Is That A Moose In Your Yard?

My parents have longed to see a moose for I’d say approximately 15 years.  Maybe more.  They went to Alaska 7 years ago, shortly after my niece was born. While they drove extensively in the wilderness of Alaska, hoping and most likely praying to see a moose, they saw none.  So a few years later, they went to Canada and travelled to campground after campground, in hopes of seeing a moose.  Yet none never showed themselves to my parents.  In fact it was believed there was a moose conspiracy to prevent them from moose spotting.  Alas, our trip to Alaska came and we hoped and possibly even prayed to see a moose.  But there were no guarantees.  I, the endearing baby daughter plotted to bring a plastic moose on the trip and place it suspiciously in a pile of snow outside our room so they’d at least see a plastic one.  But in the end it wasn’t needed.

While in Alaska we stayed at Wedgewood Resort in Fairbanks.  Its acutally an old apartment complex, that they’ve converted to a hotel/resort.  They have a new section too that was specifically built for the resort.  But it is closed in winter.  During winter their prices are great, we stayed in what was a 1-bedroom apartment, with large living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, a huge walk-in closet, etc. for $70 a night.  Normally during their peak tourist season it would have been upwards of $300.  Its a nice little place, and there’s some wooded areas nearby.  In fact right behind our room.  You see where this is going. 

The first night there we teased mom and dad, that there were moose in the little area between the two buildings directly outside our apartment.  Ha ha, we laughed and had good fun at their expense.  The next morning, my brother and niece showed up to take dad and I (mom was feeling ill) on a drive around the wilderness of Alaska and up into the moutain region.  Dad went to look out the window, and stopped and said there are two moose bedded down inbetween the buildings.  Of course we thought he was joking, my dad does love to joke.  But he was not joking, and for the first time of at least 3 times that trip we saw moose.  In fact a mother and her calf. 

Next we saw them on the way to dinner one night. 

And then finally on our way home from our dog sled ride we saw two moose on the edge of the woods on the road from Chena Springs to Fairbanks.

Moose in the Wood

So the trip to Alaska was a mere success based only on moose sightings.  And mom and dad’s lifelong quest to find a moose has ended.Now I’m sure they are on the quest of elephants, as this December they head to South Africa.

The 40th Anniversary Bedspread is coming along quicker this 24 rows.  I have only 3 rows left, and am at 2 weeks tomorrow.  And I didn’t get to knit for 4 days in the last 2 weeks due to insanity at work.  So I’m encouraged that things are going quicker, if at least by a little.

Of course I forgot to tell you about the most exciting part, there was film being made on the plane on our way home.   The the little known sequel to “Snakes on a Plane”…..”Moose on a Plane”.  much harder to film, as they keep hitting their heads on the overhead compartments.

Have a good weekend. 

Moose on a Plane

Have you Seen This?

 They are re-releasing the Book of Fair Isle Knitting. http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Starmores-Book-Fair-Knitting/dp/0486472183/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238033940&sr=8-1  I’ve already pre-ordered mine as I don’t want to miss out.  These are selling for over $200 right now on ebay. 

I hope that means they’ll be re-releasing Aran Knitting.  According to Amazon the release date is August, perfect 13th wedding anniversary present and a bargain at $24.95.

Know Your Cuts of Lamb

Brown and Avocado

Last week my sister sent me a picture, it was a diagrom of a sheep showing the different cuts. But not in the way you would imagine.  Check out this adorable picture. 

Know Your Cuts of LambIts a t-shirt!

The ladies at City-Knitting are awesome, they shipped my stuff immediately and were so friendly! So call and order yourself one of these adorable t-shirts!

Do you want one? I had to know more about this picture as soon as I saw it, and my sister sent me the link through another link to www.city-knitting.com.  I found that they were both in t-shirts and in bags.  Well before long, I was calling 616-454-9276.  They come in a plethera of sizes, t-shirts are $15 and the bag is only $12.  I ended up buying 5 t-shirts and a bag.  Not only did I have to have one, but I had to get my sister and niece one, then this guy at work saw it and said call back and order me two, one for my sister and one for my fiance.  His sister is a kntiter and his fiance is a doctor and thought it was hilarious.  The t-shirts come in two colors. Brown with blue print and green with brown print.  I purchased the brown for myself, because they didn’t have green in my size.  Odd thing is lately all the shirts I’ve been buying for myself are brown.

Lounge Lizard

I worked 45 hours in 3 days last week, so there has been no knitting.  But I’m hoping I don’t get called in to work this afternoon, and will get some knitting done.  But if I get called into work, that is alright, we have a crazy busy month ahead of us so I’ll do what I have to.

Since you haven’t seen the boys in a while, here’s lounge lizard Django who loves the heating pad.  Goofy little dog.

Next post will contain the story of the Moose in Alaska.

Come On a Dog Sled Ride With Me

Dog Sled Ride

Originally uploaded by RebekahF

A Video of Our DogSled Ride, hope you enjoy. It was taken at Chena Springs, Alaska.  I am very excited, so you’ll here some exclamations of happiness. 

Do you like my blue shoes?

Dog Sled Ride, Anniversary Project Pictures

Warning this may be a long post, as I’m dying to show you the dog sled ride, and I’m dying to show you the anniversary projects.

First the dog sled ride.  One of the highlights of my trip was to take a dogsled ride with my dad.  It was touristy, it was expensive, but it was sooo worth it.  I’m trying to do another post with an actual video, hopefully it’ll work, but if not here’s some pictures.

Its amazing how much the dogs love to pull the sled, the excitement level is overwhelming.  They love to run.  And they love their people that care for them, and they even like the people they are pulling.  I’ve got some cute pictures from the dog meet-and-greet.

 

Isn’t it beautiful.  We were nearing the hot springs at Chena Springs, and the trees were extra white with frost and snow from the extra moisture in the air.

Dad and I in the Sled

It was beyond fun.

Now back to the anniversary projects.  So I’ve been working so much the last couple of weeks and will be working a ton between now and April, so I haven’t had as much time to knit.  One would have thought that a year and a half to finish a project would be enough time, but for the bedspread it is not looking that way.

In fact, for four weeks of knitting I’ve only accomplished 5 inches.  This means it should be done sometime in the fall of 2010, and not the summer as it should be.  My sister’s afghan though shows much greater progress much quicker as its a normal worsted weight yarn. 

First the bedspread.  It was supposed to be knit in strips.  But I hate sewing, with a passion, so I decided I’d knit it all in one, except the top and bottom border.  So I start with the border, Grandmother’s Lace, and its really neat. 

Grandmother's Lace Border

This will also be the border for the top and bottom of the bedspread.  Although I’m thinking of just adding it to the bottom, as the top will be covered by pillows, etc. I’ll decide that next year sometime.

The body is a tumbling leaf pattern with a simple open work lace to break up the leaves. 

Tumbling Leaves and Open Work Lace

One size 1 Addi’s this is a very slow going project.  It looks like around July of next year, when the 40th anniversary takes place, I’ll be somewhere around 80 inches, it needs around 112, or so I currently calculate.  So I’ll give it to them and take it back for finishing. 

Now for the 25th Anniversary Afghan for my sister, it’ll be done in time no problem.  I’m making it a tad larger then the pattern, I hadded two more tree repeats and I’m going to add two more segments, 1 garden and 1 tree to make it larger. 

Tree Afghan

I absolutely love it, and its a pretty fun knit.  Perfect for breaking up the bedspread, its knit on size 8 needles also in a cotton, Sierra by Cascade, but super super soft.  A perfect break in the size 1 routine. 

I just finished a 24 row break on this, and have gone back to the bedspread now for another 24 rows.  That is all my hands can take without needing a break of something larger.

So that is all for now in this picture heavy post. Thanks for sharing with me.

Oh and I’ve updated Ravelry with my pictures of projects.

Qivuit On the Hoof

There were many things we hoped for our trip to Alaska, my mom wanted to see the Northern Lights.  Unfortunately the conditions were not accommodating and we did not see them.  Another grea hope for all of us was to see a moose.  And I of course wanted to see a musk ox.  The last two wishes were granted.  I’ll tell you the moose stories in another post, but this post is all about musk ox. 

The only part of going to Alaska in February that I regret is that the Large Animal Research Facility at the University of Fairbanks is not open during the winter.  Otherwise I absolutely loved going to Alaska in winter. But I sure would have liked seeing these guys more up close.  instead I had my fairly high powered zoom on my Digital SLR to aid in seeing them a little better.

Musk Ox at Large Animal Research Center

NOne of my other family members were as excited as I was to see these guys in the flesh. Now I can’t wait to make the Musk Ox Slippers that are on Knitty right now.  I have a musk ox t-shirt and a musk-ox stuffed animal from my trip.  I think slippers are a necessity. I just need to find time in my insane anniversary knitting to make something like that.  But until then, its back to the knitting as I don’t have time to break. 

another quick thing about the Qivuit is this.  The Anchorage Airport is rather small, there’s not much to do or see there, and really only one wing (although there is more under construction).  The one interesting thing there was a display about Quivit.  I took a ton of pictures. 

Qivuit Display

Have a good rest of the week!