~ burning the midnight oil ~
This past weekend proved to be a most excellent three-day weekend. Clearly, three day weekends are far superior to two day weekends.
I'll begin by highlighting Saturday evening's fun, a BBQ chez Amy. In spite of the good company (Amy, Elizabeth, Leah, David, Josh, and Eric), the good atmosphere (the backyard lawn), the good food (chorizos, potato salad, fruit salad, roasted veggies), and the beverages (beer), no one had a very good time. In fact, it was so terrible, that we have decided never to have a BBQ ever again. What made the experience pretty much unbearable was this puppy-dog who was running around trying to swindle everyone's beer. Note, that below photo was a shot from the gods - - it appears as though David was giving the puppy beer, when in fact the puppy was the perpetrator, having suddenly lunged at the beer bottle. Through the course of the evening, so much beer was spilled as a result of puppy (and subsequently licked up by puppy) that we surmised he had become rather tipsy. Photos of the horrendous evening are available here.
Saturday was also the day when Josh and I had yet another adventure in the Owyhees. Unfortunately, it's been a while since we were down there - - but we decided to do a refined version of the Sage Creek Loop that we did in June. We've been out there enough that we're really getting to know our way around. This was the first time in the Sage Creek zone when we didn't have to spend time figuring out where we were going and back-tracking because we went the wrong way. We did a perfect loop that I approximate was 2.5 hours. Ultimately, I bet Josh and I could make some money by developing a mountain biking Owyhees book - - Josh was even talking about opening a bike shop in Marsing (maybe not the best idea in today's economy). Anyway, the loop took us over lots of ups and downs, some unridable ups that we had to hike-a-bike, and some pretty challengingly technical downhills that I felt very accomplished after riding successfully. I've developed a lot more confidence on the more technical downhills - - the Owyhees are great for that. The Boise foothills, all groomed and smooth, are wonderful but can hold a person back from developing confidence on not-groomed and not-smooth trails. I love the Owyhees - - so much potential adventure. Photos from this ride may be viewed here.
I've been getting a good amount of riding in, which adds to my feeling good on the bike. On Sunday, Josh and I rode Sidewinder, which is a nice fun quickie ride. Funny story about that ride... I had been having a bit of trouble with the shifting on my bike. On the ride in the Owyhees, the front gears were very malaligned - - Josh did a complete gear adjustment on the trail, but they wouldn't function properly. I took the bike into the shop to have the mechanics fix it. Got the bike back on Sunday and Josh and I rode Sidewinder. The front gears were working, but the back gears were not. Josh spent more time trail-side trying to adjust them, to no avail. We rode anyway. As I was grunting up one of the climbs, the chain broke. Josh was the mechanical hero, as he was able to fix the chain with his semi-broken chain tool and we were able to finish the ride. That night, we hung out at the bike shop drinking beers, Josh fixing my bike for good, and me knitting.
And finally, I know how you have all being eagerly awaiting my knitting report.
I've finished Inishfern. TAHDAH!!! My improvised top-down asymmetrical seamless raglan. The cables both diminish and transform into different cables. It is fitted with a flair at the waist. And the button band - - an opportunity for improvisation! After trying a number of options, I found that I liked the expanding garter panel with a set of cables - - the buttons are set by the cables, as opposed to traditional button holes. Tradition, smadition! Below you may see more clearly the cabled button band - - also, note my vintage buttons.
In other knews, I know I've been going bananas obsessing about mittens. This explains why I randomly cast on for Ice Queen over the weekend. I have to roll my eyes at myself - - not only do I have several projects currently in progress, not only do I have my sights set on several patterns, but Ice Queen is a very random and spontaneous cast on. I suppose that it happened after I was reading about how cowls are the new scarves, and I realized that the pattern might be a good use for that lace yarn I procured for a failed project a few months ago. And so...Ice Queen. I've taken the Cascade Elite Silky Alpaca lace yarn, doubled it, and also included a strand of the green angora from a thrift store sweater I recycled. Very very soft and very very warm. As evidenced by the below status-photo, I am knitting it much tighter than the pattern, so as to make for a more warm cowl.
