Hi!

Hello. I have been away. Eric and I went on vacation to the Northwest. We attended a beautiful wedding and then drove and hiked our way around Oregon and Washington state for a week. We visited Olympic National Park, Mt. Rainer National Park, and Mt. St. Helen's National Monument. It was glorious. We drove 1100miles. We hiked 30miles. We were raided by sneaky raccoons, visited by Bigfoot, kept company with docile deer, snacked on by mosquitoes, slept to the lullaby of sea lions, and viewed an elk herd from a distance. We saw massive glaciers, tiny wildflowers, and pesky chickarees. I grew a blister on my pinkie toe that was as big as my pinkie toe. We were surprised by a waddling marmot as we filtered water from a glacier stream. ( I think he was just as surprised as we were). We (or Eric did) cooked steak on a tiny backpack stove and then made a side of Easy Mac and sugar snap peas in the same pot. We saw the moon rise at Moose Lake over the ridge of the mountain. I could go on forever. It was awesome to be with Eric. Pictures will soon follow, but there are ~900 of them to sort through so be patient. They are so worth the wait...

Ok, now an update on knitting. I was sick today (an after effect of drinking filtered wilderness water??? I hope NOT!!!) so I finished the first Mountain Man sock and the Giraffe Baby Sweater. I finished knitting the Mountain Man sock just as we touched down in Portland on September 1st. I made Eric try it on and it fits great! Too bad I forgot to take a picture of that. Ooops. I re-did the bind-off this morning so that it was a tubular bind-off... I like the "finished" look it gives the sock. I also finished the first fingerless mitt that I am making with the purple felted tweed. I still have to weave it the ends.

See?

I completed the knitting on the baby sweater before I left for vacation. But there was a ton of finishing to do. Dozens of ends to be woven in, Swiss darning, French knots, i-cord legs... and I still have to install the snaps!!! It's an open raglan design to make it easier to get over a baby head so there will be snaps down the right raglan seam. I'll take a final FO pic once it dries and I get the snaps on. Then it's off to Taylor! I really hope it fits him...

So many ends for such a small sweater.

Hello Giraffe.

So there we go. I'm going to cast-on for the second MM sock tonight. I must try to avoid the dreaded SSS (Second Sock Syndrome) that has captured me in every other sock making attempt I have made.

Also, I received a shipment of yarn today from Webs. Yay! You can never have enough yarn... I have passed the bug onto Elaine; she has begun building her stash too!!!

Yarn for me. Bershire Bulky, Silky Tweed, and Malbrigo.

Yarn for Elaine.

Elaine and I are going to attempt to knock-off a cute cabled bangle bag that she saw in a fashion magazine... like these. I'm also beginning to ponder hand knit Christmas gifts. Hmmm... must make a list of worthy recipients. Ha. ♥