September 27, 2014 First Frost! & No Bad Weather (NBW) Fall Knit Along (KAL)

The first sign that winter is truly on its way!

There is nothing like waking up early, to some late for me 6:30, on a Saturday morning to sky full of stars, and crisp fall air.   What?  Is that ice on the puddle?  I tentatively stick the toe of my Bean boot into the puddle hoping, wishing to hear the wonderful sound of ice cracking and what do I hear? Yes, ice cracking under the toe of my boot!  Northern Lights dancing in the sky, plus the lights of a barge in Norton Sound heading south before things really start to freeze up for winter.

One of the many joys of living in rural Alaska are the body parts your dogs get to either find and hope to bring into the house or the parts they love to roll on/in.  Tally was so thrilled with this wonderful find the other morning!  Nope---we are not keeping it!  It will be heading back to the beach where I am sure it came from today. 

The tundra is actually fading now to just browns and muted green lichen.  Fall has come and now we move into the rather dullness of browns and grays until winter arrives to blanket my world in white.  This tundra plant I love!  It is such a rich red and it really does look this red!

Tally enjoying an after school romp on the tundra in earlier September. 

 

My girl Sadie!

 

 

 

A recent batch of smoked salmon. Smoked with cherry and spicy seasoning added.

 

 

 

   

    

No Bad Weather (NBW) Fall Knit Along (KAL)

I have been working on my NBW KAL with the ladies from the Knit 'N Needle in Whitefish, Montana online through Ravelry.  This is a wonderful design and the yarn from the shoppe is great!  PDS worsted yarn is just full of life, with rich robust colors which is becoming a favorite of many knitters!

Like all projects I seem to always have to start the body about 3 times until I seem to work out some issues.  I have pretty much resigned myself to this knitting fact.  I casted-on a sleeve and knitted that up just fine.  The color is rich and deep which I really like in my yarn.  I casted-on for the body using a long tail cast-on and with two colors.  I decided instead of a ribbing I would do a knitted hem.  This is why I like to cast-on with 2 colors as I can pick up sts. easily having a contrasting color. 

That green purl like bump is where I will be picking up sts. to knit the hem which will be knit in a PDS sport weight yarn.  The lighter yarn will add less bulk and pull in the bottom just a bit.  This will be done later.

I thought, I would do a bit of added color work in the lower section.  I picked a design that I thought would be perfect.  It would have what I thought would be snow and hearts.  This would have made the statement that I love bad weather.  Well . . . it make the statement that this is way to much color work and your hem will be HUGE!  I decided to frog this section . . . oops forgot to mention: I had already frogged once before as I had twisted my yarn when joining the first round!

The reason for the color work is to have a nice line to sew the knitted hem to when I cast-off the hem on the inside.

Back to the drawing board.  I picked a much smaller simpler design of color work which would represent hills, drifts, and snow.  I knitted this color work only to realize that . . . Do you see those 2 ^%^%$%^*^* sts  there . . . yes 2 red sts side by side!!!!!!  Yes in the first round close to the beginning!  &*)(*&%$#$%%^

I was able to get this frogged again, and knitted yet again.  Now on a positive note look at how great that PDS worsted weight yarn is holding up to 3 froggings.  I will admit  I wanted to toss the whole thing into the trash!  However, I nicely reminded myself this is not the first time nor the last time knitting will humble me!  I took a few deep breathes, swore a bit and like E.Z. would say "Knit On!"

I have been knitting for over 20 years and yes even those who have been knitting for years (decades) still makes mistakes and still find new ways of making mistakes.  To new knitters out there just try and relax it is fine to make mistakes, learn how to frog, laugh a bit at yourself and then KNIT ON!

No Bad Weather KAL (Knit Along)

My yarn arrived today for the Knit Along (KAL) I have joined through the Knit 'N Needle yarn shoppe in Whitefish, Montana.  We were quick to get the girls out on the tundra for a photo shoot with my new PDS worsted yarn when we got home from work today at 6 p.m.  I love the colors in person and am looking forward to casting on a sleeve for a swatch.  This hand dyed yarn is from a very talented independent yarn dyer in Whitefish.

The colors I picked, as always have some kind of theme or purpose in "Nancy's World" and this yarn is no exception.  The green (Douglas Fir) is for evergreen trees which I especially adore when covered in snow.  The red-ish color (petroglyph) is for the fall colors on the tundra as we transition into winter, and the white (beargrass) is of course for one of my favorite things: SNOW!

The No Bad Weather Knit Along will be starting officially on September 14th.  It will be hosted on the Ravelry site. For you non-knitters (is there such a person yikes!) think FaceBook for knitters, only a lot better than facebook could ever be! On Ravelry you would just have to join the Polka Dot Sheep Publications group.

Fall . . . I love the start of fall

September 2, 2014 the a.m. dog walk was under northern lights!  What a treat!  The air is crisper, the stars are out, and the mornings are now dark here.  I walk the dogs with the light of my head lamp leading the way so I don't kill myself walking in the dark.

Yesterday we had a good ol'storm rain for most of the day, high winds, and pounding crashing surf.  We also had  a "Sadie Storm."  A sick barfing dog from 3:00 a.m.  until 5:00 p.m.  I hate when our animals get into trash or dead things on the tundra or beach.  Luckily they seem to survive what ever they seem to think they need to eat.  Today I am watching her as she finally ate something and lets just hope it follows the normal course to the end result.

Here is a health Miss Sadie before she food some nasty treat that made her so sick.  She is fine but for about 12 hours she was one sick girl!

I am in love with the tundra! A close up antler lichen or it is sometimes called caribou lichen.  I am always fascinated by the plant life on the tundra.  At times I am convinced there is a whole little world of gnomes and creatures that live under its coverage.

Christian with "the girls".  We were able to mountain bike over the week-end.  We rode on the hard pack road that was put in on the beach to help reinforce the sea wall.

Oh in search of the internet!

Since I made this post yesterday WE NOW HAVE INTERNET AT OUR HOUSE ONCE AGAIN!!!!!!!  I can now add captions to photos!
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As soon as I have internet at my house again I will be posting!  I have a lot to share but no working internet.  This may be a good thing as I tend to get more work related things done!  Since it is my house I really don't like working from my house . . . at times I have to as there is no one interrupting me there.  Back to the issue no internet which makes it hard to blog.  I am hoping next week we will have internet back and working until then . . .

Photos just to let you know we made it back to Alaska and captions  will be added once we have internet!

Tally resting after a day in the back seat on our drive north and me knitting away during sunset. Some where in BC.

A short stroll from Nakusp Hot Springs in BC,

Tally enjoying a swim some place along the Alcan highway.  Every day the girls got to swim in a new swimming hole.

I love this photo of Tally she is all about FUN!

The nosiest campground in all of BC!  It was also very clean with wonderful campground hosts.  This rail line was yards from our camping spot and there was another on the other side of the river.  

The girls enjoying the AC and view.  If their eyes could talk: "Are we there yet?"

Jiffy Pop Popcorn!  The secret is a leather glove and vice grips and you get perfect popcorn every time.

Kluane Lake a beautiful spot which we love.  Last spring it was frozen on the drive south.  Now we all got to enjoy the sunshine and ice free lake.

One of our favorite hot springs, Liard Hot Springs, and I do mean hot!  This one is set in a pretty spot and always a treat.

Liard Hot Springs

This is the divider between the extremely hot pool and the lower temperature pool.

The boardwalk at Liard to the pools a pleasant stroll.

Takhini Hot Springs This place was a great discovery in the spring.  The pool is currently filling in the early a.m. 

Tetlin Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.  This little place has a nice small campground with the call of the lonely Loon.

Tetlin Camp ground with the morning cup of joe!

Back home in the village rainbow and all!

Christian with his huge grayling!

Now we are talking FISH---silver salmon from the Unalakleet River.

Another HUGE salmon!

Christian with a salmon more our liking!

Rainbow above Unalakleet River

Unalakleet in the far distance by Norton Sound and miles of tundra.

We actually hard a visitor here!  Our friend Karrin, recently back from Africa and now working in AK, dropped in for a week-end visit!

Here are several Kayaks a few plastic and the rest have been made by Maligiaq.  He was here at our school for some work.  I wasn't able to get in a paddle but I hope to next year. 

Maligaq working on a practice paddle.

Knitting and mosquitoes sometimes don't mix!

Central Ave Bakery & Deli: 237 central Avenue (406)- 863-8788

This summer I stumbled into a fantastic bakery which I quickly fell in love with.  Central Ave Bakery & Deli is close to my home.  I can walk to their front door in about 3 minutes or bike over in about a minute! Central Ave Bakery & Deli is fun, up beat, and cheery.  The frosting on the cake is they have friendly, helpful, and extremely pleasant employees.  In simple terms, the owner knows her stuff and has created a welcoming bakery and deli in downtown Whitefish.  I love how busy they are and the constant hum of chit chat and customers coming and going.   They have some of the best bagels this side of New York!  If you are in Whitefish and looking for a nice cup of coffee, a sweet treat, a great lunch salad, sandwich, or  take home pre-made pies and dishes to bake at your home this is the place!  I am sure you will be as pleased as I am to add Central Ave Bakery & Deli to your list of favorite bakeries and rest stops!

Bláithín

My Bláithín sweater is true to form creeping along ever so slowly.  I did make yet another change and learned and used German Short rows which worked out great and got rid of several gaping openings form the turn and wrap method I deplore!

New fan of German Short Rows for shaping.

No loops or large stitches from turn and wrap.

Sewing in the loose ends from the color work on the yoke.

I am presently working on the cast-off edge of the lower body.  I am stuck in a thinking stage as I can not figure out why one would cast-off 232 sts. and then pick up 232 for icord.  I am going to re-read the pattern and then most likely do an icord bind off instead.  Once that is done I will be steeking the front which means cutting the front of the sweater open.  Steeking is a method I actually really like and use often.  I was hoping to have this sweater done and off the needles before the reverse migration starts.  I am doubtful this will happen!