Stash Reduction Mishap

The goal was to have less stash at the end of the year. Once again, I failed. So, the stash has snuck out of the closet and cabinet is starting to lurk in the craft room. The stash in question is yarn. And it is trying to take up residence on the cutting table which should belong to the fabric stash.

This could lead to a stash war. If that happens things could get ugly. I doubt if the beads would stay out of the fray. And the roving could get involved. Any way it would look like World War III and I don't want to clean it up.

Reflection shows, that once again I bought yarn faster than I knit it up. Some skeins contribute more to this problem than others. The problem is skinny yarn doesn't take much space but packs the yards in. It is so easy to bring a 1000 yards of lace home in one or two small skeins. I do not about other knitters but 1000 yards of lace weight is good for a couple of months of knitting.

The last influx was from Christmas. Several people know that I like yarn. It is easy to find and I always greet it cheerfully. Three skeins of sock yarn showed up under the tree. It turns out even Bert, a field beagle, knows I like yarn. I am still not sure why his was slobber free. He adores blue and it is blue.

Setesdal Christmas Stocking

I saw the Dale of Norway Christmas Stocking booklet and liked it. I managed to leave it at the store but it called my name. After a couple of weeks I returned and got it. At the same time, I picked up two skeins of Cascade 220 yarn to make the Setesdal Stocking. The gauge for Cascade 220 is the same as for the pattern.

I had the bright idea that 440 yards would yield two stockings. Fraternal twins, one with gold for the background and one with red for the background. It didn't turn out that way. I think if I had decided to do two matching out of 4 skeins, I got get a third with the background in red.

I had a bit a of problem with the heel at the first two short rows. There were little holes that didn't go away with blocking. So, I add a bit of yarn and darned the 'corners' on the heels.

The twist cord was a challenge. 38 inches wasn't enough length for the yarn. I ended up using 44 inch strands and would probably go to 50 in the future. The knot isn't hidden as well as I would like. The background color works the best for stitching the cord on. I tried red but it was showing too much.

Another note for me, is to use smaller needles on the ribbing. Normally, this isn't a problem for me but it was this time. blocking helped. I may take steam to the ribbing if it tries to flip in the future.

Mine turned out slightly smaller than the pattern dimension because I knit tight and used the recommended needle size. I did this because I liked how the yarn knit at the gauge for a stocking. To keep the portions, I counted the rows of lice/ticks in the picture on the pattern.

All in all, I really like the pattern even if my stocking is less than perfect.

Tiger Eye Lace Scarf

Since it is all snowy today, I had some time to take pictures of the tiger eye lace scarf after it was re-blocked.

The yarn is Aurora Yarn Whisper which is a bit smaller than the pattern calls for. I used size 5 Addi Lace points to knit it. I think it used maybe a quarter of the yarn. The rest is going to be another scarf.

The start was a bit rough. The first set of eyes kept getting me. The third time was the charm. After about 3 repeats, it started going fairly smoothly. I knit two pieces and grafted them together with the Russian graft out of Knitting From The North Sea. The graft isn't shown because it didn't turn out exactly like I wanted. I may need practice or maybe variegated yarn isn't suite to this graft.

Each side has 18 repeats. If I was going to do it again I would drop to 17. The reason is that the first time, I blocked the scarf I choose 6 inches wide which led to 86 inches plus. Decide this is a bit long for a random person. So, I re-blocked at 8 inches wide and about 72 inches long. A friend mention that long scarfs are in. This is good because I an not going to shorten it.

I like the pattern and would knit it again with slight thicker yarn using a different graft.

Just looking at it, the pattern also reminds me of owl eyes.

Bird Feeder Visitor

We have a bird feeder, actually two. This is the one with safflower seeds in it during the snow with an unidentified visitor. I think it is a finch of one sort or another and probably male with the bright plumage.

We were doing one of the tidy feeds and admittedly none of the dropped seeds sprouted. On the other hand, I have trouble considering it tidy given who was attracted. We would get grackles by the tens. They aren't tidy and tend to change the color of anything they sit above. We had a dirty deck because of them. I would rather pull some safflower than feed grackles and try to clean the deck.

Deer in Rocky Mountain National Park

Last weekend while we were in Estes Park, we decided to drive into Rocky Mountain National Park to look for elk. It had decided to start snowing just as we went into the park. We saw a herd of female elk with one bull out in the snow. The snow quickly coated the trees and probably chased most of the animals under cover. The flurry lasted long enough that we decided to find dinner.

After dinner, we went back through the park since the snow had stopped. It was almost dark when we saw the deer near the road along with a dozen cars. The two bucks were hanging out on either side of a group of does. The camera really wanted more light.

Memory Lane

I know not everyone remembers these but I do. This one showed at Monday night knitting a couple of weeks ago. One of the members had been given a stack to pass on to good homes. O.K. maybe my home isn't the best home for magazines but this one had a project I was interested in.

Also, I remember Workbasket from my childhood. My Mom subscribed for years and when we moved after 2nd grade, she sorted through a box of them. I think she decided to cancel the subscription shortly after the move when she got a part time job.

I honestly thought they had been published since then but this one is from 1989.

Images from the highway Y

These are pictures taken from the Y in Sedona. The Y is where highway 89a turns slight west and highway 179 starts and heads south east. It is just below old town or uptown.

BOOM BOOM

The white rhino at Out of Africa has a story. So far, it has a happy ending.

BoomBoom use to live in a zoo in the NorthEast. At some point the zoo decided not to keep him. Some Safari shoot type outfit was all set to buy him. At which point he would have been put in a pasture for some 'great' hunter to shoot. I have no idea what the price is to shoot a sitting/standing rhino. I am just going to say it is too much. There is no sport in this.

Fortunately, for BoomBoom a clothing line tycoon out bid these folks and donated him to Out of Africa. I wish I remembered the name but I am horrible with names.

Now, BoomBoom is living happily ever-after. He has nice little mud pond, some trees, and shelter. People bring him hay and use a scrub brush to scratch his hide.

If I remember correctly, they said is 28. I have no idea how long rhinos live. I did get the impression that he is a senior.

Out of Africa - plains animals

To see the different plains animals at Out of Africa, you hop on a converted school bus and go through a couple gates to the plains area which is several acres.

The school bus is missing its windows and is jacked up. This keeps the zebras, ibex, and eland out. The giraffes have access and you are allowed to feed them a cookie. The animals believe this is the cookie wagon. I believe the cookies are an approve diet item.

Since, they want the cookies, they walk right up to the bus. The driver has to be careful because they just stand and eat or wait for more cookies.

The picture with a bit of fence is of the mean plains animal. They are kept behind a fence for everyones safety. A lot of zoos refuse to keep them since they just attack everything. According to the driver, when they are giving birth, they will still try to gore a person.

The rest are more friendly. Visitors can't feed any that have upper teeth. This keeps people from getting bitten.

Out of Africa - Other Cats

Besides Lions and Tigers, they have Cougars, Panthers, an Amur leopard, and Jaguars.

Their Amur leopard is missing a leg. This happened at an early age and she has done fine for years. I saw somewhere that Amur leopards are considered the rarest of the leopards. I guess they have beat out the snow leopard. They live in Russia normally and that is about all I know.

Jaguars like rustling noise. When I unzipped the camera bag, I got some undivided attention from the black one. The fence was definitely a good idea.

Out of Africa - Lions

They do have a number of lions at the park. Each male has his area with a couple of females. Just before we left the park the male lions started calling or talking. I can see where this would be nerve racking in the plains of Africa.

They put a young lioness and a young white tiger in the tiger splash area to work with them and have them get use to people. Again, no pictures because of how cameras treat fences. The lioness did stay out of the water. They were both young enough that they could be towed on the toys.

Out of Africa - Tigers

The are a number of tigers at the park. Yes, I know tigers are from Asia not Africa. I like tigers and therefore don't care about the accuracy of the name of the park.

One of the shows is great fun to watch. I don't have pictures because the camera was going to focus on the fence. The show is called Tiger splash. it involved a pool, two tigers, and about eight people. The announcer starts off with the don't do this at home message. I don't know about you but I don't have tigers or a pool at home so, no worries. Four of the people spend their time getting the tigers to run and pounce by running with balloon toys. The day we were there the two tigers were 2 year old males and one of them loved the pool. I think the sleeping tiger was one of the two.

It was mentioned that white tigers aren't born in the wild anymore. They made it sound like the dwindling tiger population was reason.

Out of Africa - Zebras

I am just going to do several posts for Out of Africa. It is south of Sedona and a lot of fun. Starting with the zebras.

The smaller baby zebra in the photos is the oldest. It was premature. And yes they are born with brown stripes which turn black as they mature.

After listening to the guide, I have no desire to be a zebra. Starting around three, female zebras spend the rest of their life pregnant or nursing. There may be time off for seniors. The pregnancy last 13 months and produces an 80 pound baby.

I am glad I am not a female zebra.

Devil's Bridge Hike

Have you ever noticed, it takes a lot longer to discuss vacations than everyday life. Here is the third and last hike, we did on our vacation to Sedona. Devil's Bridge is a moderate trail of .8 miles, one way. The roughest part of the trail was driving out to the parking site.

When they say passable by cars most of the year, it takes the whole road. It was probably a good thing we did this Thursday morning. I don't think we could have done it Friday because of a flash flood Thursday afternoon. The flood area include the forest road and trail for Devil's Bridge. Most of the trail is on a wash and I am happy we weren't there when the rain showed up.

I will admit that I didn't go to the top, Rudy did and got the photos from above. He said it was just as well since I don't do well with heights.

Verde Canyon Train Ride

Wednesday on our vacation, we did the Verde Canyon train ride. Two hours out to a ranch and two hours back to Clarkdale. It start off hot but cooled off when the thunderstorms started roaming the area. None of them went over the train.

They do understand weather and people. While the train was stopped and the engines were moving from one end to the other, they dropped off boxes of ice cream bars. The ice cream was priced very reasonable at one dollar a bar. One couple was turning them down until the guide said they were good for you and I chimed in saying they count as a dairy product. I think it was an easy sale. Another item for purchase was prickly pear lemonade. I imagine it is really toasty on the train in July and August.

The guide explained the history of the area, pointing out Indian dwellings and rocks such as turtle rock. The engines started in Alaska and originally had eagles painted on them. The track was put in because of the copper mine in Jerome.

Montezuma's Castle

Turns out when you decide to duck the clean crew where you are staying, you end up at Montezuma's Castle.
The place we were originally going to go was closed on Tuesday, we end up there on Thursday but that is another story.

For some reason, the explorers, thought this was a hide out or vacation home built for Montezuma and named it accordingly. I don't think they noticed site A which is just some rock foundations. Actually, both site A and Montezuma's castle were built by the Sinagua Indians who may have ended up with trade items that started in Mexico. Trade items were probably the main connection to Mexico. The Sinagua may have original immigrated from there.

Site A, which is in the second photo, caught fire and burned according to the posted information. It might have been a cooking fire or may be there was another cause. Since there are no real records from back then, everyone gets to have their theory.

The bottom picture is of Beaver Creek which flows past the site. It looks dry but just 30 yards up stream, the water is visible in the stream bed. It flows underground just in front of the dwellings for part of the year. That would be a good reason not to build by the banks of the creek. I still wouldn't build as far up if I didn't need to defend against other groups of people though. Site A is a good location for being up from the water without having to scamper up and down ladders.

I suspect not everyone got along way back then and ladders were a good defense for preserving yourself and protecting your stored food from a raid.

West Fork Hike

The West Fork hike is another easy hike near Sedona. It is in Oak Creek Canyon North of Sedona and follows a stream. At the start of the trail there are the remains of an old cabin and its associated storage cave. I think at one time the area had a small apple orchard. There were numerous apples on the ground and a number on the higher branches in the trees.

The trail is described as being 3 miles one way. I think we did most of it. We stopped when the trail wasn't easy to spot. The forest service description is correct that is popular. We talked to three other couples and said hi to several other groups. You do cross the stream a lot. In September, if you are careful, you can keep your feet dry by using logs and stepping stones. Expect to get a little water on your shoes.

We didn't see the bear but there was fresh sign. No bells in the scat. Which means it was a black bear. If you don't know the joke, I am sure someone can fill you in on it.