3871 miles later, we’re home. Stayed tuned for pictures of our adventures (likely spread out over the next few posts).
Happy weekend!
3871 miles later.
5
Category Archives: out of doors
it’s a lovely day.
You may recall that the title of this blog post is also the name of this gorgeous melon-y colorway in Targhee from the Woolly Wonders Fiber Club at A Verb For Keeping Warm. I hung this to dry (on a hanger hooked on a planter-less planter chain over the sink) and headed north to my dear friend P’s farm. I returned to find this dry and ready to be skeined and admired. (It is currently sitting here right next to my computer so that I can pet it while I type…)
This is 327 yards of fingering weight yarn — 16 or 17 wpi. (I think I’m measuring this correctly — when I put a lot of tension on the yarn and wrap it tightly, I get 21 wpi, or solidly laceweight, which doesn’t seem right. When I do this gently, with just enough tension for the yarn to lay flat on the wpi tool, I get 16 or 17, and that makes more sense to me. Is that right?)
See my pretty wpi tool on a bed of targhee?
I am really happy with this yarn — thanks for all of your encouraging comments. I’m having a lot of fun charting my progress with the wheel, and I’m glad you’re enjoying it too.
Now, about my weekend. I kept meaning to take some photographs of the gorgeous rows of arugula, pea shoots, flowering potato plants, a whole slew of onion varieties, garlic, tat soi, gourmet lettuces, mustard greens, broccoli, beets, spinach, chard, baby kale (and the list goes on), but the camera was inside, and I was outside. (There are also laying hens, broiler chickens, and piglets growing into pigs on the farm.) When I visited P. this fall, she was wrapping up a transitional growing year with a different CSA and working to prepare these fields for cultivation. We spent an afternoon at this land then, and it was absolutely incredible to see that picture in my head transformed into a thriving 3+ acres of veggies and livestock.
I helped wherever I could, harvesting some serious poundage of arugula (and eating handfuls in the field), cutting pea shoots, and bundling cilantro stems together for a Sunday farmers’ market. I love markets, and it was a lot of fun to see the experience from behind the table.
I hit the road on Monday morning laden with arugula, a braising mix of baby kale, red mustard, and chard, a couple dozen eggs from the hens, and pride and appreciation for P. — in my mind, she is doing something both incredible beautiful and critically important — connecting people to the food they eat by mindfully growing a sustainable, natural harvest.
I wish I could show you the land there, but all I managed to photograph is P’s home — a one-room hunting shack she re-floored and fitted with shelves, a loft, and her keen sense of style:
I saw this place when it was first delivered to the farm, and P. has truly transformed a run-down refuge from bad weather into a magical haven for her few hours of sleep during harvest-time. (Up at 4:50 for morning chores.)
Next time (which will hopefully be another weekend this summer) I’ll take more pictures!
___ skills.
kitchen skills:
Potato pancakes and a pizza in the shape of Florida (minus the panhandle). Recipes by Deb, of course.
frolicking skills:
lounging skills:
catskills:
whale skills?
Boh, my best friend M, and I met up for a long weekend of mountain air, good food, and bad tv. Crosswords were completed, legs were stretched, brains/selves tired from work and school were rested/restored.
Thanks, M. I love that we continue to make time for frolicking.
spooky forests and superwash socks.
Friday afternoon, we went frolicking slightly further afield. We hopped in the car and headed south to a nearby state forest to stretch our muscles and allow our minds to unwind a bit from a busy week. If you’ve been reading, you know I’ve been looking for good boy sock patterns, and the hang-up I’ve been facing has to do with how “fancy” sock patterns and sock yarn can be. I’ve settled on some socks made out of good, old-fashioned Cascade 220 superwash, as the feet they are intended for spend most of their time in hiking boots, romping through the woods.
Here’s what I’ve got so far — I’m using size 5 needles, and keeping my fingers crossed that the fabric is dense enough to support the amount of use I hope these get. Should I be thinking about carrying nylon thread along with the yarn for the heel? I should be reading right now, but I’d so much rather be working on these socks — or better still, off in the woods with boy and dog.
Here’s a picture of my reading companion. If only he’d start pulling his weight around here…
Back to the books. Have a great Sunday!
“i got here followin’ the southern star…
I crossed that river just to be where you are…” Dylan kept me company on my drive to (and from) the north country. I’ve been overusing the word “lovely” lately, but I don’t care. Boh and I had a lovely weekend catching up with a dear friend/accomplished farmer: roaming amidst cattails and piglets, grinding coffee with a crank, frying eggs recently gathered, sweetening coffee with maple syrup and knitting in morning light. Here’s a whole slew of photos from the trip:
I needed a good dose of mountain air and that feeling that accompanies spending time with dear friends. Being geographically closer to my “people” is one of the best non-academic parts of my new life as a grad student. (Thanks, P. Looking forward to my next trip up.)
adventuring.
I headed west for the wedding of a dear friend: my first partner in crime at my first real job. The nature of this job required that we move to a brand-new-to-us city, find a house, establish a network, and jump into 18 hour days for almost 4 months. We emerged from that experience dear friends, and though I later left that job and he continued, we’ve each made an effort to routinely catch the other up on what is happening in our lives. The wedding was beautiful, and despite cross country flights and 1000+ miles of driving, I am glad I could be there to celebrate. I have no pictures to share of the event, as I was too busy enjoying it, and, if the truth must be known, finishing up their pinwheel blanket. I wove in the ends moments before the ceremony.
The remote location of the wedding and the red-eyed nature of my flight created a spectacular opportunity: Lassen Volcanic National Park. I had never even HEARD of Lassen Volcanic National Park. I hit the road early on Sunday and managed to squeeze in two 3-mile hikes and an appropriate amount of oohing, ahhing and roadside reflecting before heading southward to catch my flight. And read. (Didn’t quite get all of that done this week…) A few pictures of my adventure:
More knitting (and new yarn) content soon!
pork.
Those of the vegetarian persuasion may wish to avert their eyes or return tomorrow — no knitting content today.
This was the summer of pork — as in, we roasted a 240 lb pig. It was a brilliant idea, born of a chance interaction between our ecologist and a pig farmer, and soon we were all pitching in to get ready. We took shifts tending an all-night fire, and I helped rub down the pig with mesquite seasoning and heft him onto the grill. Pictures of this part were just tagged on Facebook, so I’m sharing them here.
After many hours of keeping the grill at just the right temperature (with tarps to keep the heat in and give the pork a smoky flavor), we spent about four hours pulling pork before serving an enormous feast. We had a blast — and it was, without question, the best pork I have ever eaten.
My camera is still acting finicky, so I don’t have a progress photo of my BSJ, but I am getting ready to work the button holes and then bind off. I’m a bit anxious about the sizing — here’s hoping it will fit the intended recipient, at least for a week or so! More on that soon.
well now boys, i’m a rolling stone.*
Crossed the state line today, more than a little weepy-eyed. I’ve said goodbye to a lot this week, and it is certainly going to take all 2,019 miles and some really loud *Gillian Welch (among other things) for me to process this transition.
More soon…
show and tell.
First:
Whoa. I stood outside, mug of locally brewed honey wheat beer in hand, staring at all of this for at least an hour on Tuesday night. We’re getting quite a bit of rain this monsoon season, and watching the storm clouds build is starting to rival knitting as my favorite Base Camp activity.
In the land of knitting, I have much to share — things both finished and received.
I received an unexpected gift this week in the form of this stunning merino-silk lace knit scarf. One of the parents I’ve met through work has become a dear friend, and in honor of my departure, she wrapped this up and gave it to me — and she didn’t even know that I am a knitter! This is absolutely gorgeous (second picture is truer to the color, first shows the detail a bit better) and I am overwhelmed by all of the love and effort that went into this.
This picture doesn’t quite do this super-cute cabled headband justice, but I love taking pictures on this quilt at the home of dear friends here in town. I taught one of our staff members to cable and together we puzzled out this pattern — intending to replicate a knit gift she had received — and then she made me one! There are several folks around Base Camp with their dirty hair fashionably accessorized/tamed by one of these cabled headbands. I’ve been wearing mine almost daily.
On to my super big news:
Can’t believe it took me 8 months to finish this — lost steam in the middle, but I picked this up again last week and it moved super quickly, perhaps because while I was knitting, I was daydreaming of wrapping myself in this while buried in grad school reading.
Pattern: You know the one.
Yarn: Brooks Farm Riata (2 large skeins)
Mods: Only one — I was nervous about having enough yarn, and at halfway through my supply, I noted how far along I was and decided to do one less repeat (11 instead of the 12) of the straight section. This turned out to be a brilliant move — I completed the shawl with a few yards leftover.
Thoughts: I love this — and despite how long it took me to complete it, I really enjoyed the process. I also learned quite a bit about dropping stitches, and way back in November, this pattern taught me how to purl into the front and back of a stitch.
I’m sure I’ll have lots of photos of my clapotis (and other recent FOs) in action come fall. An FO also means a new project — what could it be?
This is the beginning of sassymetrical, by gaysknits. I queued it awhile ago, but when I saw The Plucky Knitter’s version, I knew it needed to be next on the list. This pattern seems to be the perfect use for 3 skeins of Malabrigo in the cinnabar colorway. I’m excited about this, and a bit nervous because this is the first pattern I’ve modified to accommodate a yarn choice in a different weight. The pattern recipe is written for a dk weight, using size 6 needles, and thanks to gaysknits’ instructions, I’ve calculated my gauge, the number of inches I want my finished cardigan to be, and then made some guesses about proportions, particularly with respect to the sleeve stitches. Here’s what I’ve got:
The original is 28 inches around, made to fit a 32 inch bust (this makes sense for the way the cardigan hangs). I want to make mine to fit a 39.5 inch bust, so I want my finished sweater to be 36 inches around. My gauge in the Malabrigo using size 8 needles is 4 st/in, so 4 st x 36 inches = 144 stitches. I am unsure about how to determine the number of sleeve st to cast on when making a larger size, but I am hoping that I can just see how it feels as I go because of the top down raglan construction. I decided to cast on 36 for each front (because of the overlap, each front is the size of the back), 36 for the back, and 18 for each sleeve. Wish me luck!
Whew — lots of pictures and projects to share. In case you’ve been wondering about my houseguests*, I’ll leave you with this shot of them resting peacefully during the daytime (they’re out exploring when I am sleeping in my cabin, so I only see them when I return to grab things during the day):
* Please don’t worry about this — these bats are not aggressive, and the space they’re inhabiting is an open air structure — minimal risk for bites or disease transmission (which tends to occur, also rarely, in contained spaces without good air circulation). Additionally, the friends I’m staying with would like you all to know that I’m wearing my cross, eating garlic, and throwing salt over my shoulder. More soon!
canyons.
Apologies for my silence over here — some sickness meant that I hit the road last week to spend a few days with one of our expeditions while their leader rested/recovered.
Don’t feel bad for me; it was a wonderful escape. My camera has begun acting up a bit — it doesn’t always turn on when I want it to, though once on, it seems to work fine. I’m glad to have been able to capture these images to share.
Though I’ve finished my Fad Classic (I actually finished it while in canyon country), this is the only image I have to share — once my camera agrees to turn on, I’ll take some pictures of the completed vest, which I am very happy with. I really like the way the variegation of the Araucania Nature Wool looks in this stitch pattern. Instead of casting on a new project, I’ve returned to my clapotis, and I am making good progress. Again, when the camera agrees, I’ll share more pictures!
barefoot rooster 