The Big Loop

I finally finished my big loop scarf and I love it. Unfortunately it is supposed to be in the 60s all week so I probably won't be wearing it much! I'm sure it will get cold again though.

The pattern is Encompass from the Yarn Harlot. I used almost all of three balls of Cascade 128 superwash instead of a chunky alpaca yarn. Apparently alpaca stretches a lot and merino doesn't. I ended up having to add two more repeats of the pattern to get the 60 inches of circumference on the finished scarf. Super easy pattern and great scarf. Love it.

Hats for twins

Some simple little baby hats for a friend that is expecting twins any day now! The pattern is from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. The only modification I made was to knit a ribbed band on the bottom in place of the rolled brim of the original pattern.

Columbia Drop Cakes

This is one of my favorite recipes from the 1943 edition Joy of Cooking.

Sift ¾ cups of brown sugar.

Beat until soft ½ cup butter.

Add the sugar gradually to the butter and beat until they are light and fluffy.

Beat in one at a time: 2 eggs

Sift before measuring 1 ½ cups flour

Resift with ½t soda, 1t cinnamon, ½t cloves, ¼t allspice, ⅛ t salt.

Add the sifted ingredients in 3 parts to the butter mixture alternatively with ¼ cup water.

Beat the batter until it is smooth after each addition.

Stir in 1 cup broken nuts and 1 cup raisins, dates, or figs.

Drop batter from a teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes in a 375F preheated oven.

Cold

The snow has stopped and now it is just cold. Really cold. Like -1F without windchill cold.

But also beautiful and sunny.

Snowing

That's all. Just snowing.

Birthday weekends

For the past two years Jaro and I have spent early January at Red Rocks (outside Vegas), one of the best sunny winter climbing destinations in the US. Two years ago this meant I turned thirty in the desert, got salmonella, and spent my birthday in the tent in the campground. Oh... and Jaro managed to sprain his ankle on day two of the trip. Last year my birthday was the exact opposite of salmonella. We had a gorgeous sunny day, hiked up to a popular route, were the first people there, found a piece of gear someone had dropped (Booty!), and climbed some excellent pitches. We ended the day with a yummy dinner at PF Changs and dessert and book reading at Whole Foods. Mmm. Hard to top.

Happy Birthday from Red Rocks 2010

This year we decided to stay in Colorado and explore some of the climbing in the area instead. Friday we got out with Little Jon and spent the day in Eldorado Canyon. It was warm in the sun and not crowded. We had a fun day even though the boys got shut down on the routes they wanted to do and Jaro dislodged a giant death block from one of the routes he was climbing.

The death block Jaro dislodged while climbing Purple Haze. Eek!

Since today is my actual birthday we started the day with coffee and pastries from the little German bakery in Boulder. Nothing like a chocolate croissant to start the day. :) We planned on going back to Eldo., but the weather was against us. It was overcast, cold, and windy and none of us felt much like climbing in those conditions. We ended up going for a hike on a trail we hadn't been on before and checking out a bunch of climbing areas in the southern flatirons. The trails here are great and I will definitely be going back for some trail running once the snow melts.

Our hike ended with a trip to Smashburger, from which I am still recovering. OMG. The grease. I can't believe Jaro ate the ½ pound burger! Watching movies now and planning on relaxing and knitting the rest of the weekend. My box of goodies from knitpicks just arrived!

Ypsilon Lake Take 2

On Sunday Jaro, Jon, and I headed back up the Ypsilon Lake trail. This time we were armed with snowshoes and poles. It was a long day of trudging through snow, sometimes deep snow, sometimes breaking trail, but we had fun and made it to the top. Well... we think we made it to the top. It seemed like the logical place to stop anyway according to our topo map. We lost the trail near the top due to super deep snow.

10 miles of snow trudging + 2000 feet of elevation gain = 13 hours of sleeping afterwards