Glimpses, January's Close

Joining up with Ginny's Yarn Along again this week. 

I have that lovely blue yarn I mentioned last week.  It is Plymouth Yarn Bamtastic and it is so soft.  I have no winter hats that I am love with, so I picked this yarn up using a birthday gift card to Yarn Folk in Ellensburg, my nearest LYS.  (What a sweet shop!  Ann, the owner, has been kind to me all three times I've visited, in spite of the fact that I traipse into a YARN STORE with three tiny children in tow.  I'm probably the reason she now has a train set at hand to pull out for kids.  Bless her, it made my last yarn stop that much better; we were all happy!)

I picked out this Cabernet hat because I wanted a slightly slouchy but not TOO slouchy hat (I'm not sure I'm cool enough to pull off a really adorably slouchy hat) and I think the cable pattern in it is really beautiful.  I am just through the garter brim and started the lace pattern last night but after the first row I had an extra stitch, so I guess I will unknit the row and see if I just messed up one of the pattern repeats.  I don't think it will turn out to be a big deal, and I'm glad it was obvious so near the beginning of the hat that I was off a stitch.  

I just finished listening today to the last chapter of The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton via Craft Lit.  I liked it.  I really appreciated the author's incredibly nuanced writing, which the reader conveyed. It was almost like you could see the author look up from her pen and wink to see if you caught her joke or her critique. The setting made me think of that show, Revenge, set in the ritzy Hamptons with the same kind of social set in our modern day.  It was really interesting.  Next up is North and South starting next week.  When I reach for a book right now, it's for a couple minutes of Little House on the Prairie before drifting off to sleep.

(photo credit, Jesse)

We took our girls on a hike on Saturday and it was cold (it was supposed to get up to 40 but in reality didn't get above freezing).  We had a lot of fun exploring, until the last 20 minutes when everyone was completely done and ready to be in a warm car.  It was a cross-country hike, no real incline to speak of, through what I think is called "Umtanum Creek Canyon" or that is Jesse's best guess so we'll go with that. Really really really really beautiful.  This is probably the best time of year to go if you want to avoid rattlesnakes... which we do. 

We saw a huge wasp nest that the girls stopped and stared at for a while.  We saw signs of beavers.  There was a beautiful set of tiered beaver dams, a frozen beaver pond, and a beaver lodge.  Lyddie was so hoping to see some beavers but we were passed on the trail by a large and noisy group that probably scared them into their lodge if they were out.  But before that we are pretty sure we heard them slapping the water with their tails from far off.  So cool.  I love beavers, they are such an incredible creation, the way they naturally  and skillfully change their landscape to be inhabitable.

I counted six bald eagles.  We wobbled across a long suspension bridge at the beginning and end of the hike.  We held hands and hoped to see longhorn sheep with no luck this time.  What a nice way to spend the day off.