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“His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand

The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake…”

-John Denver, Rocky Mountain High

Ok, so this isn’t in the Rocky Mountains, it’s in the Yosemite High Country of the Sierra Nevadas. But it’s the song that came to mind when I was sitting by this lake. We stayed there two nights and the second night we were the only ones there.

Yosemite National Park

Babcock Lake (about 9,200 feet elevation)
August 2006

Sorry if you’re getting sick of looking at mountain pictures, I like to look at them!

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Vernal Fall
Yosemite National Park

May 2006

I’ll be in Yosemite over the weekend, so here’s your Friday eye candy a day early. As a shout-out to Yosemite, here’s a picture from the spring. If you look closely you can see how tiny the people are on the edge of the waterfall. I didn’t expect this hike and this waterfall to be as impressive as it was because it’s a tourist hotspot and a popular hike easily accessible from the valley. I figured it couldn’t be as beautiful as Nevada Fall way above Vernal Fall that we hiked over on our way to Half Dome last year. Even though it was crowded, I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty and the scale of the falls, and the joy of the hike. It was so invigorating to go up the Mist Trail and get soaked by the downpour of the mist from the thundering falls on that hot day. Just thinking back on it makes me smile.

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I signed up for a class to “learn how to professionally knit and finish your garments.” I haven’t had much of an inkling to knit a sweater yet, but it seems to be creeping up on me. There’s no way I’ll try it if I don’t know what I’m doing, so I thought if I learned some stuff about it, I’d feel more confident about my knitting. So for this class we are knitting a teddy bear sweater. I knit up a swatch:

but of course the gauge is wrong. I think it is standard for sweater knitting to knit more than one swatch, or at least change needle sizes. The blue is turning out nicely, don’t you think? I bought this yarn at Christmas on my first yarn binge in Chicago. I couldn’t really find anything to knit with it, so I think this will be a deserving project. I’ll have to go down a needle size, although I *really* wanted to use the size 7 Brittany needles I got on sale. The only size 6 needles I have are Denise needles which will have to do. I’ll put those thingies on the end of the cords to make them straight instead of circular. Nothing else I’ve made has really mattered how many stitches per inch it was. The hats I’ve made have ribbing for that extra stretch. The bags? Who cares, they’re either a little bigger or a little smaller. I don’t think I can mess this up anyway. It’s a teddy bear sweater. I don’t even have a stupid teddy bear to put it on. I figured I’d mail it to my niece. Maybe she has some doll or stuffed animal that it will fit. A wool sweater for a toy, kind of humorous. I wanted to use up yarn that I had rather than purchasing more. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I may be in over my head with this sweater knitting class finishing thing. We have to knit up the pieces of the teddy sweater BEFORE the class. And the instructor didn’t just give us a simple pattern. She gave us a pattern with like a gajillion notes attached to it. I may need some help executing this one. I’ll keep you posted.
In other news, I finished another Meema’s felted marsupial tote:

It’s for mom’s birthday. She should get the surprise in the mail today! I think I’m finished knitting these totes for awhile. They’re super cute, super easy, and super fast, especially using size 15 needles with two strands of worsted weight yarn. After making 3 though, they’re getting super old. Well, I shouldn’t say that. I do love making them for people because they seem to really like them (or so they say) and keep asking for them. Let’s just say I don’t want to knit anything on size 15 needles for awhile. They seem so clunky compared to smaller knitting.
Today we are leaving for a long weekend in Yosemite. Hoping to see some GREAT VIEWS (you may want to make sure the coast is clear before looking at this one at work- gotta love those Flickr searches).

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I love making things for other people, but I wonder when I’ll get the time, energy, and skills to make some cool stuff for myself. With Christmas only a few months away (4 months doesn’t seem that far away in knitting terms), it probably won’t be anytime soon. I’m taking a socks on two circular needles class whereby one knits socks from the toe up. We’re learning a Turkish Toe and a Turkish Heel (a.k.a. Afterthought Heel). The class said to use worsted weight yarn. I knew my husband would kill me if I continued to purchase yarn when a large rubbermaid container is filling with yarn in the back room. So, I used some yarn that was intended to make toys or somesuch. Something about the green yarn was calling to me, so I used that. They say yarn speaks to you and sometimes tells us what it wants to be and who it’s supposed to be for. I think these socks are communicating that they want to be for ME!

I can just see myself wearing these socks around the house to keep my feet warm. The other pictures are from Portola Redwoods State Park, south of San Francisco. I’m experimenting with ecto software today. It seems to do a better job with formatting than the WordPress rich text editor. I was having such problems with the WordPress rich text editor messing with line breaks.. ugh.

Sunrise at Garnet Lake 9,680 feet elevation

Ansel Adams Wilderness, CA
August 2004

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Kalalau Trail

Kauai, Hawaii

June 2006

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The cactus we’ve had for almost 3 years bloomed! Twice! Isn’t it beautiful? It happened so quickly, and the blooms only lasted for about 2 days, each one about a week apart. They were the most spectacular at the moment they opened. I don’t remember what kind of cactus it is. Maybe I can email the pictures somewhere and get it identified.

Also, Jodi and John sent me a hilarious book, The Museum of Kitschy Stitches, a Gallery of Notorious Knits. Very, very funny. Not only are the pictures funny, but the descriptions will leave you in, um, stitches!

I also sent Jodi her surprise, a finished Meema’s Felted Marsupial Tote! I finally finished a project! The mohair in the Lamb’s Pride makes the bag look so cute and fuzzy.

The strawberries in the backyard are also a nice surprise! I planted a few last year and this year they have spread. They are so delicious… so much different than those white-centered things you get from the grocery store. Red, sweet, and juicy. Yum! The other picture isn’t much of a surprise. I messed up. Just look at it. Look at it! Do you see it? I made a mistake. I don’t know how to fix it since it’s the heel flap of a sock and it’s slip one, knit one in one row, and purls on the next row. I thought I could just knit past it and I wouldn’t notice it. But I DO notice it! Blech. And I was on such a roll with the sock.
This week I went to my first neighborhood knitting group at a local coffee shop. I had a great time! It was fun to meet some local gals around my same age who like to knit. Everyone had such different jobs: a photographer, a life/job coach, an editor for a law website, a girl in GIS, and me, an occupational therapist. I’m hoping I’ll be able to attend often. For the next two weeks though, I’ll be taking a socks on two circulars class at Article Pract. We’ll be knitting socks toe-up with an afterthought heel. I can’t wait!