My Cat's a Poufta

My cat Jack has finally found the all wool pouf that I made. He has decided that all wool is awesome.

Walking the dog, Skagway Style

We really enjoy visiting Skagway, especially in the winter when it is quiet. Main Street (actually Broadway) becomes an excellent frisbee location for the dog.

This is the local museum the next morning after a spring snowfall.

Sea ...Otters?

We like to tarry in Skagway to really enjoy the break and ensure we are out of Canada for 24 hours so we can qualify for our duty free allowance. This year we were walking along the river where it empties into the ocean at high tide and saw an amazing abundance of wild life. There were definitely harbour seals and almost certianly a sea otter hanging out among the scoters, seagulls and sundry birds. Unfortunately the snow made it very difficult to photograph what mesmerized us for almost half an hour. The seals snorted and farted at us, or perhaps at the dog, hard to say.

Buckwheat Ski Race

We love the Buckwheat Ski race. We've gone every year for the last four years now and just keep having fun. Happily we are not 'racers' so we are content to start late and spend extra time enjoying hanging out at the snow fort. This year's fort was a pirate boat - as long time readers will know, I've always had a hankering to be a pirate Queen...

The event gathers its own cadre of costumes, as always there are the 'cougars' or 'pussys', the hippies, vintage equipment and sundry freaks. I'm a firm believer in the fun part of the event, but this year didn't get myself organized enough to come up with a costume. The best I could do was my fabulous lynx hat.

We were so behind this year that our friend Lenore who started on time skied back to the snow fort to find us; and we are happy she did.

At the finish Christopher came through with flying colours, but no bib visible...

Next year, I think I'll go for the "Norwegian sweater team", look. Practical, breathable and fun.

Skagway Summit Glory

 The Buckwheat Ski Race was this past weekend. The race itself is held at Log Cabin, a location at the top of the Chilkoot Trail in B.C. The organizers are all from Skagway Alaska - there is a certain international flare. We stayed in Skagway the night before the race, which meant we had to pass back through Canadian customs to get to the race. We didn't give our selves enough time to get to the race start because of a slow down at Canada customs. The upside was that the dog got to entertain everyone waiting in line as she fetched frisbee after frisbee.

Socks in Progress

My Dad has asked for some socks. He doesn't ask for much, so I'm on it. Now, the thing you have to understand is that he has long, large feet, and he like his socks to reach mid calf. By my calculations that is around 4feet of knitting. I know he is resigned to the wait, but what I really need are more meetings! Today I had a 2 hour meeting and got many inches of knitting done. I'm working on two pairs at once. One pair of fine mill spun wool, the other thicker hand spun wool. I suspect the thicker ones will be done first just because the knitting is so much faster.

Look What I Made!

I got the idea and parts of the pattern from Stitch Winter 2012. Their version was larger and squatter. Thank-god for Google which helped me with the calculations to shrink the circle down to the size that would work with the width of the fabric. Remember grade 5 diameter, circumference and radius? Yeah, me neither. Google is your friend. The funny part was trying to stuff it. I bought recycled foam chips at Walmart because they were Canadian and seemed like a 'green' option. Holy Hell! We live in a very dry climate and those little bits of puffed up petroleum just stuck to everything and spread every where. I gave up after attempting a small amount and reverted to using some uncarded wool fleece I had on hand. The upside is that the poof is super warm. The downside is that the cat thinks this is the best thing next to catnip...