Winter in the Pacific Northwest

A lot of people think that here in the Northwest, winter looks like this every day:

I will admit that sometimes winter looks very much like those photos, but this winter we have been treated to much more variety in our weather. Do you want to see? Take a look below:

Obviously, not just a succession of rainy days all winter long. But let's keep it our little secret, shall we?

Knitting in a Winter Wonderland

Have you been wondering where I've been? I've been absent from the blog for a couple weeks for a good reason: last weekend I attended the Knitajourney Mid-winter Retreat in Duluth, Minnesota. I know, I know, I can hear you already: "Minnesota in the winter? Are you crazy?" But I love Minnesota in all seasons. I spent 18 years and many Christmases and vacations of my life there, and in many ways I still consider it home. As a result, going there in the winter isn't as awful as it sounds.

That being said, it was pretty darn cold, and there was a lot of snow! This is the view from the second floor of the retreat house.

But the truth is that when you spend time in a cozy and beautiful house with a group of knitting friends, the cold doesn't really matter. This is our wonderful retreat house:

Here is the room I stayed in, and what I found next to my bed:

We ate very well:

Some of us went on a walk along the creek in the snow.

We went on a yarn crawl to two area yarn stores. One of them, Playing With Yarn, had more yarn per square foot than just about any yarn store I've ever been in. It also had a spectacular view of Lake Superior.

Mostly, what we did was knit and talk and enjoy the warmth of the fire and of our friendship.

Many thanks to Susan, Alison, Betsy, Laurie, Ceci, Ellen, Lisa and Lisa. You made the weekend perfect. Let's do it again next year!

Annual Goals, the 2014 Edition

Well, here I am, with the third annual goals post. This year, all of my goals are knitting-related. "What?" I can hear you asking, "No photography goals, no reading goals, no hiking goals?" That is correct, and I'll tell you why: I did such a great job with those goals last year, that I'm giving myself the year off. In 2013, I completed a photo-a-day challenge, I read 52 books, and I did 22 weekly hikes. I also accomplished my long-standing goal of walking a half-marathon. Giving myself a pass on these types of goals in 2014 does not mean that I won't be taking photographs, reading or hiking, but it does mean that I am going to be more relaxed about doing those things. You can expect to see my photography here on the blog, and I will definitely feature weekly hikes in the summer. Who knows, I might even have an occasional book review here, too.

So, let's get down to the knitting goals:

1. Continue to finish or frog those long-standing UFOs and lingering WIPs.

I did fairly well on this goal in 2013. I finished two UFOs, one from 2011 and the other from 2012, and I frogged a project from 2011. I still have one UFO from 2009, one from 2011, and a couple lingering WIPs from 2013 that need to be dealt with. I hope that these will all be wrapped up in one way or another in the first three months of the year.

2. Knit from my stash as much as possible, and buy less yarn than last year.

This goal is on my list every year, and every year I say that I did a little better on this than the year before. I'm saying the same thing this year, but I'm hoping that at this time next year I'll have a significantly smaller stash.

3. Knit down my stash of self-patterning and self-striping yarn.

This goal shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. I have about 13 of these yarns currently in my stash, and I almost always have a plain vanilla sock in a self-striping or self-patterning yarn on the needles. Back in November, I got the idea that it would be more fun to knit with these yarns if the choice was random. So I wrote each yarn name and colorway on a slip of paper and had Mr. D draw one out of a hat. I just finished that first pair of socks two days ago:

Mr. D has already randomly selected the yarn for the next pair, and I'll be casting it on soon. Watch for more of these FOs on the blog in the coming year.

4. Knit projects with the gift yarn in my stash and the gift patterns and books in my library.

I am embarrassed to admit that I have received many skeins of yarn as gifts over the past six years and I've knit with almost none of it. This year, that is going to change. I have done a little better with knitting gift patterns: this past year I knit two of the three patterns I received as gifts from Ravelry friends last Christmas. But I am also counting the patterns in books I have received as gifts, and if you include all those patterns, I'm not doing well at all. Stay tuned to see if I can change that in the coming year.

How about you? What are your goals for the year? Whatever they are, I hope your New Year is a happy and healthy one!

Knitting Highlights of 2013

Only two days until 2014 begins, so it's a good time to look back at my knitting in 2013. It's particularly important that I do this, because the knitting posts have been few and far between this year. To make up for that lack at least a little bit, I going to share some of my favorite knitting projects from 2013, and add a promise that there will be much more knitting content on the blog in 2014.

So here is the whirlwind tour of my knitting year. Links are to my Ravelry project pages.

Hats: I knit more hats this year than in any other year since I returned to knitting in 2008. Below are a few of them.

The Mr. D Hat and The Matt Hat.  The pattern is BRRH! (Basic Reversible Ribbed Hat), designed by WillyG. The two clowns in the photo are each modeling one side of said hat.

The Baby-to-Be Hat, which I knit for my friend Emily, who gave birth to Oscar in late November. The pattern is Rhythm, designed by Stick Chick Knits, Melissa J. Goodale.

Over the past two months, I've been knitting hats for Halos of Hope, a wonderful organization that provides hats to people going through chemotherapy. So far I've knit three hats, and I have another one on the needles. The hat in the photo is Marly Bird's Gerri Hat, my Halos of Hope Hat #1, modeled by me.

Scarves and Cowls: I knit three scarves (two of them lingering WIPs, one from 2011 and one from 2012) and three cowls. Here are photos of my two favorites.

This is my Zig-Zagging Around the World, started on our European trip in August 2012, and finally finished in May. The pattern is Zig-Zag Wanderer, designed by Kimley Maretzo.

This is my Berry Breeze Cowl, the Summer Wind pattern, designed by Carrie Sullivan, Irishgirlieknits. I loved knitting this pattern, and I know I'll knit another one in the future.

Shawls and Socks: As always, my two favorite things to knit, and I knit many of each of them this year: 9 pairs of socks and 7 shawls. Some of those socks and shawls have gotten into my posts this year, but here are two that haven't:

My happiest pair of the year, Toe-Up Try (Once Again), the first toe-up socks that I have knit that actually fit! The well-written pattern is Straight Up Socks by Kellie Oreb.

This is my Rusty Milkweed shawl, started in 2012 and finished last January.The Hazel Knits colorway, Big Red, was a bit too orange to look good on me, so I gave it to my sister-in-law, Karen, and it was perfect for her. I loved knitting with the yarn, Hazel Knits Entice MCN, and the pattern, Laura Chau's Milkweed, is one I will knit again.

There was a real variety of projects in 2013 that I haven't touched on here—mitts, toys, coasters, dishcloths, and cardigans—but this post has gone on long enough, so you will have to wait and see what comes off the needles in the months ahead, as I know there will be more of all of these (except perhaps, the coasters).

Watch for my knitting goals for 2014 coming up soon!

Going Back to the Gilded Age

I'm sure you are wondering if I have fallen off the face of the earth, right? Well, I haven't; it's just the holiday season, and I've been busy, busy, busy!

I also realized that I haven't posted any photos of the week in a long time. I'm not going to go back and find a photo for each week I've missed. Instead, I'm going to share some recent "themed" photos occasionally.

First up, some photos from our Thanksgiving trip last month. On the way to our first family visit, in Massachusetts, we decided to explore Ventfort Hall, a Gilded Age mansion in Lenox, Massachusetts. This choice fit in very well with my recent reading: I had just finished reading Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence shortly before we left on our trip. Lenox is also Edith Wharton country; her home, The Mount, is located not far from Ventfort Hall, but isn't open in the late fall and winter.

Ventfort Hall was saved from the wrecking ball in the 1990s and is slowly being restored; in fact, parts of the second floor had just been opened a few weeks before our visit. This amazing mansion is beautiful! Here are a few of my favorite things from our visit.

I hope you have enjoyed my little photo tour. I'll be back soon with an actual knitting post!

A Goal Accomplished

321/365: Winter Twilight Mitts, a photo by jchants - Catching up on Flickr.

Remember my annual goals post last January? Item number 3 on the list was to improve my stranded knitting skills by knitting either the Fireweeds socks or the Winter Twilight Mitts. Look what I finished on November 17: the Winter Twilight Mitts! It's so satisfying to meet my goals...

Weekly Hike #22: I Did It!

For at least the last two years, I have had a mostly unspoken goal to climb Mount Si. I know I have mentioned it here on the blog occasionally, but it has never gotten into the official list of annual goals that I compile every January.

In case you aren't familiar with Mount Si, it is a 4,000 foot mountain located just outside the town of North Bend. For those of you who were fans of the 1990s television series, Twin Peaks, it is the mountain that was shown in the opening titles every week. The Mount Si trail is one of the most popular and heavily traveled in the state. Mr. D climbs it dozens of times every year, especially in winter, because it is almost never impassable due to snow.

Anyway, this was the year that I was determined to finally hike Mount Si. We originally planned to hike it with our friends Sarah and Dave on September 29, but that was the weekend of the record-setting rains, so the hike was cancelled. We rescheduled for the end of October, but Sarah's husband had to work that day. So we finally settled on this past Saturday, November 16, and crossed our fingers that the weather would cooperate.

Mr. D warned me that this late in the fall we could encounter some snow, so I packed my backpack with an extra hooded jacket and some warm mittens and a hat (both knitted by me). We started hiking a little before nine, and the first mile was pretty benign: chilly and a bit muddy from recent rains.

By the time we reached Snag Flats, at mile two, we noticed a dusting of snow, and it was noticeably colder, probably in the mid-30s.

From this point on, there was more snow on the trail, and somewhere in the middle of mile three, we stopped to put on our warmer clothing. Here is what the trail looked like at that point:

The last mile was a slog, but I managed to persevere all the way to the top. By the time we got there, it was snowing in earnest, and COLD! There was no view to speak of, so I will have to wait until I do this hike in better weather to see Mount Rainier looming over the Cascades in the distance. At least the snow on the trees and rocks was very photogenic.

Because of the cold, we didn't linger long on the summit, but Sarah and I did take a few minutes to pose with our knitting. We have decided to bring our knitting every time we hike together, and to call the series, "Knitting in the Wilderness". Check this post for the first photo in the series.

I think Sarah was very brave to actually take her gloves off. My hands were way too cold to even think about doing that! so even though there was knitting present on the mountain, no knitting actually was accomplished. Maybe next time!

This hike officially marks the end of my 2013 hiking season, but watch for occasional posts from some of my winter walks. And guess what? Knitting posts will be making a comeback very shortly!