What could be more fun than a hike in the clouds on a Sunday afternoon?

Sign at the Trailhead

We went up a nearby trail (Perseverance Trail for those in the know) today so that Lou could collect his prospecting gear. He staked a claim this summer and hiked up into the hills to look for gold. He found some too! We’ve been waiting for a nice weekend to go up and get his sluice, shovel and pick and bring them home before they got covered in snow. We got there in the nick of time as there was quite a bit. Unfortunately I was cold and didn’t take any pictures of the snow.

Porcupine Butt

We saw lots of porcupines (okay, only two, but it seemed like more because we saw them both coming and going) on the trail today. The porcupines are very active this time of year which makes my job a bit tricky (I walk dogs for anyone that doesn’t know about that I posted about it here). Luckily Oso knows to leave them alone, or at least not to try and bite them.

In the Clouds

We walked through a cloud on the way down. It smelled funny but was very pretty. Except it was right over that “steep cliff” I mentioned before…

In knitting news after my hike I got to relax and cast on for my NaKniSweMo sweater! That’s right, not only am I going to be blogging every day but it is going to be pretty boring blogging because I am going to try to knit an entire sweater this month! Bonus: The whole thing is in 2×2 rib.

The plan is to do Ysolda’s Snow White sweater.

I went stash-diving and found a yarn that I’m really pleased with so far. I originally bought it with no project in mind (organic and purple and on sale) and I think it will make a great Snow White.

Purple + Squooshy = Awesome

After much dithering I cast on for the Medium. It took me forever to decide which size to make! I mean, it always takes me a long time to decide which size to make but in this case it was pretty outrageous. In my defense I have a bust measurement of about 35″ which is squarely between the S and M sizes. There is a great discussion of the sizing over in the Sexy Knitter’s Club Ravelry Group thread on this sweater here. Ysolda herself popped in and added some very helpful comments somewhere around page 4. I also browsed a lot of the finished projects on Ravelry to see whether people were happier going up a size or down a size.

Hopefully I have enough yarn. I have more than the pattern calls for (I have 1022 yards and the pattern calls for 940) but I am a bit distressed as I am only 20 or so rows in and I feel like I used a lot of my first skein already! I think it was the tubular cast-on that ate up a lot of yarn.

Fingers crossed!

by alligator on November 2, 2008