Shetland Oo and Life on the Tundra

Shetland Oo wool textiles work is a recently released book by Kate Davies and her husband Tom Barr.  Kate is one of my favorite bloggers/writers, designers, and yarn producers.  I found Kate years ago through a knitting friend on Ravelry.  She suggested Kate's blog and right away I was hooked!  At that time, Kate had recently suffered a stroke and was working her way back from this horrific time in her life.  

I was taken right away by Kate. She was writing about her battle to regain her life and health.  Her world was turned upside down! Yet, Kate was able to grab onto the fiber she loved (wool) and pull herself upright in a new direction.  This was not an easy battle, but I learned a lot from her blog posts.  The key point I learned was never ever to judge a person and their struggle to move at all, but rather to lend a hand or a kind word of encouragement. It wasn't that I was judging people (just having a hard time finding the right words here) but Kate's writing just made me realize how important it is to see the whole person and to cheer that person on with compassion.  Kate struggled and fought hard and I can never imagine her journey.

In the process, Kate seemed to have discovered many new talents.  As an outsider looking in on Kate's accomplishments, I can not think that the stroke unleashed a Kate of her dreams or new dreams.  

If you are not familiar with Kate Davies work I can do nothing but suggest you take a look at her blog and her work.  Like myself, you may have found a new cyber-friend! 

I was taken by the fact she was in Scotland and as we know all great wool and many great knitters come from Scotland.  She has a black lab named Bruce.  I have two dogs each mixed with Weimaraner.  Tally is also mixed with a lab and Sadie is mixed with an Akbash.  Kate knits. I knit. Kate walks the hills of Scotland. I walk the beach, tundra, and hills of Alaska.  In the summer I hike the mountains of Montana.  

I have been very impressed with Kate's detailed knit patterns and her knitting/fiber research.  I have only just started reading Shetland Oo. I am enjoying her new book immensely. In between skiing/coaching, trail work, and knitting, I will read snippets with a nice cuppa tea! 

Thank you, Kate, Tom, and Bruce for another wonderful read about Real 100% Wool!

On needles socks, plain old vanilla socks using PDS Tender Foot from Montana's Knit 'N Needle in Whiskey Spring.

The girls a bit wore out after a ski practice that turned rather cold fast.  This often happens to us up here in the north.  Never worry they are in booties and jackets.  

I was greeted by this at 5:50 a.m. We had howling winds all night 35 to 52 mph.  Thus the snow inside the front porch or many of you would call this the mud room. Despite our efforts to keep the snow outside, we end up with a drift inside.  Nothing like shoveling out the inside of your house to get outside with the dogs!

Knit Girls

I have written about the Knit Girls before and here is an update of them in action.  My niece has three girls and they have discovered that 100% wool is the best thing for staying warm.  They were all a bit picky about rustic real wool but I won them over.  When you live in a damp place and off the grid one learns quickly to be warm one wears wool!  The wool for any of the sweaters the girls have on are from one of my favorite yarn shops: Schoolhouse Press.  Hats are knitted with yarn from Polka Dot Sheep my other favorite yarn shop and hat designs from that shop as well.

December Happenings (part II)

Continuation of December 2017 . . .

This is the 12/29 storm that has rolled into the village.  This grab was from 6:00 a.m. today. I for one love a good storm and we are to have this storm for a good part of today then warming, rain (UGH WHAT??), possible flooding and well . . . the joys of winter on the northern coast of Alaska!

This is where we live and this is a recent photo from about a week ago. Unalakleet river to the left and slough we cross for skiing. Norton Sound and the Bering Sea to the right.

One of my favorite events is the yearly lighting of the community Christmas Tree!

Here we are loving our Christmas Holiday . . .

Trail work . . . moving the pallets to build the drifts we will be grooming later.

Sadie warming up at the end of a ski.  Tally rarely gets cold feet but Sadie does and I carry this pad for myself to sit or stand on as well for Sadie.

Skiing in freezing fog/mist and covered in ice.  I could not be happier.

Can you say "Time to frog and start over!"

See snow actual snow is yes falling!

Another beach sea ice WOW moment!

Almond flour orange poppy seed scone with homemade marmalade!

My girl hoping for a treat!

Tea time trail break a must!

Heading in from a tundra ski.

I just love frost, snow, winter . . .

A wonderful recent discover of tea we can get with our Full Circle Farm Weekly organic food order.

Window decorations . . .

One of the other special village Christmas events.  This is Ladies Night at the Garage.  The Garage is one of our two stores.  They open it up in the evening one night for ladies and one night for men for Christmas shopping.  I love the event and we try our best not to miss out on a village shopping spree.

What a ski groomer's yard looks like!  Pallets getting hauled out for ski trails, grooming equipment . . . I love it!

We use the pallets to build drifts and them move them up onto of the drifts.  This helps us to maintain the trails with our high winds and sometimes flooding.  Only a physics teacher would come up with this bit of trail engineering.

Christmas Day Ski on the Dragon's Back.  This snow fence makes it possible to have a ski program in the absolute worst cross-country ski conditions on the face of the earth!

Merry Christmas to all we got our wish snow and good health!

Two of my loves!

Thought provoking thought. I will leave you with this . . . please do all you can to help protect our natural world as we go into 2017!

December Happenings (Part I)

December is a busy time for just about everyone I would say!  Either you work retail, or you need to put on a Christmas event for family or friends or gosh the list goes on . . .  I feel the need to bring you all up to date on my December.  It is time to wrap up the year and look forward to 2017!

Early December I spent being miserable as there was no real snow to speak of and the skiing was not the best.  Followed by trying to get ski gear out to kids, finishing up the semester, and arriving at my Christmas HOLIDAY--- of FREEDOM!

Since this is my Blog I am going to go with a bit of a photo essay post! My goal is to get caught up and current before heading into 2017!

Early Dec. saw wonderful sea ice which I was fascinated by.  The girls and I spent a lot of time walking on the beach. It was a very  cold ride on the 4-wheeler to get out on the tundra. How could anyone pass up this amazing jumbled up sea ice!

The girls and I out for a ski on the tundra on the small ponds that will soon be covered in far more snow than this.  This is desperation skiing!

More sea ice this is about 4 to 5 feet high.  It is pushed up onto the beach from winds, tides, and waves.

Just loving being out in the cold!

My Ms. Sadie--my buddy!

Little Ms. Tally my other constant companion.

The ice was just stunning.  I just could not get enough of this stark beauty!

Sunset over Norton Sound part of the Bering Sea.

I melt down chocolate bars and add coconut oil to the mixture plus sliced almonds some dried fruit and let it all cool.  I will cut this up and use it for my ski snack.

A wonderful little set up of tea from my dear friend Lynn!

My wool hand knitted Long Johns!  I have found these to be the warmest things I own.  When the temps drop to below zero I will be skiing in these tights from now on.   PDS DK weight yarn.

More will come on this sweater . . . my current Lopi design knitted with Shetland Chunky and Unspun Icelandic Wool (which I have fallen in love with)!

A project that came out too large . . . before felting.

Saying goodbye to fall as we move to the solstice!