December in Cali (sigh)

December is wonderful in California.

This weekend was wet for us. Rain all day Saturday. Sunday morning dawned cool and crisp though. This morning, even better. Dazzling blue sky and a view...



This, my friends, is what I can see on my morning walk with Sterling, from my street, over my neighbors' roofs. That's Mount Baldy which is about a 15 minute drive from here. We frequently go up there to hike and let Sterling play in the snow-run off streams.

See ... (sans snow of course) ...



As you can see from the first picture, while we have sun and blue sky here, Mt Baldy is covered in beautiful snow. That's how I like my snow... close enough to see, far away enough so I don't feel the cold.

=]

Here's the other part I love about this place...



The juxtaposition of the palm trees with the snow. I'm not sure it gets much better than this!

Speaking of homes (which is sorta what I'm doing)... S has taken a big metal bird to Oklahoma (our former home) to visit Grandparents and Mom (hey family!!).

For those of you who've never been there, OK is the red blip right there in the middle.



[gawwffff] that is too funny... I didn't pick that image because the state was red... but boy oh boy is it red. Part of the reason we moved to Cali was to commune more with the blue.

All reports are that the fam is having a great time.

During the absence of the S, I have taken the opportunity to do a bit of knitting.
Friday night I cast on for a new scarf. It's the pattern that Scout wore for her Knitty Gritty taping.

It's the dream swatch head wrap designed by Wendy of Knit and Tonic. I used a ball of Royal Bamboo that I had, and I think it turned out pretty well. The yarn, as I've mentioned before is a beautiful color and sheen. The pattern worked out well for it. The only downside was that the yarn is a bit splitty, and the splits, unfortunately, show. It knitted up nicely on Saturday and was ready for a bit of blocking on Sunday, with assistance from Dylan of course.



This morning, all nice and done!



Here's a close up so you can get a better sense of the color and pattern.



dream swatch head wrap designed by Wendy of Knit and Tonic
Plymouth Yarn Royal Bamboo (100% bamboo)
Color 19, Lot 39 (this is pinks, browns, and creams)
US size 6 (4 mm) metal straight needles
started December 15, 2006
finished December 16, 2006

The wrapped yarns on my scarf are a bit shorter than in the pictures on Scout's and Wendy's blogs, but I think it worked well for this yarn. I tried using larger needles to open the pattern up, but I didn't like the effect on the stockinette stich area. This was a good compromise I think.

That left me on Sunday with the need to start another project (because heaven forbid I go back and work on swallowtail, the only other project on needles right now). So I went into my yarn stash for a project I've been planning for quite some time, a Booga bag.



This little guy is zipping right along and will be good to take to the stich and bitch this week (little attention needed). Right now, my only concern is that it's a lot smaller than I thought it would be (and it will shrink when felted). I'm going to proceed nevertheless and can always do a larger, second bag later.

Winter wishes everyone... winter solstice is only 3 days away!