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Archive for 2009

Grey socks, grey cat

Posted in knitting, Methow Valley, pets on January 26, 2009| 3 Comments »

We had a dusting of snow the night before last, perhaps an inch or two, but it was enough to make the Alfalfa Loop track skiable (it had gotten pretty icy over the last couple of weeks, with no new snow).  We went out for 3 laps yesterday morning and it was good.

I finished a pair of simple grey socks for Rick that were started sometime last fall.  Knit in Koigu Premium Merino (KPM) that I had in stash:

Grey merino socks for Rick

Grey merino socks for Rick

Our favorite restaurant in Twisp, Tappi, has re-opened after months of being on hiatus.   They don’t have a website or I would provide a link.  The food is Sicilian Italian and focused around an authentic wood-fired pizza oven that the owner, John Bonica, had sent over from Italy and assembled in place in the restaurant.  They are only open Friday-Sunday nights with a more limited menu than before, but still, they are open!  Yay!  John says they will start having music soon… we used to love to go there and hear great jazz on the weekends.  We went up for dinner last night and each of us had 2 fabulous lambchops cooked in the woodfired oven in small cast iron frypans, served with a green salad with chevre and balsamic vinaigrette.  John also has a nice selection of Italian wines.

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Our older cat, Pushkin, has not been doing well and we had blood work done last week, thinking his kidneys might be getting worse.  It turns out he has bacterial hepatitis, which must have come from something he ate, although that part remains a mystery.  We are giving him antibiotics and subcutaneous fluids, but he still seems pretty “down” although not as distressed as he was last week.  He’s also not eating much at all.  Definitely a worry for us right now.

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Bohus “Forest Darkness”

Posted in knitting, tagged on January 22, 2009| 2 Comments »

I have been steadily working away on a challenging knitting project for a couple of months now.  It is a kit I bought several years back from Solveig Gustafsson in Goteborg, Sweden.  The kits are re-creations of the original garments produced by the Bohus Stickning organization in Sweden, between 1939 and 1969.  The English translations for the kits have been done by my friend Susanna Hansson, a talented knitter, teacher and collector of Bohus garments.  Please do follow that link to Susanna’s website, where you will find a wealth of information about the Bohus garments and information on her classes and upcoming events.

My kit was for the pattern called Forest Darkness, with black as the main color.  It is worked in a fine gauge, yummy 50% merino and 50% angora yarn.  The yoke was a challenge, but isn’t it beautiful?  After the thrill of the color work, there were miles and miles of plain stockinette knitting – in black.  I just finished grafting the tubular bind-off at the bottom of the sweater.  It still needs blocking, darning in ends, and buttons (I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of buttons ordered last week on-line, and hope they will work for this sweater).

forest-darkness-wip

I was determined to finish this in time for the opening of an exhibit in Minneapolis at the American Swedish Institute.  It is titled “Radiant Knits: The Bohus Tradition” and will be exhibited between January 23rd – March 29th, 2009.  Solveig Gustaffson is coming over from Sweden for the opening weekend, along with Kerstin Olsson, one of the original designers for Bohus Stickning, and Kjell Andersson, who has developed a film about the organization.

Susanna has been deeply involved in putting this together, and the majority of the sweaters and other items will come from her personal collection.   A number of the kits will be available through the ASI museum shop.

Sadly, I am not going to Minneapolis, but hope to be wearing my sweater this coming weekend in honor of the event.

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Inauguration Day

Posted in Methow Valley, outdoors, Uncategorized on January 21, 2009| 2 Comments »

We started the day yesterday, like many people in our country and around the world,  glued to the TV screen to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama.  What a day!  It certainly feels like this is a turning point in our nation’s history – I so hope this is born out in fact.

But, it being a Tuesday, it was also For Snowshoeing.  Our little group did not convene until 11:00 am, as we all wanted to watch the inauguration ceremonies first.  The freezing fog caused by this seemingly interminable inversion was still with us.  We headed up to the slopes above Pearrygin Lake State Park, in vain hope of getting above the fog layer.  However, this was the first time in months that all nine of us were together for the hike.

The trees and shrubs were heavily coated with ice, thanks to the freezing fog, creating many beautiful sights such as this magnificent pine tree:

pearrygin-snowshoe-1

Here’s an “action shot” of some of the group heading up the trail:

pearrygin-snowshoe-2

And here is my attempt to show Pearrygin Lake the way it appeared through my yellow “snow-glasses”:

pearrygin-in-fog

That evening, Rick and I went up to the Twisp River Pub for the tenth-birthday celebration of the Partnership for a Sustainable Methow, also featuring the release of their new publication “The Local Source”, which is a directory of Methow Valley goods and services intended to help residents and visitors shop locally.  They also showed a short film titled The Story of Stuff, a look at the hidden and not-so-hidden costs and effects of producing all that “stuff” that people seem to think they need to have – and throw away.   It seemed to fit nicely with the themes of the inauguration day.

As we’ve been telling each other around here lately, happiness comes not from having what you want, but from wanting what you have.

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Visitors from The Coast

Posted in Methow Valley, outdoors, tagged on January 19, 2009| 1 Comment »

Friends Chris & Tom came over from The Coast to spend 2 nights with us over this MLK weekend.  The night before they arrived, we had a lovely sunset:

sunset-16jan2009

This was taken from our bedroom window.  This building was already here when we bought the place, although we have added a shop extension, carport and covered walkways to it.   I always think they built it “backwards”, in that the best views out to the mountains are from the two bedrooms.  Apparently he intended to have the upstairs serve as an office, and he wanted the views from his office.  Go figure.

But I digress.  Chris and Tom came over for the weekend.  Saturday night we went up to Local 98856 for dinner, joining some other friends who are, well, local.  “The Local” is mainly a breakfast/lunch/deli type of place, but they have occasional themed dinners and special evening events.  The owner, Tess, is a strong promoter of eating locally grown, fresh organic produce and meats.  This past Saturday was one of her “Farm-to-Table” dinners, with a guest chef.  They set it up as open, family style seating at big tables, and overall it is a very relaxed, convivial atmosphere.  Our dinner stretched out over several hours and a good time was had by all!

Yesterday started out quite foggy – we have had a lot of freezing fog over here lately, which coats the trees with ice in a beautiful way, but is a bit dismal since we are used to having our sunshine over here, after all.  We were planning to snowshoe and selected an area that hopefully would get us above the valley fog.

We drove up north on the Twisp-Winthrop Eastside Road, turning up Bear Creek Road to the Campbell Lake Rd turnoff.  Met some other folks there, so we had a party of eight and started out with the sun trying to break through.  This road allows snowmobiles so was quite packed down – we initially walked and carried our snowshoes. (But fortunately, not a single snowmobile was seen or heard during our hike.)

That’s my friend Chris on the left, we have been buddies since the 7th grade.  On the right, Marlene and Nora.

Gradually the North Cascade mountains to the west emerged into sunshine:

Mt Gardiner from Campbell Lake Rd

Mt Gardiner from Campbell Lake Rd

Eventually we struck out cross-country from the road, and climbed up into the hills to get even better views.  The snow was so condensed and crusty that you could easily walk just about anywhere.  It was a really fun day, which ended with a nice cold beer at the Twisp River Pub before heading home for hot showers and a delicious dinner (Chris cooked, not me, so this isn’t bragging….)

View west from hills near Campbell Lake

View west from hills near Campbell Lake

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It’s pronounced Met-How

Posted in Methow Valley on January 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Just a word of clarification – contrary to what it looks like, “Methow” is pronounced Met-How.

Not MET – ow.

Not METH – ow (definitely not!)

Met.How – but said quickly, as in “You and Priscilla met how?”

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The Alfalfa Loop

Posted in outdoors on January 14, 2009| 1 Comment »

About 4 acres of our property are part of a larger alfalfa field, farmed by the neighbors up above us on the other side of the road.  This year, a group of folks on our road, who are interested in cross-country skiing, got permission to establish a ski track around the perimeter of the field.  About 2 weeks ago I went out and snowshoed around 3 times (over 2 days) to establish the route – that was a workout, let me tell you.  Then some of the neighbors went over it with their snowmobiles to widen and pack it down.  I skiied on the snowmobile tracks last week, and it was pretty good, despite the big thaw that had come along.  Still enough snow on the field!

Next step was the arrival of the tracking sled.  One of the neighbors up the road had this made by a young man who works down at Mission Ridge ski area above Wenatchee.  It is a small sled with 2 skis on it, meant to be towed behind the snowmobile to set a ski track.  Our neighbor Mike went around with it on Monday.  The snow is pretty crusty and icy by now, but this did establish enough of a track to make the skiing easier.

Rick and I went out for a couple of laps this morning.  We estimate it is about 2 miles around, and of course it runs right by our place on the other side of the creek, so what could be more convenient?  It was still cold (16°, brrr…) but clear and beautiful.

Alfalfa Loop, looking west

Alfalfa Loop, looking west

And here we were out in the sun, looking up our little creek valley to the east:

Alfalfa Loop, looking east

Alfalfa Loop, looking east

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Shop Cam

Posted in woodworking on January 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Rick is building a corner cabinet for some friends up near Winthrop.  It will be in a corner of their dining room, and be used to display their glass collection.  The woods are maple, birds-eye maple, with wenge trim (pronounced wen-gay) and ebony handles.  It also has interior lighting at the top and middle shelf, so it should really glow!

glass display cabinet in progress

glass display cabinet in progress

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We go to “The Coast”

Posted in knitting, travel on January 12, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Over here in the valley, folks refer to anything on the west side of the Cascade range as “The Coast.”  Last Friday we headed off to The Coast (a.k.a. Seattle) on the first day any of the mountain passes were open, following torrential rains, snow and mud slides, road washouts, and so on.  Stevens Pass was bare and wet, an easy drive, although the Wenatchee River was a muddy, raging torrent and there were numerous places where we could see water had been over the road, or at least running along side it.

We were there to pick up a glass order and other job-related materials for the woodworking shop, as well as see friends and family.  On Saturday we had dinner in Ballard with some friends.  On Sunday I met with a group of longtime friends – we meet on the second Sunday of each month for knitting.  Rick dropped me off and went on to visit with his mom and do some errands for her.

Janet and I are both knitting Bohus sweaters (more on this in a later post).  Here is the colorwork part:

Two Bohus sweaters in progress

Two Bohus sweaters in progress

I am afraid my flash rather washed out Janet’s “Grey Mist” cowl neck on the upper left.  Mine is called “Forest Darkness” and will be a cardigan.

Here’s a few of the knitters.  Hi everyone!

sunday-11jan2009-1sunday-11jan2009-2

We headed back over the mountains mid-afternoon.  It was foggy and soggy on the west side, but as often happens, there were clear blue skies on the east side… until we hit the pea soup fog somewhere before Wenatchee!  That lasted part way up the Columbia, where again we had clear skies and stars for the remainder of the trip.  A gorgeous moonrise greeted us when we arrived home – one day past full moon.

There is always a moment when we turn up-valley at Pateros, where the Methow River flows into the mighty Columbia, that I feel so welcomed.  We’re back, welcome home, back in the valley again!

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Tuesdays are for snowshoeing

Posted in outdoors, tagged on January 7, 2009| 2 Comments »

Tuesdays are the day I go hiking (spring through fall) or snowshoeing (winter) with a group of ladies here in the valley.  At 59, I am the youngest in the group, and feel privileged to be included.  Many of them have known each other for over 20 years.  The hikes are not always ambitious or difficult, but we often go places that they know about that are not in the guidebooks, and I probably would have not found on my own.

Today we had a small group, and snowshoed up to a place they call “The Point”, on an unplowed Forest Service road up the Twisp River.  They wanted to break the trail again as it had snowed a fair amount since the last time they were up there, and a group of them (hardy souls) always go up there for the full moon every month, even in the winter.  The full moon is coming up next Sunday.

I talked Rick into coming along today, so he got to see where The Point is, and took turns with me going first to break the trail.  Carol brought cookies and peppermint schnapps for our cocoa, so a good deed did not go unrewarded.

the-point-09jan6We had a fire while eating lunch, and it was snowing which made for poor visibility, otherwise I would show you a picture of the views from up there.  They have a stash of firewood and some old beater folding chairs up there, so no, we didn’t carry those in!

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New snow!

Posted in Methow Valley on January 5, 2009| Leave a Comment »

We had new snow overnight – perhaps another 6 inches.   But it was clear and sunny when we got up this morning.  Our friend Terry came down from Twisp and plowed out the driveway and parking areas, which saved us a lot of time with the snowblower.

new snow 05Jan2009

For those of you who have not seen our place, this is it!  The woodworking shop is on the main level, and we and the 2 cats live upstairs in a 2-bedroom apartment.  That’s also where I have my loom, books, yarn, spinning wheels, etc.  So it is cozy!

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