Bear Tracks

Several years ago, I began making crocheted bears. I don't know why I did bears instead of mountain goats or kittens. Perhaps because their shaping was so easy? Even though bears weren't my very favorite animal, in no time, I was addicted.

I had many yarn leftovers perfect for small projects, and little bears are small projects.

Setting up a bunch of bears for photos gave me new ideas. Initially I wanted to write "Hi!" with little bears. Later I decided to make a heart with bears. I even made a Christmas tree with bears!





After a while, I got brave and tried a bear of thread. Initially, I was worried I wouldn't be able to pull off the detail and keep the holes between stitches small enough to prevent the stuffing from showing. But once again, I was addicted.

So it was time to reduce the recipe and try for even smaller.

Now I was really in trouble. I had much more thread than yarn. And it takes far less thread than yarn to make a bear. The sky was the limit. No such thing as too many. I made a pastel rainbow of bears.

I built a portable bear factory to carry with me on the train every day.





I decided it was time to try my hand at a multi-colored thread bear. (I'd already made one of yarn, and it won honorable mention in a bear challenge!) Making a striped bear of thread proved very challenging due to knots and ends to hide. I didn't make any more striped bears.



The time came to really test my mettle. I wanted to see just how small I could go. Size 20 thread and a size 12 hook (the smallest one I inherited from my grandmother) produced what I thought was the tinest bear I would ever make. Because it was so difficult, I swore I'd never make one that small again. Ever.



Never again!

They were fun to pose, fun to shoot, fun to give away. Snowflakes took over the place in my heart the bears had occupied, and I didn't make any more bears for a very long time. Took plenty of pictures of bears, but no more making bears for what felt like forever.















Crocheters kept asking me for a pattern. So I finally wrote one (included in this year's Colorado/Wyoming Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society fundraiser snowflake booklet). Little Bear Peak Snowflake made me remember how much I love little bears.

This summer I was unexpectedly grounded from my bike and the stairs and all other fun athletic activities while my back adjusts to... changes. I had a whole bunch of new thread colors I hadn't tried out, so I began making bears again. Because I could. And because they make me smile.



Meanwhile, my macro lens is still in the shop being repaired (going on three months now!!!), and it's driving me crazy. I've got so many bear photos I want to take!

It's also Ravellenics time for just a little while longer. What could I do to challenge myself while I wait for the blocked Lanesplitter skirt to dry? What project would be difficult, mind-bending, finger-numbing, but so darned cute I couldn't resist? Well, how about size 80 thread and the size 15 crochet hook that hasn't yet gone through a proper workout??? Yes, I think that just might do.











Too bad I don't have the best lens to really show this little gal off!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Challenged

As I neared the ends of the first two skeins of yarn in my gorgeously hued Lanesplitter skirt, I wondered if I should change the Ravellenics category from Free Choice All Around to Cast On Mania Trap Shoot.

The skirt pattern calls for six skeins of yarn. By finishing up two skeins, technically, I was one-third done. The Cast On event allows knitters and crocheters to start a bunch of projects, getting only a third of the way done before moving on to start the next project. Ideally, this would get Christmas presents on the needles and hopefully finished in time for giving.

I have no problem whatsoever starting too many projects and not having enough time to get them all done. The whole idea behind Ravellenics (besides fun) is to challenge needleworkers to accomplish something they don't know, aren't expert at or that doesn't come easy.

Trying to finish a whole skirt in just two weeks while working full time and going through physical therapy is more of a challenge for me than starting a bunch of projects. So I decided to press on, to challenge myself to do something that isn't going to be a piece of cake.

I do love this skirt, and I get excited watching the colors slip through my fingers as I knit.

But I miss my snowflakes!

So I took one morning commute off from knitting aboard the train and designed a snowflake instead. That night, I tested the pattern on a rock.



Ta da! A Lace Longjump project and a Home Stuff Hammerthrow project for the Ravellenics.

And I should be able to get that skirt done (for blocking) tonight!

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Snowflake Monday

Mount Evans is a great training ride for cyclists (as long as they have tough rims), an awesome training climb for runners, a wonderful place to see wildlife and the quintessential drive for tourists wanting to see the summit of a 14er without the huffing and puffing required to climb it.

That's because a paved road goes almost all the way to the top. The Mount Evans Road is the highest paved road in North America and the second most popular tourist attraction in the Denver metro area. (Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, ranks at the top of the list.)















Mount Evans wasn't always named after the second governor of the state of Colorado. The mountain started out as a girl, named Mount Rosalie by Albert Bierstadt in 1863, during what may have been the first ascent by a white man, in honor of the tallest peak in Switzerland but also as a token of admiration for the wife of Fitzhugh Ludlow, Rosalie, whom Bierstadt would later marry. (Yes, scandalous!) The Colorado legislature changed the name of the 14er closest to Denver in 1895.

Mount Evans is connected via a jagged ridge called the Sawtooth to another 14er, Mount Bierstadt. How fitting that Bierstadt and Rosalie once were connected by a serrated line. The name Rosalie now graces a subpeak of Mount Evans, a rounded and lofty hill gazing directly across Abyss Lake at Mount Bierstadt.

The ten-year construction of the now buckled and potholed paved road up Mount Evans was completed in 1927. The Ritchey-Chrétien telescope atop Mount Evans has been used to study Comets Kohoutek and Halley. Meyer-Womble Observatory was the highest optical observatory until 2001. Now it is third highest.

On July 30, 2012, a tornado nearly touched ground at approximately 11,800 feet on the slopes of Mount Evans, the second highest tornado known to man. Katie T. captured it on video. Check out the storm-accompanying hail on the ground! (The video I initially liked to in 2012 is no longer available, but the news report of the event is!)

I planned to make only one project for the 2012 Ravellenics, but after a week solid of working on my Lanesplitter skirt, I was missing my thread! Plus, I had to cover another river rock for my garden to keep one streak alive. (I've made a snowflake for a rock every week this summer except while I was pedaling across the state, and I made two the week before and two the week after to make up for it.)

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 5 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 8 crochet hook, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line

Mount Evans Snowflake Instructions

Ch 6, sl st into 1st ch OR make magic ring.

Round 1: * 2 sc in ring, ch 10, sl st in 10th ch from hook; repeat from * around 4 times; sl st in starting sc, ch 4, trtr in starting sc to form last ch 10 loop. Pull magic circle tight, but leave opening big enough to allow stitches inside it to lay flat.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 2: 3 sc over trtr just worked, * ch 13, sl st in 10th ch from hook, ch 3, 5 sc in next ch 10 loop; repeat from * around 4 times; ch 13, sl st in 10th ch from hook, ch 3, 2 sc in next loop, sl st in starting sc.

Round 3: 1 sc in same sc as sl st, * ch 4, 11 dc in next ch 10 loop, ch 4, 1 sc in 3rd sc of next 5 sc group; repeat from * around 5 times, omitting last sc of final repeat; sl st in starting sc.

Round 4: * Ch 4, sk next dc, [1 dc in next dc, ch 1] 8 times, 1 dc in next dc, ch 4, sl st in next sc; repeat from * around 5 times, ending with sl st in same sc as final sl st of Round 3.

Round 5: Ch 5, sk next dc, [1 dc in next dc, ch 3] 6 times, 1 dc in next dc, ch 5, sl st in next sl st; repeat from * around 5 times; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finish: Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.

If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch the snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

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Friday Funny

Yes, this has already gone viral, but it's so cute, I could watch it all day!

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Coming Back to Life

This was my two-year-old pepper plant at the end of May. I thought it was a goner. I was going to dump the old soil and plant something new in the container. I set the container on the porch, fully intending to get back to it the following day.



The following weekend, the formerly bare pepper plant was sprouting tiny leaves. Now it's loaded with more than half a dozen peppers. My lovely plant will be coming back inside before the first overnight freeze, and hopefully it will live to see another summer!

This is what most of my garden looked like when we returned from Ride the Rockies. I spent the entire next day replanting, re-aerating by hand, watering, trimming, pruning, nurturing...

This is what my garden looks like now.



This is what I spent the next five weeks doing. Mostly in bed. Because I couldn't move the day after all the garden work.

The pain grew steadily, just like the garden. My doctor took me in on an emergency basis. He put me on all kinds of medication, which I couldn't take at work because it put me to sleep. When I wasn't working, I was sleeping.

Finally, test results were delivered.

An injury of old has come back to life, perhaps aided by a little bike wreck back in March. Possibly fueled by inadequate training for a hard six-day, cross-state ride. Likely pushed on by too many hours spent sitting at a desk at work sans breaks and stretches. Oh, and with legs crossed: "No, no, no! Feet flat on the floor!"

And by golly, no more lifting. "You hear that, Young Lady?!?"

Do you suppose I should tell him about the company softball game??? The one they asked me to photograph for the company newsletter, the one we would have to forfeit if they couldn't find/convince one more female to play? ("You did WHAT?!?") ("Hey, I hit the ball! I didn't make it to base, but I hit the ball!")

We likely will never know precisely what ignited this outburst, just as when the bone chip came out of nowhere in 2004 to floor me and result in a two-inch scar in the middle of my lower back. What we do know is that it robbed me of my 17th month in my 60-mile-day streak. What we do know is that it rendered me incapable of wearing my prized High Roller jersey this summer.

A disc is an insulator to the nerve bundle running through the spine and a shock absorber for the vertebrae above and below it. It's 80 percent moisture at birth. It dries out as it ages. It suffers upon impact or trauma. And sometimes, it rebels. Angrily.

Because no blood flows to discs and they don't receive fresh oxygen and nutrients, they cannot heal or repair themselves. A disc can, under certain circumstances, be replaced with plastic parts. In most cases, the body balances itself out by about age 60, and the injured disc isn't as much of a nuisance. Otherwise, there is no cure.

But I refuse to roll over and play dead.

I've been yoga stretching and walking every day for three weeks. I'm keeping my feet flat on the floor. I'm getting up from my desk often, even if all I get to do is walk around my chair.

And last weekend, I got to sit in the saddle again for a test ride. It was short, but rewarding.

The bears in my dreams came to life. Well, one of them did. And he put on one heck of a show for me. About 200 shots' worth.







"I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life."
-David Gilmour, Pink Floyd

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