Utah Day 1 - Wedge Overlook

Finally, I'm going to show off all my beautiful Utah photos! The scenery was spectacular, more so every place we went (so you'll have to keep reading all week!). Dave and I left Seattle at 4:00am on Saturday morning, and drove to Salt Lake City via Washington, Eastern Oregon, and Southern Idaho. The drive took us hours and hours longer than Mapquest predicted, and by the time we got there we were pretty exhausted. I took some short catnaps, but Dave had to drive the whole way. Dave's parents had flown in earlier and we met them at the Hotel Monaco. It's a great hotel - I'd highly recommend it. It's very pet-friendly, and if you don't happen to have your pet with you, they have goldfish you can borrow for your room. Dave's parents had one, and he/she was quite cute. We had dinner there and breakfast the next morning, before beginning the drive down to Moab to meet my parents.
Dave suggested that we take a slight detour (Well, to be honest it was more than slight. Slight on the map perhaps, but not in the amount of time it took. But, that is neither here nor there, and it was lovely.) to the Wedge Overlook:This is in the middle of nowhere central Utah, off of a very long dirt road off of another long dirt road (hence the long detour). I believe the portion above is looking towards the Little Grand Canyon. Here's another view:You can see the tiny San Rafael River there in the bottom (in the green valley). It's amazing to consider that this little river carved out this immense canyon, but there you go. The area is called the San Rafael Swell, and it's my understanding that the land swelled up then the river carved down. There are so many places like this in Utah that it boggles the mind. One of the most amazing things about this area is that it isn't even a state park! It's just there, in the middle of nowhere, on BLM land. Here's another photo, for scale!On the drive back to the highway we saw many free-range cattle. God knows what they were finding to eat (and drink!), as grass seemed a bit thin on the ground. I particularly liked this cow, who was very cooperative during his photo shoot:He walked right over to the road and looked at me! Further down the road we saw our first petroglyphs and pictograms. Honestly I didn't know they were different until reading the interpretive sign at the turn-out. In case you also don't know, petroglyphs are carvings/etchings/chips in the rock, whereas pictographs are drawn or painted on the rock. These below are thus pictographs, although this particular rock had both types.At least some of the drawings were done by the Fremont Indians, which I was excited about since I live in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle (probably not related, but I actually don't know).
After our little detour we arrived in Moab, where we met my parents at the great condo they had rented, and had dinner at Eddie McStiffs, a local brewpub. I had pizza. It was very good.
Tomorrow we journey to Arches National Park, and attempt to drink enough water to compensate for being out in the desert when it is 107F.

Actual Knitting Content!

I came back from Utah in a knitting funk (trip log to start later today, promise). I had high hopes for knitting on the trip, and I excitedly cast-on for the Ruffled Tuxedo Tank in the car somewhere in the middle of southeastern Oregon. I had decided to knit it in the round, so I cast on something like 240 stitches, and carefully joined them into the round. And I knit away, for about 1.5 inches or so before getting bored with the car knitting and just observing the scenery. The next night, whilst staying at an air-conditioned condo in Moab, I got the top back out, and low and behold I was knitting a mobius. Eek. I'll have you know that I've never twisted something in the round on circular needles. On DPNs maybe, years ago, but we can agree that DPNs are a tad more difficult to control and have quite the mind of their own. I was demoralized by this, and didn't have the heart to rip it out and do that evil casting-on again, so it's still sitting around, making a lovely gauge swatch (silver lining!). That same night, after saying "to hell with you" to the tank top, I started a simple toe-up stockinette sock, but I didn't get past the toe increases before we left the condo, and after that there really wasn't much time for such fiddly knitting. If I'd have been charging up the foot, or at any other point in the sock, I think I'd have made some headway...So, that is also taking up space on the coffee table. No photos. It's all too painful.

So, I returned to Seattle beaten and bruised, with my knitting mojo all but vanished. All that was on the needles was complicated or tragic, and something had to be done. Wednesday I cast on for a Purl scarf in red Manos: This has become my new work project, and progress is fast and rewarding. Thursday I cast on some felted clogs for my grandmother's Christmas present, and tonight I finished them aside from the felting:

Talk about instant gratification! That's two Christmas projects finished already, and it's only mid-August. Full project report to follow post-felting, but here's a quick summary. These are the Fibertrends Felted Clogs, and I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Amethyst Heather (dark) and Iris Heather (light). This is my fifth pair of these and I love making them. Great pattern and very quick to knit.
I promise to post some pretty Utah photos tomorrow, and soon I'll disclose the results of the natural dyeing experiment that Anne-Marie and I conducted yesterday...much to share, much to share! Stay tuned!

Re-entry

I'm back! Actually, I've been back in Seattle since Sunday night, but as I don't have all my trip photos yet (I had to download them onto my dad's laptop during the trip because I have a small camera card, so I'm waiting for the photo cd to arrive from PA) and I have NO knitting to talk about, I haven't posted. Consider this photo a sign of things to come - I intend to do a day-by-day trip report as soon as I have the photos! This one is from Canyonlands National Park, and yes, I've gone cowgirl...

Stitch & Pitch

Phew, I am really stressed about leaving for vacation in six hours (at 3:00am), but I thought a quick update was in order before I left. Last night several of the Fiberphiles and I attended the Seattle Stitch & Pitch, where we watched the Mariners lose their 7th straight 2-6 to the Oakland As. My sockapalooza sock enjoyed the trip immensely:So much so that it flew off the needles and the socks were completed this evening, just under the wire. Although I'm not planning to mail them until I get back from vacation, I didn't want them hanging over my head uncompleted.

Project Stats: Angel's Rest Socks

Pattern: Angel's Rest, from the Peak Experience Socks leaflet (Fiber Trends AC-49).

Yarn: Angora Farms Monarch, colorway Ivy. Yarn purchased at the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival this past winter.

Needles: Size 2 Brittney birch DPNs, the little 5" ones.

Time on the Needles: The second sock took less than a week but the first lanquished. I'd say about a month.

Impressions: These were much easier than my first choice for my sock pal, Cookie A's Twisted Flower Socks. I really like this Monarch yarn - it's similar to Socks that Rock mediumweight I'd say, and generally it stripes instead of pooling, although it did pool a bit on these socks, probably due to the increasing and decreasing, or perhaps just the stitch number. It bugs me a bit that the yarn behaved differently on the second sock, but I'm working hard to just let that go. I do find it surprising though...I really hope my pal likes these, and that they fit. Her feet are slightly larger than mine but only a bit so I think these will be good. We'll see.

A brief note on my impending absence. Dave and I are going camping in Utah for the next week with both sets of our parents. This will be the first meeting of the parents, so I'm sure I'll have good stories when I come back. I sense there is a movie script in here somewhere - whether it's a comedy or tragedy is yet to be determined. For knitting, I'm planning to start the Ruffled Tuxedo Tank from the Summer 2007 Interweave, using Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy. I'm also going to take some sock yarn for simple socks just in case the tank proves to be more problematic than expected. This is not unlikely as I'm converting the pattern into the round, as well as knitting it in stockinette instead of reverse stockinette. I was thinking of doing that anyway, because I think reverse stockinette tends to look a bit sloppy no matter how evenly one knits, but I was sold when I saw someone else on Ravelry used stockinette. Have I mentioned how I love Ravelry? It's great. Hope you all have a good week!

Sockapalooza Update

First things first, let me say that I loved the Harry Potter (no spoilers). I got a bit of a slow start with it, and had some trouble getting really into it, which I think was due largely to the fact that I didn't want to finish it and have the whole series be over. That changed around midnight Sunday night, when I became obsessed and ended up staying up until 3:30am reading and 4:15am thinking. And then I dreamt about it. In my dream I was reading extra chapters, which all fit in quite nicely and would have made good additions. Too bad I didn't write them down! Anyway, I loved the book and will be rereading it again soon - I was reading so fast at the end that I'm sure I skipped some interesting stuff in my desire to find out what was going to happen. Yesterday was thus a bit of a wash, due to the fatigue...

I have been working diligently on my Sockapalooza socks. I finished the first one on Friday, and today I turned the heel of the second sock: For a recap, this is the Angel's Rest pattern from Fiber Trends Peak Experience Socks, knit with Angora Farms Monarch sock yarn, in Ivy. Sorry for the lack of links but it's late and I've linked them before. I'm hoping to finish these this week because I'm going to Utah for vacation on Saturday, and although I don't intend to mail the socks until I get back (a couple of days late - I will let my pal know so she doesn't worry), I'd like to have them done so I don't have to worry about them on the trip. I have other knitting plans for my vacation, which I'll hopefully share before I go. A quick question for the Sockapalooza veterans out there - is it customary to mail other gifts along with the socks? This is my first swap of this nature, and I don't want to send only the socks if my pal is going to be expecting other little gifts as well. Please advise. I have no qualms about including some goodies, and would do so happily, I'm just not sure what the standard is for this type of swap.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, I finally got my Ravelry invite last Friday!!! Happy dance, happy dance! It turns out I got my invite on June 20th, but my Hotmail spam filter ate it, and until recently there wasn't an easy way to find out where you were in the Ravelry waiting list. Just Friday I noticed the 'type in your email and we'll tell you where you stand' function, and in minutes I was raveling away. It's SO great, I love it. It has been sucking up a fair bit of knitting time, but it's worth it to have everything organized so neatly. I love organizing and making lists. Ravelry is perfect for me. I couldn't be happier. I'm eemarsha, if you want to come find me!

Are you ready?

Catch you when it's over...

Finished Object: Chevron Scarf

It is finished! Not that I've mentioned it much, but I spent a long time making my Chevron Scarf, from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.

It took me almost five months to knit this, but it was my at-work project, so I only worked on it for about 30-40 minutes at a time, and sometimes deadline knitting got in that way of even that, so it was a long slog. I enjoyed it though, and the results are lovely!

Project Stats: Chevron Scarf

Pattern: Chevron Scarf, from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.

Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, colorway P529 (how's that for descriptive?!?), purchased at Weaving Works. I used three skeins.

Needles: Size 5 Clover bamboo.

Time on the Needles: 2.16.07-7.12.07. Would've been faster but I only worked on it at lunch, and not even exclusively.

Finished Size: 5" by some ungodly length. Seriously - it's really long and I used one skein less than called for in the pattern.

Modifications: The pattern calls for two colorways of Koigu, each used for two rows and then switched. I decided I didn't want to deal with carrying the extra yarn (and I can never get enough turquoise) so I just used one color. I also only used three skeins instead of the four called for in the pattern. I think four would have made a scarf that was really way too long. I like long and this is borderline too long for me. In the photo I have it around my neck three times and both tails are still past my hips.

Impressions: So pretty! So wearable! So prone to curling! Seriously, I had a hard time blocking this baby flat, as it really wants to puff up where the increases are (the mountains, if you will), and curl under at the edges. I was afraid of this because I've heard of other people having issues with it(Wendy has a great description of hers, with an awesome photo, here), so we'll see how much of a problem it is when I wear the scarf. I considered making it even longer, since I have a fourth skein of yarn, and then sewing it together along the long seams, but I think that would be way too much effort and make the scarf too bulky. I think curling will be okay - it's not meant to to thick and warm so if it rolls and becomes narrow I think I can live with it. This was my first Koigu experience and while the yarn was nice I didn't find it to be anything special. If I make another of these (not unlikely) I think I'll use something softer, like Socks that Rock. But. overall I'm really happy with this and I think I'll get a lot of use out of it!

With that completed, I need a new work project. It has to be something simple where progress can be made in small chunks of time. For the moment I'm taking my Sockapalooza sock with me (almost to the toe of sock #1) but when that's done I'm thinking about starting the Back-to-School Vest from Fitted Knits. I have the yarn and I think a simple circular project would be a good choice. or I could make another scarf. We'll see...