On a Bender

Hello! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but I promise to make up for it with a long post with many pictures. Assuming of course that Blogger allows me to upload all these photos. I tell you, that is the most frustrating thing about blogging, the photo uploading. For some reason, only about half the photos I try to upload work the first time. Sometimes I have to try 4-5 times, and sometimes even then I get nothing. If I rename the picture and then try sometimes that works (why? seriously, I don't get the internet), but not always. There are stubborn photos that I would love to show you all but that blogger just can't get along with, alas. Anyway, here we go!
Dave and I went to Bend, OR for a long weekend last week, and we stopped in Portland on the way to break up the drive and visit Pam, our sadly exiled Fiberphile. The stop allowed me to hand-deliver the fruits of the last Fiberphile dye fest to Pam.

What is she pulling out of that box? This! The Fiberphiles got together a few weeks back at my place and we dyed all this yarn, in coordinating colors, just for Pam as a "housewarming/we miss you" present since she just moved to Portland. It was initially my idea to dye Pam some yarn myself, but I couldn't think of what to dye, since she doesn't knit socks and anything else would be too large quantity for me to handle. So, I mentioned the idea to Rachel and Daisy and it took off, and soon there were 6 of us dyeing away in my kitchen! Daisy also dyed some roving and spun it for Pam, but it missed the photo shoot. We intended this yarn to be used to make an afghan, but something tells me Pam has other ideas for it. Whatever she wants, it is indeed her yarn now!

Friday morning I woke up to discover this:

That, my friends, is Rowan DK Tweed, kindly tangled (without breaking) by Pam's cat Occum. Sorry if the photo is blurry. It was dark, and I was in shock. Thankfully the armwarmer I was knitting was undamaged by the spree of destruction, and the yarn was kindly reballed by Pam and Dave while I was in the shower. No harm done, except for possibly to my blood-pressure. Those armwarmers are now finished, and I'll try to post a picture soon but it's very hard yarn to photograph, being black and a bit fuzzy.

We left Pam's at practically the break of dawn (this is a woman who gets moving very early in the day. We left hours before Dave and I would usually drag our lazy selves out of bed) and started the drive to Bend. We took a nice scenic route over McKenzie Pass and stopped at the Dee Wright Observatory, where we were astounded to find this. I believe this is Black Crater, and although my memory fails me I'm pretty sure all the lava (yes, all that black rock is LAVA) came from there. The drive up to McKenzie pass was really slow (think 10 mph twisty turns on a narrow road and you're on the right track) but worth it when we encountered all this volcanic destruction, which we had no idea existed. Of course we have our pet volcanos, Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, etc, here in Washington, but the sheer number of volcanic 'stuff' concentrated in Central Oregon blows the mind. Here's another photo, for the full effect of the lava. There were miles of this, just complete destruction. I'm not sure how old this lava bed is, but I'm guessing pretty old. It's very thick, hence there isn't really anything growing up through it. The islands of trees were interesting - we assume those were missed during the initial flowing, but I admit Dave and I aren't exactly volcano experts...It was also quite cold up there on the pass, and windy. That is, yes, more lava behind me, on the other side of the road from the other photos. The mountains in the background are The Sisters (also volcanos). There will be better photos of them tomorrow, when we discuss part 2 of the Bend adventure (when we're actually in Bend). I would continue now, but Blogger is being a pest. I'll leave you with my model shot of the trip!