We returned from 6 days on the Coast last Sunday, and our dear friends who are currently living in Southern California joined us here for 3 nights before heading back south. We celebrated a 59th birthday:
They brought their 2 new cats, Tatti (a Maine Coon, still an adolescent and a big, sweet girl) and the Siamese kitten, Neko. I’m not sure why my best picture of Neko was taken when she was asleep, because that was rarely the case! She was very playful and hilariously entertaining.
There was only one “moment” when Tatti sneaked upstairs past our barrier and encountered a hostile Teasel (our female Bengal cat). There was a lot of hissing, screaming and scrambling around. We raced upstairs to find Tatti cowering in the bathroom, little fluffs of Tatti fur on the landing, and Teasel puffed up to about 3 times her normal size. No harm done, though.
Rick and I went out for a fairly long ski on Monday which took us onto the Winthrop Trail and a view back down to the house:
Since then it has turned really, really cold – but clear and beautiful, especially in the mornings.
The carport is finished and we have both trailers (the Aliner travel trailer, and Rick’s utility trailer) and both our vehicles safely parked out of the snow now:
carport finished Dec 30, 2010
While away on the Coast, I finished the fourth of the swirl top hats. This time I used a mosaic pattern from Barbara Walker’s Mosaic Knitting for the band and I am quite pleased with the result. The yarns are Noro Silk Garden (the one showing color graduation) and Rowan Kid Classic in the same dark brown I used on the first hat.
And this week I warped up my small loom with a new scarf warp colorway that I had prepared before we left for Christmas. I have finished the first 2 of 4 scarves I will get from this warp, and am working on the third one today.
Autumn warp with eggplant chenille weft
Autumn warp with black tencel weft
Tonight we go down to Twisp to join a group of friends for potluck dinner and ringing in the New Year at the Methow Valley Inn. Safe travels to all who are similarly out and about tonight, and Happy New Year!
Twisp of Fate 
Great blog Katie!
And easy to read from the iPhone.
Just read all of December
Congrats on the new house
Love to you and Ricky
Ciao
Mataio
Love the hats! Is there a pattern for the swirl top or did you make it up?
It started with Triangle Topped Hat by Ellen A. Christensen. She has a Ravelry page as Cedar Post Knits. But she doesn’t sell the pattern there. I bought a hard copy at Weaving Works in Seattle years ago.
Then I started plugging in different mosaic patterns from Barbara Walker in the band. While looking through A Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker (Schoolhouse Press re-release includes the text of Sampler Knitting) I realized that Ms. Christensen’s hat was based on the hexagon shape as it uses paired decreases. In B. Walker’s book there is also a true spiral top using short rows and now I am working on a version using that and different mosaic options for the band. So I may write that up and offer it as a pattern shortly, probably through Ravelry. But I’ll announce it on my blog.