Saturday, August 18, 2007

Catching Up

No sooner had we unpacked from our trip East, we were packing up again for our road trip North. This year's State Cup Tournament was held on the the Kenai Peninsula, a part of the state none of us had yet visited.

We had a week of glorious weather, great soccer, and magnificent environs.


Our favorite keeper

Toby on the beach in Kenai

It was a frustrating week, knit-wise, however. After obsessively swatching, plotting, and planning, I cast on for a sweater. And after knitting 3-4 inches I have decided I'm not happy with it after all. I think I'm going to cut my losses and continue looking for another sweater pattern. It's bad enough to finish a project for which you had high hopes, only to be disappointed. I'm not willing to go into it disappointed. I am a sucker for corrugated ribbing, however. I'm going to have to incorporate that into a sweater soon.

We arrived back in Juneau on Sunday and the weather was glorious all week long. Warm sunny days the likes of which Juneau hadn't seen in a long, long time. We saw moose, sand hill cranes, and trumpeter swans while on the road, but never saw a bear until we got home.


This fellow was hanging out by the glacier, along with a 6-8 others who have been spotted regularly feeding on the salmon running in Steep Creek. Watching bears go about their bear business will never cease to thrill me. We went three evenings in a row and saw bears each time.


Needing to shake off the knitting malaise brought on by self-inflicted fair isle failure, I buckled down to finish up the Monkey Socks. Fortified by sunshine and iced tea, it didn't take long.


Monkey Socks
Pattern: Monkey Socks, by Cookie A.
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM in colorway P460
Needles: Susan Bates DPNs in US 1
Modifications: I made Cara's mini version with picot cuffs.

6 comments:

Hilary said...

I love the corregated ribbing too -- and the colors are *beautiful* together. Don't you thnk you might be able to recycle the yarn into a different project?

The Monkey Socks look great! Nice bear pictures, too. :)

textilejunkie said...

I don't know if seeing a bear would thrill me - but it would totally freak me out!

I hate that feeling when a project doesn't fit your minds eye. The socks look great-I'm going to have to break down and knit that pattern

Paula said...

Don't worry. You'll find a better sweater. Those socks are beautiful! The colourway (at least on my monitor)reminds me of the blue water and coloured pebbles of glacier fed streams.

Rebecca said...

love your koigu colorway! your socks look wonderful.

Anonymous said...

The socks look fantastic- I cannot get over the bear however. Being a city girl the idea of being near one terrifies me- it must always be an awesome sight.

MsAmpuTeeHee said...

I cannot imagine sharing the neighborhood with bear. That is totally cool.
And here I've been all excited because my "mini move" north means I get to watch wine grapes grow.