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!

Spring Time: Coming Up For Air Saying & Good-Bye to the Race Season!

The ski season has ended!  Lets rephrase that to say "The ski season has ended as far as racing, traveling, and sleeping on school floors."  I am still hoping to get a few more days of skiing here on the drifts that are slowly melting.  As far as skiing with kids that part is done!  Our season is long (since winter is long this far north) but we enjoy skiing with the kids.  We especially love getting kids outside, away from the TV and electronic devices.  Simply being outside with kids skiing is a lot of fun!

Some of our younger skiers with our new groomer.

Our wonderful groomer and his side kick Tally.

One of our skiers competing in Arctic Winter Games 2014 in snowshoe biathlon.  Katie brought home 4 Ulu medals!

Sadie and I enjoying a break from our tundra walk.  We were actually sitting in a hail storm.  The snow in the background is where we are still skiing.

Warren Miller: No Drugs, No Smoke, Get Outside

I think this is a great article written by Warren Miller who made ski movies for years/decades.  I could not agree more with his 90 years young point of view! I have observed the importance of being outside for years.  All the older people I know who have been major influences in my life fit this description!  Active, healthy, always outside pursuing their favorite activity.  Limiting or excluding the toxins of choice!

"Maybe if you have young kids and can get them to find their freedom outside on a bicycle, roller skates, a surfboard, and a pair of skis instead of in a bottle of beer, they will live much longer and healthier lives." 

http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/old_age1/38039/


Old Age | Flathead Beacon  This is the link to the above article as I just wanted to make sure I gave the proper source.  Enjoy the read as Miller gives excellent words to live by and embrace.

Wonderful Yarn and a Great Pattern who could ask for more!

Fireweed which is a great "girl" color! 

The Lomond Series patterns.

Pair #2 in Lupine.  I am knitting three pairs Lassie Lomond fingerless mittens and one adult pair for my niece and her three little girls.

Knitting . . . I am still working on fingerless mitts which are a fun, fast, and enjoyable knit.  I can not say enough about the wonderful yarn I am using or the fun, well written pattern both of which can be purchased at the Knit' N Needle.  I am enjoying knitting with this sport weight yarn .  The colors are rich, and the yarn is easy to knit. The pattern is from the Loch Lomond Series.

Winter, Knitting, Skiing and where does the time go . . .

Since moving photos around can be a bit of a hassle I will leave these at the top of this post and then just carry on!

This was one of our recent ski challenges here in Unalakleet.  While many of you don't like our Alaska weather you have had down south we had this in January.  Believe me we don't like a warm winter which is one of the reasons we live this far north.

ahhh bliss snow!

This is the reason our ski program is so great and why we have wonderful skiers.  Our groomer, my husband, grooms our ski trails, he doesn't get paid for all his hard work, and he loves working with snow.  As a former downhill racer, he can set a great line on the hills that gives us great skiing in a very rough environment.  Tally is his grooming partner.

The snow fence is behind them and this builds our drifts so we can ski when many others out here can not.  This year our skiers have been training on a 1.2k loop since December.  I give them a ton of credit for staying so focused.

Sadie, my girl,  and I making the best of challenging ski season . . . rumor has it some white stuff should be falling soon.

I really enjoy writing blog posts and learning how to do this antiquated thing called "blogging" as more and more people just use the current social media sites.  I find this little world of blogging relaxing and actually more mine than the social media world.

What has been going on since my last post in 2013 . . . well winter!  Winter for us this is the busiest time of the year!  We try to do our best working full time and running a very fun and successful ski program.  We love skiing with the skiers out here and have a blast!  Our ski season is long and full of challenges but as a team we make it through the challenging weather conditions and keep skiing.

Knitting: I seem to be knitting up a storm in the small project department.  Let this be a lesson to you all-----PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU ARE A KNITTER! Just because you buy a yarn, and then really don't like the yarn, and as you are knitting with the yarn IT is fine to SAY:

"Yarn I don't like you, you might be a great yarn and a wonderful color, but you were not made for this project.  I really know better than to continue with you . . . GOOD BYE yarn! I will give you away to a more deserving home!"

Once I gave up on the above mentioned issue I moved right on to a wonderful yarn and project!

Current project: I have been knitting with a wonderful new yarn which I can highly recommend.  First this wonderful yarn from the Knit 'N Needle is a sport weight, 100% wool, super wash and HAND DYED!  I love it!  Polka Dot Sheep PDS Sport  has been a lot of fun to work with and the projects I have knitted are just coming out great!  I can recommend several very well written patterns from the Knit 'N Needle.

This is the pattern I am using for a parade of fingerless mittens for family members.  The pattern is written for men, ladies, children and toddlers.  The  Lomond Series is a great pattern and knits up quickly.

Yarn from my favorite Montana yarn shoppe.

Fireweed in sport weight and my camera did not capture this wonderful pink yarn well.  These mitts are for my grand niece and the pattern is the Lassie Lomond. 

This color way is Lupine and will be another pair of Lassie Lomonds.

I would say this wraps up this post and I will try to get myself back on a more regular schedule of posting about skiing, knitting, and life out here on the edge.

Jan's Grab Bag Socks and Felted Slippers

I recently had a friend contact me who has health issues and really needs some wooly items to help keep her feet warm and toasty.  Jan wanted a pair of 100% wool socks and I also suggested some felted wool slippers as well.

I immediately casted-on for the felted slippers as the pattern I have used countless times over the years from Fiber Trends.  The yarn I picked for these slippers is actually a wool (95%) silk (5%) blend which felts up rather nice and dense called: Clyde by Louet.  It is bulky/chunky weight yarn.  I knit this yarn held double and moved right along knitting one slipper with many interruptions in a day.

First completed slipper.  Once both slippers are completed they will be felted in the washing machine.   Felting is done by knitting an item oversized (100% wool or tested yarn to see if it will felt) and then purposely shrinking the wool to the correct size.

Then to take  a break from the slipper pattern I switched right over to the wool socks.  I have a healthy allotment of left over yarn--no surprise!  I decided to use a little technique that Elizabeth Zimmermann talks about in her Baby Surprise Jacket.  I found yarn that is the same weight for the most part and rolled up small balls of yarn and placed them in a bag.  The only rule was not to have matching colors next to each other.  With that in minded, I grabbed a small ball of yarn joined by my favorite method the old spit and felt and knit on which means there is no sewing in of any ends!

The colors of yarn I decided to work with for Jan's Grab Bag Socks.

The beginning!

First sock completed using Fiber Trends Hellen's Favorite Socks this sock pattern is my "work horse" pattern.  I modify it slightly.  This pattern gives all the basics one needs to knit socks and you can adjust/design easily to meet your fancy. 

Snow!

I just came across this photographer and his work with snow crystals. AMAZING!

Christmas Vacation has STARTED--Skiing-Knitting-Relaxing-Baking!!!!!

Hardly anything else needs to be said . . .  well I would add knitting and reading!  Always my biggest belief is one should get outside as much as possible under one's own mode of transportation also know as exercise.

Yesterday was the last day of school and Christmas Break started for us!  One of the things I love about not traveling for Christmas is that the vacation starts instantaneously and that is a wonderful thing.  I spent yesterday afternoon in the wax room getting ski gear out to some of our race team skiers.  Today I hope to get the gear out to our elementary skiers.  Then we can all get skiing!

Sadie voicing her opinion here, "Can we go skiing now!"  In the wax room known as Worm's Wax Room.

BOOTS, BOOTS, BOOTS!

This year we were able to get more poles, boots, and skis which were really needed for all the skiers.

Hard to tell in this photo but there are several new skis for race team skiers, younger elementary 

skiers, and adult helpers.

Skiing Nov. 24th when we had snow before it all warmed up and turned  into a mess.  Now we are basically back to this point as our snow is returning and temperatures are dropping to the normal lows.

This was posted on FB as well but just wanted to get these mittens posted here on the blog.  These are my new favorite ski mittens.  Made by TOKO and they are insulated and wind proof.  They has a soft back and thumb for wiping one's nose.

If you do a search online you will be able to find these mittens at most Nordic/cross-country ski shops.
These were purchased at Eagle River Nordic.

I also always wear a glove liner inside my mittens to keep my hands warmer.  This way I can remove my mittens and not expose my hands to freezing temperatures.

Knitting: I have been working on several projects which is so typical of me!  I just can not stay focused on anything to long no matter how much I try to stay focused.  I am of course still working on my Bláithín sweater. I have one sleeve knitted to the proper length and the body needs about 2 more inches.  I need to cast-on the next sleeve and get that knitted.  Once the body and the other sleeve are completed I can then join the 3 pieces and start my color work on the yoke.

I will be writing more about my knitting now that I am on break.  I felt I needed to give a bit of an update.  Next I will be posting about Jan's Grab Bag Socks a fun way to use up left  over yarn!

1st day of Skiing for the 2013/2014 Ski Season

I have always loved winter and snow!  It amazes me that there are people out there that don't love winter.  I don't know why I love this season so much.  I am not sure if it is the silence, the tidiness that fresh snow brings to the world, or the coziness I feel from a world wrapped in white.   

Many of you are looking at this photo and thinking that looks like a lot of grass you are skiing on there!  We have skied on more grass than this before and I am sure we will again!  I have learned living in rural Alaska one is not nearly as pick as when you are in the lower 48.   The other added bonus is skis slide well on tundra plants that are sticking up through the snow.  It is a case of the cup is half  full or half empty.  

Living where we live enables us to be able to ski a LOT!  I mean a LOT!  Since being here, I have skied at least 100 days a ski season.  Last year, I was able to get in 130 days on skis!  I would like to break that personal record this year if possible.  Skiing isn't about the amount of days one skis and I know this.  So why do I keep track of my ski days:  I keep track of my skiing so days off don't take over.  This way I get out the door as much as possible and why I try to encourage others to get out the door!  Being outside is simply a wonderful way to forget about daily issues and to be healthy! 

Gliding along on my skis over the tundra or through the woods is something I simply love to do! 

In the end, to ski is to travel fast and free - free over untouched snow country. To be bound to one slope, even one mountain,  by a lift may be convenient but it robs us of the greatest pleasure  that skiing can give, that is to travel through the wide wintery  country; to follow the lure of peaks which tempt on the horizon and  to be alone for a few days or even hours in clear, mysterious surroundings.

(Hans Gmoser)