My Adventures in Knitting, truly my Yarn-escape!

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Yarns: "Wild" and Easy Goes It Shawl




     In between working on my son's hat (A Sockhead Hat and "The Great Alone"), I've been knitting a new shawl Easy Goes It (I love shawls!).  This is a simple pattern, pretty much mindless knitting, but the results are really nice.  I'm using a Malabrigo Sock Yarn in Caribeno I got for my birthday two years ago.  I've tried it in several projects that didn't work and I really want to wear it.  Hence a simple, easy pattern.  Also, it's summer and my brain wants to escape into my reading and my knitting projects have to cooperate with that.  If I can do both at once it gets my attention!  The Slouch Hat won in that area.  I'd grab it the most and it's a few days from being done.

 Easy Goes It (Ravelry Shots)
© Finicky Creations

© Finicky Creations





      My son's hat was meant for Christmas, but my husband suggested I send it to him in Alaska where he's fishing for salmon.  A job that gives him a cabin and an outhouse for the summer, off the grid.  It's 50's, sporadic rain on Kodiak Island and out on the boat I'm sure it's cold.  The hat, mostly wool will be cozy and warm.





“It had nothing to do with gear or footwear or the backpacking fads or philosophies of any particular era or even with getting from point A to point B. 
It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.”  Cheryl Strayed. Wild. p. 207


     I've discovered a new genre for me that I am loving.  Traveling into wild untamed areas vicariously in my reading chair (while I knit, of course).  After "The Great Alone" by Kristen Hannah I had a hard time going on reading something else.  I think that book was one of the best I've read.  But I got "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed for my birthday and I pressed on.  Now I'm hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in a recounting that's great.  Strayed writes of the why she's hiking alone on this trail and then dives into the ups and downs of her adventures.  We delve into the author's life from her grief over her mother's death and other dark sides of her life she was trying to escape from and reclaim herself.  Her journey is wonderfully and frankly written.  I love reading overcoming adventure stories.  Truly encouraging.



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8 comments:

  1. It is always fun to discover a new genre for reading. I enjoy nature writing and memoir. Great hat and the shawl is coming along. Happy knitting and reading.

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  2. Alaska is on my someday list. I just finished A Walk in the Woods, another hiking the trail book.

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    1. I'm just about to order a copy of A Walk In The Woods! I feel like I've stared at it's cover so long, planning to read it that I must own it. Or maybe it's a sample on my tablet. Anyway my son and girlfriend want to hike the entire AT. He has taken 3 Wilderness First aid courses and led a trip for his college up the 100 Wilderness Miles, at the top in Maine. Knowing what he faced alone with no adults (he was 21 but with another student they led the trip for new Freshmen) was a bit hard for me. I have confidence in him, but the silence is tough and that was a week. The whole AT takes 5 - 6 months.

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  3. Beautiful shawl! And, thanks for the new book genre!

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  4. You rson sounds like he is having an amazing adventure. He will love the hat. Beautiful knitting.

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  5. If you love dogs the iditarod books are really good. I forget the title of the one I loved. Ed Biesters book was good according to my husband NO SHORT CUTS TO THE TOP

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  6. Yes! I read "No Shortcuts to the Top" by Ed Viesturs - https://www.amazon.com/No-Shortcuts-Top-Climbing-Highest-ebook/dp/B000MAH5OM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1533143551&sr=1-1&keywords=ed+viesturs+no+shortcuts+to+the+top I thought it an amazing book! I spent a summer (a very hot one) reading all the 8,000 meter climbing books I could find like "Into Thin Air". No Shortcuts, which is about Ed's adventures is interesting because he's very cautious and will only lead groups in high altitude climbing with oxygen. He was supposed to climb Mt. Everest on the "Into Thin Air" climb, but he was asked to do the Everest movie. His friends led the failed climb and he was below them in camp watching and flipping out when he saw everyone keep on going past the turn around time. Very good writer and climber. His book is primarily about his climbs.

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