Sunday walking

Lately, Sunday afternoons we try to visit a local area to walk us and the dog.  It's the only afternoon we usually have free and it's really nice we can spend barely 15 minutes to get to a nice place to go.

This week we decided to go to Thumb Butte in the Prescott National Forest.  From the first website, it's a fairly popular and well traveled trail.  Only barely 2 miles long.......


Here's the hikers ready to go....we had no idea what we were in for. Jefe did quite well, but I don't think he really "enjoyed" it LOL!



A view from the start of the walk.



As we got closer....in between my huffing and puffing!!!  My legs were fine, I stand on them all day at work, however, due to the altitude as we walked higher and higher it was pretty rough for me.  A great cardiovascular workout though!


You can barely see the people at the top left.  One day...that is my goal, 2 miles up and still breathing...baby steps for now though.

As we were climbing, we stopped to let me catch my breath and take in the beautiful scenery.

We are looking immediately at Prescott, and the arrow is the area my house is, in Prescott Valley.  To the right of the arrow are the Granite Dells and further back is Mingus Mountain.  There is a trail that goes through the Dells and connects to the Iron King Trail, which is right down the street from me.


Love all the trees and you can see Granite Mountain in the distance.


Here it is a little closer. When my son was home last August, we hiked the lower areas.

Here we are taking a breathing break! She thought it was just a little walk, you know a break from studying (yes someone started college last week)


I don't know how long we'll be living here, but I owe it to myself to enjoy as much as I can of it.  See, Arizona isn't just desert ;)

I miss hat knitting!

I usually always have a hat in mind or in progress (shhh...the wip pile is calling me..um..er)..well I frogged one hat and it will now become 2 hats, one of which will go to the Hats for Sailors project. The handspun will become yet another hat. Also had a baby hat started with some other leftovers I think I'll frog as well. I mean, come on a hat on the needles for almost a year...yeah, frogging should be done!

Enter a new pretty quick knit I was hoping to finish for the closing ceremonies for the games. Yeah, it didn't happen, but that's ok.

I love pumpkiny colors!



Sometimes hard to photograph the back of one's head!

psss...don't look too closely at the leaves, something is eating them??

Oh and of course I put the hat on backwards....or is it sidewards.

I like my buttons to be on the left...why I have no idea, I just do!


Speaking of buttons, I love the leather type buttons but not the price or non-wash-ability of them. I found these cool ones at the local fabric store that starts with a J ;) Washable and dry cleanable, perfect :)

Was knit in the leftovers from this cowl, not the same pattern, but very similar :) Fall, where are you??

Mint by Thea Coleman
The Plucky Knitter MCN Aran in Pumpkin Flame
US 7 needles
Started August 9, 2012 - Finished August 19, 2012
Knit the 90 stitch size

No mods, a pretty easy knit.  I did get a bit tired by the end of the ktbl stitches as this yarn is a bit hefty, but oh so soft and glorious to knit with! I think I have a green skein from a mystery kit that will become Basil, the other companion to this pattern.

I will warn you if you knit this via magic loop.  Don't forget your YO's at the end of the row.  You may be better off moving your end of row somewhere and use a marker.  Luckily I found my missing 2 YO's and no I didn't frog, I figure no one but me will notice.  See, I am not always a total perfectionist...well..I try ;)

Now off to find that green MCN aran....sure hopes she sells it again this fall!

From TdF to Ravellenics

What started out like this....



Turned into this during the Tour de Fleece...



Then turned into these during the Ravellenic Games...





Cozy Cuffed Mitts by Karen Everitt
Gaga Air Falkland dyed by Nest Fiber Studio, spun by me :)
US 5 circulars, magic loop

No mods that I can think of.  As you can see the stripes don't totally match, but pretty good IMHO for handspun.  I can live with that, which is saying a lot for type A me ;)  I like how they are almost mittens.  I can keep them down, or roll them up.  Won't be my last pair I don't think ;)

The Falkland is to die for and doesn't feel scratchy on.  I may have found my most favorite fiber to spin for yardage and wearability :D  Might be destashing some BFL here soon as it's so hard to tolerate it :(  I wanted this handspun to be socks, but once I realized I had some bulky bits in there, the fabric was just too thick for socks....I finally listened to my yarn and mitts it became...

Off to my next Ravellenic project....I have 1.5 days to do it...can I???  FYI: no way on the sweater, it has now become my August goal.  I'm not bummed, I really didn't expect to finish it in 2 weeks, but I did gain some momentum and enthusiam to finish it. So stay tuned for another almost 2 year FO ;)