I'm going to be away from the blog for the next week (as if that is anything new, ha ha). I thought I'd leave you with some scenic photos from our hike last Saturday. There was lots of interesting stuff at the micro level:


Interesting geological formation (aka stripy rock):
Our friend was visiting so we decided to take a sight-seeing plane ride on Sunday, and there we got the macro view:
Perfect time of year too, with all the leaves changing colors and sweeping across the landscape:
We even flew by our house, although you can just barely see it here:
And just where are we going for the next few days?? Here is a little clue:Should be a fun trip but a bit on the "whirlwind" side. And of course, I definitely need a small project to knit on the horribly long plane ride, so I whipped out this Trekking XXL from the stash, in oddball colors (I think I threw this into an online shopping cart months ago so that I would cross the free shipping threshold):
I really want to call it "Funfetti Cake!"
Be back soon!

Thanks everyone for the great comments on my last post! I was cracking up at the universal "ergonomic" keyboard experience--It sounds like they hurt more than they help! And of course, thanks for the compliments on Nerissa. Although it is really not looking like I'm going to get to wear it this year. Unless we get an October heat wave.

Yes, it is definitely that time of year already:Just like the Red Sox, the leaves slowly wither and fall.

On a happier note, G and I had an fun time last Sunday. For his work, G inventories trees and other vegetation as part of a state-wide scientific survey. Back in June, he was heading to one of the survey plots through the woods when he passed what looked like a monster-sized American Mountainash. So we decided to go back out and try to find it. This involved much bush-whacking (that orange is the back of G's field vest):
But was not without some pretty sights:
The hobblebush leaves change color in a fascinating mosaic pattern:
Finally, we struck gold! This wasn't the original tree that G saw back in June, but it seemed to be pretty darn close in size to that one:
Now that may not look like that impressive of a tree to you, but keep in mind that this species usually maxes out at a 6 or 8 inch diameter, and this tree had a whopping 18.6 inch diameter! We've already nominated it for the Maine Big Tree Register. The existing record is 47 inch circumference, 49 foot height, and 28 foot crown spread. Our has a 60 inch circumference, 50 foot height, and 35 foot crown spread, so I am pretty sure we smoked that record! But even more exciting is that there's a possibility it might beat the national record as well. How cool would that be? We have to have it verified by a forester first so hopefully our measurements were accurate. I really hope so because we spent about 4 hours tromping through the woods looking for this sucker, dontcha think we deserve some sort of prize? ;)

There hasn't been much time for knitting this week, so no new pictures, although I did start a small project that I'll show you next time. I only have a few repeats left for the center of the Victoria Shawl before I can start the edging, which I am intrigued by. I've never done this type of edging (knitted on after the main portion is done), so should be interesting.

I'll leave with a shot of a cabin I had to visit for work yesterday. I really could have sat there all day admiring that view in the nice warm sun. Not a bad property, eh?

All aboard for a tour of a Fourth of July parade in Maine!There was lots of Project Spectrum red to be seen:(and metallic chrome too!)
Kids were running around scooping up all the candy being tossed from the floats:I was tossed a few pieces as well, out of pity no doubt!
These guys were having a grand time squirting everyone with an old-fashioned hand-pumped fire hose:If you've ever wondered what Santa Claus does during the summer months, he made an appearance on his own personal party barge:Happy Fourth of July!

A week and a half of knitting...And here's all I had to show for it! You can all just start calling me speed-needles, LOL. This is one of the sleeve-bands. I've finished cranking out the second one tonight, so hopefully I'm a bit back on track with this project.

Unfortunately my cold turned out to be one of those nasty ones, all stuffy and coughy and yuck, but I managed to have a pretty fun weekend nonetheless. The nice weather we had went a long way towards making me feel better. The bugs even stayed away for the most part, which is truly a minor miracle. We had a nice walk up to a neat waterfall:And also took the obligatory moose sight-seeing drive and saw five of the goofy critters. Most of the rest of the weekend was taken up with eating, strolling around town, and general relaxing. Oh, and we also took my parents to the first dance of the season over at the Finnish Farmers Club and had a hilariously good time. I must say, my dad was the hit of the dance and took three or four turns around the floor learning to schottische (aka Jenkka in Finnish). My mom and I were quite amused by this!

Before we move on to the next color phase of Project Spectrum starting in June, I put together a green, yellow, and pink photo mosaic for April/May:See the Flickr photoset for full-size images.

I was having a hard time finding pink objects to photograph but managed to find a few. I also captured a photo of my favorite pink thing of all time:Cute little Quincy nose!

I'm going to have to post my "Seven Random Facts" next post as I need to go to bed and get rid of this darn cold...toodles for now!

My Life as a Christmas Tree Saleswoman

Got back late Sunday night after launching my new but short-lived career in Christmas tree sales. A friend of ours owns a big tree farm up here, and while he sells most of his trees wholesale, he does go down to Massachusetts every year to run his own tree stand. G and I got roped into working for him the last two weekends. G also worked for him back in November when they were harvesting the trees. Here is one of the huge tree piles at the stand:
He brought 800 trees down from Maine and by the end of this past weekend he had less then 200 left! And he completely ran out of wreaths. I found it interesting how the first weekend we worked (Dec 2-3) was filled with all those crazy Christmas lovers who buy like 3 trees and 10 wreaths, and the second weekend was the ahem...normal people who just buy 1 tree. Market research in action!

I actually didn't really have to sell anything. My job was to run the cash register out of a camper-trailer, which I was very happy about because I could knit between customers! As a result, I am almost halfway done the first sleeve of the cardigan...pictures in my next post. Another fun benefit was getting a free tree which is in our living room and almost completely decorated...hopefully I can get some photos of that too.

Here is the tree stand at night; you can just see the glowing inflatable snowman looming over the place (he has a red hat):We had a great time, although I was totally tired by the long traveling required.

And oh yeah, we got our new matress set yesterday and can I say I haven't slept as well as I did last night in forever. We had to pick it up and bring it into the house ourselves due to our "outlying location", but it was all worth it. The only problem is that our existing bedframe was obviously designed for the thinner mattresses of yore and this new one (which is only a "plush" top, not even a full-on pillow top) completely swallows our headboard and foot board. I think I need a stepstool to get into bed!

Ohhh...my aching legs! The reason?
Mt. Katahdin...5,200 feet of steep, rocky goodness, as you can see in my photo of the trail, below:
The famous sign at the top, northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail:
We hiked this on Friday and I am still SO sore today (Sunday)! I wanted to go hiking again today, but I really don't think I would get very far! Plus G. is coming down with one of those infamous summer/fall colds that everyone seems to be getting, so he is out of commission today. Oh well, I guess that means I'll have to sit on the porch and knit all day! Boo hoo :b
I am almost done my Trellis cardigan, I just need to sew the buttons on. So stay tuned for the final photo within the next couple days.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend!

Hope everyone out there had a fun weekend...I know I did! My friends and I get together every summer for a camping trip, which we did this past weekend. We went to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and had great weather and a great time.

On the way home, I stopped by the Bartlett Yarns mill, which was never open the few other times I've tried to go. But today it was open!
The mill, which has been running in this location for over 180 years, is housed in a BIG old building:I could actually hear the machinery working, but there was a big sign that only employees were allowed, so I didn't try to peek in. I believe the mill is still run by water power from a very pretty stream:
I loved the door where the fleece is dropped off:There is a little factory store, where I purchased a quarter pound of pencil roving (for a whopping $2.50):
I'd been wanting some of this so I can make the "Double Rolled Mittens" from Robin Hansen's book Favorite Mittens, the technique for which sounded really interesting. Not sure when I'll get around to them though!

The clammy humidity finally pushed out of here yesterday afternoon. Today, high of 78 degrees, humidity under 50%.
We knew that we had to get out and do something, anything after two days of moldering in front of a fan.

A hike fit the bill nicely:During the hike, we found some of these:Mmm...wild blueberries! Luckily, we just happened to have brought some containers to collect them with. End result:
Three quarts of blueberries (one quart shown for demonstration purposes). Rockin'.

And knitting...well, over the last two days I made it almost halfway through chart #5 (out of 8 or 9?) of Flirty Ruffles...and I'm still on my first skein of yarn (out of three). It is a slow slog but I'm enjoying it nonetheless. I also finished the fronts for the Trellis cardigan and kitchenered (not sure if that is OK to use as a verb, but what the hey) the shoulder seams:It's supposed to be nice again tomorrow, but alas...back to work.

Poor little blog, I have been so neglectful.
I just haven't had enough knitting progress to show. I finished Deutsche Socke #1, and I have #2 started. I'm halfway through chart 4 (of 8 total) on my Flirty Ruffles. And I'm about halfway up the back of the Trellis cardigan. Hopefully next time I'll have some knitting photos!

Instead, I thought I'd show some pictures from last weekend at the Finnish Farmers Club. They have a dance every other weekend, and G and I have gone a couple times now. We've learned to waltz, polka, schottische, and fox trot. Not that we're exactly graceful at it yet.

Yeah, we've totally gone off the dork end...
Here's the Club:
Waltzing:G joined the band for a few numbers:This girl made me laugh, she was having so much fun:
Hope you all have a happy 4th of July weekend...weather forecast here is not looking so good. I guess if nothing else I'll get some knitting done!

I've been so busy I haven't been able to post in a while! Work has been sucking up an inordinate amount of time (much to my chagrin); on a happier note G's grandparents visited us from Thursday until this morning, which kept us busy.

I did manage to finish up one sock:

Sort of an awkward pose, but I am really happy with the sock. My only complaint is it feels a bit tight around the top edge due to a tight cast-on, but I hate socks that fall down so hopefully this will counteract any stretching. Also, to answer Desi Knitter's question in the last comments regarding wrap and turn short rows...I followed the directions for this method in an article about short rows in the Winter 2004 issue of IK. According to that article, the method's purpose is to close the hole that would occur if you made the turn without wrapping. I suppose it may also increase the stability/strength of the heel, but I've never tried any other short row method so I'm not sure of this. I'm definitely not a short row expert...yet!

The weather has been so gorgeous here over the past week that we couldn't resist going hiking last Sunday. We got a lovely view of the lakes and mountains: Another fun thing this week was having some friends over for dinner and treating them to a "chocolate buffet" for dessert: This is the chocolate we brought home from Switzerland and holy cow is it good! Everybody had their favorites...I think mine are the raspberry (which has the delicate flavor of real raspberries, not yucky faux flavoring) and the milk chocolate with corn flakes mixed in. Three words: to die for!

Sugaring Time

Who doesn't love some maple syrup? (All you freaks who prefer that fake Log Cabin crap can just skedaddle along now...he he he)
Yesterday we got to check out a working sugarhouse! Welcome to the Barker Sugarhouse:

Inside, the wood-fired sap boilers were working away: And at one end, some syrup was going through a final filter before bottling. You wouldn't believe how much dirt comes out of syrup in the filtering. Yummm...syrup! And the whole time we were in there, they were feeding us samples of maple-roasted peanuts, ice cream with syrup, maple candy, and "shots" of pure syrup. It was maple syrup heaven!

Oh yeah, I got Cherie's problems all worked out over the weekend and she looks wonderful. I will post some photos before I leave this week.

Edited to add: Just wanted to say that I didn't do the "Flash your Stash" because (gasp!) my stash is so small and pitiful, it would've been embarrassing. Seriously, all I have are about 5 skeins of some random Bartlett Yarn, 5 or 6 balls of cream-colored All Seasons Cotton, and about 20 little balls of left-over crap. Not too exciting.