Best of Summer 2009

Here's some pics from my summer. Went hiking. Lots. And to Mary T's cabin twice. And to Rhode Island (those pics will be in a separate post). So enjoy the pics!

Ducks huddled together at the cabin.

Sunrise at the cabin

Sunrise at the cabin.

Earlier sunrise at the cabin.

Algae at the Yakima River

A little pond that appeared on the river walk.

Wild river water

Panoramic Yakima River (This is 3 photos stitched together)

Sunny Yakima River

Clouds over Eastern Washington

On our canoe adventure, Mary and I saw a momma loon with a baby hitching a ride on her back.

Little lizard up at Red Top Mountain

Red Top Mountain Lookout. Yeah. We went all the way to the top.

View from the lookout tower.

Jeep ride up the Manastash

Vintage Kittitas Valley

Waterfall near Lake Kachess

Lake Kachess. No hiking due to snow and logging.

Gingko Petrified Forest and Wild Horse Wind Farm

It was Saturday, May 16, 2009. A beautiful, slightly hazy warm day in eastern Washington. There was a bit of a breeze. After a short pounce down to the Farmer's Market and a spendy stop at Mountain High Sports, Mary, Stefan, Jubal, and I took to the hills between Ellensburg and Vantage. The desert flowers were in bloom and the sage smelled sagey... LOL! Anyway, it was a super fun day. We stopped at the interpretive trail hike about 3 miles west of Vantage and took a roughly 3 mile hike up a little hill.

A picture of Mary taking a picture of the landscape from the trail

Some very pretty flowers along the trail.

A petrified douglas fir. All the wood has been placed by silica.

Stefan and Jubal. Your standard Point and Shoot shot. :)

After the trail hike, we found our way to the Gingko Petrified Forest Interpretive Center and saw some amazing examples of petrified wood, rocks, geodes, agates, etc. And a really interesting movie called The Trees of Stone. It's one theory of how the trees became petrified, though not terribly accurate.

The view of the Columbia River from the Interpretive Center.

Some petrified logs at the center with the Columbia River in the background.

Some petriglyphs. We came up with our own interpretation of the symbols.

The iron horses on the ridge on the other side of the river. My zoom was a bit better than I thought!

Stefan and Jubal at the Gem Shop, posing with the dinosaurs.

Me and the river.

Flowers up at the Wild Horse Wind Farm. They were really pretty.

The view from the Wind Farm. I drew an arrow to show where Mount Rainier was. Click on the picture to make it large enough to see... if you squint reeeeeaaaally hard... and use a bit of your imagination. LOL!

The Chickens Have Landed

Houston... We have chickens! LOL! These five little furry gals are soooo cute! And since I took these pictures last week they've grown tremendously! They even have real wings with feathers now! The chick in the picture at the top of the page is mine. She's Spartan 117 or Sparty for short. The orange and black chick below is Pippin and the orange and gray one standing behind her is Naruto. You can see Bombur in the back corner and the beak and forhead of Sparty on the far right. Merry, pictured by himself, was very obliging and stood still for her picture. Right now the lot of them are in Mary's kitchen. So far the cat and dog haven't been overly interested in them. Yeah!

Maria from Jerrol's stopped by work on Friday before Mother's Day and gave us some beautiful carnations. This is a picture of mine. I love the way the light shows through the petals. Pretty!

The lovely staff at HopeSource congregated at Olmstead on Friday and helped prepare the flower beds for seasonal visitors. We weeded and weeded and weeded! It was an amazing day weather-wise (though I did get a rather nasty sunburn!) and we had some yummy snacks, provided by Ada Graaff, my boss Susan Grindle's lovely mother. She provides our office with the most delicious cookies every Thursday or Friday. And she was recently honored with the Spirit of the Red Cross award at the American Red Cross Real Heroes Banquet at The Lodge at Suncadia. She has been volunteering with the Red Cross since WWII and is just now retiring.

Below is the picture of the Olmstead homestead.


On Saturday, Janelle, Mary and I attended the Fiber with a Twist Spin In down in Richland, WA. It was another beautiful, warm day. The place was pretty crowded with folks spinning and vendors. Lots of great people and great wheels. I purchased four bumps of handdyed merino... from Janelle! LOL! All the way down there and I bought stuff from the person I went down there with! The wool was too gorgeous to pass up. I also bought a bump of Potluck in Midnight Mulberry that I will spin fluffy, knit big, and felt into a purse.

Our stuff awaiting the doors to open.

Janelle's half of the table she rented.

So also this weekend, I finished my black cardigan and made a cute red camisole top to wear with it. The cardigan was very easy to knit, though it took much longer than I anticipated. The sizing is perfect. I made a large and it fits exactly like I wanted it to. The camisole is from McCall's Easy Stitch 'n Save pattern number M5787. It's a little big, but I like it too much to alter it. I used one yard of Kona Bay fabric and some red solid left over from an apron I made last year. It worked out perfectly.

EYELET CARDIGAN
PATTERN: Eyelet Cardigan from Blue Sky Alpaca
DESIGNER: Alison Williams
YARN: Julia from Nashua, an alpaca/wool blend
NEEDLES: Size 7 24" circulars
NOTIONS: Yarn needle, fabric-covered buttons

Thrift Sense

So I've been a few times to Goodwill and St. Vinnies....

Ok, maybe more than a few times. :)

Here's some fun stuff I've found that I really like.

Brown Faux Leather Purse
$3.99

Straw Bonnet from Frederick and Nelson: Seattle
$1.99

Handmade Pottery Bowl
$0.49

Bright Kitchen Towel
$0.99

Angora/Cashmere/Wool Coat from Facconable
$5.99

Fossil Purse with pretty fabric lining
$3.99

Grey Wool Dress
Wool Fabric: $2.99
Amy Butler Fabric Lining: $4.50
Pattern: McCalls 4319 (This is a pjs pattern, but the nightgown was so cute that I used it to make this dress.)

Sometimes I'm amazed by what I find at Goodwill and St. Vinnies. Sometimes I'm more amazed by how much I actually spend there! LOL! Then I'll go over to Fred Meyer or Mountain High and look at how much it costs to buy clothes and stuff new and I'm so thankful that we have Goodwill and St. Vinnies.

In other news: Today is Easter, the day that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Blessed is the King of Israel! Hosanna!

Yeah!!! It's finally spring! It's GLORIOUS outside this fine Palm Sunday. We had an amazing service today at church followed by one of the best potlucks I can remember. The food was spectacular!

For those who are curious as to what I've been up to, check out the pics below! (No, they are not in chronological order. LOL!)

Flower Tote
PATTERN: Easy Stitch 'n Save M5362
FABRIC: Outer, flower linen I picked up at Goodwill
Inside, satin brocade I picked up at Goodwill
EXTRAS: Snap closure I cannibalized from another purse
Brass Broach that was my grandmothers
NOTES: Super easy pattern that took me all of 3 hours to sew (would have been less if I hadn't messed up and had to pull out a big section. I modified the pattern by adding the clasp.

FLOWER POWER SKIRT
PATTERN: Easy Stitch n' Save 5566
FABRIC: Green: from Sew Much More (now the Sewing Corral)
Unbleached Muslin: from Goodwill (I bought 10 yards for $8 bucks!)
EXTRAS: Various bits of lace from various places.
NOTES: So this is what happens when you read the wrong part of the pattern and you don't have enough fabric. I wanted an all green skirt, but the 3.5 yards I had didn't match up with the 6.5 yards I needed. So I improvised by putting in three cream colored panels and cut out several flowers which I zigzag stitched on. Then I added bits of cream lace to the cream panels (not visible in picture.) I modified the pattern by doing only 6 gores instead of 8.

BUTTONY
INSPIRATION: An awesome button necklace from Anthropologie. (It had more buttons and red yarn)
MATERIALS: Cream antique bone and shell buttons in various sizes and designs, green buttons in two sizes, handspun soy silk I made up as a sample for a Seattle fashion designer.

SOMETHING NEW
So I decided I needed a change from the usual, so I checked out some fun hair magazines and some knitting magazines and some websites and found that I really wanted bangs and a total make up overhaul. Kacy at Hanna Marchel Salon took my idea and made it way cooler than I thought it would be. I even invested some money into some good make up and watched a few videos on how to put it on appropriately! It's amazing how much better I feel when I put effort into what I look like instead of just throwing a hat on and not bothering with the make up. And I've even been trying to dress a bit more professtionally for work (I even bought some heels!). Though there are days when I just want to grunge out and feel good about doing so.

COZY
PATTERN: Cozy from Danielle Schoonover at Knitty.com
YARN: Kid Mohair Blend from Sublime in 0022, 6 balls
NEEDLES: Size 8
NOTES: Beautiful shawl that is just what its name states: cozy. The yarn is gorgeous and feels great. But... it sheds terribly. Don't wear this with black! The shawl seemed to never end. No matter how much I knit on it, it didn't seem to grow at all! Still, it's a great pattern and if you're looking for some mindless knitting to do in the car or while standing in line at the DMV, this is certainly it!!!

FRENCHY HANDBAG
PATTERN: Frenchy Handbag from Amy Butler
FABRIC: Wool suiting I found at Goodwill for the outer
Poplin from Denver Fabrics inside
EXTRAS: Bit of lace for the inside pocket, flower pin I found at an antique store
NOTES: Great pattern! Super fun and easy. I really love this bag and will be getting a lot of use out of it!

PRECIOUS CHOKER
MATERIALS: Fine silver wire from Fred Meyer, pink beads and clasp from The Agate Shop
PATTERN: None. I placed the beads on the wire, then cast on 4 stitches and increased every other row until I had 12 stitches, then knit for awhile, then decreased back to 4. Knitting with wire is fun and a lot easier than I thought it would be.

So that's all for now. I've been thrift store shopping a bit lately and will soon put up a post with all my findings!

Happy Palm Sunday! Hosanna!!!!

February Stuff

Ok. So I decided to get into shape this week. Actually, I've been gearing myself up to it for awhile, but today was the day I finally started. I went to Mountain High and got some shoes, Salomon XA Pro something or other running shoes with Gortex cuz it's wet out. And I bought some sweatpants that are soo terribly comfortable I'll have a hard time wearing anything else! LOL!So this afternoon I went to Morgan Middle School and walked a bit around the track. Briskly walked, actually. Then I ran half a lap, walked half a lap three times and then walked home. It took all of 20 minutes and I realized that my leg muscles have nooooo idea what running is all about! So. I'm hoping to be able to slowly build up to real running and not just this stop and start thing.

Knitting items of note:

I finally broke down and bought the yarn to make the Klaralund. I've been wanting to make this sweater for about 2 years, but couldn't justify spending that much on yarn (Noro Silk Garden is not extraordinarily expensive, but there's not a heck of a lot of yardage per skein.) I had tried a couple of times to knit it with my handspun, but never had enough of anything. I finished this on Wednesday and wore it Thursday and thoroughly adore it. I'm so glad I knit this!!!!

Pattern: Klaralund from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Hand Knitting Collection Book Two
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden in 245
Needles: Size 8
Joy Factor: Yipee!!!

I am now working on a pretty green wrap for the shop. And a pair of socks that I'm certain will be the death of me! I love the pattern, but it is seriously taking forever to knit!!!!

Also, I've joined Facebook and have been hanging out there a bit lately. And I've started playing Guild Wars. Talk about a time suck!!! It's way fun though. My character is named Cludda the Deathles and is a Ranger/Elementalist. Right now she's a level 15. It's taking forever to level now. Grrrrr.....

Finally a New Post!

Hello all! Been knitting and painting and haven't had a chance to put anything on here! Also, I got Guild Wars and have been playing that quite a bit. I am still keeping up with laundry and dishes and work, though, so I don't feel too bad about the hours I spend online killing skales and Grawls and Charrs.

Anyway, I finally broke down and bought some of the new Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. It's GLORIOUS!I love how the colors came out totally different from one sock to the other. One has a lot of pink and one has a lot of orange.

Pattern: Whitby from Knitting on the Road
Designer: Nancy Bush
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock in 284
Needles: Size 3

Also, I finally used up my 12th Planet handspun corriedale that I got at the Shepherd's Extravaganza last year.

Pattern: Notions Purse
Designer: Me
Yarn: The 12th Planet Coiled Yarn
Needles: 9 circulars

I had a really hard time trying to figure out what to do with this coiled yarn, especially since I had so little yardage. It finally came to me when I was hunting around my dining room table for my yarn needles tin. It's lined with black cotton inside and has a snap closure.

Pattern: Felicity
Designer: Wanette Clyde
Yarn: The 12th Planet 2 ply
Needles: Sizes 4 and 5 16" circulars

I totally love this pattern! I went down a needles size on both and added 20 stitches because my handspun was sport weight and not worsted.

Pattern: Moria Cowl
Designer: Me
Yarn: The 12th Planet 2 ply
Needles: Size 5 16" circulars

I really enjoyed designing and knitting this. The colors and the way it fits reminded me of Moria. The leaf pattern is from an old pattern book that I have and after the first repeat I started taking out some of the decreases and adding rows so the leaves get bigger and bigger.

I've also knit a few things for the LYS. You can see them at The Dancing Ewe Yarn and Teas or at the Ravelry link to your right.

Ok. I guess that's all for now. It's snowing as I type this morning. I'm glad.