Have you seen it? Ennea Collective is out! Spin Knit Weave online magazine!

I have to say, it's pretty dang awesome. The world NEEDS more of this! Spinning, Knitting and Weaving patterns, cool calculator things and articles! ARTICLES! I *heart* reading about knitting & spinning (and weaving is growing on me as much as I'm trying NOT to go there) almost as much as knitting and spinning itself!

I also happen to have my first published article and pattern that's not self-published. YAY! There's also some beautiful fingerless mitts and a shawl for handspun that's to die for. Already added to my queue on ravelry!

The patterns are for sale, but are priced pretty low and the articles are all free. Did I say how much I LOVE reading articles about spinning and knitting? Or even articles of knitting WITH yarn you've SPUN? It's genius. Please go check it out. :) Next issue is due out in December. I can't wait.

Here's a few more photos of my Sidewinder Cowl. I have to say a HUGE thank you to my dear friend Carmen of GirlyPurls for taking the fabulously atsy shots that were used in the magazine. The regular, boring photos are from my daughter & me. :) I love that big warm cowls can also be plopped on your head and become fashionable ear warmers/hats without a top.







The article I wrote was how to spin the yarn to create this cowl. My personal technique for plying off both ends of a center pull ball. There's also a link to a video I created to boot. Go read it & watch it and tell me what you think. And now, my very favoritest shot.... (thanks again Carmen!) Do you think it's too crazy to use it as my avatar? MAN I have a big mouth.

Raining balls of yarn

OK, I promise to stop with the videos soon! MAN I'd be out there playing with the cats!

You know, one nice thing about moving and packing up all your things is that you have much less places to LOSE your knitting projects. I'm almost finished with the 2nd sock of the last of the sock yarn still in the house, and I can't find the first one. I know it's not been packed. It HAS to be here somewhere. I've only got about half the furniture and NONE of the clutter, so how could I possibly lose the thing? *sigh* Will have to finish packing the last little bits tonight and see if it turns up. I'm not very anal about knitting my socks (compared to almost other piece of knitting I do). I actually LIKE fraternal socks. I love how one may pool in funky manners and the other diagonally stripes. I love that. I do, however, enjoy two socks that are the SAME LENGTH. I need to find the first completed sock so its mate will be reasonably the same length when worn. Yes, I wear long pants with my wool socks. No, nobody will be able to verify if one is longer than the other. Yes, I'll know. And Yes, it WILL make me insane. So maybe I'm not as relaxed about my sock knitting as I thought I was.

Save the Wool!

This amazing, wonderful wooly stuff is in danger. Local mills are almost a thing of the past and even in England where wool is king, wool is hitting an all-time low, making it too expensive for many farmers to raise sheep for this amazing fiber. Go hug a sheep and buy some wool from a local yarn shop or online.

Another interesting post of wooliness is from Brooklyn Tweed. Have you heard of his new yarn adventure? Brooklyn Tweed's New Yarn Line is amazing. Not just putting a famous name on a line of existing yarn, this man went out and created his special blends of wools and has amazing patterns to showcase these new yarns (many featuring my true love--garter stitch).



Go on, pull some good old wool out of the stash (or even better go BUY MORE at a LYS, online shop or Etsy Store!) and revel in this amazing fiber. No static electricity, no plasticky scrinch feeling as you knit it, it floats, it stays warm even when wet, it breathes, it wicks moisture away from your body and it's WOOL people. I *heart* it very much. Knit a pair of socks for someone you love. Lets help keep this industry alive.

PS, I totally blame the Stashbuckler for the Sesame Street video. She posted a fabulous Grover clip on her blog and I've been yearning for SS all day long. :)

Sneak Peek! Ennea Collective plus online knitting magazine directory

Ennea Collective Sneak Peak

OH, I'm SOOOOOO excited for this new online magazine! Have you heard about it yet? The Ennea Collective's first issue is supposed to come out around Oct 15th! Featuring articles, patterns & tutorials for spinning, weaving and knitting! Can I get a WOO HOO? WOO HOO!!!!!

Plus, I have a pattern and article coming out in the first issue! YAY!

Click HERE to go to the website. There's a sneak peek at a few photos to whet your appetite. There's also a Ravelry Group and Facebook Page for those non-ravelers out there.

I just love good online resources for knitting, spinning and crafting of all sorts!
Here's a few of my knitting online favorites:
Knitty

Twist Collective

PopKnits

Knotions

KnitCircus

Petite Purls

Knitch



Do you have some favorites to add to the list? I'd love to know! Please post in comments.

4! Ounce! Challenge!

Have you heard of the 4! Ounce! Challenge!? Adrian of Hello Yarn, David from Southern Cross Fibre and Amy of Spunky Eclectic joined together for a cool contest. Spin up 4 ounces of fiber from any of the three, design & knit something using the 4 oz, submit it to them and get in a drawing for a crap ton of fibery goodness. Guess when the last day was to submit a design? Anyone? Sept 30th. Um, TODAY. Anyone want to guess when good old, organized, well planned out Christine submitted her design? Um, 5 minutes ago. Awesome!

Go check the ravelry group for a bunch of cool ideas and patterns for ideas for what to do with just 4 oz of fiber/yarn.

Here's my pattern, (ravelry link) the ZOMG Cowl. I spun up some spunky eclectic fiber, 80/20 merino/cashmere and knit up the softest, squooshiest cowl EVER!

ZOhMyGosh this is the softest, warmest, squooshiest cowl EVER! The ZOMG Cowl is just the thing to keep you warm on a cool autumn afternoon/winter day while zooming around the suburbs on a dune buggy with a rusty old muffler pulled from a wrecked car to keep your neighbors from calling the cops because the thing is SO. FREAKIN. LOUD.

Or, um, just the thing to wear on a cool autumn afternoon/winter day walking through the neighborhood like a normal person. That works too. But seriously, you totally need a dune buggy. PS, I know the ZOMG is the snarkier version of OMG, but I'm a bit snarky that way, so it just seems to fit.

PS, my favorite way to wear a cowl is to plop it on my head and wear it like a uber-trendy earwarmer. I amaze myself with my fashionista awesomeness. I also embarrass my children with that very same fashionista awesomeness. Wonder why the kids don't ride with me?

ZOMG Cowl

More finding goodies while packing

I found this little baby under the bed (in its ziplock bag of course) when I was packing over the weekend. I figured it was a sign to sit down and relax for a while, so sat and knit it up into a Chickadee Cowl by Kristen Kapur. I modify this cowl to fewer stitches (I cast on 59 instead of 79) as linen stitch tends to grow sideways and I like a snug fitting cowl. It was spun from merino wool hand dyed by Nikol at ArtClub, and from Yarn School, which is coming soon! Sure wish I was going this year. *sigh*

We had a wonderful weekend at Chez Weasley, spending time with lots of family, packing, sitting and remembering fun things as we found buried treasures under beds, in backs of closets, etc. AND the KC CHIEFS are 3-0! Can I get a WOO HOO? MAN there's nothing better than football knitting in the fall.

It's amazing what you find when you start packing!

I pulled this little project out of the back of the craft closet. Wow, I used to cross stitch. It's been ages. Probably at least 4 Halloweens ago I started this baby. Found it with the "Boo to You" and the eyes stitched. Finished this up just in time for Halloween! I love quick projects, especially those you tuck into something for NO finishing whatsoever!

Oh, and I'm totally screwed as when I shipped off all the sockyarn, I apparently forgot just how fast it is to knit socks when you knit a few rounds waiting at football practice, a few rounds waiting after choir practice..... Holy crap. One down, one to go and then I'm out of sockyarn. Figured I'd better cast on thread up another cross stitch project. Found this one that was probably also started about 4 autumns ago... This ought to keep me busy once the 2nd sock is completed. Only issue is that you can't really cross stitch those itty bitty beads a few stitches at a time like you can knit socks....ugh. I'll be glad when the move's all done!

That ain't right

**They may not look like much, but those are the LARGE sized space bags all sucked down to blocks of wool. You can fit a king sized comforter in each one of those babies.**

That just ain't right! Look at 'em. Layin'there. TOUCHIN'each other. No protection, just rubbin' all up against each other with nary a sheath of rubber/plastic/ziplock in between. All kinds, all types, all mixed up together. Associatin' with each other. sockyarns with bulky, handspun with commercial, solids, stripes, laceweight, cotton, wool, alpaca......

Boggles my mind. I know NORMAL knitters have yarn all in pretty baskets together. They have them on shelves together. I, myself, had some different types toghether, sort of. BUT they all were in ZIPLOCK freezer gallon bags. Every single colorway, every type, each freakin sockyarn had its own. Yes. It may be overkill, but it keeps me and my yarn bug free and happy.

Even worse than seeing them all sucked into bags together, even worse than the fact that one of the space bags has apparently sprung a leak and isn't even protecting the yarn as a whole while its all mashed in there together, is the fact that it's NO LONGER IN MY HOUSE! I KNOW! Insane, right?

Well, we happened upon the perfect house for the Weasleys. And we happened to buy it. Within 4 hours of finding it, the owners accepted our original offer. And within another 24 hours, our freaky Weasley Burrow split level house CRAMMED with CRAP (and a great deal of yarn) had to be mostly emptied out as people were in here LOOKING at it. Yeah. We do nothing planned out and organized. That would make sense.

Of course, that's not the whole stash. It's just what happened to be in my extra dresser. Each in its individual freezer weight ziplock bag. Husband had to get rid of 2 dressers, so apparently extra yarn that isn't being knit immediately does not earn much respect in the whole taking up space thing as CLOTHING that IS being worn on a daily basis. I know. It doesn't work for me either, but in the spirit of not trying to kill each other through this little upheaval, I caved. I said goodbye to a good part of the stash. It now lives at another knitter's house in her guest room. I couldn't take the risk of sending it to the inlaw's. It had to be somewhere that if the place burns down, a knitter would save it.

I actually helped carry the cedar chest to the garage to be shipped away. The cedar chest is home to all things malabrigo and cascade 220 (also each in its own freezer weight gallon ziplock bag.) Yes, I KNOW it's a cedar chest but you just can't be too careful. No, that's NOT crazy. Just well prepared. For those few non-yarny readers of the blog, that chest is my life-blood of yarn. It completes me. I made it through about half a night. I couldn't take it. It was just SITTING THERE. In my garage. Waiting to be driven away. I woke Jeff (there may or may not have been tears flowing down my face at this point) at about 1am. I couldn't sleep. I wanted my yarn back. We weren't going to be moving for another month. I just couldn't do it. He agreed and in a very non-grumpy manner after I made him promise and sign his name that he would, in fact, help me find a way to put it back into the house, let him go to sleep. Hey, sleepy promises don't mean shxt. A CYG's gotta do what a CYG's gotta do. *CYG=Crazy Yarn Girl A great deal of other crap was moved out of the TOP floor's closet which is now home to the cedar chest of glory. The husband earned extra points for not grumping about the fact that it is down 3 sets of stairs and took some serious finaglin' to fit into the closet and caused a few bumped knuckles. I do love that man.

Though it's sad to leave the Weasley house of many levels and exploding things, I figure the new house will have more room for yarn AND children. Plus all the animal skins, dune buggy, ultra wood stove and the husband with a penchant for exploding things are coming along. It may just feel like home after all.

For those of you not impressed with the level of my moving-crap-out-to-sell-this-house, let me point out that at this very moment I have NO extra sockyarn in my house. The only sockyarn I have is an almost knit first sock and the remaining sockyarn to create its mate.

Yay for Knitting Roundups on One Pretty Thing!

Have you seen One Pretty Thing? She's the queen rounder-upper of all things crafty on the innernets. I *heart* her blog very much. She has crafting roundups, diy roundups, free printable roundups, kids craft roundups, crocheting roundups, crafty reading roundups, KNITTING ROUNDUPS! and roundups I can't even remember. I love this blog because it really goes through the TONS of stuff out there and picks out the cool bits in craftiness for me to check out! Click HERE to go see the newest Knitting Roundup!

Guess who's little twisted drop stitch video is listed in the most recent roundup? YAY! Now get out there and KNIT you a super speedy, cool scarf! You can use any type of yarn, from handspun art yarn to cascade 220 to *shudders* fun fur. I'm just sayin' it COULD be done. Holiday knitting is coming closer and closer. Crank out a few scarves and start putting DONE check marks next to names on your Good List. :)

Know when to walk away...know when to run

I'm running. Running like hell. I can knit this sweater no more. It's a lovely pattern. It's lovely yarn. Who doesn't love Silky Wool? It's just a horrid, horrid combination for me. Bad. Real bad.

In the words of Kenny Rogers, "You've got to know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run." SO, I've knit this sweater almost entirely TWICE. Knit it 2 years ago. Fully un-wove the already woven-in ends. Frogged it. Reskeined the yarn. PUT IT AWAY. Then somehow I decided I'd not given the combo a fair shake and did it again. All of it. Again. I had walked away, but I came back. I knit. Again I wove in ends. Again I sewed down a waist hem. Again I knit the whole damn thing except for the sleeves and realized that I need to run. RUN AWAY FAST.

The yarn has been reskeined yet again. It has been bagged up and will be delivered to another knitter without such a love/hate relationship with it. It will be out of my house and not tempting me that if I just knit it again, THIS TIME it would be different.


You know, looking at that pretty, pretty yarn and the pretty, pretty pictures of models riding bikes home from the farmers market with baskets full of fresh produce, I could almost see that sweater becoming mine. I could ride a bike home from the farmers market if I just had that sweater..... OUT OF THE STASH! BE GONE WITH YOU! NO MORE TEMPTATION!

It just wasn't meant to be.

God bless Labor Day!

I'm so excited to NOT be laboring this weekend! AND an extra day off to boot! WOO HOO!

I'll be working on the crap ton of crocheted roses. All those ends.....the cool thing is since it's gonna be felted anyway and you need to secure the petals etc. I just thread the needles, stab it back & forth in a non-professional and quite messy method and when they're felted, they're fabulous anyway! MAN, I forgot how much I love felting knitted objects! Ok, these are technically crocheted, but you get the idea.

That's no little craft tote either. It's about 12 inches tall, 9 inches wide and 16 inches across. CRAMMED full with noro wool crocheted into flower bits.

I feel a crafty tutorial is in order, so I'll take some photos along the way. Christine's Crocheted Roses...coming soon to a blog near you....

Happy Crafting, everyone!

Tutorial: Recycled Packaging with Handspun Yarn Scraps!

Supply List:
Toilet Paper rolls
Markers or paint & brushes
Clear drying glue (Aleene's craft glue or elmers works fine)
popsicle stick for applying glue (or use your fingers)
Yarn scraps...bonus points if they're handspun! YAY!

TreasureGoddess free patterns

All the links to tutorials and free patterns on the right are now fixed! Sorry about that, hadn't realized they'd all expired. cripes. :) Most of the pattern links to ravelry info pages. If you're not on ravelry, please send me an email to treasuregoddessATkcDOTsurewestDOTnet or leave a comment here and I'll send you the pdf directly.

Guess what followed Jeff home yesterday? Can we keep it? Can we? Yup. The husband now has a project! WOO HOO! How else did you think I found the time to actually work on the blog? Its paint is rusting off, battery was all crudded up, one of the seat cusions just is sitting on top if it, you can't tighten the seat belts and you get covered in rust when you ride on it, but it RUNS and it's so much fun!

When the husband has a big project to occupy his time I get so much spinning & knitting & blogging done! And the best thing? Since it's nice weather, I don't have to come downstairs and find oil pans next to open flames inside my house. (scan to the end of the post for photo).

Sleeves...cryptonite to the TreasureGoddess

What is it about them? Why do they derail my knitted projects so severely? They're TUBES for cripes sake. TUBES that take LESS YARN and LESS STITCHES than the body of the sweater. I knit sweaters in the round. It makes no sense what-so-ever. After taking a walk through my WIPS, I realized almost every stinking one of them is sitting waiting patiently for sleeves. The photos are all old. Apparently not only do I not feel like knitting them, I don't feel like photographing their lack of sleeveiness either.

Slinky Ribs by Wendy Bernard. Actually have finished the whole darn thing except for the sleeves. Neck edging? done. Hem at bottom of sweater? sewn down. button band? done. Sleeves? nothing. nada. nope. They're even gonna be SHORT. ugh


OK, this one's not too bad. The sleeves are actually THERE only because it's a raglan cap sleeve and they were part of the body. I've done the neck edging and only have the sleeve edging remaining. This one is pitiful that it's not completed yet. If I motivate myself, I could actually WEAR it before the cold weather comes in.


And who could forget this little sleeve incident? Looks like I'll be knitting THREE sleeves before this sweater is complete.


Maybe I don't need sleeves anyway. I wore this yesterday with a denim skirt and it was just right. :)

TreasureGoddess Tutorial on YouTube!

What do you think? Other than the fact that I can't stand still, it's a bit too dark, I talk too fast, my lake dress doesn't match the trademark TreasureGoddess ORANGE lopsided cowgirl hat and it's totally amateurish, what do you think? Is it at least helpful in learning a cool stitch for using handspun yarn? More techniques for knitting with art yarn will follow soon! PS--the video on youtube is much clearer (and bigger). Click HERE to see the TreasureGoddessChic channel.

This stitch is used on my Handspun Twisted Drop Stitch Scarf.

It seems I've always had a flair for fashion that's just a titch off society's norm. My aunt pulled this gem out for me the other day. I remember I LOVED this dress. Loved it so that I wore it almost every day. I also remember it came with an attached bow and I took it off because it would have made the outfit look "gaudy." Yup. I think the hope that I'll show a polished, professional image to the world as TreasureGoddess is not gonna happen. That ship sailed long ago. Man, check out the rick-rack on that dress! This world is a better place with rick-rack in it.

The knitting mojo is back.

Well that didn't take long. I apparently have a true addiction to craft. Though I couldn't bring myself to knit, I did instantly glom onto crochet, sewing -- I got out mom's hand-me-down Bernat machine and sewed up some cloth napkins, and even picked up the Autumn cross stitch project that has been sitting on the bed-side table since, um, LAST Autumn. Ah well. When I discussed with the husband the fact that I went almost 3 entire days & nights without knitting, he'd had no clue. To him anything slightly craft related is "knitting". He was not impressed with the magnitude of my knitterly loss. Ah well. I'z back now.

And I haz official FINISHED OBJECT photos! YAY!

Red/orange fluffiness is some hand dyed (by moi) 50/50 mohair/alpaca knit in Citron, an awesome free pattern from the Winter 09 issue of knitty.

The green number is knit with 2 skeins of Plymouth Mulberry Merino 50/50 merino/silk, only $8.50 a skein from a LYS, Knit Wit in Olathe, KS (no website). The pattern is mine, the Hippie Headkerchief & Shawlette. Only modifications are to knit until I ran out of both skeins, creating a little larger shawlette and also continued the stitch pattern right up until the bind off row, not doing a garter stitch edge. I love it so very much and just know it'll get worn a LOT this fall/winter! If you're interested in the shawlette pattern (shown here in green), it's $3. You don't have to have a paypal or ravelry account to purchase.

Man, I love fiber presents. Knitters ROCK!

Before I left, I gave a skein of my hand dyed laceweight heaven (1100 yards of silk/baby alpaca/CASHMERE) to a dear friend. When I returned from the family vacation, THIS lacey bit of loveliness was gifted to me! THANK YOU CHERY! WOO HOO! She not only knit my aoelian, but a twin out of some lovely blue lacey lamb as well. My colors aren't quite true on my version, it's actually a glowing warm mango orange. I dyed it HOT PINK and then overdyed with a wash of orange. It's lovely all knit up and I'm so happy to be able to wear it this fall & winter! (Chery's photo of me wearing the shawl wrapped around my head is the best color capture.)



I not only had this lovely shawl, but a present waiting in the mail as well! Kelly, from Celtic Cast-On, decided after reading about my post in which I shared my love of all things mohair, to SEND ME MOHAIR YARN! Just BECAUSE I love it so! How amazing is that? And not only is it lovely, hairy, fluffy mohair, it has ALL my favorite colors in it too! TWO big balls of Jaeger Super Kid. It's got greens, reds, ORANGES and all things yummy. I think it wants to be a lace scarf when it grows up. I'm flipping through stitch pattern books to find just the right pattern! I'll post a free pattern here when it's done. THANK YOU!


Am I the only one? Or do you all run about the house and yard flapping your arms like a big fluffy butterfly when you try on a new shawl? Nope? Just me. OK. Give it a try. If you're lucky enough to have a shawl like this one, I swear you feel like you will just lift off and take flight! (wonder if this is why all our neighbors seem to be moving away? nah, it's probably the dead racoon, barbequed squirrels and loud children. Not the strange lady taking photos of yarn in the grass and flapping her shawled arms like a flightless fowl.)

I have not knit for over 32 hours now

No, I am not dead. I have not broken all 10 fingers and toes. I am not blind (although my stupid retina issues from the big wreck in Jan are giving me big black flashes of light and three semi-permanent spots I'm going to have to give names to if they hang around much longer). I have put the knitting down. And walked away.

There may have been cursing.

Yup. You know how you can feel like a freaking GENIUS when you've knit something? This amazing power. I. MADE. THIS. You create a piece of clothing with substance, style and warmth out of some sticks and strings. You are a CREATOR of KNITTERLY things. You, my friend, are a GENIUS. Well, see above for how knitting can bring you back to reality. I am an idiot. I shouldn't be trusted with sharp sticks. How do I manage to feed and clothe myself on a daily basis? Yeah. And people think knitting's boring.

I broke a cardinal rule of knitting. I knit one sleeve on size 7 dpns. I found the sz 7 circular needle before beginning the 2nd sleeve. I knew it was wrong. I knew bad things could happen, but I was a CREATOR. I have a good and solid gauge. I didn't NEED to follow rules that apply to mere mortals. I got kicked in the arse. TWO INCHES wider. Yup. I don't have the heart to frog it back. I put the knitting away and will come back to it another day and start fresh on dpns like a good little mortal. I will leave the other monster sleeve and if I need the yarn to finish the sweater, will put it in the freezer and then frog it. Otherwise, it may become a freakishly long hat, which just happens to match the sleeve edging of my sweater.

I couldn't bring myself to pick up another knitting project, so I pulled out a bunch of noro kureyon wool scraps and a crochet hook. And I crocheted. and crocheted. and crocheted. I've got about 3 more half-skeins to go. Then I'll use the tails to secure the roses & toss them all into the washing machine to felt up into a lovely woolly bouquet.


I tried to remember the last time I've gone more than 24 hours without knitting something. anything. even a round on a sock. I can't remember. It's a little bit frightening. Am I the only one? Is that strange? ok, is that strange for a Knitter? Even on my honeymoon I put in a few rows after getting up in the morning on a sock. I think it's been over 5 years of knitting something Every. Single. Day.

OK, I have a super sweet (and not at all freaky like today) post coming SOON of amazing knitterly things I received when I got back from the uber-family-vacation. It involves MOHAIR and HAND KNITTED SHAWLS and CASHMERE and PICC LINE COVERS. Knitters rock.

I got a kick out of this photo when I was going through the vacation shots. You know how vacation photos always show the group SMILING and casual and posed in front of the mountain/lake/ocean? Well, I think this shot is a bit more realistic. I don't actually remember this instance, but am pretty sure you could substitute the following caption...."Get your ARSE OFF of [your brother, the edge of that cliff, the top of the van, your sister, etc] and don't MAKE me come over there!" We had such a good time! (and yes, that IS a yarn t-shirt I'm wearing. I got it from Twist, a cool LYS in Wichita, KS.)

Thank you Elizabeth Zimmermann

In true EZ style, I knit my way through the family vacation, across the wilderness for days 2-12 of the super vacation. The knitting? It kept me sane. Mostly. I believe EZ wrote in her Knitters Almanac that a shawl was the perfect vacation knitting project. You could knit forever on it and it kept you from killing your family members in pure frustration of spending so much time together in a close space. (I'm pretty sure she worded it a bit nicer than that, but it's a pretty close summary.) Citron shawl in TreasureGoddess hand dyed mohair/alpaca light fingering/heavy laceweight yarn. The ruffle was knit across the entire state of Nebraska and part of South Dakota.

To summarize days 2-12 of the uber family vacation, we did NOT get eaten by bears (though we saw pretty darn fresh bear poo on one of our backwoods trails in Montana). I think both of us parents should get awards for surviving that long with 4 children and a minivan and EACH OTHER for 12 days. There were a few Knit-Sanity-Needing moments, and I'll let you figure out who did what. Most of the trip was pure, relaxed enjoying nature and family time fun.

ONE of us had a major come-upart that included sobbing, cursing, sob-yelling and a wagging of a finger in the other's face and may have included the words "YOU GET YOUR ARSE BACK UP THERE AND GET MY BABIES BACK OFF THAT FUXXING CLIFF RIGHT FUXXING NOW!" or something to that effect. I actually saw a couple hikers coming down with their super backpacks, walking sticks and pack dogs. They stopped, and without making eye contact, quietly backed away in a non-threatening manner. Much like you're trained to do with a momma bear separated from her cubs. (This is not the cliff in the story, see the MOUNTAIN MAN is actually ON the boulder with the young ones this time? Their cliff resembled what's in the background of the photo. Somehow everyone was quite eager to please the momma bear and play by the rules after the "great come-upart". The kids refer to this photo as the one "just after mom lost it".)

ONE of us went onto a puffed-up-with-all-the-knowledge-of-the-world Professorial Explanation of WHY that mountain stream flowing along was "crystal clear mountain waters" and that anyone not allowing the children and him or herself to drink from it was denying the children a true American Experience. Because That's The Way Things Are. Yeah, well ONE of us later had massive exploding diarrhea all night long. The OTHER ONE of us only said, "Huh. How 'bout that" when he or she brought the Professor another roll of toilet paper. After much flushing, it was Explained that even the original Mountain Men would have one night of stomach upset to get their stomachs acclimated to the natural water and after that one night they were officially ready to drink from any mountain stream with no worries. I think the OTHER ONE of us should get a medal because he or she did not point out that this was the stupidist thing he or she had ever heard but just again said "Huh. How 'bout that" and walked away to pick up his or her knitting.


Yellowstone was absolutely amazing. We hiked around most of the HUGE park for a couple of days and even got to stay at the Old Faithful Inn in a suite that overlooked the geyser. It was a rustic inn and had no air conditioning or tv, just nature. It was fabulous. We saw bison up close and personal (one was even walking through the forest next to the parking lot and was about 5 feet away when we stepped through the trees...HELLOOO BUFFALO!, we saw snakes, deer, elk, more bear poo and bear scratches on trees with bits of bear fun in it, but no bears. We saw the campsite where the poor campers were mauled/killed the week before. ONE of us did a demonstration of the bear ripping campers to bits for the children and the OTHER ONE of us did a quiet eye roll in a dignified fashion.




We spent about 4 days in Montana near Red Lodge and in the Bear Tooth Mountains and even had 55 people at a family reunion. There was a "kids" baseball game that lasted for about 2 1/2 days including everyone from the about 6-26yrs old and a few dads here and there. There was full-body-contact croquet (our kids play a bit rough and introduced this sport to the others.) There was much running amok screaming, playing, giggling and drinking pop until midnight and then not being able to settle down until 3am. Parents were able to sit around sipping a beer, knitting, chatting and enjoying the sounds of all our kids playing and remembering our own childhoods of doing pretty much the same thing with cousins on Grandpa's farm in western Kansas.

All that and mountain scenery too? And did I tell you there's NO BUGS THERE? NOT ONE SINGLE TICK and I think all of us together had maybe ONE mosquito bite. TOTAL. I tell you, it was THISCLOSE to heaven. Can you imagine waking up, sitting on the porch with your knitting, a cup of tea and THIS as your scenery?


EZ had it figured out. Nature and family and knitting. Although I'm pretty sure she never lost it in a fit of rage/sobbing/cursing fright up on the mountain top. I did realize that it's a good thing I use circular needles as I'd have jabbed the CRAP out of that poor husband of mine if I'd been armed with a regular old metal straight needles in the backpack. Hmmmmm. Maybe there was a side of the laid back, relaxed, feisty old woman EZ that we didn't know. She used circular needles for almost everything too....... Naa, I just can't see it. I need to channel more EZ and less craZY on the next family vacation. Happy 100th Birthday EZ! You inspire us even today. In knitting and in facing the wilderness with a sense of calm and how one stitch after another can calm the soul.