Spring Sea Ice

Spring sea ice is a pretty interesting thing!  As I write, the sea ice is 4.5 miles out from the beach.  The sea ice is 3.5 feet thick.  I know this as one of our students was out the other night with his dad setting a crab pot.  They drove out onto the ice on their snowmachine with a sled.  The sled is a large plastic workhorse used for hauling firewood, caribou, crab pots, and gear.  Arctic used a chain saw to cut a huge hole to set their crab pot and thus the report on the sea ice.

Last week, one of our ski families dropped off two brown king crabs for us as a thank you!  This is a normal thing out here to give thanks with food from the land. Always answer the door here!  More time than not, there is food: crab, salmon, trout, moose, or caribou waiting for us!

Brown king crab on the smaller size but so yummy no matter what!

After school today I dashed down to the beach for the dogs to do the dog thing.  Here are just a few photos of the beach and sea ice.  The water on top of the ice is just that overflow being pushed up along the edge and through the cracks.  I hope these photos give a feel for the magnitude of the sea ice across North Sound.

Looking north towards Blueberry Hills

Sea ice as far as you can see

Looking north

Snow and Ice on the beach

Looking northwest

Looking southeast across the mouth of the river.

The beach and sea ice about 50 yards from our front door.

Drip Castles

Anyone remember making drip castles?  Today on our dog/beach walk I came across drip castles that were being formed by melting chunks of sea ice.  These chunks of ice get attached to the ocean floor and in storms they are often flipped over. The ice chunks land on the beach so the mud is on the top.  Today is the first time I have seen  drip castles being formed from melting ice and sand/mud.

Beach walks are a treat other than all the dead fish and what not the dogs love to eat or roll in--ugh!  I am facing south and north is obviously behind me, with Norton Sound on the west.

Christian heading north on the beach.

Tally back on leash after the beach walk buffet.

Tomten #2: Oh knitting how you continue to humble me! & Ski Update

Tomten #2

Last night, I thought I should count the sts on the sleeve just make sure I have the same amount on the front  and back of the sleeve. Of course I don’t, why would I, and how the heck did I screw that up, and better yet where?  Oh and I am off a sizable amount of sts as well!  UGH!  Thoughts of frogging came running into my mind and then the epiphany of WHO WILL KNOW, WHO WILL KNOW, NO ONE WILL KNOW, UNLESS I TELL SOME ONE!  (Meanwhile you are all saying you just told the WORLD!) Now I am decreasing under the arm at random places on the back side of the sleeve to get down to 25 sts to match the front of the sleeve!  What is a bit funny is I am actually even marking the decrease sts on the top of the sleeve on either side of the knit sts that will fun down the sleeve something I never do and what happens I still screw up my sts count!  Knitting how you continue to humble me!

A little ski update:

Yesterday, I finally got to day 100 of skiing (April 19, 2015) and it was another nice jaunt up the sea ice in the late afternoon.  Up north you could tell they were getting snow but we seemed to be right on the front line, under northern blue sky.  We had a north wind so skiing back was nice and fast.

"The Girls" and I out for an afternoon sea ice ski.

Spring Sea Ice Ski

One of the many things I enjoy about living way out here on "The Edge" as I often call it is my spring sea ice skis.  Norton Sound freezes over in the winter to varying degrees.  The sea ice moves about all winter long.  Sometimes we get a west wind which floods the sea ice and pushes it under water.  Sometimes an east wind blows it out to sea.  Recently, we had a north wind which pushes the sea ice right back into us here in Unalakleet.

Yesterday's after work ski was wonderful.  Nice sea ice to ski on and we just cruised north along the beach it was perfect!  +16ºF, hardly an wind and sunshine!  The dogs ran around finding caribou bones to chew on and the token left over silver salmon parts to try their best to eat before we caught them.

4/16/15 sea ice ski on Norton Sound

We just love winter and sliding around on snow!

Knitting!

I have been working on several small projects as a nice distraction from a larger project that I really need to get back too.  Fingerless mittens are coming along great.  I am almost done with the last small pair.  I have to knit a larger pair and will be casting on that one soon.

Snow Ghost Mittens

I love this well written pattern!  The mittens are wonderful and fit perfectly.  I did change the inside cuff a bit but other than that I followed the pattern as it is written.  I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca which is a dream yarn in my mind, soft, luscious colors and just a joy to work with!

Provisional cast on which I really like and don't use enough.

The back of the Snow Ghost Mitten
The pattern includes a color scheme in both a dark and light main color.

Palm side and thumb 

One completed mitten

The red/pink inside is Blue Sky Suri.  This was added to help keep drafts out.

Completed Snow Ghost Mitten and one more to go!

Felted Baby Booties

This pattern may be purchased at the Knit 'N Needle and you may have to call them to have the pattern mailed to you as it is not yet in a PDF  downloadable form.  A friend of mine designed this great simple pattern.  I have made countless pairs of these booties.  I use a 100% wool and like Malabrigo for this project.  It felts up wonderfully and has a wonderful feel to the finished felted item.  Toss in a little blanket stitch with embroidery thread to jazz up the finish bootie.  I have used sock weight yarn for the blanket stitch detail as well with great success.

The blue and yellow theme is for their Swedish heritage.

Polka Dot Sheep Hand Dyed Yarn

My favorite local yarn shoppe if you haven't notice yet is the Knit 'N Needle which has a online site based on the shoppe's logo the polka dot sheep.  Below is some of the yarn I have purchased lately.  I have been knitting with this yarn and can highly recommend it as having wonderful colors, great stitch definition, a nice lofty feel once blocked.

I have not figured out what all of this yarn will be knitted up into yet.  I can say mostly hats, mittens and smaller items are on the plate.

Spring

Sea ice melting and shifting around in Norton Sound on yesterday's beach walk.

My girl Sadie being the half Akbash she is overseeing everything to keep me safe.

Sadie exploring the sea ice hopping around the melting water.

Update Completed!

The update is complete! I will be imposing the ban on FaceBook  for the spring/summer.  I will be focusing on Wool-n-Ski which I enjoy far better as it is my space.

From yesterday's beach walk, an old fart selfie to join the all-about-me generation! 

Sadie sums up yesterday's activities!