Winter Knitting

It's winter, and I'm on vacation, so I've been knitting non-stop!  I've been planning projects and going through my stash and generally having withdrawal symptoms if I'm away from my needles for too long.  I bought a new book with the LYS gift certificates I received for Christmas...Coastal Knits.  I am in love...I want to make so many of the patterns.  I also bought yarn for a new sweater for me, Plain and Simple Pullover.  I'm going to knit it in a beautiful grey yarn from Palouse Yarn Company.  But for now, I'm focusing on finishing Christmas presents (yes, still!) and knitting for the plethora of babies expected in 2013!

Preschooler Sweater #1

Preschooler Sweater #2 (Matches Mama's!)

Inca Hat (From Itty-Bitty Knits)

The cloche I knit for myself on the way home from Bend!

 

Merry Christmas!

Winter's Eve

When I am coming back to Moscow, and I see Moscow Mountain, I sometimes have a sense of home wash over me, just as I used to when I would see Sharp Top and Flat Top in the Peaks of Otter where I grew up in Virginia.  It's funny how your adopted home can become just as comforting to you as your native soil, as the years wind by.  

So beautiful today, in the last light of the day.

 

Winter Solstice

 

To keep back the long winter's night, we had a solstice party with the neighbors.  We made sun cookies, and bright colored play dough.  Then, we turned off all the lights, and turned on the sun!

Winter Roadtrip

Last weekend we took a roadtrip to Bend, OR for the USA Cycling Gran Prix of Cyclocross.  I had long wanted to visit Bend, having built it up in my mind as the penultimate small Northwestern city.  

It's funny how when you built something up in your mind, it often comes out differently in reality.

Bend had way more sprawl than I was anticipating.  The downtown area was nice, but I'm not sure I'd consider Patagonia to be a local merchant.  And what the heck was up with all the traffic circles?  

However, Bend also has some really lovely features.  I love the fact that the Deschutes River runs right through downtown, and I love even more the fact that for much of the downtown stretch, a public park and walkway line the river.   We didn't even begin to explore it to satisfaction.

Bend also has big, pointy, white peaks going for it.  These should warrant future exploration.  Of course we didn't see them until our drive home, but they were lovely never the less.  And the desert is its own form of beauty.

Of course, we were also quite pleased to be back on the Palouse.  Back home.

Fish ladder on the Deschutes

The deserts of Eastern Oregon

Mt Hood

Mt Adams

Fog as we enter the scablands

What a beautiful sunset...we were amazed by how nice the weather was for mid-December!

My son took this picture!

Lights and Whites

Every day from now until the winter solstice we lose two minutes of light per day.  This week we've had wonderful unseasonable sunny-ish November weather, and it's been great.  This sunny weather has corresponded with a full moon, so it seems unusually bright.  

We spent a little bit of time decorating this weekend.  Not the tree yet...that is still coming.  But a few things.  White linens, paperwhite bulbs, lights on the house.  Enough to make it a little brighter.

Still too dark to take pictures!