FO Report -- Koolhaas

We're back in Chicago after a long weekend up north, and I can say it feels much much colder in Chicago than in the Upper Peninsula. It's windier and humid here!

We spent a good part of the weekend on the numerous cross country ski trails, feasting by the fire, and catching up on naptime.

David said the hand knit I gave him for Valentine's Day kept him toasty, especially on Sunday, when it snowed most of the day.

I used brooklyn tweed's Koolhaas pattern, and about 1/2 a skein of Malabrigo in the Taureg colorway. My only modification was to switch to size 4.5mm/US#7 needles for the decrease rounds.

If you want a Malabrigo Koolhaas for yourself, check out the knit-along that starts March 1st in the Malabrigo Junkies forum on Ravelry. I'm co-leading a Koolhaas KAL and an Amanda KAL, which are part of many Malabrigo KALs starting the first of the month. That means you have two more weekends to shop for Mmmmmmalabrigo!

OK, a few more photos from our weekend in the Upper Peninsula ...

Whenever Garry and Jo's dog, Xena, was out front in her skijoring harness, the rest of us just tried to keep up the pace.She's a tough little German or Deutscher Jagdterrier. Don't miss her cute little icicle beard.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone has a great day!

Our celebration will be pretty low key because I'll be in yoga class until about 8:30 p.m. We'll have time to do our gift exchange tonight and then enjoy a leisurely meal this weekend in the Upper Peninsula.

We're packing now for 4 days of pancakes for breakfast and cross-country skiing. Yay! We're going up north with another couple and their tough little dog. Temps will be similar to Chicago's, but with 2x the snow and not so many plows. I'm a little worried about the slippery roads and really don't look forward to warming up the house.

One year we all did this (was it last year?), the girls went to wait for a table at the local supper club while the boys drove to the house to shovel the entrance and turn up the heat. On the way back to dinner, the boys skidded through a sharp curve and went off the road and over a small ditch. Fortunately it was all low speed. No one got hurt and we were able to use one car to pull the other car back onto the road. We'll be extra cautious this year. :)

Sorry, but no pics today. There's no light, it's extremely cold, and everything I'm knitting is a secret.

And as always, thanks for thinking of John and asking about him even when you know the news is not so good.

Nature Walk

This year my friend Jenn joined us at the lake for a few days. She picked a good year to see the foxgloves:
This reminds me of the Queen Anne's Lace:
I love all these shades of green:
We noticed about six different types of ferns one morning. This is the medium sized one that likes a lot of sun:
One morning after our walk, Jenn and I got busy making four batches of jam. It took us most of the day to wash and sterilize the glass jars, prepare the peaches, fresh ginger root, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, cook the fruit with lemon juice, pectin, and sugar, fill and seal the jars, and then clean up. While Jenn and I were toiling in the kitchen, David worked on the computer. You would think we would have more to show for a whole day's labor.
We also went kayaking on the lake, and got a bit closer to a little eagle.
Jenn also found a little sunburn and some itchy bug bites. I wish she could stay longer, but she's probably happy to get back to civilization.

Eye Candy Friday

Hi all and happy Friday!

We found these exotic looking mushrooms while taking our morning walk. I love their rusty color, gloss, and gnarled shape. There were about 20 of them and some green mosses growing on a tree stump.
Later I spotted some more on our own lakeside property. This is the first year I've seen these or anything like them. Gotta wonder, are they poisonous?

Happy Independence Day/It's my blogiversary

It's wonderful to spend the 4th of July in the Upper Peninsula.

We've been here since Friday and have started every morning by taking a long walk with Lib and the camera. She gets tired out, but can't bear to take time out for a nap. All the good scents and sights keep the city girl awake for the rest of the day.

I've been happy with a few of the morning photos, but many of them make me wish for better lenses and have been trashed.
After the walk and breakfast, we get down to work, mowing, sweeping, mopping, doing the laundry... There's still a lot that needs doing before the house is "open" for the season. When we first got here on Friday, we were kind of spinning about, there was so much to do. I've tried to knit a bit too, but don't have the energy to concentrate on lace repeats. At the end of a long day, I'd rather have a hot meal and a glass of wine. So I've got the morning nature photos, but no WIPs to show you.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to. Especially today, which is SweetFigs' blogiversary! David always refers to this as my knitting blog, but I don't think of it that way. Do you? Sure, it's about what I've been making, but it's a lot about just me and about what's caught my eye, no? I'm rarely without a camera these days and hem and haw about upgrading my equipment. Who knows what the next year will bring. :)

Light a fire

We're back from a weekend in the Upper Peninsula. The snow was gone and the seedlings were up, but it was still cold.
Cold enough that we needed to keep the fireplace stoked, and cold enough to snow on Saturday night.
There was also another kind of fire.
The guys spent most of the weekend working with the blow torch, soldering a bunch of leaks in the water pipes, which formed when the electric service failed last winter and the water pipes froze and then burst. The electricity was off for about 2 months, so there was a lot of damage.
While the guys worked on the plumbing, the girls did a spring cleaning on the yard, the gravel driveway, and the dusty house.
Next trip, we'll have time to walk through the woods, instead of just driving by it, on the way to and from the house.