My Saturday night

It started with these:

my mom's cucumber toasties, yumm!!

and ended with these lovely gals:

precious

(even though my eyes are half closed, this was the best of all of us)

Best girls to work with EVER!

Bookend: Castle by J. Robert Lennon

via jrobertlennon.com

 I originally purchased Castle for a class, where it turned out I needed a different title (Pieces for the Left Hand, which is, incidentally, very good) by J. Robert Lennon. Castle sounded very intriguing so I never returned it. 

The pacing in Castle is very controlled, even though at times, the story moves along slowly. It's about a man named Eric Loesch who returns to his hometown for reasons unknown to the reader. There he purchases a run-down home in the woods and renovates it. The renovation consumes the first quarter of the book, but it never gets boring. I owe this to Lennon's ability to reveal hints at crucial times that are both mysterious and intriguing. Eric Loesch in the novel is very methodical, and the way Lennon describes him is very methodical. Which makes me wonder if Lennon isn't very methodical himself?

There are times when Eric is a closed narrator, and his thoughts aren't known to the reader. This did confuse me towards the end (without giving anything away) but I think it's just a further facet of Eric's character. Because not only does he close himself off to his community members, he also closes down to the reader, which is actually kind of cool because I didn't even realize it while it was happening.

Castle can be a little spooky at times because of its psychological tendency. Lennon is a great writer and chooses his words very carefully; I found this out in Pieces for the Left Hand, which is a collection of micro fiction.


I would read this book again, and am excited to read more books by J. Robert Lennon.

Book posts: ETA Sundays

I've decided to write a book post every Sunday, to review what I'm currently reading, what I want to read, etc. As it is, my To Read books take up a shelf of their own in a bookshelf. I think this will be a good way for me to keep reading, since it often gets sidelined because of other things.

In other news, my cousin Katja loves the Garter-Ridged hat so much, that I sent it to her =) It tickles me when people want to wear my knit stuff!








 

I am also fiiiinally sending the baby blanket I knit for Molly Madison...she's probably outgrown it by now though. But I washed it to see how it would wash up, and it's so much softer now! I think it will only get softer with every wash too.










 Perhaps this rain will let up soon? I have Saturday off again so I'm definitely going to Farmer's Market again!

Bozeman

I'm the WEINER!!

I couldn't resist, what with all the talk about Weiner's weenie on Twitter, and a memory of my friend selling hot dogs at concessions and putting two dogs in one bun then telling people they were the "weiner!" for getting two....


I won a prize from Loopy Knit/ Crochet for the Shop Hop! It's a Namaste bag and it's beautiful.

This is the color I have, Peacock.

 

 

via WEBS

It folds out and can hold crochet hooks or double pointed needles, scissors, and other little notions. I feel like I am officially a cool knitter now that I have a Namaste bag =)))

Also, I really wasn't expecting to win anything when I started the Shop Hop, so this is ultra neat. I thought it would be nice to, but I was more interested in visiting other local yarn stores and driving around with Scott. I know the whole experience was fun for me, and I hope he enjoyed some it too =)

Woo hoo!!!

(I also purchased some Berroco's Ultra Alpaca while I was at Loopy. Pink and green hat is in the works.)

Working for the weekend

A little recap of the weekend:

Saturday: I was finally able to make it to Farmer's Market! I met Tera there, and it could not have been a more beautiful day! I bought a couple bunches of carrots from Tubbee and Long, but they did not have cucumbers yet (it is too early). Next weekend I'll have to buy more carrots, though, because we've already eaten half of them! They are so sweet and crisp; I have missed carrots.

Tera and I also happened upon a cart of free books outside of Fact & Fiction. We almost didn't stop, but I am so glad we did. They are the advanced copies sent to bookstores and can't be sold. I took Isabel Allende's memoir The Sum of Our Days, Ray Bradbury's We'll Always Have Paris, Ann Brashare's 3 Willows, and a couple more.

After the Market, Scott and I went camping...even though I was still hesitant because of the ticks. We were almost there when I realized I forgot my sleeping bag... Instead of my suggestion of me sleeping in the running car (joke), we turned back and borrowed one from his parents, which was quicker than returning home and grabbing mine.

This was the maiden voyage for Scott's new tent. It's a two-person and is supposed to have an impeccable rain fly. We'll have to do some west coast camping to test that. I remember camping in Oregon a few years ago with a tent that wasn't very water proof and we didn't have a tarp. We got soaked. On top of that, the place we camped was near a stream and there were slugs EVERYWHERE. Never again.

Scott's new tent!

The campsite we stayed at had been occupied recently. The last campers left us plenty of firewood. They also had built a little lean-to, which we stored the wood in. I am getting pretty good at splitting logs =)

Lean-to

New little camp stove! cute, huh?

We set up camp around four or five pm (would have been earlier had I not forgotten my bag...) and there was plenty of daylight. I hate trying to set up a tent or make dinner in the dark. I even had a few hours to knit and read! I brought my socks to work on, and they still smell like campfire =)

Sunday: We walked around the area a bit. It was gorgeous:

can't you just imagine the little squirrel eating his pine cones here?

And guess what the very best part was? No ticks!

Socks

I must've been crazy.
Two socks at a time on Magic Loop... yarn is everywhere, needles are everywhere...
too freaking fiddly.

That's what I was thinking last night when I cast on my first serious attempt at socks. But when I fell asleep, all I could see were the tiny needles and the thin thread, the miniscule stitches. The first thing I did today (even before making coffee, yikes!) was knit a few more rounds!

I am only on the cuff, but it's very encouraging and exciting to see the progress!

I'm making SOCKS!

Flower photos that didn't make the Shop Hop post.

Rock Creek

On Saturday, Scott and I spent some time exploring Rock Creek and surrounding areas. It was probably the one day this weekend that was actually warm and sunny.

Turah valley

I love these trees!

I almost positive this is a pine that loses its needles each winter. Trouble is, I'm not sure what they are called. I'm pretty sure they are Tamaracks (according to Wikipedia, they are called Tamarack Larch, which I thought was two separate trees).

All the rivers are so high! We've been comparing them the last few weekends when we've gone out of town. We found a neat scenic trail around Rock Creek, and it was FLOODED.

eeto.....

The water was so high at one point that it carried grass over the boardwalk

The grass looks like feathers, doesn't it?

Mud trail on boardwalk

Driving further into Rock Creek we found a death bridge:

I am scared to bejeezus of heights, but it's really hard to pass up something like this.

Scott took some hilarious (not) photos of me inching my way over it. Each step made the bridge bounce and the middle board on the bridge was seriously warping. Why do movies always have bridge planks break??! That was the only thing I could think about.

What we found on the other side

Look at this goof

 

It was such a fun weekend, with Bozeman on Friday, hiking/ goofing off on Saturday, and relaxing on Sunday. Hope you all had an awesome weekend too!

FO: Garter Scarf

2011 Knit Challenge: 20 Knit, 40 to go

JoAnn's Sensations Lodge knit on US 13 needles
CO 30 stitches
Used entire skein
No fringe

FO: Garter-Ridged Hat

2011 Knit Challenge: 19 knit, 41 to go

Pattern came from 60 Quick Knits
Patons Classic Wool in Brown and Rosewood

Fits well, but I don't like the Rosewood colorway. It seems that the color would show best in a smaller item. 

Shop Hop Round Up

Geez Louise, Bozeman was so NEAT! I think the last time I visited Bozeman was for a football game in high school, and I definitely didn't have the chance to look around or even appreciate the town.

seat

The yarn stores alone, oh my, were incredible. The Yarn Shop and Fiber Place and Stix Yarn Co. have amazing space dedicated for yarn and books, as well as for classes and knit/crochet groups. And the ladies inside were so nice! I have never seen a yarn store like these ones and I wish we had one in Missoula!

The Yarn Shop and Fiber Place

At the Yarn Shop, I bought two skeins: one Patons Canadiana, which I've never heard of, and one Cascade 128 because I liked the color (which is lime green).

This was made in Canada

Free yarn!

And for participating in the Shop Hop, the Yarn Shop gave me a skein of cotton yarn! It will be perfect for socks, as soon as I learn how to knit them.

After the Yarn Shop, we walked to Stix Yarn Co

and saw this:

Yarn Bombing!

This is my favorite. It has an aquatic feeling to it

Stix is my favorite yarn store so far! The yarn bombing alone makes it number one in my book. But, the store was very neat inside as well. It's two stories underground; one of those levels dedicated primarily for knitting gatherings with couches. I am in love with this store. AND they have a yarn swap, where customers bring yarn, books, needles to sell and receive credit for their sale. We saw a bunch of sock yarn, which tempted me, but I didn't buy any. I did buy a few Patons pattern books (from the 80s, and have those baggy, sack-like sweaters in it...hehehe) and .......

via knitpicks

ohmygosh!!! I've eyed this book online and in stores for awhile but was still intimidated by the whole sock thing to buy it. But when I saw it in the yarn swap at Stix, it was a sign. Here goes nothing.

I heart Bozeman!