Sunday, January 04, 2009

old and new...

This is a pretty photo-heavy post, but how else to get a good picture (yuk, yuk, wry punster) of the end of the old year and beginning of the new?
The last days of December were much snowier than we here on the wet coast are used to. The snow never seemed to stop, and over Christmas we were well ensconced at my parents home, with the snow falling heavily all around. The first few shots capture some of that.
I don't think the alpacas were all that impressed with the snow, not straying often from the well worn path. But if anyone has a nice winter sweater to keep them warm, it's them right? Well them and the sheep, and both crews were eager for hay when no fresh grass was to be found.
The Tapestry Cowl is finished! A new skill figured out (double knitting), and a pretty nice finished product to boot. That chart killed me a bit - 67 rows x 110 (220) stitches with no repeats- but the result is very cool. I ended up having to take out about 15 rows actually, as I feared I was running out of yarn (my gauge was a bit off), but I probably could have left at least 5 of those in in the end.
I have never used Koigu before, but sense a lot of people love it so I may be scorned for speaking ill. However, despite it being very soft after a good soak, I was disappointed that the cowl stretched out a lot (and I tried to keep it in shape as much as possible while drying) and also seemed to get quite floppy, and not retaining the nice structure it had before. It still worked to keep my face warm while boarding, but due to the change in dimensions it does not stay up as well as it might have.
This is a great pattern though, and I would like to try it again - or make something else in double knitting with a similar idea (but possible repeats in the colourwork?) The colours of the Koigu are great too.
Lastly, a few more winter shots. We've gotten out for two days of boarding in the last week - although somehow the mountains have much less snow than normal despite all the snow at sea level. I was definitely having troubles on my board on the first day, but yesterday was a bit better. These pics are from yesterday at Mount Cain. A rare peek at a snowy white ptarmigan pecking at branches poking out of the snow (these birds are brown in the summer) entertained several skiers and boarders at the top of the t-bar.
And another shot from the top of the first t-bar - the weather changed a lot yesterday, including a heavy blizzard while driving home. Hope you are all having a good start to the year - today we are having more traditional west coast weather, a howling southeaster. and we were even without power for a couple of hours.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Too bad about the Koigu because that cowl looks great! I just had a similar thing happen with a hat--the superwash yarn stretch and made it huge.