Alaska

The Alaska trip was amazing! The weather was awful but the rest of the trip was wonderful.

We arrived in Seattle a few days before sailing for Alaska. One day was spent in the Southern Cascades in the area around Mt. St. Helen. It was not a clear day and we were never sure we actually saw Mt. St. Helen. We went as close to the volcano as we were allowed. Partway up the mountain the road was still closed due to the snow. We hiked a bit on the trail farthest up that was open. While the mountain in this photo may not be the volcano, it is an example of what the area looked like. The weather was too overcast for us to see Mt. Ranier before we left for Alaska.

Of course no visit to Seattle would be complete without strolling through Pike Market. Rows of gorgeous flowers first caught our eyes, then produce, pasta, fish, and lots of artisan booths and all sorts of shops.

My cousin M and her SO joined us on the cruise and what fun we had. R proposed to her on the first formal night and without hesitation she agreed to marry him. We are so happy for both of them! After beer and champagne, we tried to figure out if they could get married on the cruise, but in the end, the wedding will be in Phoenix next year.


One of the highlights of the cruise was sailing to the Hubbard Glacier. We got within a half mile of the glacier and just stared in awe at the massive wall of snow and ice. We saw calving several times, which is when part of the glacier breaks off.



The cruise included port stops in Ketchican and Juneau, Alaska and Victoria, British Columbia. While it felt like winter to me for most of the cruise, spring had definitely sprung in Victoria. (sorry, I couldn't get the picture rotated the right way.)



We took this cruise as part of a group of knitters. M and I attended classes on knitting and spent lots of time knitting and talking with other knitters. R and W seemed to have no trouble filling their time when we were knitting. We played cards and dominos and drank coffee with Bailey's. And in each port, we shopped at yarn stores. The SEX was pretty good... er, that's Stash Enhancement Xperience. I concentrated on purchasing yarn from local, independent hand-dyers. The four skeins to the left in the photo were in the goodie bag and everything else except the two skeins to the bottom of the photo are from local hand-dyers in Alaska.


Perhaps one day we'll return to Alaska, our 49th state.

Time to Play

CATCH UP! What a busy month it has been since before going to St. Louis. So....

Spring Fling at The Loopy Ewe... way cool.... thanks to Jess for enabling, er... offering me this opportunity. I hadn't seen Jess in a year and a half so lots of catching up to do, knitting, laughing... just having a good time. Meeting new people, learning new skills, yarn shopping at Loopy Central, wonderful sock knitting classes, it's all good! For a better report, look here. You can click on the photo for a larger photo and see me in the middle of the back row, right next to the Loopy genius herself! One of the rare times I managed to get myself in the back row of a group photo.

Maryland Sheep and Wool followed quickly on the heels of TSF. I managed to squeeze in a few hours browsing there with friends. This is the yarn from both the Fling and S&W.

Maryland Sheep and Wool... From the top: three skeins from Ellen's Half Pint, two of which are merino/tencel. The blue is silk from Spirit Trail (love, love, love their yarn) and the other pink is unidentified wool. I wish I'd written down what it was and where I got it. All I know is the yardage and that it is wool.

The Spring Fling... From the bottom: aqua Woolmeise was in the goody bag, then Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, blue is Chameleon Colorworks, the Handmaiden is luscious, there's also some from Handmaiden in the Mahogany colorway (its' hard to see), and the eggplant is Alpaca with a Twist.

Being a bag lady, I also bought a bag but did not photo it. You can see it above my head in this picture, except mine is hot pink, not hot lime.

Vacation

I tried to update this a few days ago and just didn't get it down. Now W and I leave tomorrow on a trip so don't expect an update here for at least two weeks. You can always check in on McKenzie's blog and see what's happening there, though. Bon Voyage!

New Bag for the Bag Lady

Yes, folks, I have knitted and felted another bag. The yarn for this one was gifted to me in The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling swap and the bag is done to take with me to Fling later this week. I am so happy with it - perfect color for me and the yarn worked the pattern wonderfully. I had just enough left to make the cell phone case.

I'm takin' my bag and hoppin' on a jet plane with W to visit his parents and knit with my friend Jess.

More Socks

Sock Madness Round 3 is over. The first twelve finishers in each division advance to round four. I was finisher number 13 in my division. I'm no longer in the competition but I will continue to get the patterns and I hope to make them all! These are the socks for round 3...


Lace weight yarn doubled - I used Tess' Superwash Laceweight in a fushia and dark chocolate (I don't know what she really calls the colors) Interesting pattern of slipped stitches that you can't see very well in this photo. Although I could get them on, they are really too small for me so I need to find someone who would like them.

In preparation for the felted slipper contest on the cruise, I made these...


They are sort of like big felted socks. I had a love/hate affair with the yarn - Taos from Crystal Palace. There's two different colorways here and they are knit using the Scandinavian twining method. The yarn was too fuzzy for this to work well even though I used the yarn called for in the pattern. I had constant twisting and much of the time the spun yarn reverted to a roving state. Ugg... And then I ran out of yarn so I finished the toes with some Patons wool. I think I will like wearing them around the house though.

Sock Madness 2 - Round 2

Completed! And still in the competition. The sock for this round is a gansey pattern (I really



need to research what that means) with garter stitch sole, toe, and short row heel. I used BMFA Socks that Rock in the Love-in-Idleness colorway and they are lovely. The only improvement, I think, would be to use a solid or semi-solid colorway in a yarn with good stitch definition so the design would show to the optimum. Otherwise, glad these are done and they feel good on the feet. On to round 3; I hope by the end of the week.



There are two or three spots left to fill in round 2 first. Yertle likes them too!

Wayne's Work

Wondering what W has been up to? He managed to find his workbench this winter and is making one of his fabulous barns for three adorable brothers. It's not hard to imagine them - especially the youngest two - having a lot of fun with this.