Thor's Scarf

One nice benefit of all the plane time last week was finishing Thor's new scarf. I used a pattern out of Scarf Style called Interlocking Balloons Scarf by Shirley Paden. Due to my terribly inept photography skills I have been unable to capture a picture of the scarf inside my own home (read - not enough light to be able to see the stitch pattern). So I took this photo from online at http://garn.poppyfield.net/books/scarfstyle/41interlockingballoons.jpg :

Thor's scarf is much darker -- I used Peruvian Tweed - 100% Superfine Alpaca in Color # 113. It is a dark brown with smoky blue flecked in. The best picture I could find of the color online won't let me link the photo to my blog -- but if you're so inclined you can check it out here: http://www.kyarns.com/joseph-galler-peruvian-tweed-alpaca-sport-worsted-weight-knitting-yarn.html

The link will take you to color #106 -- but #113 is the very farthest on the right in the top row. I loved this yarn. So nice to work with and you get 600 yards in a skein! (Granted, you do pay for it. I won't admit to the cost per skein here, but you'll get an idea if you follow the above link!)

Napa Valley - 2009

This past holiday weekend Thor & I went to Napa Valley to visit our family, Linda & Garry, and taste some great wines! I keep thinking I'm going to have time to write more about our trip -- but at the rate this week is going I'll never get these photos posted if I wait for that. I hope you enjoy these pictures! We visited the following wineries on our trip to Napa:

• A Donkey and A Goat (actually in Berkeley)
• Shafer Vineyards (One of Linda & Garry's favorites)
• Revana Family Vineyard (they had the most amazing cabernet we tasted all trip)
• Goose Cross Cellars (good intro to wine basics class)
• Cliff Lede Vineyards
• Miner Family Vineyards
• Elyse Winery
• Heitz Cellar
• Prager Winery & Port Works
• Frog's Leap Winery

In front of the vineyards at Goose Cross Cellar

Oakville Grocery. Cute, probably overpriced, little grocery store to buy sandwiches and other little snacks.

All the greenery (with yellow flowers) that you see growing between the rows is mustard. Mustard serves as a cover crop as well as a natural pest deterrent and most of the vineyards allow the mustard to get almost to the point of going to seed before they turn the plants back into the soil as a green manure.

The view up near Burgess Cellars (which was closed when we went by).

There was citrus fruit everywhere! I wanted to take lemons home with me, but I resisted the urge to pick off of people's trees!

Heitz Cellar - supposedly they make one of the best examples of a traditional Spanish Port in the valley.

Our picnic lunch from Dean & Deluca - a very fun place to stop and poke around!

Thor - asleep on the living room couch at Garry & Linda's after a 'hard' day of wine tasting.

Garry & Linda at Prager Port Works. The interior of their tasting room is covered with dollar bills that people have written notes on it - it's pretty crazy.

The view from Spring Mountain Road.

Linda - in front of her house on Vineyard Avenue. Appropriately named.

Frog's Leap Winery - our last stop of the trip. The grow all their grapes and other crops organically and everything is dry farmed.

On Monday we headed out of Napa Valley around noon to head down to San Francisco and spend some time in the city. We took Highway 101 into San Francisco -- here's our view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Of course we had to visit the famous Blue Bottle Coffee Company when we were in San Fran. Our verdict: Stumptown is WAY better!

Our last stop in SF before heading to the airport was a little Belgian french fry restaurant named Frjtz - the fries were delicious and they have about twenty different dipping sauces to choose from to go with. Yummy!

Bea's Lamb!

I knit this little sheep for our cousins Amelia & Justin's little girl, Bea. We met Bea at the Tingey Family reunion earlier this fall and she is the sweetest little baby! These are not the best pictures ever - but you get the idea of what the sheep looked like. I used Fiber Trends pattern #206x called 'A Felt Flock' to make this little guy. I just used some left over mohair and a pink worsted weight yarn that my friend Kim sent to me from her grandma's house. That yarn is well traveled!

Snowshoeing at Mt. Hood

Went snowshoeing on Sunday after we got back from Christmas in Seattle. The weather was terrible! It was pouring rain when we got up there and was coming down in sheets!

The three snowshoers: Thor, myself and our friend, Michelle!

Thor & I

Thor early on in the snowshoe -- you can see how wet his jacket is! We were pretty much soaked.

Moving down the trail -- tons of debris in the snow due to the warm weather, rain & wind.

Three very attentive dogs: Laea, Annie & Skylar. Out of the picture Thor is poised, ready to throw a snowball.

Christmas Time in Seattle

Thor and I braved the snowstorm last Wednesday to drive up to Seattle for Christmas. Here's a shot of the tree that Thor & I helped put up when we arrived on Christmas Eve.


Kathryn and I both brought our most comfortable t-shirts to wear on Christmas morning - turned out we both thought of our Pacific Whale Foundation shirts that we got from Anna!


Aunt Susanna at the breakfast table. She made delicious pecan rolls and a tasty, tasty egg & cheese breakfast casserole.

Thor opening up a big package!

The day after Christmas Thor, Kathryn & I went skiing at Alpental just East of Seattle. It was fun, but Thor and I were sore afterwards!

Christmas Cookies

Inspired by cousin Amelia and my mom & Aunt Julie I decided to whip out some Christmas cookies to take up to Seattle with us.

The New Blueberry Plant

I feel badly for this little plant. I am worried it is not going to make it! We bought this about two weeks before the snow hit and of course I procrastinated on putting it into a larger pot and now I am worried the roots are frozen. It is a Sunshine Blue Blueberry which is a self-pollinating, semidwarf blueberry that does really well in containers. Fortunately I picked up the card for the lady selling these guys at the Farmers Market.

Gretchen O'Brien
River Rock Nursery
www.riverrocknursery.com

I think I'll try to visit this nursery some time early this spring. I think it would be a fun field trip out of Portland and it wouldn't hurt to have a couple more blueberry plants anyways. Yum!