Heat

Nothing like sawing with daisies

Proud wood collector

James with his new manly chainsaw - the envy of all his UK buddies who have no need for such a tool.

Hoola Hoop + Chainsaw = Hipneck

We rented a splitter for four hours. Well worth $40.

It splits into four!

Drying wood with trouble coming to explore.

Flower Touque

Knitting season is here! Here is the flower touque pattern I promised to post (along with some dorky pictures of me sporting the touque).

Peace out knitters!

Flower Touque

This pattern is adapted from this cool wave touque I found on knitty.com.

Materials:
3.25mm circular needles
3.25mm double-point needles to finish top
Lopi Light wool - 1 ball for the main colour (brown) and less for the flowers.

With main colour, CO 88 sts. Place marker and join in a round, being careful not to twist.

Knit 5 rounds ribbing (K2, P2)
Knit 4 rounds
Work 20 rounds of Flower Chart (make 4 flowers, not 2).*

* Note: Carrying the yarn over was a bit of a nightmare. If you make all the flower petals the same colour and the centres the same colour then I think this would be a lot easier. I'd recommend the latter if you haven't knitted a pattern before.

Click on the image to enlarge.

When you're done the pattern, knit 8 rounds with main colour, or more if you want a deeper touque.

Shape Crown

Note: Switch to double-point needles when necessary.
Round 1: [K13, k2tog] twice, k27, k2tog, k13, k2tog, k14. 84 sts.
Round 2: [K12, k2tog] 6 times. 78 sts.
Round 3: [K11, k2tog] 6 times. 72 sts.
Round 4: [K10, k2tog] 6 times. 66 sts.
Round 5: [K9, k2tog] 6 times. 60 sts.
Round 6: [K8, k2tog] 6 times. 54 sts.
Round 7: [K7, k2tog] 6 times. 48 sts.
Round 8: [K6, k2tog] 6 times. 42 sts.
Round 9: [K5, k2tog] 6 times. 36 sts.
Round 10: [K4, k2tog] 6 times. 30 sts.
Round 11: [K3, k2tog] 6 times. 24 sts.
Round 12: [k2tog] 12 times. 12 sts.

Note: I altered the crown part of the pattern slightly and I can't remember if this pattern is adjusted or not.

Break yarn, draw through remaining stitches and pull tight.

Finishing
I recommend sewing in a thin fleece liner. It reduces forehead itch, covers up messy yarn carry-overs, prevents touque-stretch and helps block out the wind. You'll need a piece of fleece that is about 9cm wide by 40cm long.

Hope this makes sense - talk to me at knitting night if you needs some tips!

Happy Knitting!

The Kokanee are Back!

These guys are back in the spawning channel which is just a few minutes from our house.

Kessa and Nemiah checking out the salmon

Fall Colours

Copperstain, Glacier National Park

Cedars in the forest valley

Aaron and I on Mount Copperstain

Looking East from Mount Copperstain

moss campion

fringed grass of parnassus

funky alpine fungus

From L to R: Terminal Peak, Mount Sir Donald, Uto, Eagle, Avalanche, Mt. Macdonald

Forgotten boots

Bunchberries

and some mushrooms....

Balu Bear

I went up to Balu Pass for a hike with some friends a few weeks ago. We noticed a grizzly mom and her two cubs walking towards us on the trail while we were eating lunch. She was about 150 metres away and she wasn't deterred at all by the fact that there were four of us standing up, yelling and waving our hands and hiking poles at her. We moved on and they kept following. We met up with some other hikers and eventually ended up in a group of 12, which made everything much less intimidating.

Here we are all watching mom and her two cubs feeding. We were over a kilometre away at this point and well off the trail where the three bears were hanging out.

Bear poop (note the chapstick next to the poop for scale)

A cool beetle on the bear poop with little spiders or mites clinging on.