Weekend Road Trip

Seth and I went to Crater Lake and Bend this weekend to take advantage of the gorgeous fall weather. We left Saturday morning and drove to Crater Lake and took several hours to drive around the 30 mile loop. One of the pull-offs had tons of chipmunks running everywhere and Sailor got really excited about them.

Seth, of course, wanted to climb things (can you see him way up towards the top of the waterfall?):

And, I took lots of photos:

After we finished driving around Crater Lake, we drove up towards Bend with a slight idea of where we were going to camp. We ended up stopping about 25 miles south of Bend at Newberry National Volcanic Monument and drove in to find a place to camp. There are tons of campgrounds along the road, but a book I have recommended a particular one right near East Lake. They had tons of open sites, so we set up the tent, made a campfire, and whipped up some Annie's Mac and Cheese for dinner.

And then, it got cold. Freezing cold. When Seth got up in the morning, it was around 30 degrees and there was frost on the car and on the tent fly. Seth made another small fire, and I toasted some Fiber One Toaster Pastries on it.

When we had all the stuff packed up we took a little walk down to see the lake in the daylight.

Then we headed to drive to the top of Paulina Peak, but drove up the wrong road and ended up stopping at the Big Obsidian Flow on the way out of the park. We took a small hike up to the top, and it was gorgeous. Big and shiny rocks everywhere and a great view from the top.

Once we were done there we drove up to Bend to find Seth some new running shoes. We had lunch at The Crepe Place, which was delicious. Seth ended up finding some new running shoes, and we headed back home with a quick stop in Sisters. Sisters is a very small, cute little town that his a fabulous fabric store called The Stitchin' Post. I ended up with some fat quarters for more box bags and an Amy Butler pattern (I have serious desire to make an apron....must be all the canning going to my head). I could have spent a fortune there on fabric, especially since they had the Heather Ross fabric I've been dying to see in real life. But, I ended up not getting it because I have no idea what I'd do with it.

Now onto knitting...

I finished a pair of socks this weekend with some yarn that I picked up last fall at Purl Diva's De-Stash Do Good sale.

Pattern: Turkish Bed Socks by Kit Hutchin

Yarn: Sweet Georgia Sock Yarn

Modifications: None. I'm not crazy about the construction of these socks though. They require seaming to form the heel, and I think next time I'd do a more conventional short row heel.

I also cast on last night for the Salem Hooded Jacket from New England Knits. I have a few inches of one sleeve done and I think it's going to be a relatively quick knit. 

Congrats on the interview!  Good Luck! I can't wait to hear all about it. 

Love the picture of baby George in the sweater....too cute! They must be so overwhelmed with the thought of having a second baby!! 

did you get anything at kaleidoscope yarns?? i've heard it's lovely there!

I think those are all the updates for now!

Love,

liz 

Sleeves: The Black Hole of Knitting

Why is it that it feels like it takes twice as long to knit sleeves as it does to knit the rest of a sweater?! I really shouldn't complain, 5 days to make a sweater is absolutely respectable. But I felt like the sleeves took FOREVER (even though I'm not sure they actually took longer than the body). At any rate, the Oatmeal Pullover is now complete:

I used just under 600 yards of MadelineTosh Bulky. I made quite a few modifications to the pattern for a better fit. I added an extra increase round and an extra straight round before separating the sleeves because I wanted about 1 1/2 inches of negative ease instead of 3 inches of negative ease. I also picked up extra stitches under the arm because the sleeves as written are about 9 1/2 inches around...and mine are, well, much larger. I also decreased 1 stitch on each side of the waist for a little waist shaping.

In non-knitting related news, Seth had I ate at this fabulous place down in Eugene on Saturday. We went down to climb at the gym (Seth is headed to Vegas for a climbing trip with his dad and is trying to get "in climbing shape") and went to the Laughing Planet Cafe for lunch. They use as much locally grown produce/ingredients as they can and everything is freshly cooked. I had this ridiculously yummy "bowl" full of mashed potatoes, Tillamook Cheese (from NW Oregon), grilled chicken and sweet corn. Sooooo good. Seth had some crazy bowl with beans, rice and tons of steamed veggies topped with salsa.

We're going to try and head to Bend next weekend to climb at Smith Rock. As long as the weather holds out in the mountains, we should be able to get there without a problem.

And last, but not least:

Remember all the pretty pink flowers on the plum tree? Well, they are falling all over the deck and Sailor gets covered in them every time he is out there! Goof.

Hope you are feeling better!

Love,

Liz