Still dark. Wet snow on the ground. I could see my breath when I took Boh out moments after snapping this picture through the window.

It’s a good thing I picked this up yesterday afternoon and knit another inch of the body — I’m going to need it!

We’re nearing the end of the semester, and we both feel this way. Luckily, we’ve had a little bit of this:

It is time to really dig into the papers I have to write in order to finish out the semester, and I’m having a hard time locating my motivation to get into these particular projects. I realized this weekend that this is okay, and that the progress I’ve made this semester has required a lot of energy and effort, and it is beginning to catch up to me. I’m looking forward to the change of scenery my parents’ house will provide later on this week. I’ll certainly be bringing a pile o’ books with me, but I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving in several years, and I’m anticipating a whole lot of laughter and some personal battery recharging. I’ll also be bringing some knitting…

But probably not these! They just need to be kitchenered. I deceived the boy, and asked him to try them on because it is a new pattern and I wanted to be sure that they’d fit my father — the boy and my dad have similarly sized feet. Sock #1 fit perfectly! I am seriously considering gifting these now, just because.

Eek: two full days’ worth of work between me and turkey preparation. Must get back to it!

I know it is a little blurry, but there is just something I like about this picture, so it’s what you get. I am very happy with how version 2 of the sunday market shawl (Dream in Color Smooshy, size 10 needles) turned out, though I must say, it grew tremendously in length, but not so much in width. I may make a massive version of this for myself someday — maybe double in width?  It is way longer than I am. (Note: the lack of growth in width could be related to the way I blocked it — sans pins, on a beach towel on a backyard table with the ends draped over chairs because it didn’t quite fit on the table…) I can’t wait to give this to the friend who has been waiting ever so patiently for her birthday scarf — I’ll do that the next time I’m in town.

This is what I woke up to yesterday, here at Base Camp. Crazy — but lots of fun. Fires were built, layers were donned, and the dog frolicked. It melted by mid-morning. The fact that I am posting today means that I finally got everything networked (hooray), so it looks like I will be able to blog this summer, though it will likely be far more sporadic than my almost daily posts of the last few months. I am certainly knitting — more of the yoke of the gathered cardi to share soon!

but I am wearing a sweater!

(Boy, that mirror is dirty.)  I can justify the sweater, though. Take a look at the mountains:

See? There’s snow up there! Also, I think there is some kind of rule that you have to wear your first sweater the second it is done. (Okay, not true. This isn’t exactly the first sweater I’ve made. Over the summer, I knit Coachella, but the neckline turned out a bit too low to be worn in most situations…More on that someday.)

Anyway, I spent much of last night finishing the ribbing. Here’s a shot of the shrug in vest form:

I spent all morning seaming. I was a bit unclear about how everything was supposed to line up — no schematic — so I ended up seaming most of the sleeve caps, looking at them, and realizing that I  needed to seam a few inches more of the sleeeves to the body. This process created many ends to weave in.

Somebody was pouting. In all fairness, he did miss a leisurely Sunday stroll. (His life is extremely hard.)

A few more pictures of my finished Bolero Jacket:

The necklace I’m wearing, by the way, is made by Lisa Donald, a friend who also makes/sells jewelry. She has a great eye — this is made from a clip-on earring that feels very 1960s to me. How convenient that it matches this sweater perfectly!

Posting may be sporadic this week — a dear friend flies in tonight to spend 4 days playing with me and Boh!

I left work yesterday afternoon and arrived home just in time to gaze out my windows and enjoy this:

I did what anyone in this situation would have done: I baked!

This is the olive oil orange cake from Apples for Jam, with pine nuts sprinkled on top. I listened to loud old music, watched the snow fall, and whipped my egg whites by hand. Meanwhile, Boh sat on the couch, waiting for his close up. This looks kind of like one of those posed middle school portraits to me. What do you think?

With the aroma of homemade cake wafting through my tiny house, I sat down and cast on a pair of Warmest Mittens, from Knitting Pretty by Kris Percival. After a few strikes trying to find the perfect pattern for the gorgeous homespun I received from Ami of SourCherries in the fingerless mitts swap, I settled on these.

This morning, I awoke to this:

I continued working on my mittens, and finished just in time to wear them to work. On my lunch/voting break, I managed to snap some silly pictures of this spontaneous FO, utilizing the timer on my camera.

Happy Super Tuesday!

Short, early post today, folks. This guy, also known as the animal (must insert photo pronto)

woke me up in the middle of the night with a horrible rrrripp-ing sound. That’s right, he was yanking the polyfill out of my sleeping bag, while I slept in it. He has been in close proximity to this particular sleeping bag for the last several months, and apparently, last night the temptation became too much for Boh to bear. Luckily, I had some ripstop patching tape handy, so out of bed I leapt. I switched on the light, cursed a bit and got to work.

It’s not knitting content, but it is crafty. The blues are a better match than they look in this picture, and the hole was by no means a clean job. He must have been gnawing on the nylon for awhile before I woke up. Sigh. Onward to the before/after pictures I have for you:

This is yesterday evening’s sunset — thick, reddish clouds hovering over the mountains.

And this is what I awoke to — the second time. We haven’t had snow on the ground in the valley since before the holidays!

Alright. Off to work on generating some visible knitting progress and listen to the latest episode of Stash and Burn before work.

As promised, here are a few pictures of our adventures about 100 miles west and about 3000 feet higher. First, a traffic jam. The guy in the pickup ahead of us was asleep at the railroad crossing. After about 15 minutes and a phone call to our destination (in which we considered leaving the car and climbing through the spaces between the stalled train cars), we turned around.

some weather-appropriate graffiti:

The sky, particularly when it is this color, is one of my favorite parts of being out here:

Boh and I took a walk before heading back yesterday morning. I love the way the early mornings seem to make everything glow.

Oh, right. I’ve also been knitting. Here’s a shot of Mom’s Montego Bay scarf. I’d say it is a bit over 3 feet in length, so I am more than halfway. I’d love for it to be perfect, but that is not quite happening. I’ve done some ripping back because I’ve messed up my counting or dropped a yarn over, but the stitches are so small that I am realizing that I can hardly see the rows where that happens, so I am leaving it. Also, under a time crunch. Full disclosure aside, this is GORGEOUS. Nice to have a lace pattern that is a bit forgiving when you discover a mistake 3 inches back….

I just hope I can get it finished in time!