2017: The Year of No Goals

It's January, and in every other year since I started writing this blog I've written a January post with my knitting/photographic/hiking/you-name-it goals. This year is going to be different. I don't really feel like setting goals for myself this year. Instead, I'm going to just live, knit, and be active (both physically and politically), and I'll use the blog to report on some of my knitting, hiking and other activities as they occur.

First up: pink hats! I know that just about any knitter in the United States has heard about the Pussyhat Project and the effort to knit hats for marchers in the Women's March in Washington DC, and sister marches elsewhere. I knit two hats, one for me, and one for another marcher at the Seattle Women's March, which happened on January 21.

Here is the first one, in progress, on the way to the gym in early January.

Here I am, wearing that same hat, at the conclusion of the Seattle March. I'm with two of my knitting friends, sisters Kate and Melissa. It was a great day!

I have, for the most part, tried to avoid being too political in this blog, but given the events of the past week-and-a-half, those days are at an end. I will promise not to talk about political issues in every blog post, but I can't promise to avoid politics completely.

This does not mean that I won't continue to write about my knitting. I plan to post photos of my projects, both in progress and completed, but there may be more of an emphasis on my charity knitting this year. In times of political craziness, it helps me to knit and/or do something to help others. I'll keep you up to date with those actions throughout the year.

I have also committed to doing another Project 365 photo-a-day challenge this year. Am I crazy? Perhaps, because I swore I would never do another one after I completed my first Project 365 in 2013. I have managed to get through January, so I'm one-twelfth done. I won't promise to post a photo every week, like I did for part of 2013, but I'll try to pick a favorite photo each month and share it here. Watch for the January photo later this week.

Every year, I promise to try to post to this blog more often, and in the last couple years I have failed miserably. I'm not making any promises, but I am going to try to write shorter posts more frequently. I really love having a blog—I see it as a creative outlet—and I don't want it to fall by the wayside. I hope that those of you who stop by to read it occasionally will let me know if anything I say resonates with you. That will do a lot to keep me writing. Thank you in advance!

Catching Up with Photos of the Week

Wow, it's been two weeks since my last post! And in addition to that, I am even farther behind on posting my photos of the week. Today you are in luck, though, because I am going to share several photos of the week all at once. Enjoy! I'll be back with another post, catching you up on my hiking, in a day or two.

The Fremont Troll, very appropriate for Friday the 13th!

My grandfather's dice cup, photographed on September 18th, which was his birthday.

It's the season of the spider; seen on a very foggy morning.

An Anna's hummingbird, seeking refuge from the downpour inside a rhododendron in my garden.

Infinite pumpkins. Halloween is just around the corner!

Photo of the Week: Pesto Pizza

249/365: Pesto Pizza, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

One of my favorite meals: pizza with pesto, homegrown tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and cheese.

Photo of the Week: Purple Waves

245/365: Purple Waves, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

My Wandering Whippoorwill shawl. Here are all of the details:

Pattern: Whippoorwill by Carina Spencer

Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in the Honey and Primrose colorways, Hazel Knits yarn club selections for February 2013.
Cast on: July 30, 2013
Bind-off: August 31, 2013

I love these two colors together! Of course, I'm a purple girl, you knew, that, right?  I don't usually wear gold, but I'm trying to branch out a bit in the colors I wear. I knit this shawl for the Hazel Knits July-August knitalong. This was also part of the My Sister's Knitter Get It Done KAL. (Hi, Andi!)

I am also going to use this project for the Yarniacs podcast Colors of Fall KAL. The idea is to knit something in one of the Pantone Fall 2013 fashion forecast colors. The purple in this shawl is very close to Pantone's Acai. One of the requirements of the KAL is to style your photo with the clothing and accessories you would combine with your project to make an outfit, so here are a couple bonus photos:

This has been a fun challenge. I may have two more projects knit in Pantone fall colors that I can share with you. One isn't finished yet, but is getting close, and the other just needs a photograph. Watch for another post coming soon!

Photo of the Week: A Bit Early for Halloween

237/365: A Bit Early for Halloween, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

Anyone who knows me well knows that Autumn is my favorite season and Halloween is my favorite holiday. You can imagine how happy I was to see this ripening pumpkin in a garden in my neighborhood. Autumn and Halloween, all rolled into one photo! What could be better?

Photo of the Week: Hanging' Out

223/365: Hanging' Out, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

My recently-completed Mother Bear, chilling with her friends.

Do you know about the Mother Bear Project? The Mother Bear Project is "a non-profit organization dedicated to providing comfort and hope to children affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging nations by giving the gift of a hand-knit or crocheted bear." For more information, visit their website.

Photo of the Week: Forgotten Treasures

213/365: Forgotten Treasures, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

These colorful stones were purchased many moons ago on a trip to Olympic National Park. I found them recently in a desk drawer.

Photo of the Week: Hand-dyed for Me

204/365: Hand-dyed for Me, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

I'm behind on my photos of the week—but only a little behind—because this was last week's photo. Isn't this the most luscious yarn? I attended a yarn-tasting event at one of the local yarn stores, and this is the yarn I "tasted." I love the color, and it's a dream to knit with, too. I special ordered two skeins on the spot, and the day I picked them up, I commemorated the event with this photo. Sometime in the near future, this yarn is going to become Rose Beck's Sugar is Sweet. It will be sweet, indeed, knit in this yarn!

Photo of the Week: Bee and Bloom

203/365: Bee and Bloom, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

I caught this bumblebee enjoying a hydrangea blossom in my garden. The blossoms are a much deeper blue, but I love the way the 50 mm lens focused so well on the bee and flower, and also showed the leaves as a muted Impressionistic backdrop.

Weekly Hike #8: A Photo of the Week, and a Mishap,

I'm going to get the photo of the week over with right away. That's Annette Lake, the destination for Weekly Hike #8. Isn't it beautiful? This is one of my favorite hikes, and we have done it in both 2011 and 2012.

This year, however, the hike wasn't as much fun as usual. Why, you ask? Well, about a half mile from the lake, I tripped over a tree root and fell and cut my forehead on a rock and jammed my elbow. Do you have any idea how much a head wound bleeds? Fortunately, I didn't have a concussion, my head stopped bleeding pretty quickly, and I didn't even notice how much my arm hurt until we had our picnic at the lake and hiked down the mountain. The next day I went to see the doctor and had my arm x-rayed (nothing broken), and everything has healed up nicely.

Because the hike wasn't much fun—though it certainly was memorable—I'm just going to treat you to a couple photos, and let it go at that. The next hike should be more fun and less eventful.

Photo of the Week: Opening

185/365: Opening, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

Amazing blossoms on the Hen and Chicks plant in a strawberry pot on my patio.

Photo of the Week: Before Sunrise

180/365: Before Sunrise, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

One of the benefits of waking up really early is seeing the start of the dawn.

Photo of the Week: Did You Bring Your Bag?

163/365: Did You Bring Your Bag?, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

Slowly but surely, the cities in my area are banning plastic grocery bags. This sign is in the parking lot of PCC, the local food coop chain. Do you bring your bags?

Bookish (and More than One Photo of the Week)

This was going to be my photo of the week more than a week ago, and somehow it never got posted. That's Mr. D, in a wonderful used book store, Eclipse Books, in the Fairhaven neighborhood of Bellingham. And what were we doing there? I was an attendee at Booktopia Washington, and Mr. D was there to hike and hang out with me when I wasn't in Booktopia sessions.

Booktopia is the brainchild of the two hosts of the Books on the Nightstand podcast, Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness. They have been podcasting about books and the publishing industry since 2008, and in 2011 they scheduled their first retreat for authors and podcast listeners at the amazing Northshire Books in Manchester, Vermont. Last year, they changed the retreat name to Booktopia, and they added two more locations, one in the middle of the country, and one in the west. This year Village Books in Fairhaven was the West Coast venue, and I was lucky enough to get in.

Here is a photo of Michael and Ann, about the only one I got of the two of them together:

Village Books was a super place to hold an event like this! It is a wonderful book store, with a friendly and welcoming staff. They really care about their customers, including those from north of the border:

Here is Booktopia Central, Village Books:

Attending Booktopia were seven authors, who presented in individual sessions during the day on Saturday and at the book signing event on Saturday night. They were: Peter Clines, Jonathan Evison, Ru Freeman, Caroline Leavitt, Rhonda Riley, Jan-Phillipp Sendker and Maggie Shipstead. Prior to the event, I read Evison's, Leavitt's Sendker's and Shipstead's most recent books (and earlier books by both Evison and Leavitt) and I attended their author sessions. It was wonderful to hear them discuss their books and their writing process and to have an opportunity to ask questions. I also had an opportunity to get a photograph of Caroline Leavitt's very cool boots!

The Saturday evening session was also wonderful, and it gave all of the attendees a chance to hear the authors whose sessions we didn't attend. I found Rhonda Riley's talk about her book, The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope, so fascinating that I bought it and had her sign it. I'm reading it now; so intriguing! I brought home a few other books, too, as you can see:

To sum up, I had a fantastic time at my first Booktopia, and I'm hoping that there will be many more in my future.

Photo of the Week: Totem Pole Detail

149/365: Totem Pole Detail, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

Seen on a walk in Baker Park, in the Crown Hill neighborhood of Seattle.

Photo of the Week: Bad Hair Day

145/365: Bad Hair Day, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

Every year, on Memorial Day Weekend, we go to the Northwest Folklife Festival, a weekend-long, free event that features music, dance, crafts, food, and lots of fun. This a capella singing group, The Beaconettes, led a participatory workshop, giving me the opportunity to do some choral singing for the first time since I was in the girls glee club in high school.

Photo of the Week: Knitterly Love

139/365: Knitterly Love, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

Last Sunday, my three knitting friends and I were in Bellingham on the annual Puget Sound Local Yarn Store Tour, and I spotted this wonderful example of yarn bombing in front of Northwest Handspun.

Photo of the Week: Happy Shining Faces

128/365: Happy Shining Faces, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

Seen at the local garden store.

Photo of the Week: Knitting in the Shade

125/365: Knitting in the Shade, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

It was a hot and sunny Sunday, so I sat in the shade and worked on my shawl.

Photo of the Week: Emerging from the Spray

114/365: Emerging from the Spray, a photo by jchants on Flickr.

Father and Son, a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, at the Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle.