Last night I reached the end of my yarn for Freyja.  Unfortunately, my sweater is not yet complete.  I still have almost the entire yoke to knit.

Luckily, the LYS had plenty more of the same dyelot in stock so I will be back in business tonight.

Just another lesson in the importance of buying local.

I haven’t been knitting a whole lot lately.  There, I said it.

It’s summertime and with school done (!!!) I have been spending as much time outside as possible.

Oso on Mt. Jumbo 7/30/10

At least the dogs are happy even if the blog isn’t.

Mt. Jumbo 7/30/10

I have found time to squeeze in some knitting here and there and as often happens when time is tight I have been mostly monogamous in my knitting.  Although I have many projects on-the-needles I have found myself working on just two projects for the past month or so.

This is the beginning of a Freyja Sweater from a recent Interweave Knits.  I am knitting it out of Frog Tree Alpaca Sportweight.  I am doing this as a mini-kal with my good friend Missy.  It is nice to knit-along with someone, it has really kept me motivated to work on this sweater even though my progress has been glacial.

I’m a little concerned that the brown is too gray to be very flattering but it will at least be soft, warm and lightweight so I’m sure I’ll get a lot of wear out of it once it’s finished.  I’ve completed the sleeves and I’m up to the bust increases on the body.  I’m getting quite excited to reach the colorwork yoke.

This is my other project.  It is an as-yet-unnamed shawlette/scarf thing of my own creation.  I am hoping to write up a free pattern for it when I am done.  I’ve had a hard time deciding how long to make it.  I’m using some yarn that Missy dyed for me and her skeins seem to go on forever!  I’d originally planned to keep going until I ran out of yarn but now I am thinking that 100 grams will make a nicer size for a scarf.  100 grams will only be just under 1/2 the yarn I have.  This project has been on hold this week while I try to make up my mind.

That’s all the knitting!  I think it’s time to head back outside…

Who could say no that?

Trail Running!

Actually more like Trail Run/Hiking or maybe Speed Hiking?  I’m not sure exactly what to call it.  I hit the trail and run about half the time and hike half of the time.  Anyways, it’s a lot of fun whatever you call it!

This weekend I went out the road north of town to Windfall Lake Trail.  It was pouring rain and I had hopes that it might be nicer out the road but it wasn’t.  I got soaked but I had a blast!

Even though this is usually a knitting blog I thought I’d share some pictures from the trail:

Herbert River (extra high)

Trailside Snack

Oso also enjoys eating blueberries.  He eats them right off the bush!  I tried to take a little video to prove his berry-eating prowess:

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Oso Eats Berries

At the end of the trail there is a great cabin that can be rented for overnights.

That is a solar powered outhouse on the right

And here is reward view:

Windfall Lake

Luckily my dogs are good sports and didn’t mind the pouring rain as long as we were going for a nice long hike.

More knitting next time!

This past week I had the great pleasure to meet Lolly (of Lolly Knitting Around) and her husband Kris (of Guitarfish). I have read Lolly’s blog for years and it was such a pleasure to finally meet her and Kris in person.

Photo by Kris!

It was so much fun to have such enthusiastic hiking buddies in town for a few days.  They were very sweet and let me drag them through the mud and the rain and did not once mention the amount of dog-hair we accumulated.

Meeting both Lolly and Kris was very special to me.  It is amazing how much we have in common and I felt that we were all old friends right away.  Lolly made a point to remind me that I needed to get blogging again and if these are the rewards of blogging well… I don’t have much excuse for being a such a slacker!

You may have noticed in the above picture that I finished my 2nd Owls sweater that I posted about back in March.  It took me a while to finish because I vastly miscalculated the length I would need.  Between the heavy alpaca blend yarn and the stress of my final semester of undergrad I ended up with an extra 4-5″ in the body.  Unfortunately I did not discover my mistake until I had knit up the entire yoke…  I had to frog about 8″ total.  Luckily I used a bulky yarn so it wasn’t too painful and now I have a sweater that is comfy, warm and perfect for hiking in a drizzle.

I like this Owls sweater even better than the first one

I have been knitting a lot now that I am pretty much done with school (?!).  So here is a bonus shot of Maggie modeling all my almost-finished knits that just need the ends woven in!

Happy dog.

Every year I knit a new green sweater for St. Patrick’s Day.

I never mean to do this.  It just seems that this time of year I crave green sweaters and seem to finish them right around the 17th.  Yesterday my bf sent me a link to a dog dressed as a leprechaun and I realized that I had another green sweater on track to be finished for St. Patrick’s.

I think it might have something to do with this:

This is what my yard looks like right now

I started a new green sweater last week even though I have about a million wips on the needles right now.  I think I just wanted something super simple for when I need a break.

Apologies for the weird colors.  My camera does not like sheen

I am using the owls pattern again.  This time I am not planning to put the owls on but I haven’t decided yet whether to do some other yoke decoration or not.  I’m afraid it will be too plain but I rather like the idea of a completely mindless knit and a simple cozy sweater.

I usually have one easy project and one complicated project on the needles all the time.  This week’s Color & Design project definitely fits the bill for complicated:

mmm…corrugated ribbing…

Our theme this week is rhythm in design.  These are knit in sport weight alpaca on size 2 needles.  I am really enjoying these because I absolutely love the colors (otherwise I think I would have had more sense than to use alpaca for colorwork) but they take a lot of concentration!

I am aiming to have one mitt ready for critique in class on Friday and I’ve just started the thumb gusset.

Probably I should be spending more time on these and less on my green sweater!