Another This and That and I'm Famous!

Surprise, surprise, I've been knitting!  (Seems like that's all I want to do lately.)  Lately I love knitting while listening to books on tape.  For a while I was using LibriVox.  Then I figured out how to download audible books from our library onto my iPod and I've been obsessed with that.

Here's a sweater I recently finished.  And guess what?  It fits! I used this pattern from Ravelry.

I also recently finished these gloves.  They were a challenge for me, and I enjoyed them.  (They aren't perfect, I pulled a bit tight on the corners and there's a ridge consequently, but I'll survive.)  Isn't it a gorgeous pattern though?  If you're a knitter, and not on Ravelry, you should be.  Although I recently pinned a bunch of gorgeous patterns from Pinterest.  These gloves are Kihnu Gloves from Nancy Bush.

Guess who thinks I should throw his ball?  Mr. Gimp.  Ridiculous.

His best is getting in and out our back door without assistance.  He needs to give up on chasing balls for quite some time.

Recently I did some work in the garden.  

What does that really mean? "Worked in the garden."

I pulled weeds.

But I did see these pretty tulips blooming.

And these forget me nots, from a garden blogger friend.  Spring really has arrived.

Felix snuggled up while I was knitting.

I got to spend time with my adorable granddaughter.

Kim and I had another great trip to Stargaze yurt.

Sans Scarface this time.  We took Chelsea with us but Scarface had to stay home due to his ACL issues.  Vanessa was unfortunate enough to get to care for him while we were gone.

And my first ever radio interview aired this week.  You can listen in here.

"Monica interviews special guest Victoria Williams and they discuss her blog where she writes about her love of gardening, knitting, cooking, camping, and family.  Victoria talks about when she first met Monica and the powerful experience that she had that night as well as her past adventures and hopeful new ones.  They also talked about life challenges and the challenges of being a parent."

Back From The Yurt

Vanessa joined us for our trip to Stargaze yurt this year.  We had a great time.

She sacrificed to get this panorama.  It's tough to go without snow shoes in four feet of snow.  Much less do yoga.

Scarface enjoyed his bed near the fire.

He also enjoyed our bed....

He did get out in the snow.

Next year I need to knit him a sweater.  The cold seemed to bother him quite a bit.

Chelsea spent most of her time sleeping.  Guess at 16 years old that's her favorite thing.

Felt good to really "get away from it all".  There's no reception, electricity or running water.  In the photo below I'm standing just to the left of the yurt.  That gives you some idea of the size.

Great view, tasty food, nice wines, good company, good times.

Final Yurt Trip of the Year

Our second yurt trip went great.  We witnessed a beautiful sunrise.

That same frosty morning we saw all sorts of beautiful, fragile and temporary ice crystals.

My new hat worked well.

I was able to finish knitting a pair of socks.

You can see the yurt behind us on the right.  (Sitting on that little patch of snow.)
 We snow-shoed up to Stargaze Point;  elevation 6682 feet.

It felt great getting out into the snow again but now spring is immanent;  Kim has already planted seeds in the cold frame.  Time to welcome it.

In Between

So I have been doing something, just not blogging, obviously.

Can you guess what this object is that I knitted?  I included the eyeglasses in the photo as a size reference.

A hat!  A warm one, I hope.  It's a double hat. You stuff one part inside the other when you've finished it.
The pattern is here.

I also made some mittens to match.

My friend Carol gave me the mittens pattern.  They're the type that open up in case you need your fingers for something.  It's a great pattern.  Leave me a comment if you want the pattern.  (Update:  I've included the pattern at the bottom of this post.)




I finished these just in time for our upcoming second trip to the yurt. I hope they help keep me warm. It was quite cold on our last trip. This yurt is at the top of a hill and the wind blew mercilessly.  I wore both an ear wrap and a hat most of the time we were outside.  We had a great time though.  I'm looking forward to one more trip up into winter weather before spring catches us here at home and gardening time begins.

Some pics from our trip two weeks ago.
Gorgeous view from the yurt.

I "get down" to get the picture I want.

It dumped 8 inches of snow on us while we were there. Wonderful.

Don't get me wrong, it's quite cozy inside the yurt.  Stayed around 75 degrees in there all day.

Kim roasts a kielbasa for his dinner.  The two pots on the stove are melting snow for water.

Chelsea did great up there.  She could use some little doggie snow shoes since she sank a bit this time.  But we were impressed with how well she's done since her ACL/tumors/dental surgery.  And since she's around 13 years old we're just happy she's still with us.  The husky half of her loves the snow.  The corgi half keeps her low to the ground so she ends up picking up snowballs on her chest.

Final note;  no more kitten giveaway pictures!  We finally adopted out the last cat/kitten.  It's taken 6 months but we did it.
Thanks to Angie for adopting Lulu and Mr. Handsome.
Thanks to Josh for taking Pepé.
Thanks to Heather for adopting Francine.
Thanks to Tammy for adopting Brewster.
And thanks to that wonderful couple for adopting Lil Sis.
(We're keeping Frankie.)

Winter Fun

Kim and I will soon be heading up for our winter yurt trip.

Here's a sample of some of the silliness that goes on.
(I appreciate the co-operation of my daughter, son-in-law, and Kim.)





This is how we manage to look forward to winter.
Looking forward to this years trips.

Yurt 2 Highlights

Kim and I recently returned from our second yurt trip of the winter. I'll give you the highlights.

Our second night up we were the fortunate witnesses of a gorgeous sunset. Kim trekked around the corner to take a pic of it with the yurt in the foreground.





He also caught a close up of these ice crystals on the deck. Don't they look like miniature snowflakes?










I finished knitting a hat to match my new sweater.



























Chelsea had her usual great time running around in the snow chasing imaginary squirrels.







I made a short video in an attempt to demonstrate what an effort it is to use the outhouse at the yurt. That's the one drawback of "yurting" for me - walking to the outhouse when the temperature is hovering around 17˚F and the toilet seat is covered with ice crystals.
Now imagine doing that in the pitch black of night.
You get the idea.






Finally, I had some fun making Chelsea "sing".

The Rest of the Yurt

We enjoyed the usual activities at the yurt; snowshoeing, sledding, eating, drinking, relaxing. There are a few chores to keep up on - hauling in wood for the fire and snow to melt for water and shoveling snow off the deck.

One of the biggest chores at least to me, is the walk down to the outhouse. Especially at night. More on that later.

We took our usual pretty snow and tree and mountain pictures but also as we looked around we noticed a few new things to see up close.

We noticed these crystals on a tree one morning;





And during a snowshoeing "hike" we saw what looks like "snow feathers" on another tree:







So pretty.


My newest socks were great for the yurt. I knitted them with DK weight yarn on size 1 needles so they're nice and thick and warm.





We had a good time. We'll go back. Soon.

Back From the Yurt.....

....more to come.

Yurting Again

This was our fifth trip to a winter yurt.

It's about a two mile hike (snowshoeing) to the yurt which doesn't sound bad until you remember you're pulling a loaded sled, carrying a backpack, and doing this uphill for half the time. Took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to reach the yurt.

Some things don't change:

1. Snow. Lots of it.
2. Quiet.
3. No electricity.
4. Good food and good wine.
5. Great company.
6. Beautiful star show at night.

We stayed three nights which seems to be the perfect amount for me.

Played cards and clue. Knitted. Hiked. Sled. Ate and drank and talked.

Kim and Steph tried something new this year; night sledding. Chris and I accompanied them with lanterns. They tried to hold flashlights on their way down the hill. Does it sound as if there was drinking involved?

And Kim always likes to play with light while he's up there.

All in all it was a great time.