Over the mountains and through the woods

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Carrie

Pardon me for playing catch up with a bunch of behind-posts, but I wanted to share this adventure.  Several weeks ago, when I was recovering from a nasty cold, Fiance asked if I was up for a car ride to check out some potential camping spots and a cool Bavarian-style village we had heard so much about.  I figured I could sleep just as well in the car as on the couch if I was feeling too puny, so I said yeah let’s go.  He was all prepared with maps and such, so navigation duties were thankfully brainless.  (My brain cells had been organizing a successful rebellion for several days against any sort of activity remotely resembling “work.”)

So we started out on the familiar path along US-2 toward Steven’s Pass.  There was still snow at the pass elevation, but the ski resort was closed for the summer season.  (Summer, yeah right.  But that’s another discussion.)

Our first stop was Wallace Falls State Park, near the town of Gold Bar and just west of the pass, where the campground we were interested in is located right on the Wallace River.

Definitely a very nice camping spot, with handy amenities, hiking, and the falls nearby.  We’re including this one on our must-camp list.

This was just a scoping trip, so we moved on to the next spot.  We had heard a lot about the scenery and popularity of Lake Wenatchee State Park, so we checked it out for ourselves.  The photo says it all.

I can definitely see myself paddling around this lake, or enjoying a picnic on this beach.  Also an add for the must-camp list.

Gratuitous shot of the Mini, Zug, enjoying yet another curve-hugging trip through the mountains.  Whee!

Then onward to Leavenworth, the Bavarian style village that everyone says is a must-see.

I have to say it was fun and very interesting, though not so much when experiencing a head cold.  They even had a live band playing themed music in the town square.  We’ll have to go back sometime when I’m up for heaping plates full of yummy German food, browsing in the cute shops, and walking along the Wenatchee River.  We ate, but I couldn’t taste the goodness.  Sigh.

After Leavenworth, we made a quick stop at the Peshastin Pinnacles State Park.  There is no camping here, but the Pinnacles are a grouping of sandstone slabs and spires that were thrust up from an ancient sea floor long, long before the Cascade Mountains were born and grew up to overshadow them.  Folks come to climb them and are rewarded with fabulous views of the surrounding valley and the mountains beyond.  Somehow the folks taking photographs of the geologic formations for their Web site managed to get a better view than we did.  We were less than impressed by the mass of electrical lines running right through the place.  Ugh!  So, no sharable pics.

Starting around Leavenworth, the road winds down out of the mountains and into a valley heavily populated by fruit orchards – primarily apple and pear.  This is beautiful country for a nice winding drive, not to mention now I know where to go for apple picking after we give up our current rental house with its abundance of apples.

The Wenatchee River runs into the Columbia River near the town of Wenatchee and is roughly the point where the foothills of the mountains run out and the high plains begin.  This was the easternmost point in our day trip.  There is a nice campground and park near the point of this confluence.  It’s a nicely manicured spot, but other than that there isn’t much to interest us.  We might choose to stay there as a nice stopover point on our way to somewhere else but not as a destination.

We then backtracked a bit to turn south on US-97 toward I-90, so we could take I-90 back to the city.  There were a bunch of smaller, out of the way campgrounds along this highway that deserve some further exploration.  If you can’t tell yet, we like the hilly, wooded, secluded type of camping, preferably with hiking trails and a water feature nearby.  The Cascades don’t disappoint, since they are full of little streams and small lakes in out of the way places.

Our last scheduled stop was at Lake Easton State Park, just off I-90 near the town of Easton in the Cascade Mountain foothills.  It was nearly dark by the time we arrived, so there are no photos to share, but this one is also going on the must-camp list.  The park is large enough to have several very nice campgrounds along the lake, along with a beach.  And it’s an easy getaway distance from the city for a weekend’s unplugging session.

Actually, they all are, which is why we were checking them out.

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The One Where I Catch Up

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Carrie

Yikes!  It’s been a seriously long time since I’ve been able to write.  Hopefully things are evening out a bit now so that I’ll be able to insert regular writing back into my routine.

Here are the highlights:

  • The new job is going blissfully well.  I’m even getting to the point where I really feel like I know stuff.  Which, seriously, is a major thing considering I knew zilch about these systems when I started.  The learning attitude really helps.  I’ve been in sponge mode since Day 1.  This week I got to switch over to training mode, to train my backup person who is also new, so the sponge-brain got to give back a little.
  • The wedding planning thing has me feeling like I have two jobs.  I’m definitely ready to get back to the life where the most serious decisions are about what’s for dinner and what I am knitting.  At least for a little while.  We can already see that the next big decision will be about which neighborhood we want to settle in for the next handful of years (at least).
  • Related to the neighborhood question is the fact that I am commuting at least 2 hours per day.  That is if it’s not rainy, or sunny, or there’s a special event, or a stalled car on the bridge.  If you aren’t familiar with the layout of the Seattle metro area, go ahead and pull up Google Maps.  There you will see that Seattle is divided neatly in two by a very large Lake Washington.  There are two bridges across this body of water, and I have to cross one of them on my way to and from work.  When it’s rainy the drivers kind of freak out, which is seriously funny since, you know, it rains here a lot.  When it’s sunny everybody gets the heck outside.  Which is to say, they leave work on time and clog up the bridges and interstates in a mad dash to get home before the sun goes away.  The other two scenarios are self-explanatory.  In other words, the commute takes forever.  Since my office is on one side of the lake and Fiance’s office is on the other, one of us will have to make this trek.  It is unavoidable, unless we take up residence on a boat in the middle of the lake.  Which I don’t see happening, do you?
  • I have not been wasting these 2 hours each day.  At least 30 minutes of them are spent walking.  Rather than transferring between the bus and the streetcar, which is the Metro’s answer to getting me right to the door of my office, I’ve been walking to and from the bus station.  This translates to ~2 miles of walking each day.  Score one point for managing to insert exercise into an overlong commute.  Score one more point for arriving at the office alert, happy, relaxed, and ready to start the day despite the alarm going off at 5:3o.  Score another point for all that walking being a boost to the weight loss effort.  I think it’s a win win win, and I’ll keep it.
  • The other hour or so of the commute has been spent going through personal emails, catching up on my reading, and knitting.  I figure that since I have a smart phone, and I can’t manage to find time to use the computer for emailing anymore, I might as well use the phone for email catch-up on the bus.  If you send me an email, it’s likely I’ll be answering you that way.  Handy too for the wedding planning thing.  Ain’t technology grand?  Though if the sky is especially clear, which is getting more frequent lately, I’m staring out the window at the fabulous ring of mountains and the monstrous big volcano visible from the bridge.  Not to be missed, no matter how many times you’ve seen it.
  • So far I have finished Water for Elephants and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I thoroughly enjoyed both and can’t believe it took me so long to pick them up.  In the case of Water for Elephants, it’s been sitting on my bookshelf since my aunt gifted it to me back in 2008.  Sorry Aunt Alice, I know you know what I’ll enjoy reading and there’s seriously no excuse for this kind of enjoyment delay.  I’ll try harder.  I have also started reading the Kindle versions of Super Sad True Love Story and Blood Engines.  I keep having to put Super Sad True Love Story down periodically.  It’s a painful read.  But again, Aunt Alice says it was a book worm for her, so I’m trusting it’ll be okay in the end.  Blood Engines was an accident…I downloaded it forever ago and didn’t mean to start it now, at least until I’d gotten through another few books on my shelf, but I clicked it and it sucked me in with the first few pages and I can’t put it down now.
  • I cast on for a pair of spinach green socks (Ravelry link) as a commute-only project.  They are just the right size to toss in my backpack and not take up too much elbow room in execution.  I’ve finished the toes and am about to start the simple cable and lace pattern that should be just interesting enough to be fun without making me crazy on the bus.  Plus they’ll look good with my new favorite mary jane shoes that I wear to work nearly every day.  Hand knit socks need shoes that show them off, after all.
  • The wedding dress is going swimmingly.  I am now on the final few rows of the skirt – which I may get to complete tonight.  Then I’ll definitely be adding sleeves.  I’ve got my subconscious brain noodling on that design problem, so the solution should be available when I get ready to start.  Nifty trick, that.  I’m thinking a smaller, simpler version of the pattern for the sleeves.  We’ll see how it goes.
  • I mentioned above that one of the bonuses of walking every day is a boost to the weight loss effort.  I know, I know, all of you are thinking my weight is just fine.  Several docs and I don’t agree with you.  I needed to shed about 10-15 lbs to safely get back within my “healthy” weight range, to stop the cycle of adding several pounds per year, and to keep avoiding most of the family health issues.  So, I’ve been trying to do just this for the past oh 3-4 years.  I do well for a few pounds, then along comes a holiday and I put them back on.  You know how it goes.  Not this time.  As of this morning, I’ve lost 7 lbs since the start of this year.  Woo!  I am now at the upper limit of the healthy range and my clothes are starting to fit much better.  I’m not going to be losing any dress sizes, but to see the muffin top disappearing and to see my fatty parts smoothing back out is bliss.  5 more to go and I’ll switch to maintenance mode.
  • We finally topped 70 degrees last weekend.  It was an event.  Everybody and their brother went down to hang out at the many grassy parks along the shores of the lake and soak up the sunshine.  I flipped my closet and got out all of the summer things, even though actually being able to wear those things is still several weeks away.  We can be optimistic though.
  • We think the rain has finally tapered off for the summer.  This is a huge deal.  It means that it will likely only rain ONCE per week until Fall returns, rather than 4-5 days per week.  Unfortunately, that also means that every growing thing will begin to turn brown from exposure to sunlight.  Ah well, it’s a trade off.

Whew!  That’s a lot of catch-up.  I think I’ll pick up later with new post(s) on the rest.  We went on a car adventure over the mountains and through the woods that I’d like to share.  Then there are the pics of the beautiful flowers that have been gracing our yard.  More later!

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Whirlwind of Activity

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Carrie

No, I haven’t dropped off the face of the Earth.  The last month has been a crazy ride.  Quite frankly, I’m exhausted…and maybe fighting off some sinus yuck.

Here’s the scoop to catch you up to the present:

  • I knitted a pair of nearly knee-high thicker weight socks for snowboarding, hiking in cooler weather, etc.  I worked them toe-up and just kept on going until the yarn ran out, which is why they ended up nearly knee-high.  I’m extremely excited about how they’ve turned out.  My feet were perfectly happy wearing them on my last snowboarding outing (no blisters, yay!) and they are keeping my toes warm in my lighter boots, since the weather has decided it’s not quite spring here yet.  No pics yet, since I can’t remember to stop for a photo shoot once I pull them out of the dryer.
  • After several rounds of interviews, I finally landed a job!  This is the biggest reason behind the blog silence, since I was deep in prep work for interviews and then getting back into the work-life groove for the past three weeks.  Now I have an hour-long commute tacked onto the beginning and end of those work hours.  Even though I’m taking public transit, I’m still exhausted when I get home and too tired to do anything but fall down and kick off my shoes.  I love my new job, and the company and team are fabulous, but I do really miss being able to walk to the office.  I’ll get used to it eventually.  🙂
  • Taking the bus has given me mandatory reading/knitting/crocheting time twice a day.  I’m super excited about this too.  My crochet project (The Dress) has gotten too big to work on the bus, and I’m not letting myself work on anything else, so I’ve been reading.  When I unpacked the boxes from the move I discovered that I had a backlog of unread books, so there will be no shortage of choices for a while.
  • And then there is The Dress.  If you’ve been keeping up, you know the one I mean.  I found an unembellished, light blue, strapless, a-line dress a couple of weeks ago, so now I have a base for the lace overdress.  The shaping I had done thus far matched perfectly, so I didn’t have to backtrack or adjust anything.  Whew!  With being so tired after work I haven’t been crocheting on it as much as I would like, but I’m still on track to meet my target deadline date.  Between the Wednesday knit group, the Friday knit group, and weekends I’ve been able to keep making good progress.  The lace is now knee-length.  However, a new question has come up: will the temperature at 7,000′ even in late July be too cool to go sleeveless?  Should I add sleeves once I’m done with the skirt?  I’ll let my brain ponder that one for a bit and make a decision later.
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Spring Fever

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Carrie

I spent last week on spring break with my family in Memphis.  The weather was gorgeous nearly all week, with temps in the 70’s and 80’s.  I even got a bit of sunburn on my face and scalp (a drawback of being blessed with thin, reddish blond hair) the day we took the kids to the zoo.  I soaked up as many hugs, porch time, new blooms, light breezes, bird song, and sunshine as I could and stored it away in my internal “springtime battery.”  I knew I would be returning to a much cooler climate at the end of the week.

You can imagine my surprise to come back home and find my own yard well on its way to springtime.  High 50’s and sunshine the past three days led me to get outside and walk the yard.  This is what I found:

I recognize the grape hyacinths and forsythia, but I have no idea what the two white flowering shrubs might be.  Suggestions?

Fiancé was surprised to learn that all of this was going on while he is working his tush off on a deadline.  Really too bad he can’t get out and enjoy it.  I have always associated forsythia blooms with the actual start of spring, so I am super excited to see two large clusters of them from my windows.  Oh, and today I have a view of the mountains too.  Definitely coming down with a hefty case of spring fever.

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Okay, so it’s really a dress…

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Carrie

I have a confession to make.  The crochet lace experiment isn’t for a sleeveless top, as I told you earlier here and here.  I labeled it as such to escape from potential embarrassment should the project prove to be too large an undertaking to be successful.  But now that I have seen how well I like the pattern and the yarn, and how fast it is working up, I feel pretty comfortable with telling you the truth.

The crochet lace project is really my wedding dress.

Yes, it is a large project.  Yes, it will take several months to complete.  Yes, I now feel pretty comfortable that I have the ability to pull it off.

Fairly comfortable anyway.  I have a Plan B, just in case.

I am so excited, about making it and wearing it.  How special to wear a dress of my own creation on such a memorable day!

Unfortunately, I have been forced to pause progress for several weeks.  You see, my initial yarn estimate proved to be too close for comfort given how far 1 skein went on the sample.  So I am now waiting on a yarn order to resume construction.

Can’t you hear the drumming of my fingers in frustration?  I am aching to be working on this project again!

I am also on the lookout for the perfect slip dress to wear under the lace overdress.  The lavender slip dress I picked up is acting as a placeholder, since it is the correct shape and size but the wrong color.  I am imagining a light blue or light silvery gray dress glimpsed between the crochet stitches.   The search continues.

Until my yarn shipment arrives, I’ll be keeping my fingers busy on a pair of socks.  If the yarn order takes much longer, I’ll be finishing said pair of socks and starting on another.

Sigh.

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Crochet Lace Update

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Carrie

Seriously, this is a speedy pattern!  And no, I haven’t been working on it every day.  Just at my two knit groups and in between on the weekends.  I finished the ball of yarn on Sunday and tried it on the dress form to ponder the next step.  Yes, this is only one ball of yarn.

It’s about hip length, as desired, with some easy increases for shaping.  The “shoulders” aren’t attached yet.  I’m pondering a short spaghetti-type strap here, still keeping the boat neck feel.  Then I’m thinking some picot edging around the neck and arm edges to finish things off.

I am really happy with how well this little experiment is turning out!

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A Crochet Adventure in Lace

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Carrie

Since I have finished all of my long-term knitting group-worthy projects, I had to find a new one to occupy my time for the next several months.  Enter the crochet lace project.  For now, it’s a sleeveless top, to be worn over a camisole or the pictured lavender dress I picked up from a vintage seller on Etsy.  This is another made-up adventure based on a crochet stitch pattern found in 101 Crochet Stitches.  Seriously, I love this book so much I need to perform surgery on the binding.  It’s falling apart from so much use.

Yes, that’s a pineapple stitch pattern, upside down because I’m working top-down.  I like it.  Reminds me of pine cones instead.  And I’m all about the pine trees right now.  I also like how the color of the dress peeks through between the stitches.

It’s also a good thing that I’m not afraid of ripping out my work.  Several hours’ worth even.  I have a looooong history of ripping out.  It’s a part of experimental creativity, right?  This time I went too far on both the front and back pieces before laying them on the dress form in their proper places.  I needed to start joining the underarm sections much sooner.  Crum!

Oh well, I did say it was an adventure.  I have the stitch pattern memorized now.  And I’m nearly back to the point where I started ripping out, sides joined under the arms of course and continuing in the round toward the bottom hem.  Super Bowl stitching is so productive!

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Girls’ Craft Day

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Carrie

One of the best things about this being a very small world is that sometimes elements of your life reconnect in a new way.  I met one of my long-time girlfriends, Katrina, in Memphis when we were working together at the same architecture firm.  Years passed and we both moved away, but we always made a point to keep in touch via email.  Weddings happened, houses purchased, babies born, jobs changed, lives started over, 11 or so years passed.

My recent move to the Seattle area brought us back together again.  Such a happy side-benefit!  We’re still retraining our brains to think of each other as living right around the corner instead of halfway across the country.  It’s an ongoing effort.

This Saturday Katrina got a group of girlfriends together for a Girls’ Craft Day to make personalized jewelry.  She provided materials, inspirational links, and the patience to teach us how to create our ideas.  I spent several hours in the company of some excellent women and came out with this necklace.

The birthstones are for my son (August – peridot), my fiance (December – turquoise), and myself (June – pearl).  I also made an initial pendant that I can put on later once I also gain a ‘G’ name (hint: after the wedding).

She coached us through the wirework for each pendant and the resin work for the initial / photo pendants.  It’s not professional grade work by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m happy with it.  It’s mine and I made it.  And I had the best time I’ve had in a long time in the company of complete strangers.

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January Projects

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Carrie

Yep, it’s well into February and I’m just getting this posted.  The camera and I are having a tiff.  Unfortunately for me, the camera is winning.  I toted all of my items out into the sunshine last week to take pictures.  Good light, right?  Only to discover later that evening that there was no memory card in the camera.  Crum!  So I tried again the next day.  And took terrible shots.  I tried again.  More terrible shots.  So I gave up for a few days.  Like I said, the camera is winning.  It’s best to just go with it.

As blogged previously, I finally finished my gray shell socks.  I love wearing them!

I improvised this hat based on a stitch pattern in my copy of the Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns.

I crocheted this dishcloth, since my stash of dishcloths seems to be dwindling again.  I should have gone with my gut and whipped one up, as per usual, but I saw this pattern (Ravelry link) and thought it looked cute.  Apparently it is designed to use up the majority of each skein of yarn because the finished product turned out much too large to be used as a normal dishcloth.  I guess it’s now a hot pad / small towel.  I do like the color combination and the stitch combination used though, so the next version will be kept to a usable size.

When I was home for the holidays Dad was eagerly showing off his woodworking shop and his latest in fabulous designs for cedar outdoor furniture.  (It seems that crafty creativity does indeed run in the family.)  And there at the end of the shop lies a 3 to 4 foot tall pile of cedar shavings just lying there making the shop smell insanely wonderful.  Um, bag that up.  I have an idea…

I worked up a test for a sachet using some stash sock yarn.  Self-striping of course, so you can only see the shell pattern at the top if you’re holding it and looking closely.  Well, it is a test.  I like the shell, but in the end decided it was unnecessary.  It’s missing the drawstrings, but you get the gist.Work in progress on a plain knitted sachet using the leftover yarn from my Blue Leaves scarf/shawl.  I’d better get a move on.  Everyone needs some of that good smelly cedar.

Test swatches of two other stitches in the Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns.

I spent half the month playing around with stitch patterns for an iPad sized sleeve.  The change in scale from a Kindle sleeve threw everything out of whack.  And I don’t have an iPad to try it on every couple of rows to make sure it’s on track.  I did find a similarly sized book in my personal library, which helped a lot.  I finally was saved through math, with some help from graph paper and my trusty pencil.  See?  Drawing really does help.

I think I know someone who likes purple and who also received an iPad for Christmas.  Maybe I can work a trade for a regularly scheduled dose of fuzzy kitten pics.

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Tiger Mountain State Forest: Chirico Trail

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Carrie

Okay, how often is it that your sweetie plans a day off to hang out with you in anticipation of working like a crazy man for the next week and a half?  Bonus points for my man.  Then how often does that planned hang-out day off coincide with gorgeous weather?  Extra bonus points.  Yep, it actually happened.

I got to choose between snowboarding on a warm, slushy slope or hiking.  I chose hiking and picked out this trail.  I’m glad we did this one together, because I might not have gone all the way to the viewpoint at the top.  I would likely have stopped instead at one of the viewpoints lower on the mountain.  Yay for team efforts because those extra steps were definitely worth it!  You’ll see.

Tiger Mountain is in a small range of mountains just to the west of the Cascade range, known as the Issaquah Alps.  These Alps are much older than the Cascades, with worn peaks and more gently sloping sides.  I mistakenly once thought they were just foothills.  Chirico Trail was created to aid the paragliders who hike up to launch from two points (north and south) at the top.  This guy was coming in for a landing at the target marked in the field just in front of the trailhead.  That’s the mountain in the background.

The trail climbs almost immediately from the trailhead up about 1500 feet over 2 miles of switchbacks.  We had all day, so we paced ourselves.  I feel sorry for the paragliders who hike to the top with 40+ lbs of gear on their backs.  Though I guess the trip down is more fun for them (in their opinion, I certainly wouldn’t do it).

We passed a small waterfall and hopped over a little stream, but overall the trail was pretty dry.

I love this twisted tree.  Very rare in a world of tall, straight pines.

There is a wonderful clear view of Mt. Rainier from the south launch site.  I am always amazed at how the volcano is so much higher than the mountains of the Cascades around it.  So high that it creates its own clouds!

The gorgeous warm weather also attracted the paragliders, so we hung around at the south launch site to watch.

Just a short additional push up the trail and we were out on the north viewpoint and launch site, called Poo Poo Point.  Gee, wonder where that name came from?  Hmm.  I wouldn’t want to jump off of there.

And this is the view that made it all worth it.  I made a panorama for the full effect, click to see larger.  As usual, photos just can’t capture what our eyes see, but it’ll do in a pinch.

That’s Squak Mountain in the foreground, with Issaquah nestled along the valley below, Lake Sammamish and the towers of downtown Bellevue beyond that on the right, then a glimpse of Lake Washington, and the peaks of the Olympic Mountains in the distance.  It really was an awe-inspiring view.

Pack a lunch and a camelback and go see for yourself!

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