There’s Nothing Like a Deadline…

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Carrie

There’s nothing like a deadline to really kick you in the pants and get your rear in gear.  Seriously.

I have two to speak of at the moment.  They happen every year.  I don’t know why I procrastinate every single time.  I don’t ever procrastinate this badly at work.  But it’s like my brain refuses to acknowledge these two holidays until they’re right on top of me.  You know the ones I’m talking about.  Thanksgiving and Christmas (or insert your own favorite gift-giving bonanza here).

Generally, Thanksgiving isn’t all that stressful for me.  I usually go to my family then, and so all the stress of hosting falls to them.  Though I do try to be a good daughter and help with the Christmas caroling while making dinner.  I’m only slightly crafty in the kitchen, so I don’t get more important chores than cleaning up, chopping veggies, and smelling the dressing for the right dosage of sage.

This year, however, I’m the hostess.  Albeit for a much smaller crowd of four.  Which means I’ve got to call upon my turkey roasting experience and remember how to read my grandmother’s homemade cornbread dressing recipe.  All while using a gas oven that I have a suspicion is just a little bit off on temperature.  It’ll be an adventure!  It also means that I have to finish unpacking what I’ll need for the week Fiancé’s mother and brother are here, and setting up the house so that it’s presentable.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been working on that part – a little each week.  We’re nearly there, except that I still haven’t managed to find the moving box containing my recipe box… which is kind of an essential item.  But I have faith, it’ll turn up, most likely the day after they’ve gone home.

We have another round of house guests the first weekend in December.  Friends this time, so less stressful.  That will just mean that I’ve managed to keep the house looking presentable for two weeks in a row.  My family will acknowledge this to be an oddity.  I can’t help it, I’m a piler, not a filer, and “maid service” is not in my job description.  Although I did get the cleaning nazi bug this past Saturday afternoon and scrubbed nearly everything from top to bottom.  Shocking, I know!

Then there’s Christmas.  Need I say more?  There are gifts to be made, bought, and shipped!  The biggest deadline on the calendar and I’ve let it slip up on me.  We’re going to visit the family this year.  Which means, unlike for Thanksgiving, there are many more preparations to be made.  Gifts must be shipped, not to mention made.  Shipping has to take the holiday rush into account, so the gifts must be completed early.  I can’t just pile everything in the car and hit the road – we’re flying this time.  I just looked at a calendar this morning to work out how many actual days I have left to get everything made.  Here I had been thinking I had a full two weeks more than I really have.  Darnit!  I think I’m going to need to plan for a few items in my suitcase.  Amazon to the rescue for anything that falls outside the window.

But I have a plan now.  “Planning” is in my job description, after all.  It’ll be tight, but I think I’ll make it.  I’ve just gotta get to work!

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Redmond Watershed Park and Preserve

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Carrie

Yesterday was sunny again, so Fiancé encouraged me to once again play hooky and get outside.  I didn’t need much prodding to abandon an afternoon of cleaning the house.  Who does?

After consulting my handy-dandy guidebook again, I elected to check out the Redmond Watershed Park and Preserve.  It is a quiet, pretty chunk of woods and wetlands a short drive from the bustle of Redmond’s shops and offices.

Overall, it is a nice walk in the woods.  Nothing spectacular or splashy to draw big crowds.  There was a very small creek that ended in a still pond just visible through the trees at one point.  But no views or anything.  It’s definitely just a simple place to get away from the city and walk for several hours.

The trail is wide and gentle, with only a few slippery spots where the ground had gotten too soft.  Completely understandable, as the water has to flow somewhere.  The park is large, so most of the looping trails are several miles long.  However, they provided periodic connector trails to make a shorter walk if you want.  The guide book mentioned that the city had made upgrades to the signage, making it nearly impossible for anyone to get lost.  I heartily agree with this observation.  Each intersection was marked with several posts containing directions to other trails or points of interest, mileage to those trails and points of interest, and a map with a kind of “you are here” mark.

I noted with interest that the park is closed to pets, but open to horses.  That means that I encountered much fewer people than at other similar types of trails.  It also meant that I needed to pay attention to where I placed my foot.  I encountered several horses and their friendly riders on my loop, as well as a few bikers.  I think if I go back there I’ll try out the trails that are for hikers only.

This park’s trails are intersected with the Powerline Trail that runs through Redmond along, you guessed it, the power lines.  The natural gas pipeline also runs through the park, perpendicular to the power lines, and one of the park’s trails runs along that as well.  My loop took me along a portion of both.  The Pipeline Trail might be pretty in spring and summer if wildflowers are blooming there, but the section along the pipeline (read: not in the forest) was boring yesterday since there was nothing but grass to see.  The power company had also just come through to add a line, so the downed trees and nasty leftovers from this work don’t do much to make that section of the Powerline Trail attractive.  Bonus is that they planted this area with native replacements (identified by all the pink flags in the photo) before they left.

It wasn’t a waste of time.  I got my exercise, dose of sunshine, and nose full of pine tree smell.  I do love the smell of pine trees!

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O. O. Denny Park Trail

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Carrie

It was sunny today, so I gave myself a break from the computer and knitting needles to get outside for a while.  I picked up my hiking guidebook and selected another trail.  This time it was a short, easy loop in O. O. Denny Park.  This park is also just a short drive away and just down the road from Saint Edward State Park.

Denny Park is a sliver of land nestled in a quiet neighborhood.  The focus is Denny Creek, which runs along the bottom of a valley to spill into Lake Washington.  The valley is very deep, so once I got into the trail a bit I couldn’t tell I was in a neighborhood at all.  The park is split in two by the street, with a beachy picnic area on the Lake Washington side and the trail area on the other.

The beachy area is very nice, with a view of Mount Rainier to the south and lakeside neighborhoods all around.

Mount Rainier rising above the clouds in the distance

The trail start and finish points are barely marked, but easy to find.  It follows one side of the creek, then crosses it at an old bridge where the neighborhood has done some work to return the creek to a more salmon-friendly state, and continues back along the opposite side.

Along the way, I encountered an enormous uprooted tree that had been sliced to make way for the trail.

I also encountered the remains of the “biggest tree in King County,” according to the plaque announcing this distinction that is placed at it’s feet.  They even named it.

It was pretty impressive, even with it’s top gone.

Nearly as soon as I stepped inside the woods, I could hear the constant chatter of the creek.  I finally reached it, shortly after encountering Sylvia.  So picturesque.

A spur of the trail continues on past the bridge, crossing the creek three times (rock hopping is required here), then climbing out of the valley to emerge into the neighborhood.  I followed this, then backtracked to cross the bridge and continue on the loop.  The trail on the opposite side of the creek is wider and covered with gravel until it reaches the top of the valley, which makes for a welcome break from the slippery leaf and mud mixture I had encountered before.  Without the helpful footholds provided at the worst spots, it would have been truly nasty.

Once at the top of the hill, the trees became mostly pine and the trail decidedly less muddy.  It definitely made for a nice walk back to the parking lot at the lake.

This one is going on the list as another favorite.

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Mohawk Hat

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Carrie

I also finished my friend’s mohawk hat in super-duper purple and black.  It went very quickly once I got started again.  And I have to admit that I giggled quite a bit while creating it.  Fiance thought I was losing my mind there for a while.  (He may still think so…)

At any rate I’m happy with how it turned out, excited to get it shipped off to its owner, and eagerly looking forward to the pics of her wearing it.  (Please excuse the stand-in model in the photo below.  I just had to try it on!)

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Blue Leaves Finale

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Carrie

I finally finished the Blue Leaves shawl/scarf.  Yay!  I really think I’m liking it as a wide scarf, now that I’ve worn it several times.  (And no, it’s not even blocked yet.)

This is definitely my new favorite.  And of course, it’s just in time for cool weather.  I wore it on our trip to Mt. Rainier this weekend, and several other places.

I note a bit of a snag about the yarn, however much I really like it.  It’s a hand dyed yarn, and as such the color can vary between skeins.  I used nearly all of two skeins for this shawl and in good natural light I can tell that the blue on one end has just a tad more red in it than the blue on the other end.  This is my first time to use a hand-dyed yarn and quite frankly I forgot.  Yes, I know better.  Shrugs.  This one is for me, so it’s not a big deal.  I will, however, file a note to self for future projects.

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October Projects

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Carrie

Here are some of the things I worked on in October.  Some are finished, many are still in progress.

My Blue Leaves shawl, still in progress but the end is now in sight.  Just a few more repeats…

A cable knitted sleeve for my Kindle.  I used some stash yarn and made up a pattern for this and am loving how it turned out.  This is much better than the plain leather-like thing that used to store it.

A cozy for my bottled beverage of choice.  It was necessary…my fingers are cold already without my beverage adding to the problem.  I call it my beer sock.

The striped hat for a fabulous lady.  Turns out that she’s really happy with the final version and even wore it to the office last week!  She sent me a photo and I couldn’t be happier with how well it looks on her.  Now that I’ve figured out the pattern, I’m toying around with the idea of making another one for my new Etsy shop.

The beginnings of some toe-up socks for holiday gifting.  I’ll have to rip out and start over in the smaller size, since my gauge is turning out a sock that is 1″ bigger than intended for the size I was working.  Sorry, but I have a mental block when it comes to using anything smaller than a US 2 needle.  No problem, I hadn’t gotten very far anyway and it was going very quickly.  I think I’ll still make my deadline.

A test swatch for a mohawk hat for a friend.  The body and earflaps will be worked in the royal purple shown here, with black I-cord ties and mohawk to finish it off.  This is going to be a really fun project!

And this is the reason I don’t have more of these pieces finished.  My Halloween project.  I got a wild hair…literally…and thought this knit/crochet wig up at the last minute for a party we attended on Saturday evening.  It sparked lots of fun conversation, which was one of the goals.  This one is going into the costume stash to use again.  And if you’re wondering, yes it was heavy, but it was worth it.  I had a blast making it and wearing it!

I also spent quite a chunk of October working on setting up an Etsy shop for some of my earlier finished work.  Between the research for setting everything up just right, to taking acceptable photos of everything (the weather has turned to rain now, so good light is at a premium), to setting up the shop and listings and going live, it was a lot of hours behind the scenes.  So now you can check out my new shop!  Right now I’m showing a line of crochet scarves, but I have plans to add more items as things go along.

Even though I didn’t finish as many projects as I would have liked, I’m still pretty happy with October’s productivity considering all the one-time distractions.

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Look Out Below!

Posted on October 24, 2010 by Carrie

Seriously, look out.  Because now I’m dangerous and enabled.  I have gear.  It’s all Fiancé’s fault…and a tad bit REI’s.  You see, the nearest REI store was having their member-only garage sale today and I just happen to be a member (remember the new hiking boots?).  So I suggested that we go see if we could snag some snowboard gear for me.  It’s his fault because he’s a long-time snowboarder and is super excited that we’re close enough to day trip to several ski mountains every weekend this winter.

Notice the “WE” there.  Newbie me, with only a few lessons, gets to snowboard every weekend.  Woo hoo!  I’m gonna be so bruised from falling on my tush all day that it’ll probably take until the following weekend before I’m healed again.  Ha!  It’ll be fun!  Seriously!

Also note that I’m scoring some major cool mom points for this little adventure.  But I digress…

The garage sale was a bust for me, since there was nothing left in my size, but he managed to get some very good deals.  So I tried on some snowboard boots from the full price racks and found a pair that feels good.  Apparently I have very narrow heels that tend to slip if I don’t get them laced tightly enough, so the very knowledgeable sales associate directed me to some that are designed more with people like me in mind.  Then Fiance found a barely-used board with bindings on Craigslist and picked it up later this evening.

With some easy minor adjustments I’m all set, minus the helmet and goggles.

Yes, the bottom of the board is pink and girly.  I know.  With a suggestive phrase, no less.  But it was cheap and I’m a newbie.  I’ll upgrade to a board that isn’t tainted by the color pink whenever I get good enough to call myself a snowboarder.  Until then, Fiancé is sure that this will be a good way to pick me out of a crowd when I’m sitting (falling down) in the snow.  I note that this only works if every other girls’ board isn’t violently pink on the bottom.

(My knit friends will also note the yarn explosion that has taken over three-quarters of my couch.  That’s leftover yarn from one finished project, and three projects in progress.  Fear not, Fiancé has his own couch and that’s his yarn explosion taking over half of the side table.)

Bonus: The first snow of the season fell in the Cascades today.  Look out below!!!  I’ll be falling…I mean gliding…down the mountain soon.

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Multnomah Falls

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Carrie

This spot is so beautiful, it deserves its own post.  We arrived at Multnomah Falls in late afternoon on our way back to Portland from Mt. Hood.  (see Mt. Hood post for those pics)

There is a viewing platform at the bottom, just past the restaurant and gift shop.

Then it’s an easy walk up to the bridge at the level of the upper pool.  There is a story posted on a plaque here that tells of a bus-sized boulder coming loose, falling into the upper pool and drenching an unfortunate wedding party who had stopped to take photos on the bridge.  This prompted Fiancé to comment that we should stop there for pictures and to tempt a drenching fate should we choose to hold our wedding at Timberline.  Uh huh.

The signs told us it was just a mile hike to the top, so we started up.  Just so you can get an idea of how steep that mile to the top is, take a look at the overall photo of the falls and this sign for the height.

Yeah, that was a grueling walk up.  At least it was paved and had posts every so often to tell you how far you’d gone.  Near the top the sun started to set behind the mountains, so we pushed even harder – which is probably what made it so terribly grueling.  But I really didn’t want to walk down those switchbacks in the dark.

At least I got some pretty sunset shots!

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Mt. Hood

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Carrie

Fiancé and I decided to take a quick trip to Portland and the Mount Hood area this weekend.  He has been snowboarding several times at the major ski areas on the mountain and wanted to show me around.  The minor reasons for going were to briefly see his good friend who lives in Portland, scout out a potential wedding spot, and introduce me to an area where we will most likely make regular trips.

Of course, we went to the mountain first!  Actually, it’s a volcano…you can see that it easily dwarfs all the mountains around it…and is one of a chain of volcanos running along the cascades that includes Mount Jefferson, Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, and Mount Baker.

The drive up to the mountain was pretty impressive.

Fiance loves to drive the Mini in the curves.  I’m pretty sure he was in his happy place on this trip.  Wheeeeee!

We could begin to make out the year-round snowfields as we drove up to Timberline Lodge.  If the height of the poles on the sides of the road are any indication, the snow gets fairly deep here.  (I know, understatement.)

I discovered that Timberline is a year-round ski resort, only closing for a couple of weeks at the end of the summer for maintenance.  Fiance pointed out that there were quite a few little skiing and snowboarding dots up there on the snow.  He also pointed out that yes, this is the lodge used for the exterior shots of the building in the movie The Shining.  I’m ignoring that little tidbit of information – not into horror movies.

We chose to eat at the lodge’s delicious brunch buffet and explore the lodge and surrounding grounds instead of playing in the snow.  There were lots of hikers, picnics, and wedding parties.  We were also checking out the lodge as a potential wedding spot.  It appeals because of the great views of the top of Mt. Hood, as well as views of Mt. Jefferson in the distance.  The interior of the lodge itself is also very beautiful, and offers several wedding options.

View of Mt. Jefferson from the trails behind the lodge

Afterward, we descended and drove around the back side to Hood River, taking in views of Mount St. Helens along the way.  We explored a little yarn shop there and drooled over some kayaks.  Then we headed back toward Portland on I-84 along the Columbia River, stopping at Multnomah Falls for an exhausting hike.  (More on that later.)

We got a recommendation for dinner at Screen Door, a little spot offering an updated version of comfort cooking.  Yes folks, they know how to do some fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  The next morning we went to Bertie Lou’s for an awesome diner-style breakfast and hot tea before heading over to the downtown area to spend several hours in Powell’s City of Books.  Powell’s is fabulous, if you’re even a tiny bit bookish.  Its size was a bit overwhelming at first, but after I found the craft section (right next to the front door, conveniently) and spent a large amount of time perusing those shelves we systematically tackled the rest of the multi-story store.  Baskets and a lot of time to shop are a necessity – we came out with three bags of purchases.  Yikes!  We then replenished our energy reserves with dinner at Henry’s 12th Street Tavern and headed back home.

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Striped Hat

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Carrie

One of my coworkers came to me with this project several months ago.  She has a non-average-sized head and has trouble finding fun hats off the shelf that actually fit.  And she loves to wear fun hats.  She’s the type that can wear anything and pull it off with finesse.  So she brought me a magazine with a photo of the hat she wanted (page 55).

I took measurements, got color preferences, obtained materials, and searched for patterns.  This hat works better in crochet and cotton, so I pulled together seven of the best cotton colors I could find, keeping budget in mind.  I found some similar hat patterns but nothing that was sized right or striped.  I would have to adjust and improvise.

It was horrible.  All the patterns were top down construction, so I couldn’t tell how far I needed to go in order for it to end up the right size until it was too far.  I ripped out – a lot.  The colors were scaring me, the transitions were ugly, and the shape was all wrong.  It was too much beret and not enough tam and slouch.  It got to the point where I hated working on it and wanted to give up.  I finally finished it and she tried it on.  It was definitely all wrong, but it fit.  Scored one point at least.

So I decided to try it again, starting completely over from scratch.  Because it is striped, I had more than enough yarn left.  This time, I searched for inspiration from knitted patterns as well.  Bingo.  I was still working in crochet, but I could take some cues from a few slouchy knit hat patterns for bottom up construction.

I began with a very awkward joined chain that matched her measurements and continued up from the band, increasing to make it bloom where it was supposed to, working level to the desired height, then decreasing to the top.  Along the way, I consulted the picture.  It only felt wrong in a couple of places so that I ripped back a row or two, but nothing like the first attempt.  I was having so much fun I whipped it out over a couple of days.

I think it worked.

The true test will be when she tries it on.  I’m so nervous…

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