A View from Sierra County

And the Winner Is....

Actually, there are two winners, one for yarn and one for roving!  

In the yarn category, the winner is a new-to-me blogger, Juliann, of Cozy Knitting!

Juliann will be receiving this lovely skein of Araucania Panguipulli, which I incorrectly linked before... it is hand-dyed in Chile and designed to reflect the Chilean culture, but marketed through Knitting Fever.

Turns out that Julieann probably needs this yarn after knitting her way through snowstorms earlier in the month....

And in the roving category, the winner is Zeneedle Margene, who will receive this beautifully hand-dyed roving from dear friend and neighbor, Wooly Daisy Stephanie (who is off at Stitches West this weekend). 

Thanks to all of you who participated in my 400-post contest, and who have continued to visit and read my writings over the years, and to those new friends as well, and I know Margene thanks all of you who posted you were referred here by her post last week, improving her odds!

I hope all of you are looking forward to a nice late-winter weekend; here at Slate Range Camp, I will be enjoying what today's mail delivered...

the latest issue of Piecework, to be perused and savored over the weekend....

and my order from Knitpicks, which contained the yarns I need to start on a new hat for baby grrl, Odessa.... Flore pattern from Knitwhits.

Won't she just look so precious?!  

Contest Closed - Winner Announced Friday!

Thanks to all who entered my 400-post Contest... I am sorting through the 'extra' entries you are entitled to for spreading the word, and will be able to pick a winner by tomorrow and let y'all in on it by Friday.  Haven't been home much the past few days, but appreciated reading all the nice comments:)

Yesterday started out very early, with a fast trip down to Sacramento to take a half-day class on grant proposal budgeting.  Since it was also youngest son's birthday, several of the family gathered for a feast at Jesse's favorite local Chinese restaurant.

The birthday family.... son Jesse with fiancee Dawn and baby girl Odessa.... she can still fit in the birth hat her Grammie B made her, but it is definitely time for another!

Jesse turned 24, and Odessa is now 5 months old!

Today was another hurry-scurry day, with several meetings and a circle around through Marysville, up to Grass Valley, and finally back home... time to go make an easy dinner and relax... the last armhole on Mendocino and then sewing on buttons will put me over the top in my finishing endeavor... happy dance!  Go on by and congratulate Vicki on her gold medal in the Knitting Olympics.

In The Running

At least I would still be if I had officially participated in the Knitting Olympics; the exciting news to me is that there will soon be a FO, and an item that has been languishing as a UFO for too long will finally get its due.

I first saw the Mendocino Vest pattern back almost two years ago, when Shear Spirit was published, featuring the photos of fellow blogger Gale (She Shoots Sheep Shots).  I was so excited by the way the book presents independent fiber farms around the country, almost as if I drove up unexpectedly, but they rolled out the welcome mat and gave me the deluxe tour anyway.  This was the pattern I wanted to make first, and I had even overdyed some lovely Cormo yarn from a visit to the Estes Park Wool Mart visit a few years back that I had in my stash with henna in anticipation of using it for the project, when Ruinwin sent me a gift of some Ella Rae Palermo yarn that cried out to be used for Mendocino instead... the other yarn has a new vest with it's name on it, but may have to wait until next winter.  Oh the comfort of having projects lined up in the stash:)  

Though I made it most of the way through the back last spring, once the hot weather hit, Mendocino languished, becoming the perfect candidate for my own personal Finishing Event.  I managed to fly through both of the fronts in the past week, and last night got the neck edging completed... the sides are pinned together with locking stitch markers (a good reason to have plenty of these around!), and I will seam them tonight, move on to the armhole edgings.

I really like the pretty little touches on this pattern... besides being a 'mock cable' (meaning that you don't actually manipulate the cable effect, it is done by purling three together, with M1 increases on either side of the 'cable' panel), there is a ripply edging formed by an eyelet row at the bottom that starts off the patterning, and then the eyelet row is repeated for the trims around neck and armholes. 

Here's a closer-up to show how the neck edging turned out... this yarn is a long-striping one, but very tonal and subtle... a pleasing feast for the knitter, yet still wearable for someone like me who doesn't want to stand out like a neon sign by wearing dramatically striping colors.

I managed to get some decluttering time in yesterday morning, eliminating some extra furniture and adding to the order I have been gradually achieving, but my real reason was to unearth these buttons... I knew I had purchased them a few years back up in Arcata, and they weren't with all the recently-organized materials in my studio, even though many, many other buttons were....I could recall having displayed them pinned to the wall next to my computer desk for quite a long time, and was hoping they hadn't fallen behind the filing cabinet. Luckily, my decluttering got rid of a box on unneeded books, and a stack of paper trash, before I 'found' the missing buttons on one of my office shelves. 

Won't they be just a perfect match?  I like the garter stitch button bands a lot too.... did I say that I really, really like this vest?  I think I might even like myself in it.  I have been making sure to get 30 minutes (at least) of exercise a day, including weights twice a week and intervals once or twice a week (those who find me on FB know how I feel about intervals; I won't subject the rest of you), and have even lost a few pounds, but still have a ways to go before feeling svelte.  I was pleased when I tried the pinned-together version and realized I would be happy with the fit.  Now... on to the finish line!

Don't forget to enter my contest before midnight PST on Tuesday... here's a photo of the Aracuania yarn, one of two prizes I will be awarding... scroll down to get the directions.

 

400 Posts

I have procrastinated about writing a post for something like two weeks, simply because the last one was my 400th post... a surprising accomplishment that I thought I should somehow recognize... award... celebrate.  But, nothing came to me.  I went out in the world instead.  I knitted, rode my bike in Alameda, worked out, dieted, knitted, worked, even played with the burros (well, at least Abe and I got out for a walk today, in the sun of our 'false spring' that routinely happens for a few days in late January or mid-February).  Still, nothing that compelling... I didn't even make it to any Bay Area yarn shops last weekend when celebrating Valentine's Day with my DH and his bro and wife...  shoot, at least I can tell you to go over and enter JessaLu's contest for her fifth blogiversary by tomorrow night (and say I sent you!).

I decided that I really need to give away a special yarn to acknowledge this achievement and to thank all of you who keep returning (who knows why? certainly not because I am a dependable blogger!)

Here's what I am giving away ---- Panguipulli yarn!  I will be selecting a lovely skein tomorrow, when I fill in for Rose at Fibers, and in the meantime, blatently stole this photo from Araucania, the Chilean yarn-dyeing company. 

I will also be giving away roving from my dear sista' Stephanie, though I am not certain what colorways she has is stock currently....   

just to tempt you into leaving a comment to enter, I am posting a photo of the booth she and Rhodi had at the Mendocino Christmas Fair a few months back....

Now, for some rules:

The deadline is Tuesday, February 23rd, at midnight PST (because that is my youngest son's birthday).

You get one entry for commenting in this post.

You get another entry for each time someone comments and says that you sent them.

You also get another entry for alerting your Facebook crowd (sorry, I don't do Twitter - it would take away even further from my wimpy attempts to be a good blogger!).

Just in case you have been wondering what I am up to in the knitting department... here's a finished crochet object (mwuah ha ha!):

This is a scarf I finished early in the month, for oldest son's birthday (my two 'boys' are exactly seven years and one month apart, both born on the 23rd of a month), in colors he requested.  He happens to look really good in them, so I will take a photo as soon as I can get up to deliver this to him in Lake Tahoe.

I have also been doing my own 'unofficial' Olympic event in Finishing... didn't want to wait for the starting bell, didn't want to promise to finish on time either, but am cruising along on my own little stretch of Nordic woods... and finishing up my Mendocino vest.

 

I have the back done, almost all of the left front (put on a holder yesterday so that I could start the right front and knit my way through a training, since I was sitting where I couldn't accurately measure the final dimensions), and about ten inches of the right front, including four buttonholes, completed... it is reasonably possible I will finish along with all the various Olympic contenders, in Vancouver and elsewhere.  I am really happy to see this item near it's wearable stage, it has been a pleasure to knit, though I got pre-empted by very hot weather last summer, then baby and holiday gift knitting through the fall and last month, and am just getting back to it.

Check back this weekend for 'real' prize photos, and a surprise!

Saturday Sky

The sky isn't looking so good for today... low ceiling, and lots of rain dumped overnight... so I decided to post this sunset shot from earlier in the week!  I do love the sunset low in the sky this time of the year, and am grateful for all the rain and snow we have gotten this season, even though I miss the blue skies.  California is close to not being in a drought state, finally!

I have already been out and about early today, and picked up rhubarb roots for the garden; it's not too early here to start thinking about the spring planting even though Puxatawny Phil saw his shadow, and six more weeks of winter will likely mean a long mud season.  We have a spot in mind for those roots, that will be getting both donkey manure and sandy loam out of a bag to get them started right... they will outlive us, most likely.  Up at the Forest City house, we have rhubarb plants that are close to a century old, but often miss their timing for 'best harvest' because spring gets so busy.

I haven't posted in a long while, so have a few family photos and a finished object to share, from a birthday celebration for dear eldest son two weeks ago... 

We met at Northstar, where Cody works in hospitality in the re-designed pedestrian village, and also rides (snowboards) almost daily... he is up to over 40 days this season already.  I envy him that, both for the exercise value and the sheer joy of being outdoors, any time of the year, that I am happy to say I instilled in him.

I think his best gift was getting to see niece Odessa, just past four months old in this photo, and getting very charming!

Here, she is just realizing that she might be able to reach the menu on the table... she is like many first-child babies of middle class parents, well familiar with going to restaurants and is starting to clamor a bit watching others eat... still has to rely on getting it second-hand from mama for a few more months before a range of foods will be available to her.

She has grown so much, but looks pretty tiny sitting in a big high chair!

Here's daddy Jesse, modeling the finished object I promised to show you... a warm winter hat that I had been making for Christmas, before I got too sick to finish it.

He works outside, and really liked it... his bro is also getting a late gift, this time birthday, of a scarf I have been crocheting, that is finally almost done.  I like many of the effects of crochet, but my hands protest about it far more than knitting, so not to worry, no chance of this becoming a crocheting blog!

Below is a close-up of the hat, though the one with him wearing it is a truer representation of color.... it has a turned hem, giving it a thicker ear-head band, for warmth and for keeping it on better... a feature he got to try out right

away as it was going back and forth between rain and snow on that day!

You might have heard rumors of a dye workshop... a group of my knit grrls (Luci, Stephanie, Rhodi, Rowen and I) got together with Sara Lamb for a workshop to begin compiling our own dye notebooks last Sunday.  It was a hard-and-fast job, trying to get through as many of the color combos in percentage as possible, and we will continue on our own, meeting monthly until we get 'done', at least through the range of mixing possible.  We kept talking about taking photos, but nobody stopped long enough!  In fact, the only slow moments in the whole day were while we shared a lovely potluck lunch.  Here are a few shots of the sample cards we got done on Sunday....

 

This is the total number of samples... the cards are labeled with both letters and numbers... the ones with only letters are laid out in a range of colors between two primaries, such as "magenta" and "yellow", and the ones with numbers reflect a blending of three primaries from specific recipes.

A close-up view of just two sample cards gives you a better chance to see the ranges of color that can be produced by mixing... we had a great time and were very thankful to Sara for fitting us into her busy schedule.

My dear friends over on the east coast, please be warm, dry and safe!  Our weather is nothing compared to what you are getting, and I realize many in that storm simply aren't used to such severe conditions.... you are all in my thoughts and prayers.  The rest of you I hope are having a great weekend... and all of you, pull out some knitting!

Now, I've got to go and spend some time with the new edition of Piecework, which just arrived in my mailbox... both historical knitting AND a new Barbara Walker pattern! Life is good:)