Still Burning

I took these two pic from my car w/ my phone yesterday afternoon on my way home from work. The direction the smoke is blowing is the direction I live. Nice, huh? Yeah, I'm a little raspy and stuffy this morning, and there was a fine layer of ash all over everything when I left the house this morning. No worries - the fire has to come through several neighborhoods before it gets to my apartments, and this morning it is burning higher up on the hill moving south-west. I didn't have time to take one today. I was going to try to get a night shot, but it was still too light out at 9pm last night.


(Yes, I know my windshield is dirty. My whole car is dirty {camping.} I'm going to wait until the fire is done before getting it cleaned though.)

Thank goodness no homes nor lives have been lost so far, but as of this morning @ 8:30 am the fire is only 5% contained and up to 2000 acres. That's not a lot as far as wildfires go, I know, but when the winds kick up this afternoon, it could burn a whole lot more before the end of the week. This fire started Monday about 2:30pm, and has gone every which way because of the unpredictable wind. Hopefully the cooler temps coming later will help lay the fire down.

This is what I saw last night driving home...

Well, not exactly - this was taken by someone else, but that is pretty much what I saw at 9:30 last night. I actually live to the left of the picture, and the fire is about 2 to 3 miles from where I live. Kinda spooky - I've never been this close to a wildfire before, and have never seen one at night. Thank goodness it rained a little last night, but it is still going strong this afternoon, moving south, and getting bigger!! The weather service expects the winds to blow toward the east later, moving the fire toward homes and unburned areas. Eeek!! I've been praying for the men and women fighting this fire, as well as any one whose homes will be in the way.

I won??!!

I actually won something! I submitted an original pattern for a monthly pattern contest at Jimmy Beans Wool in June and they picked my pattern! Yipee!! They're running a little behind, which is why the pattern isn't up yet, but it should be up fairly soon. And just look at all the loot I got:

There's so much stuff there, it's so cool! Starting at the bottom and working up:
4 patterns
Pick-up Sticks Sushi Wallet kit
Berroco Suede Ballet Slipper kit
2 hanks of Lorn's sock yarn
1 ball of Noro Silk Gelato (silk ribbon)
Lantern Moon Ebony Wood Needles
2 hanks of O-Wool
1 hank of Blue Sky Alpaca's Royal
Mountian Colors Sock pattern w/ 1 hank of Twizzle
A nice bar of soap (smells great!)
Kitty toys kit
and a hank of Manos Cotton Stria

Thank you to the staff at Jimmy Beans and all the companies who donated prizes for the contest!! :-)

I also recieved a gift certificate...but I used it on this:



Laura at Jimmy Beans Wool was kind enough to special order me this roving from Lorna's Laces. Yes, they actually carry roving dyed all their awesome colors. The one at the top is "Black Watch" (green, blue, and black) and the bottom is "Purple Iris." (They have a merino superwash, as well as a nice wool blend (which these are). I've already opened one up and played around with it a bit. These are going to spin up so easily! I have a feeling I'm going to be spinning this weekend! :-)

Alaska and Camping

My parents went to Alaska on a 7-day cruise the first week of July. It sounded so totally awesome - now I want to go! They took so many pictures that it's going to take them quite a while to get them organized and available to family. I can't wait! My mom gave us a little preview while we were eating dinner right after they got off the plane. I think she ate her food in 5 minutes, and went back to scrolling though the pics and showing us the highlights. They were really nice pictures - and here's a little preview:


This is a display at the Anchorage Airport. All those items are made with "Qiviut" - which is musk-ox down. One of the rarest fibers in the world, there is only one true farm that collects the down on a regular basis and breeds the musk-ox (located in Alaska - my parents went on a tour of it.). Any other musk-ox or bison down is collected in the wild after the animal has already shed it. Qiviut has no know allergens and to me feels softer even than cashmere. It is also more expensive, and more insulating than cashmere.


The week before they left on the cruise, I asked my mom if I could put in a request for a souvenir. Can you guess what I asked for? :-) Check these out:

They generously brought back 2 balls of navy blue 100% qiviut!! Oh, it is gorgeous! Gently blooming, so soft you never want to stop petting it! I already know what I am going to do with it and already picked out a pattern. Of course it has to be an "Arctic Lace" pattern - how can it be anything else.

I also had a mini vacation. This last weekend I went camping with a few of my friends. It was so much fun. I brought my camera, but I'm not that big of a picture taker I've found out. I did take a few of the lake and the group eating (added later.)

This is a "Crater Lake" in CA right on the border of Lassen Nat'l Park. My dad took us (my bros and I) there fishing a few times when we were growing up. A tiny little lake - not more than 1/2 mile across - it is as clear, if not clearer than Lake Tahoe! Rainbow trout usually abound in the lake, but they weren't biting this weekend. It was really warm, so they were probably at the bottom were it was cold.


(Check out the reflections!)

I haven't been camping for a long while, but it was a lot of fun!! Nice and relaxing, cooler than down in the city, nice and cold at night. Campfires are always fun - can you say roasted marshmellows!! :-) I'm such a kid at heart!! The food was excellent, and the company better. Being in the heart of God's creation is always a refreshment. The evergreens, the singing aspens, the clear blue lake, clear fresh air, osprey, hawks, deer, and yes even the chipmunks and flies, and the stars...oh, my the stars!!! Saturday night we walked down to the lake to get a better view with out very many trees obscuring the view. All I can say is wow! I teared up at the beauty of it. You can clearly see the swath of the Milky Way arm across the north-eastern part of the sky. I've seen it like that before while growing up, but I appreciate it so much more now. Once our eyes adjusted to the might, we could see enough to walk around - the profusion of stars was that bright! Did I mention there was no moon? That made it all the better. Someone should have brought a telescope! Oh, well, next time, eh?


When I got back yesterday afternoon - I put my stuff away, then had one of the best showers. I tell you, being dirty for even 2 days, really makes you appreciate warm running water, flushing toilets! :-) I really appreciated my nice, soft, comfortable bed later that evening. ;-)

Happy 4th of July (on the 5th!)

Happy 4th of July (a day late!) :-) I had a nice day off yesterday, relaxing, nothing to do...but of course I did stuff. I am Knitter - I can't just lay there or sit there. I had an hour devotion time, after I got up at 6:15am (cats don't sleep in), which I need to do a more often. My normal devotion time is about 20 mins. Anyway, after that I knit for about an hour, then went for a walk around Virginia Lake. It was warm, even at 9 in the morning. Then it was poolside for about another hour, then back to the nice cool apartment for a nap!

After lunch, I finished the lining on this:


This is the Shetland Shawl I finished a couple weeks ago - I just love the color combination! I could have done a better job on sewing the lining on (hand stitched) - but I am please with the outcome nontheless. I am more like my mom than I realize, I think, now more than ever before. When she is going to do a sewing project (or probably anything involving more than 1 step) she sees in her mind exactly what steps she is going to take at what time. No skimping on the details either!

I lay out the lining with the shawl upside down on it, then pinned both together, making sure that I pinned straight along the line I was going to use to tack the fabic to the shawl. After pinning I cut around the shawl - only 3 sides, as I used the selvage edge for one side. That I did about a week and half ago. Yesterday, I lay the shawl down with the lining facing up and folding the edge over the pinned line, I ironed the seam, folding it under again to hide the cut (and slightly uneven) edge. After it was cool, I reversed the shawl and lining so they were wrong side to wrong side, and it was right side out. After pinning again, I then matress stitched the lining to the shawl. That part actually took the longest - about 2 and a half hours. Whew! My neck was stiff after that - but so worth it. If I had machine stitched it the thread would show on the green. Not cool, to my thinking.

Anyway, after that was done, it was dinner time, and plopping down on the couch with current knitting. More pictures to come a little later - I seem to be on a roll with shawls! It's the "Summer of Shawls." :-) Some knitters do socks - I do shawls!

No fireworks viewing for me this year - yesterday was simply a day off rather than celebarting our independence. While it does have meaning to me that 231 years ago, our nations founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence - the values and freedoms that this nation - One Nation Under God - was founded on seem to be disappearing rather rapidly into a cesspool of darkness. Besides - I take comfort in the fact that my citizenship is not of this world but in Heaven, with our Lord Jesus Christ. With Him in my life - I enjoy freedoms that many people don't. Freedom from despair and darkness. Amen!!

Shetland Shawl - Finished!

Before blocking. Of course the kitties helped me out! They are so sweet!! :-)


While blocking.




'Nuff said!



Except I finished these, too! Panda Cotton from CPY in the blueberries colorway.


Wow, quite a productive streak, huh? With more to come...

Saturday Hike

Sorry - this was supposd to go up on Monday! Been busy knitting!! ;-) Well, not really - more like busy closing the books at worok. And some knitting and spinning, and... :-)

Anyway - on Saturday my friends and I went up to Squaw Valley. What an absolutely gorgeous hike we went on. God is soo awesome, the most wonderous Creator! This next picture is now up on my desktop at home:





Unfortunately, I had forgetten to clean my memory stick out, and ran out of room, other wise there would have been a lot more pictures. Next time...

Next post I should have knitting and spining content. I spun up half of the last color on my Shetland project - the dark brown - and have (almost) finished some socks.

Happy knitting!