I need some Christmas Spirit...

And I'd love your help with that...

Work is just a little bit insane and I have deadlines pulling me every different direction. I've given up doing almost anything for Christmas that is handmade except a few small items that can be done quickly (as in maybe knitted on the plane ride home!) and a few more that I had enough sense to start early and won't take long to finish. I don't have time to put up decorations and since I'm in the field all next week and then will be immediately leaving for my family's home, it seemed a bit pointless. I know. Grinch I am.

So with no decorations, with no crafting of gifts...I needed something to get me into the Christmas spirit. I can think of nothing better than to have a Christmas giveaway. I haven't had a contest/giveaway in quite a while. I've been lucky enough to have won a few great things from blogs I read over the years and always felt like at some point I wanted to give back a small something. It's just I always wanted that small something to be handmade. And of course time passes and I never get anything made. But this year I had a thought...I got such a great response on my calendars that maybe a handful of you would want a chance to win one of those?

So I'm giving away 2 calendars. Here's the front for this year...full disclosure so if you don't like the images, you don't have to enter. :)

Pretty basic...comment if you want to be entered. But I want one simple thing from you in the comment...and after the first of the year, you'll see why I'm requesting this. I want you to think of a blog that inspires you. The inspiration can come from amazing knits, gorgeous photography, lifestyle choices, political/personal views, sewing or other crafts, cooking/recipes...it can be that the blog just makes you think...it can be a blog you comment on regularly or a blog that maybe you've been too intimidated to comment on. Absolutely no restriction on blog type. I want you to include the blog name (and link) with your comment and what it is that inspires you about it. And while this isn't necessary to enter, I challenge you to stop by that blog this week and let them know they inspire you and why. Try it, it might be fun!

I'm heading to the field and won't draw until I get back so I'll leave this open until midnight (PST) Thursday night (12/17) and I'll post the winners on Friday.

See, I can feel a little spirit creeping in already! :)
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Now playing: The Canadian Railroad Trilogy by Gordon Lightfoot

Catching the late-November light

I had planned on posting another set of film shots taken this summer...but I'm postponing because this weekend I jumped on board an assignment given by Claire and Melissa of Knitting Sandwich. The task? Capture the light of late November wherever you are at. Claire captured hers in NYC and Melissa captured hers in MN. As they showed in simply gorgeous images, light at this time of year can be amazing no matter what scenery is around you. Kate decided to join showing how brilliant light can be between rainstorms in British Columbia. And I decided to join as well.

So how about you? There are still a few days left in November (and of course the light is the same in early December!)...take the camera out and share the light wherever you are at.

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Now playing: The Lights of Home by Bela Fleck

Back to the World of Film...Part I

I have been trying to make an effort to post at least once a week lest I fall into old habits of ignoring this space for weeks/months on end. Yet after a very busy, draining week...one where I did almost nothing that wasn't work related...it's a struggle to come up with something I feel is post-worthy. So today, you get a set of images.

I broke out my film camera this summer and had a blast shooting a few rolls of film. I FINALLY got around to sending them off for development a couple weeks ago and then scanned in some of my favorites. It took a bit to get back into the groove of shooting all-manual. While I don't feel I've returned to the level I was when shooting solely film, I had fun remembering! For those interested, I use a Minolta X-700 and most of these images were shot with a 90mm Tamron 1:1 MF Macro.

So as winter is definitely upon us here in NE Oregon...something to make you remember summer! And since this coming up week, despite being a holiday week for most of the country, will be no less hectic, I'll save another set for the next post.






I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

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Now playing: Broken White Line by Kris Delmhurst

via Pandora. So I found Pandora back in early 2007. I made a few stations and started listening. It didn't take long to realize that if I continued to go on Pandora, I was going to get nothing done except listen to music and write down names of groups/songs (and spend too much money on music!). I was immediately addicted to the site. So I haven't been back on since in an attempt to stay productive. Until last night. J and I were taking a night off and ended up playing each other artists/songs that we have separately found lately...somehow I ended up back on Pandora to show him how it worked. And today I'm trying to wean myself back off. :)

Loving the Hand-spun

My only experience so far with hand-spun yarn is 2 skeins I bought from Jessi's Etsy store. I bought the first several years ago...I was noticing all the hype of knitting with hand-spun throughout the internets and decided I wanted to experience knitting with it. Browsing Jessi's store one day, I couldn't resist the colors of one skein she had for sale. That first skein became this cowl which I have worn often and absolutely love. In fact, I loved it so much that I immediately went back online and grabbed a second skein from her. This time the name (Mother Earth) and the colors were calling my name. I saved this yarn for over a year trying to find the perfect pattern. I knew I didn't want to knit another cowl, but I needed to find something that would use every inch of yarn.

I finally decided on Thorpe. I love the hand-spun versions I'd seen on Ravelry and I wear hats OFTEN! I finished all but the crochet edging up in one setting months ago and there it sat. Because I had no idea how to crochet and because I had no yarn that would match for the edging. My friend Anne to the rescue on both accounts. I was slow and felt like I had two left hands for awhile but crochet I did. It's not perfect, but I love it anyway.

Because I was using scraps of yarn and wasn't sure I'd have enough for the crochet and the braids, I also grabbed some leftover hand-spun of Anne's that incredibly matched the purple in the original yarn almost perfectly and did a little color twist into the braid.

I think this hat adequately shows off the loveliness that is Jessi's yarn well...and it's so soft to boot. The only problem was it didn't eat up enough yarn! So I cast on some Toast mittens and knit until I ran out. My toast are more like wrist warmers than arm warmers, but they are soft, cozy, and have already been worn often as I type in my cold house! It's amazing to me that such a small amount of fabric covering only the wrists and part of the arm could actually provide warmth...but they do!

And just because I'm so enamored by the colors...some more pictures.


Deets for both projects are on Ravelry if interested. Toast is here. Thorpe is here.
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Now playing: 'Relator' by Pete Y0rn and Scarlett J0hanns0n
Found via Molly...had no idea SJ could sing and though I haven't been exactly enamored with her acting lately, I was immediately taken with this song.

'Real' Life

I've procrastinated putting this post up for what...two and a half months? See, I took a little trip to meet one of 'you' back in August. 'You' being a friend obtained through this weird, delightful, strange, enlightening world called blogland. 'You' being what some people call 'internet friends' or 'online friends'. Those terms sort of make me twitch--not only am I old enough that it sounds a little dirty, but a friend is a friend in my book no matter what form of communication passes between you.

I procrastinated because I had no idea how to really write what I felt about this trip and about meeting these two. I still don't. Part of this is because driving to meet someone I had never met face to face is so outside my normal limits of comfort that I'm still a little shocked I did it. And I'm still a little shocked that it was such an amazing experience since I am so socially backward and since, superficially at least, we come from very different worlds. Sure, there was a bit of awkwardness to start. I mean, we're talking about me here. But it didn't last long and it took no time to just feel like 3 friends who had known each other for years hanging out. And that statement, while I could go on and on about how amazing these guys are, is about the best compliment I can give someone. And so while I still can't come up with the words to describe the feelings, I can at least post the details of the trip and bring a little bit of the beauty of the Cascades of SW Oregon into your homes!


The trip...Mel and her husband Tad came out to San Fran to visit her brother and were planning on driving north aiming for Portland or Seattle. So we discussed how we could meet up if they got into Oregon. The easiest (and most sensible considering driving distances) was to meet in Portland. Rarely am I sensible. And remember that twitch thing? It also comes with being anywhere close to a big city (realize by big I mean greater than about 12,000 people). I know that Portland is an amazing city, but it's a city nonetheless and I don't deal well with that. So instead I decided to drive a 'little' bit longer and meet up in Grant's Pass, camp a night and then sort of see what we wanted to do the next day and night (mountains or coast)...then I'd end up dropping them off in Portland on my way back home (and a yarn store somewhere in Eugene sort of crept in there as well which was so fun to experience with Mel!).

As you may be able to tell, we ended up at Crater Lake. I've lived in Oregon for over a decade and have never managed to make it to this incredible lake. It's so beautiful it just takes your breath away. The colors in these pictures are real...no enhancement, no processing. Since Mel and Tad had just come from a backpacking trip on the Lost Coast (go see her pictures here, really, you need to), and I had just finished an exhausting bout of fieldwork, we took it easy and played tourist. Driving around the lake, doing just a short walk, stopping at all the overlooks...eating a lunch of peanut butter and home-canned huckleberry jam sandwiches on a picnic table. Beautiful weather, beautiful scenery and most importantly, amazing company. SO worth the drive!


Just to update on the knitting front, I actually have a couple small FO's to post soon. And I finally updated my Ravelry projects page and thus the 'projects in progress' sidebar to reflect the extent of my cast-on-itis of October. A nice mix of small and large, easy and complicated. I'm pretty excited about all the projects. Of course, now I need to put most aside to do a few holiday knits, but I should be able to get in a few rows now and then!
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Now playing: Something More Than This by October Project

Thinking of the New Year

Somehow November is upon us...and while I'm not quite sure how that happened, my internal clock starts thinking Christmas and New Year. Before you start throwing things, let me clarify that. I start thinking of what gifts I'm going to make. The decorations and holiday music that seem to start earlier and earlier every year however, annoy me to no end. Are we still friends? Unfortunately I don't have the time (or honestly the creative energy) this year to go all out with handmade gifts. But there will be a few and I'd like to share one of them from last year that I'll be doing again. I've been meaning to post about this since...well, last Christmas...but I kept forgetting. Last week I was reminded seeing so many beautiful ones pop up around the internets.

Handmade calendars using personal photos.

It's such an easy concept and I guarantee will be appreciated by anyone receiving it. I chose to design my own because it was cheaper and because I just couldn't find the format I wanted on any site I visited. I can be quite picky that way. Since I don't have any way to print color photos, size was dictated by the copy place options...but also by the recipients. I knew the spaces available and personal preferences regarding calendars so knew I wanted it simple and small, but eye catching. This is what I came up with:

Using powerpoint, I made a template for all the months and inserted my own photos representing the seasons (ish). The copy center had a good quality paper sized 11 by 14 available so I chose to use the 11 as the height and put two calendars on one sheet of paper...making my cost about $8 per calendar. I cut up old wire hangers for the top...an idea I had seen somewhere and it stuck. For the front, I simply put together a mosaic of all the photos included for each month. Simple yet striking in my opinion.


I'll be making these again...they were very well received (beyond my expectations) and were requested again for this year (actually I'm not sure request was the right word but I digress).

So, go forth and make your own!
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Now Playing: Staying Alive by the Bee Gees
(sometimes, you just need cheesy, happy music to get you through the day)

Resident Deer

We have upwards of 10 deer that make our property home. This is their favorite spot and will bed here almost daily throughout the year. I've taken quite a number of pictures of them over the years, some good, some not. I took this one last week and like it enough that I thought I'd share. This particular pair is a doe (standing) and one of her twins (not sure where the other twin was this day but it's still around!).

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Now playing: If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out by Cat Stevens

(we saw Harold and Maude the other weekend and I've had this song in my head ever since. If you haven't seen this movie, I'd recommend it).

FO: Very Own Swing Jacket

Really, this is the last one. Don't expect another FO for say, 6 months maybe? Okay, I hope not that long, but there is a reason for all these FO's at once. Like everyone else it seems, I have cast-on-itis this fall. But I had made myself a promise that I wouldn't cast-on anything new until the 3 major things on my needles were done. Amazingly I kept that promise despite great temptation.

Final major FO...presenting the Drops jacket that has a long generic name that I don't feel like looking up at the moment and if you are a knitter I'm almost positive you know this pattern anyway. I personally think it should be called the Drops Swing Jacket since swing it certainly does. Deets on Ravelry.

Let's review the time line on this shall we? Even though it's a knit everyone and their sister knits, I always liked the look of it. And then I saw this version and it brought it to the top of the queue last fall. I found the same yarn greatly reduced in price...but also color options. I chose orange. It was fall. Seemed appropriate. Started the knit and finished the back and one side of the front very quickly. Then put it down for holiday knitting. Picked it back up after the holidays and finished everything but the neck when I ran out of yarn. Oy. Finally tracked down a skein of a different dyelot hoping it would work and amazingly enough it did. Finished the neck back in oh, March maybe? And there it sat cuz the next step was seaming. How to best avoid seaming? Start another sweater. Or two. With the promise I made to myself and thinking fall is definitely the best time to complete an orange sweater, I broke down and seamed the darn thing a couple weeks ago.

By this point I had decided I wasn't going to like the sweater. Color out of my range of comfort and unblocked it just fit horribly. I know blocking can do miracles but I didn't think it was going to work on this sweater. Proven wrong luckily. It's a loose-fitting, VERY comfortable sweater with a dramatic swing thing going on that I actually like (although if I ever knit this again, I think I'll do a smaller size with less decreases to make it a bit less A-line). I honestly don't know if the color works on me and I think most folks would consider it too big, but I love it and have already worn it twice since I pulled it off the blocking board (which is why it is wrinkly).

And since it is autumn, I should include a picture with at least some 'autumnish' color in it.

Casting on has begun!
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Now playing: Simple As It Should Be by Tristan Prettyman

A Walk

There are times when life hits you and the only thing you can do is head to the woods. Or that's the only thing I can do. I didn't take a lot of pictures...not that is wasn't beautiful. But sometimes I don't want to think about composition or what would be a good picture...sometimes I just need to 'be'. But here are a few images that I did take...a taste of NE Oregon for you this Monday morning.

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Now playing: Downpour by Brandi Carlile

FO: Rogue

The last one was so fun, how about another finished object? This be Rogue.

Pattern details on the Ravelry projects page.

Rogue and I have a bit of a history. As usual, I'm late to the party and didn't know Rogue existed until I got into Ravelry and started to troll for patterns. This one stood out from the beginning and I think may have been the first item I marked as 'to queue'. But at the time I certainly didn't have the confidence to start such a complicated sweater and it was placed on that 'when I get more experience' shelf. Hems, and cables, and pockets, and hoods oh my. But finally, after working through socks and lace and cables without too many major issues, I finally got enough confidence to give it a go this year.

This spring when 'life' started to get really rough, I cast on to try and ease some stress. Every time I felt like I was getting to a breaking point I'd stop and knit a few rows on Rogue. I knit the entire thing up to the hood in about 2.5 weeks. Why no, I wasn't under any stress. It worked though...it calmed me down and I loved knitting it. I loved seeing the cables pop up and the beauty of the pocket construction. And couldn't wait to take on the challenge of the hood and grafting up a complicated cable...which by the way, I'm very proud of. But then I left for field work and it got pushed aside for something quicker and more mindless (Heroine). I finally picked it back up this fall and quickly did the sleeves in a matter of days.


Rogue is not only what I feel to be a big step in my knitting competence, but it also helped get me through quite a bit of stress and anxiety during a pretty tough period this year.

And the finished product? Love it. Plain and simple. It's a great, detailed pattern and it fits perfectly. My main modifications were to adjust for a smaller row gauge. I added two extra repeats on the side cable for length and then added 2 extra inches onto the sleeves (I love long sleeves too). I also did a 3-needle bindoff on the shoulders rather than seaming and knit the sleeves on 2 circulars. The yarn I used was bought years ago in Virginia when I first started knitting and was bought for a sweater that I realized I'd never make. I loved the color and figured Rogue would be a good choice for it. However, it was a rough, nappy yarn and I was afraid that it was going to be uncomfortable when wearing. But a good soak before blocking really softened it up and made the stitches more even.

Perfect knitting experience.
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Now playing: Sweet Baby James by James Taylor