Sadly, I could not come up with a link for you today and I can't remember anything about the company name. ETA: The Chain of Life Chime is from Wiltjer Pottery.

This post has helped me decide that this collection must start growing again.  New additions to the patio wind chime symphony will help with my new found resolve to have a good winter season.  The chimes will help create a winter wonderland of sound.

W is for wind chimes in the windy weather of winter.

Fingering the Fingering

This rather large plastic vat/bin/box holds nearly every skein of fingering yarn I own.  I've been taken to task by another blogger (some time ago) for having such a large quantity, and for adding more to it.  As I see it, this view is a bit short sided. Calling this weight of yarn "sock yarn" seems an injustice, as this commodity is one of the most versatile of all yarn weights. Its qualities are vast because fingering yarn can easily be used for socks (of course), gloves, mittens, sweaters, scarves, cowls, hats, baby clothes or shawls.

This big bin holds yarns of many varieties: solids colors, indie handpaint, variegated, semi-solids, various yardages, and even some skeins that are very unique and therefore valuable. This big bin of fingering yarn is full of vision and potential.  There is a wide variety of fiber properties and color possibilities.  More yarn from this bin is used more often than any other of my stashed yarns.

No matter the project, no matter the color desired, it is be fairly easy to find something in this stash that would do the trick, and I can (almost) always find something suitable for any project I have in mind.

V is for versatile, valuable, and vast quantities fingering yarn. A bottomless pit couldn't hold enough.

V is also for Vicki! It's her birthday today!

Color Show

The weather has been picture perfect for over a week, with another week still to come.  From time to time the weather has a way of getting stuck on rewind and, for once, it's been stuck on heavenly.  The fall colors have taken over every tree in the canyon and area around Silver Lake has taken on a golden glow. (All images are clickable)

The aspen trees are tucked in around the conifers forests that surround Silver Lake.  Saturday afternoon we were lucky to arrived when the light was at the right angle to produce reflections of sky, trees and clouds in the glassy lake.

With every turn of the head the view was spectacular and full of shades of gold and green.  The trees were putting on the best show of the season. Instead of describing it all to you with inadequate words I'll leave to you enjoy the best tree show we've ever seen at Silver Lake.



T is for Trees of the season.

Change is Coming...but Not Now

Summer's grasp let go a little early this year, on Labor Day to be exact, but fall has still been slow to show her colors.  From the valley there is only a slight tinge of change in the foliage on the mountains above us, but higher in the canyon the change is more vivid where the change of season has colored a few of the gambol oak,

The months of summer have left the flora of the canyon parched and the results will be a brown and colorless autumn show. To see any of the the reds and golds of fall we will need to venture to the higher peaks. 

As we walked around Silver Lake (my favorite pictures is the one at the top of the post) it was easy to see that summer hold is lessening and fall is slowly encroaching.  The willows have begun turning to gold, but the aspens, the last trees to give way to a color display have yet to show any change. The greenery, sky and water took over the spotlight.

The morning had been cool, but after breakfast at Silver Fork, the temperatures had warmed enough that wearing o'socks was a bit premature. No jackets were required as we strolled around the lake and the socks came off the minute we arrived back at the car.

Hopefully the fall will be long and beautiful and the toes can remain unclothed for awhile longer.

Oh and BTW, S is for Silver Lake and it might as well be for Shoes, too.

Not as Expected

This weekend was to be full of family and fun.  It was also going to be the "R" post for the ABC Along.  R is for reunion and revelry and a few other Rs words thrown in.  But, as plans are made, plans can be waylaid.   While there was some revelry early on at the Greek Festival and Blazing Needles (our newest LYS) open house, it was over shadowed by an unexpected illness.  Three of my sisters and I had to opportunity to get together for a mini-reunion and enjoy a day at Silver Lake. Instead we  ended up with a quick lunch in a local park, but without our youngest sister.

As it turned out our baby sister (she is 34, but she'll always be our baby sister) spent the weekend in the hospital.  She'll be there for a few more days and then return in a couple of weeks for surgery.  She should be fine in the long run, but there is concern in the short term. The three of us ask for prayers and good thoughts to be sent her way.  R is for rest, recuperation and a wholehearted rally for her well being. 

Everything But...

There was laughter, chatter, stories, shopping, laughter, talking, shopping, laughter, pictures, teasing, stories, mad libs, laughter and some eating, too.  But, there was no quiet, not a bit. Laughter shattered the quiet of the mountain groves and any moose we might have spotted were warned away.  Quiet is not attainable when you have 5 women in a car, around a dinner, breakfast or lunch table, in a knitting group, whatever, wherever, 5 very talkative friends are not quiet. Quiet is not a menu item, quiet is elusive.  Over hill and dale quiet was broken while we enjoyed the views, always talking and laughing.

Waiting for dinner at the Red Iguana...Shelley, Me, Cheryl, Gwen, Norma, Miriam .

Cheryl and Norma telling stories.                   Susan being silly.

 
Me, Norma and Kim after Kim fell in the water.          Cheryl being silly.

Susan, Chris, Miriam and Lisa at SnB.  Cocktails "A glass of wine" at Susan's.

Me, Norma, Shelley, Susan and Laurie brunching at Finns.

Q is for lack of Quiet while with the best of friends, grrls who cannot be Quiet or stop having fun. (Maybe I'm stretching but, I like my "Q".)

Pose, Smile, Shoot

Do you remember your first time? The first time you took photos of your knitting to show the world?  My first time was when I finished Rogue, the first sweater I knit as a knit-blogger, my first KAL, my first on-line FO.  I really didn't know what to do, how to show it off, whether to show my face, even how to pose. Just where do you do a photo shoot or HOW do you do a photo shoot!  As it turned out there was little imagination put into the process and I ended up hiding my face under the guise of showing off the cabled hood and sleeve. We won't even mention how bad the quality of the photo is, but that was my available  technology at the time.  Oh, it seems like ages ago!

The next FO wasn't any better.  I was intimidated by the younger and prettier grrls whose blogs I read (as I often am not in person). So I didn't know if I should smile, or just how I should pose, or  where to have a photo shoot. How is that for a goofy look. OMG!  I had NO idea how to show off the knitting and certainly didn't do much about a fun or creative post. I (and everyone else) was knew to this forum and discovering new things about it all daily.

When I finally decided I could have fun, felt more comfortable BEING ME, being myself in front of the camera, and when a new knit was ready to show, I started to have a great time during a photo shoot. The first time I remember going "on location" was for  Lara's photo shoot and it was the first time I felt good about writing a post that really showed off my knitting in a more interesting way.  It was also great to have input from Smith on locations and poses.  It was then we knew we could have fun with the blog and it was something we could share. Blogging can be very selfish and exclusive. Including Smith in this way has made him part of the process, too.

Some of our favorites photo shoots, that have resulted in fun posts, have been NBT the First, my 55th birthday, and the hike to show off Hanging Vines.  It's been fun to share our travels by doing photo shoots in unique locations like Bryce and the Grand Canyon. We've also had fun creating stories like the Cutaway photo shoot and doing goofy things like photographing Chickami in the snow. (GRRL, it was COLD!)  It's been an evolutionary journey, a great learning experience and, once we started having fun, it became addicting. We love showing off for you.

P is for Photos, photo shoots, poses and posts!  That's what knit blogging is all about, eh?

Today is blogfree Regina's birthday. With the wonder of Ravelry you can wish her a Happy one, so go do it, OK?

Up, Up and Away

Saturday morning found us on our way to the airport.  Soon after boarding the plane, we were flying over the Great Salt Lake.  On we went through Nevada and over Lake Tahoe where the smoke from the surrounding fires hung over the mountains. It was easy to see Birdsong has been suffering with the poor air quality.

Before long we were over California and the San Francisco Bay while on approach to the Oakland airport.

We had a wonderful time at the wedding of Smith's niece, Rahel and her partner, Caroline. There are few things in life as awe inspiring as two people who are in love and who are totally committed to each other.  The wedding could not have been more fun or more perfect.

Before we knew it we are on our way back, flying over hill and dale, over the Great Salt Lake and landing back at home.  It was a quick, enjoyable and fabulous trip.

O is for On (an airplane) and Over (Nevada) the only way to travel to Oakland.