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On our last weekend trip, if you remember, we went to Whitefish and Glacier National Park. This was when we first came up with the plan to spend the next 3 day weekend of the year in Yellowstone.

We left Missoula Friday afternoon, later than planned, but still with plenty of time to make it to our first night’s lodging in West Yellowstone. It’s approximately a 4 hour drive. We decided to take the drive through Gallatin Gateway, past Big Sky, and on to West Yellowstone.

This is where I’m remiss for not taking photos of West Yellowstone. The first thing that struck us, is that at 9pm the town was still VERY active. Most of the shops were open and many people were walking around, picking up dinner or souvenirs. The town is very cute, easy to walk around in, and surprisingly international. That was something that struck us more than once over the weekend - Yellowstone has a strong international draw.

The next morning we headed into Yellowstone. This was my first trip and Richard’s second.

Of course we saw Old Faithful (the first photo). We also saw numerous other small geysers, hot pots, and mud pots. I took many more photos including a handful of more artistic shots of the brilliant orange colors of the algae beds and aquamarine colors.

Then there was the wildlife. On the first section of road into the park from West Yellowstone we saw a bull elk. Unfortunately no photo, but the elk was standing in the river within yards of a fly fisherman. We saw another bull, a group of cows, and babies in this area the first evening and the next morning. There were a few individual bison in this area, but the large herd we saw was near the road South of Roosevelt Lodge.

I still find crossing the Continental Divide to be somewhat amusing. I’ve seen all of the West coast, including parts of Alaska, but until I moved to Montana I had never cross the continental divide. On this weekend alone we crossed it 4 times.

We spent all day Saturday and then Sunday morning in Yellowstone. Then we headed South into Wyoming and through Grand Teton National Park.

Sunday night we stayed in Jackson. We ran up to Teton Village to the arts show, chatted with artist friends we met in Whitefish and browsed around a few minutes. Then the rain and wind started. We headed back into Jackson to get out of the weather. It poured that evening and the lights flickered more than once while we were at dinner. The next morning it was still raining. Needless to say that’s my excuse for not getting photos of Jackson. What I can tell you, is that it looks like a fun town to wander around in even though we’re not looking to spend a bunch of money in shops catering to the wealthy.

This is the view looking back on the Jackson Hole valley.

Twice in recent weeks I had seen mention of the Victor Emporium in magazines, once in Sunset and once in Forbes (yes, a very odd combination of magazines). I suspected they were a place that’s open almost 365 days per year and I was right. The Emporium was smaller than I imagined, but I was thrilled to pick up a new pair of Dansko’s, a t-shirt, and a huckleberry milkshake.

We decided to take the more remote route back to Montana. Roughly, this is West from Victor, then angling northwest towards Salmon, then North to the Bitterroot. North of Salmon we were surprised to see two Big Horn Sheep grazing and drinking from a cow pasture.

A last photo while we were on our way home - this is the pass on the way from Idaho into the Bitterroot. Silly me, I did not realize there was a big mountain pass here! I just thought the Bitterroot valley extended into Idaho through a valley between mountain ranges. It was a mixture of sleet and rain that was falling. Lowest temperature seen over the weekend? 36 degrees about an hour East of Salmon, Idaho.

There are many more photos of the trip in our photo album. There’s so much more to see in all the areas we visited, especially Yellowstone, that we’re definitely planning to go back.

It seems my works in progress list has become more of a works on hold list. And I’m not even going to tell you about the project I started and stopped when I decided the yarn choice just wasn’t right. Only a few rows of knitting got frogged on this one.

1. Sunrise Circle - on hold, I promise I’m going to wrap this up soon. Goal: finish it by the end of September.

2. Dragon Scale Wrap - frogged. The good news it will go faster the second time since I’ve learned the stitch pattern. More importantly, I have a plan in place to make sure I decrease enough. Hopefully it will work. Goal: start this again before the end of September.

3. Riverbed Master Pattern Socks - I am still waiting for a measurement and I was desperate for one of those 2.5 mm needles. I suppose I could have put the toe on hold, but I frogged it to reclaim the needle.

4. Little Girl’s Bolero - on hold until I get another skein of yarn.

5. Oak Ribbed Socks - these became my carry along project on our weekend trip. Not only did I steal the sock needle from the Riverbed Socks, but I also stole a skein of that yarn to start these. No worries, I actually have 4 skeins in this colorway which is more than enough to make 2 pair. The pattern is in Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush.

And, I resolved the issue of not having enough sock needles by ordering 5 more circulars in various sizes from Knit Picks.

1. Sunrise Circle - on hold, but I plan to finish this as soon as I get Dragon Scale straightened out.

2. Dragon Scale Wrap - To be honest, I was a little bit afraid to pick this up again. I thought the time off may result in a change in gauge or I’d screw up the pattern and have to rip back. None of that happened. It did take me 15 minutes to figure out that I was reading the instructions for the wrong sleeve and to determine how many stitches to cast on to lengthen the sleeve, but after that it was smooth sailing. *Knock on wood*

And now I take all that back. I wrote that several days ago. Now that I’ve finished the right front and my stitch count is like 13 stitches off I’ll be ripping WAY BACK to where the decreases start. Don’t even ask why I didn’t look at my decrease angle compared to the magazine photo and realize this about 50 rows ago. Note: the sleeve length is longer than the pattern calls for by design.

3. Riverbed Master Pattern Socks - still waiting on a measurement before I proceed.

4. Little Girl’s Bolero - knit until I ran out of yarn. Currently working on obtaining another skein so I can finish a bit of the collar and most of one sleeve.

We’re headed to Yellowstone for the weekend so I see a new portable project in my future since none of these projects will be ready or suitable to take along.

On Saturday I was eating breakfast and thinking about how nice it would be to have new photos of me riding Blondie. A few minutes later Richard says to me, “Today is about what you want to do and what you want to get done.” He had to fly out to Pennsylvania for a week on Sunday which is why he was offering. I’m sure going to the barn with me was not quite what he had in mind, but he went along with the instruction to use the sport setting on the camera and take a ton of photos.

Blondie had most of the Summer off while she received massage and chiropractic treatment. She has been feeling better the last month and I’ve started riding her again 3x per week for about 30 minutes each time. This is probably my 10th ride after putting her back to work so I was looking forward to getting some visual feedback.

Things these photos confirmed for me:
- I’m still tipping forward far more often than I would like. I’ve been fighting this for a long time, but the photos really drive home how much more work I need to do. I’m going to re-visit all the tips I have from books and bulletin boards on how to correct the problem.
- I’m too big for my horse.
- I need to shorten my stirrups at least one hole. My toes were pointing down in many of the photos, usually when I was rising to the trot.
- I’m trying not to pull when she rushes and she’s getting better about not rushing, but it’s still a vicious cycle (and likely caused by the first issue in this list).

On a side note, when we were done riding she was *really* thirsty. I checked her automatic waterer and she had pooped in it. Yuck. No wonder she wanted to drink from the water obstacle!

1. Sunrise Circle - just hanging out on this list as a reminder. My sewing machine is now available in case I have to do something drastic.

2. Dragon Scale Wrap - need to get back to this one. Knitting the bolero is a good reminder that children’s knits are small and quick (relatively as this pattern is relatively complex).

3. Riverbed Master Pattern Socks - still waiting on a measurement before I proceed.

4. Little Girl’s Bolero - I snuck in another project last week when my work paused on the socks. It seemed like it would be a fun, quick diversion that would also be a small stash buster. So far, I’d say it has lived up to that.

This is pattern #275 from Knitting Pure and Simple. The yarn is Noro Matsuri. The yarn was an impulse purchase because of the bright, fun colors. Even though it’s a mostly cotton yarn, it is true Noro that comes complete with knots, slubs, many thick/thin spots, and VM (vegetable matter). I guess because it’s cotton with a cable construction I expected it to be higher quality.

When I was in Washington I dug out some of my old sewing projects and took pictures. This is a blast from the past.

This jean skirt is the oldest. I’m fairly certain I made it when I was in high school. It doesn’t fit anymore and even if it did it would be too short for comfort!

This gold dress I made for a company Christmas party in the late 1990’s. It still fits, but it’s just not me anymore. I’m not into the color or the all vertical look. The skirt drops straight to the floor.

Finally, this was sewn one year after the gold dress. The top is dark green velvet. I think it would still fit me, although I couldn’t button the top button on my dress form.

I still have material and a pattern for what was supposed to be the next years dress. Almost 10 years have gone by. Someday I might sew it up.

Despite all the clothing photos, the sewing stuff I brought to Missoula is all related to quilting. I expect you’ll be seeing more of that in upcoming months and a little bit less knitting.

The Lace Ribbon Scarf is finished. I knit until I ran out of yarn.

Pattern: Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery. Available free from Knitty.
Yarn: 1 skein of Fleece Artist Basic Merino Sock in Cornflower
Needle: US #4, one size up from the recommended needle

This scarf was an easy and fun way to use a skein of sock yarn. I haven’t lost my love of knitting
socks, but it’s nice to do something different once in a while. I’m still learning how to wear scarves so I was also pleased at how easy this one was to wear for my little photo shoot.

Here’s a quick update on my current works in progress:

1. Sunrise Circle - just hanging out on this list as a reminder. My sewing machine is now available in case I have to do something drastic.

2. Dragon Scale Wrap - need to get back to this one.

3. Riverbed Master Pattern Socks - the next pair of socks. I had taken the yarn and pattern with me to Washington, but never had time to cast on. On Friday night when I was back in Montana I really wanted to knit, but could not manage to get the provisional cast on right even though I tried 3 different methods - 2 of which I’ve used with success before. The next morning, more rested, I finally managed to get started.

Now I’ve got these on hold until I get a foot measurement from the recipient. I thought I’d just wing it on sizing, adjusting from my standard cast on numbers, but the socks look too big.

The last two weeks I was working on site in western Washington and staying at my house there. It was less hectic at the office which gave me the time to dig into stuff at the house. I was rummaging around in the garage every evening that I was home. With all the sorting, tossing, and giving away I made quite a dent in the garage mess.

(Gratuitous house photos included below so as to not have a photo-less post and because I miss my house.)

Given away:
- 1 large box of clothes
- 1 large box of miscellaneous goods
- 3 sets of arm curl type weights
- 1 air conditioning unit
- 1 medium box of horse stuff
- 1 small box of beauty supplies
- 1 large box of new painting supplies
- 4 windows
- 1 exterior door

Tossed (mostly recycled):
- about 10 cardboard boxes that were emptied in the sorting process
- 1 small box of mixed paper
- 4 bags of trash

Then I brought some things back to Montana that I’ve been wanting to use. The most exciting of which was my sewing machine, quilting supplies, and fabric. I also brought back some clothes and shoes, and my bicycle.

I didn’t do much knitting while I was gone, but I do have a finished object to show you in the next post.

Err….Thursday! I tried to get my post ready yesterday, but I didn’t have enough free memory to run Photoshop to prepare the photos. Anyway, I finished the toes on the Mad Color Weave Socks. With them done I immediately started considering which socks I should knit next. I had a pattern and yarn in mind, but I haven’t fully decided to stick with it yet.

To recap, the pattern is Mad Color Weave Socks. I’m still in love with this pattern for handpainted yarns. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Icehouse. This pair (like the last) is 78 sts around on 2.5mm circular needles.

WIPs

1. Sunrise Circle - same as last week.

2. Dragon Scale Wrap - same as last week.

3. Lace Ribbon Scarf - I’d guess I’m halfway through the skein of yarn. The scarf looks the same as last week, just 4 times longer.