Latitude 61...Land of the Midnight Sun

My Personal Tour de France

I planned this bike tour of Provence last September, so it seemed to take "forever" to wait for this September to have the time arrive.  Ususally, I try to plan my bike tours for the fall so I have all summer to ride my bike to be prepared for "real" riding, instead of the tour following hours spent indoors in winter spin classes.  No matter how fit I am for the first outdoor ride, climbing real hills feel like a shock to the legs.  Becoming fit for biking this summer was complicated by knee bursitis that began plaguing me in late June, requiring me to completely lay off the bike until September 1!  I crossed my fingers and traveled anyway... hoping I didn't have to ride around in the sag van each day.

I did some "weather homework" for the area and decided that it would be a good idea to knit a light weight sweater to have something warmer to wear in case of cool evenings.  Began knitting it July 4 while watching the Tour de France, which seemed particularly fortuitous.  The pattern is Sprossling, by Anne Hanson, and if you want more details, those are posted on Ravelry here.

Ironically, this sweater would have been perfect for their "normal" weather, but the weather was so unseasonably hot for Fall that I only wore it once.

I had a wonderful time biking 12-40 miles most days, and walking 2-9 miles the other days.  The French can be rightfully proud of their cuisine... I have never had so many consistently delicious meals!

My trip began with 2 days to explore Aix on foot, 4 days to explore the St. Remy area biking to Arles, Les Baux, and the surrounding farmslands and countryside of Les Alpilles.  Then on to 2 days near Avignon with a ride to Pont du Gard one day and Avignon itself the next.  My biggest regret was not being able to see everything!

Fast forward, literally, to Paris by train, a very fast trip for 3 days and nights to explore the city.  For me, it was really a trip of a lifetime.

If you are interested in seeing more about where and how I traveled, you can see the details at Vermont Bicycle Tours.  If you're considering a more active travel vacation, I would highly recommend this tour group.

 

Here are a few photos of Aix.

 

 

 

 

Summer Solstice

Today is one of my favorite days of the year.  Summer Solstice will arrive in about an hour and the sun hasn't even set yet.  I love those long days and midnight sun of summer.  We are now receiving 19 hours and 20 minutes of daylight.  Also, it's our anniversary today, so that is another wonderful reason to love this date.

 

I wanted to write my next blog about my finished Rheingold, but progress on that has been slow.  Then, I was "distracted" from Rheingold by a new project, so since it might be a long time until I have a finished project to write about, I thought that I should post an interim blog.

Here is my progress on Rheingold so far

I didn't intend to begin a new project just when I was making great progress on this one, but I ran out of one of the colors; Pebble Beach.  One of the skeins must have been left out of this kit since there was only enough Pebble Beach to knit up to the sleeve steeks.  That isn't even close to enough, since I still have the shoulders, collar, and two sleeves to knit.  Anyway, until I order some more, this project will just have to wait.

I began Katherine of Aragon about a week ago, so when I have a little more knit, I'll post a photo of that.

Finally It's Spring Here...

This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago at the end of April.  At that point, it seemed like the snow would never leave, but then every April I seem to think that.

Of particular interest was our "two visitors" who didn't seem shy about resting for cud chewing only 3-4 feet from our back door.  No matter how many times I see the local moose, I never tire of the sight.

 This view sure does look a lot more like spring now.  Hard to believe that all the snow was less than a month ago, but thank goodness it's gone.

While I look forward to and love fresh snow in the fall, my March I am ready for it to be melted.

 

 

 

 

The real point of this posting, since this is almost always a knitting blog, is to share my finished Keava.  The spring colors seem perfect for this time of year, and luckily, it's still plenty cool enough to wear... especially in the mornings.

 

 

 

 

I still have several things I should be working on so they could be finished, but instead,  I skipped right onto a new project... Rheingold.

 

So far, I have only one pattern repeat complete, but I am sure loving the colors.

 

 

Glenesk is finished~

I can't believe that's it's been so long since I composed a blog entry, and this will be a short one too.  It's been long enough that the sweater that I began March 4, is already finished and ready to have it's photo posted.

It was another wonderful design with the pattern and yarn purchased from Virtual Yarns.  I knit this for a friend who was in the process of moving back to Canada; hoping to finish it before she left.  At least she got to try it on though, so I know it's a perfect fit.  I missed her departure date by about a week, and then took an additional week to sew on the buttons.  Had to wait for a sunny day to get a photo in good light, but now it's all finished and the picture turned out well.

Here's a close up of the details.  I think the detail looks a little like a lotus, although reading the description of the design on Virtual Yarns, that is not what was intended.

 

Out with the Old.... In with the New!

 
I was able to finish 3 projects in December.  My Henry VIII tunic, and my Pistazie socks, which I already blogged about, and then I tackled one of my longest on-going projects which was begun in 2007.  Finally... I finished Fulmar.  It's such a beautiful sweater!  I can't say that it was a really enjoyable knit, but I am sure looking forward to having it and wearing it.  I don't have a very good photo of it yet.  Our sunlight at this time of year is so limited that I had to stand on our 2nd story deck at precisely 2:00 PM to even get a photo with sunlight on it. 5 minutes later and the sun is "gone".  As it is, the angle of the sun is so low on the horizon that it almost appears to be sunset for the entire 5 hours and 30 minutes.  My hair isn't that red, I only wish, but at "sunset", that's how it photographs.

Starting or re-starting new projects with the new year gave me a nice feeling of "tidiness".  I hadn't worked on Keava for a long time, so I picked that back up and even planned to be monogamous so I could actually finish it fairly soon, but then I received a new kit, Grosvenor, from Virtual Yarns for Christmas that I couldn't wait to start!  I ended up knitting on both of them and that has turned out to be a good thing. Keava has a fairly easy pattern to follow so I can actually knit it while I watch movies, although I do have to be careful.  My new kit, Grosvenor, has a much more difficult pattern to follow and after a couple of mistakes, I discovered that I better not knit it while watching movies, unless I want to discover lots of errors after the fact!  Here is my progress on Keava and Grosvenor so far...

Here again the colors aren't very true since the photos are taken in that "sunset" type light, but at least I can share something visual.

Now if I can just work on only these two things, it won't take long to finish them.  However, I already hear the Siren call of new projects~

 

I also received another new kit for Christmas; Amphora.  Then there are all those pairs of socks I really need (want) to knit. Hmmmm.... monogamy is just so difficult!

The Lunar and Solar Event of My Lifetime...

    Actually, it was the event of 5 centuries since the last time a total lunar eclipse coincided with the winter solsice was 1538.  The eclipse began here at 9:30 Alaska time and I watched the entire thing by 15 minute increments.  It was too cold to stand outdoors to watch it... 0 degrees F.  I waited and waited to see the "red" phase, but somehow I missed that.  I was probably looking in the wrong place... sounds silly I know, but the moon completely disappeared from view for quite a while, and there are many tall spruce trees around our house.  That made it really hard to predict its path ... it must have been behind some trees.  I did see it begin to reappear, at least.  Here is a link to our local news video shot...  

I had one "close call" while walking in and out our door with all the yard lights turned off.  Our house had an unexpected visitor. If I had opened the door at precisely the right moment, I would have had a big surprise as would the small moose that was standing almost on our welcome mat! Only one hoof print shows in this photo, near the left corner of the welcome mat, but you can get the idea.

Tonight in our time zone is the actual winter solstice and I'm sure looking forward to gaining daylight again! Since the sun is at such a low angle, and my house is located at the bottom of a hill, that means no sunlight is "touching" our house anymore... only the tops of our trees.  We have been reduced to 5 hours and 28 minutes with the sun rising at 10:15 and setting at 3:43.  This is sure not my favorite time of year, even with Christmas coming.

The short days and the very long nights does mean that I am getting lot of knitting done.  I thought I would have Fulmar finished by now, but the stitches in the collar are so small and tight, that I had to take a break to let my sore fingers heal.  I picked up my hibernating Keava and have been having so much fun with that, that I ended up ignoring my Fulmar and my Cauchy socks.  Not much to show for a weeks worth of knitting, (from the bottom of the pink stripe up), but it's been so much fun working on stranded knitting again, since it's my favorite type of knitting.

Happy winter Solstice everyone!

Henry the VIII... crowned and coronated!

Just in time to wear for the holiday season... I finished knitting Henry VIII on Tuesday.  I haven't washed and blocked it yet though. The colors just glow in direct sunlight, so yesterday when the sun was actually shining... during our 6 hours of weak daylight, I threw it on and rushed outside to get my picture taken.  The sun only shines on that one place in our yard now because it's so low in the sky that it just hits the roofs and tree tops, but our deck is on the second story, so there is one sunbeam there every sunny day... that lasts for about 10 minutes.  Now I wish I had planned ahead, so I could have combed my hair and put a little make-up on my colorless eyelashes.  Oh well... just admire the sweater!

The other small project that I have on the needles is a pair of Cauchy socks by Cookie A.  That is a fun project and is based on the mathematical inequality sign by French mathematician Augustin Cauchy.  I really enjoy mathematical patterns and designs which is quite ironic since I'm not very skilled with math. This isn't an accurate photo of the sock color, since it's taken in such weak sunlight, but I turned the flash off so the pattern would show.

Time to work on Hal... and other projects

I spent October finishing up the pair of ordinary socks that I began on our Vermont vacation , and then body of Hal (Henry VIII). 

Finished one of the sleeves in a week, but then had to "drop everything" to work on a baby hat!

I love how the colors from Virtual Yarns seem to glow in direct sunlight, but our filtered splotchy sunlight was the best I can do at this time of year.  Not only are our daylight hours short, but at my house, the sun doesn't even clear the tops of the trees completely any more.  This photo was taken before I finished the sleeve, but I don't think it's been sunny since!  Mostly, just snow and more snow...

Here is the baby hat that I finished last Friday.  I think my friend will really like it and the colors will look very nice on her dark eyed, brunette little boy.

The Alaska State Fair: My Knitting Entries

It has been a very long time since I have composed a blog.  On fact, I've never gone this long without a post. First of all, my computer crashed and my hard drive was fried.  This happened in June when I was traveling to Talkeetna or Sheep Mountain almost every week-end to do some extra biking, so my trusted in-house computer builder/tech expert was too tied up to build me a new one. 

By July, I had a new computer at my disposal, but I was so depressed that I had lost over 7 years of digital photos, knitting errata and journaling, etc., etc. that I just couldn't bring myself to start over.

In August, miracle of miracles, as DH was scouting about for a possible way of retrieving my data from my old hard drive without paying big $$$$... he read that my hard drive had a built-in maufacturing flaw and there was a "fix" issued by the company.  He sent it back to them and they retrieved all my data, PHOTOS!!!!, at no cost since the failure was their error. 

Now I have a new working computer, all my old data, and 2 new back-up systems; so I did learn something.  It still took me a long time to reaquire all the old links, passwords, email addresses, etc.... It's been a colossal pain.  Now I am finally ready to blog.

As I said, I spent my summer doing as much bike riding as possible, but in between rides, there was lots of knitting accomplished.  I had several things to enter in the Alaska State Fair so I drove them to Palmer to enter in early August.  Picked them up September 7 and here are the results.

My Dale of Norway tunic, "We Are A Nation",  took a first place in the "other" knitted category. The matching gloves within mittens took a second place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Aran sweater, "Inishmaan", an Alice Starmore pattern, took a first place in the knitted sweaters category.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My "Edith the Hat", a Johanne Landin hat pattern, took a first place in the knitted hat category.

 

And most exciting of all, my "Monkey socks", pattern by Cookie A, took a first place and a Division Champion award in the knitted socks category.

I took all new photos except for the mittens, because the light in the fair display building was very dim.

 

 

I'm blogging about the fair now, even though it's been awhile, because we left on vacation the day after I picked my items up, but our bike tour will be for another post.

 

Not Lost

For those of you who have noticed and commented that I have been "missing" from the knitting world, I'm not lost.  I have been knitting, although a lot less than usual, I just haven't been blogging or spending much time on Ravelry, either looking or commenting.

Exercise has been my main pursuit lately, specifically, biking.  This is because we, DH and myself, have 2 longer planned and scheduled rides coming up, and I want to be prepared so they don't "hurt" too much.

The first ride isn't until July, The Fireweed 400.  This organized ride gives riders a choice of riding 400, 300, 200, 100, or 50 miles.  (Big surprise... count me in for the 50 miler!)  Even 50 miles is still a stretch for me since our usual work-out times are around 1-1.5 hours and this ride takes at least 3 hours. With our short biking season, that means I have really been spending extra time on the bike trying to get used to riding more than an hour at a time.  When we rode this last year, I realized that I was vastly "under-trained", so this year I would like to have a little more enjoyable experience.

Our second ride, or group of rides is in September, so there is still plenty of time to train.  We are doing a 2 week tour of Vermont, riding about 20-40 miles a day, which is up to us.  This tour has a sag wagon so it's not quite so critical to be in great shape. (Although I would rather be riding my bike over riding in a van.

So far, it's been a little hard to train because we are having an unseasonably cold Spring. Here is a photo from 2 weeks ago, and yes, there is still snow!

Now on to knitting...

I am still... and will be for a long time... working on Fulmar.  I finally completed the front and now have around 7 inches of the back finished.  Luckily, our weather has been so unseasonably cool, it's not too hot to work on this sweater... although it does make all my bike rides especially cold!  Only one new photo to post, but the back looks identical to the front anyway... at least until I knit up to the top.

Then to return to Mother's Day, I wanted to post my Mother's Day present because it's so exciting that my family finally "gets it"!  They got me something I love... something to knit!  Rona from Virtual Yarns...  I can't wait to knit it!