(Another) HAT

I really need to stop with the hats. But then again, yarn needs to be turned into something, right? I'm just doing what the yarn tells me to.

I knit this hat in one day - something I have never done before. It sort of helps to be isolated with no distractions such as phones or TV, and to be really tired from a few day's worth of hiking. I just made up the pattern as I went along - I swatched to figured out how many stitches to cast on, knit for about 5.5", and then started decreasing every other row. I threw in a purl row every 9 rows to make things a little more interesting.

And it turned out perfect! It covers my ears, is warm, and is colorful. (Oh, that's Noro Silk Garden by the way - but I'm sure all you knitters figured that out already.)

I've brought enough yarn with me for one more hat, a pair of gloves, and a pair of socks. If I manage to get though all those projects, then I'm certainly justified at visiting the local yarn shop. I really wanted some buffalo fur yarn, but they only sell it as roving, and spinning is not on my agenda.

These are the last pictures taken in front of my (former) trailer, as we have moved to a better, larger trailer, with a lot more wood paneling, closer to town. Yay! It was sort of nice to be nestled in the mountain meadows, but those tourists with the horrible driving "skills" were getting on my nerves.

Trail Journal: Norris & Back Geyser Basins

Trail: Norris Geyser Basin & Back Basin
Date hiked: July 6, 2008
Distance: 2.0 miles
Elevation gain: negligible
Time: 1.5 hours

Geysers are awesome. Except for the part where you get boiled to death and all of your skin falls off (true story), but I made sure not to let that happen to me. Also, if your off-leash dog decides to jump into a hot spring, don't jump in after it (also a true story, courtesy of Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park. Fun reading.)

If you are not familiar with Yellowstone geology, there are all these steam vents, geysers, and other hot things because the park contains a giant caldera, basically an upside-down volcano. (Mom, don't worry. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago. But of course in your mind that means we're about due for another one.)

The most amazing thing about these thermal features are the colors. My favorite is the Pearl Geyser:


The the collage above, you can also see a colorful pool, and some bright green algae that has grown in a flowing stream.

There are also very loud steam vents, that sound very much like a steam-powered train.


Much of the water here is also sulfuric - you can smell the rotten egg smell wafting out of the ponds. The heat, combined with the acidity has killed any nearby trees.


And finally, this area features the most hilarious warning sign I've ever seen:

Trail Journal: Purple Mountain

Trail: Purple Mountain
Date hiked: July 4, 2008
Distance: 6.8 miles round-trip
Elevation gain: 1500'
Time: 3 hours


This trail is listed as "moderate" in my guidebook, but I'd say its more grueling than that. The elevation gain is 1500' over a little over 3 miles, the last mile or so being extremely steep, gravelly switchbacks. Much of the trail looks like this:


Once you get up higher, the trees become fewer and it's possible to see quite far. At the top, you can see all the way to the Grand Tetons, and look down on rivers, geyser basins, mountains, and the ubiquitous loop road. At this point you can laugh at the people stuck in cars while you gaze down on them from over a thousand feet up - you've earned it.

Wednesday Picture #4

Ok, so I'm sort of obsessed with tea. My tea shelf has slowly become two tea shelves, then three, then some on the counter, then some in the drawer... I probably have more that I could possibly drink in a few years. But I need choices!

Black tea will always be my favorite, particularly Assam. None of that pomegranate - blueberry - cherry business for me; fruit tea grosses me out (which is odd, because this is a picture of pomegranate tea. I got it in a swap and thought I'd give it a try, but after one sip I poured it out. It looked good though.) With the the ability to buy almost anything on the internet has come the chance to easily try thousands of different kinds of tea. I particularly like Upton Tea and Adagio Tea. At both places you can get cheap samples, which can easily take over you kitchen.

Because it was over 100 degrees every day in New Mexico, I had stopped drinking hot liquids a while ago. But now that its in the 40s and 50s in the mornings here in Wyoming, I'm happily enjoying my giant mug of tea every morning.

Where I live

Ok, so we've all seen this before (well, at least a picture):


Blah, blah, water shooting out of the ground. Actually, it's pretty cool (and by cool I mean boiling). I mean, this stuff is au-natural. No pipes or choreography to music for this baby. It's a little scary having really hot water shoot out of the ground at high speeds, but fascinating nonetheless.

In New Mexico dust storm are pretty common. So when I was biking the other day and saw this, I assumed it was just another dust storm. But then I realize that they have grass here, and so there really isn't any dust to be blown around. It was a POLLEN storm. I came home yellow.


And here's a note to RV drivers: bicyclists would like to have more than 1' of clearance between their shoulders and your ridiculously huge vehicle. Thanks. By the way, sleeping in an RV in no way qualifies as "camping."

Bear!

A BEAR TRIED TO BREAK INTO MY HOUSE.

It was like a scene from a horror movie. The innocent heroine is pulling dinner out of the oven when she hears a loud pounding noise. Unable to identify the noise, she starts walking towards the back of the house. It appears to be coming from the side door, which leads outside. As she leans closer to the door...

A giant bear paw slams against the glass, trying to break the door down.

I cannot tell you how scary this was. There is plenty of literature around the park telling you what to do if you encounter a bear while hiking. But there isn't any instruction on what to do if a bear breaks your door down and tries to crawl inside! Luckily it didn't succeed, and only tore up and bent the window screen.

After it wandered away I pulled out the camera. First it tried to get into the motor home parked next door:


Then, when the people in the RV blew their horn, it was startled and jumped into a tree. Note to self: climbing trees is not a good option for getting away from bears.


It proceed to stalk around the neighborhood for the next half an hour, circling the house a few times. I was glad when it left, but I will be forever vigilant whenever I leave the house.

The next morning I encountered a bear (maybe the same one) on the road in front of my car. While the tourists got all excited, stopped in the middle of the road and pulled out their cameras, I tried to scare it off the road by driving next to it. The tourists were probably mad, but people in the SUV from New Jersey, you don't understand. Bears are scary. Not cute.

I Love Hats

Have I mentioned how much I love hats? When I woke up yesterday morning and it was about 50 degrees inside, I was really glad for just having completed this:


Pattern: Train Tam by Cosette Cornelius-Bates
Yarn: Twilleys of Stamford Freedom Spirit (100% wool), 1 skein + a tiny bit of another
Needles: Size 2 dpns, size 4 circular

I always freak out that my hats are going to be too big, so I always end up with a tad-bit too small hats. This could probably be .5" longer, but it covers the top half of my ears, which is enough. Since its 100% wool, it's also very light, and sometimes I forget that I'm wearing it.

This is a great basic hat pattern - it really is the perfect shape hat. I'll definitely make more of these when the yarn comes to me.

Wednesday Picture #3

This week I’d like to show you a part of my current house. (And by “house” I mean “Single-wide trailer from the 60s that no one has lived in for 2 years.”) Yes, my friends, my house has a license plate. I don’t think it’s going to be traveling anywhere anytime soon, but it’s nice to know we’ll be legal if we decide to head out on the road…

We're Here!

After 3 hours of searching, the internet has been found!

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1,100 miles later, we’re here! We set off from sunny New Mexico on Saturday morning with little idea that we would encounter the worst storm I have ever driven through in my life. In the northern part of the state, it did seem a little dark, so I expected it might rain. But I didn’t expect this:

This was the biggest hail I have ever seen. Some of it was approaching golf-ball size. We pulled off the highway when it became so bad we couldn’t see, and let me tell you, hail that big is scary. I could tell that my car was getting pummeled, which is a bummer, but the hail threatening to crash through the windshield was even scarier. (My two-month-old bike was also strapped to the outside of the car.) Luckily, nothing was broken, and my car is dented but not badly.

We stayed in Denver overnight, and the next afternoon we hit the Grand Tetons. I’ve seen mountains before, but let me say, these mountains are CRAZY HUGE. They are also very spiky, so I would imagine it would hurt to be impaled on one. Check it out:

Most of us have seen pictures of beautiful landscapes, but when you are actually in one, it’s difficult to grasp that it actually exists. We finally made it to Yellowstone (which is huge, by the way.) We’re still settling in, and adjusting to the fact that we have no cell phone service, no landline phone, no cable, and of course no internet. And no dishwasher, laundry machines, or air conditioning (although we probably won’t need it – I’m going to be able to use what I knit this summer!)

Let the adventure begin!

No Internet Zone

I've made it safely to Yellowstone National Park, a.k.a. "The Land of No Internet." What's a girl gotta do to get some WiFi? (Let alone a cell phone signal...) Hopefully I will resolve this situation soon, and I'll be able to post pictures of my newest adventures. I even finished a hat! 'Til then, keep checking back & I promise I won't be gone forever!