knitting-while-hiking, ‘knitting in the wild’
It is one month into winter in Northern California.
The trees have been bare for only as long. This photo was taken weeks ago, but I was waiting for the right time to post it. It is a Blue Oak, there are many where we walk .
And walking is what Emma and I do a lot of these not-so-grey days of winter. Last few days have been fair and I got some pink on my cheeks today, as we walked some new terrains under the noon-time sun !
Of course, I brought my knitting . . .
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It does happen then. All this talk about knit-walking, like it’s without consequence. Well, for the most part it is, however, I have tripped, and ‘descended clumsily’ into a fallen tree and scraped up my thumb bad enough. (That was about three weeks ago , and is just now healed nicely). And I have dropped my yarn and it has unraveled as I walk on unaware for a ways, sometimes a long ways, before I realize what has happened, then having to wind it back up while picking leaves and twigs and forest duff out of the yarn (very tweedy looking) ~~~ and this has happened countless times ! Oh, but this time, the most recent calamity, was that the other day (my birthday, I am certain) I misplaced a mit somewhere, maybe dropped along the way . . . and lost it !
So this one pair of pin-striped fingerless mits, was to be my last pair I was going to allow myself to knit, of my mit-mania (um…we’ll see about that), and I’m merrily binding off the second of the pair and starting to chirp the joys of spring as it’s time for finish work ! Weaving in ends, soak in suds & dry. . . then wrap very cheerfull like and send off ! WAIT. Um . . . but . . . where is the other mit? Did I lose it ??? Not even panicked, I search all my knit-walk satchels, then look about. Mild panic, search the satchels again… at least 3 times, as if once isn’t enough. I mean I stick my hand in and grope disbelievingly, repeatedly, and actually turn them inside out , as if I can’t feel a mit without doing so the first time. I’m laughing. Yet I’m starting to get impatient and swear at the same time, because I know exactly what happened, I probably dropped it ! Not laughing anymore, as I’m knowing full well there isn’t enough yarn to toss one together in the nick of time. Still , I obligingly search the likely places in the house it might be. . . again . . . and no mit. This was last night mind you, so I couldn’t go out looking for it !
Until this morning. This morning finally dawns, and after feeling the doom that I can’t make another, that it is forever lost, and how am I going to deal , since I used up the last of one of the pin-stripe colors . . oh sheesh . . . must I dorkily make a mismatched pair???? Well, I searched those knitting bags again, my hands groping around without my mind connected, they just shuffle papers, lifting piles of crap on my desk table, lift pillows, blankets… looking behind my sideboard, under the sideboard . . .my hands are hoping for a stupid miracle that I covered them up, or pushed them off the furniture. My hands are slaves to my disbelief and my reluctance to go out in 34F temperature to go ‘hiking’. But, at last, Emma and I did go out and retrace our last walk.
This was our Lucky Day…. only a little less than a mile and we found it !
There it was !!!
There it was in the dirt road !!!!!
There it was in the dirt road in the dark woods, damp, shaking, barely alive !!!!!
It was lying so alone, vulnerable, belly up, in the middle of the dirt road, right next to a little fir tree snag that had fallen in a recent storm. Ohhh…yyyeahh… I remember Emma’s leash getting tangled up when she jumped over it, and I remember having to put my knitting in the bag to help her get untangled. Then we went on, and I carried on with the pin-stripes.,.. probably yanked out the yarn a little too hard. If this little mit had a voice, I’m sure it would be thin and very high-pitched and calling out in sheer exhaustion ” Here I am, here I am…. oh you found me, where were you, why did you leave me??? I don’t think I could have survived another wild animal sniffing me over in the night . . .” So anyway, the story ends happily. We have ‘er back, and the pair is reunited !!! Washed, rinsed, and the color has come back into her cheeks. In fact, I bet you can’t tell which one was lost, can you?
Ahhhhhh . . . . . drying ! ! !
Emma and I out exploring the mountain for a good long knit walk on Sunday morning . Observing moss dripping off of branches, devouring the old oaks. So much fog and moisture from the coastal weather pounding this inland ridge which divides Sonoma and Napa counties, before sinking finally into the Napa valley.
Close to the peak, we seek out our secret precipice . . .
Emma scouts the ridge along the peak, for her usual treats . . .
What is this bright blushing wooliness among the foggy forest ?
And the view , beyond the knitting, from the peak at 2600 feet !
Out walking in the new year.
Long shadows cast in the piercing late morning light, vines and deciduous trees bare, a lovely wintery landscape in the mountains of Northern California.
Jeff , Emma & I are out greeting the new year with cheer, walking up and down watery rocky roads of the back country. Bare trees and fresh grass bursting out from last year’s growth, and water springing out of the ground . . .
Here Jeff watches a huge flock of doves explode noisily into the air. . .
(Seems to me dogs rarely look up into the sky, but always into the bush !)
Other things we saw :
lots of ice on the ground . . .
deeply grooved erosion from water, in the mossy banked soft rock along the country road.
( We’ve had torrential downpours in the last weeks.)
Whipping in the breeze, the colorful flags still flying in the meadow along the canyon precipice,
releasing prayers to the wind . . .
First blossoms of winter !
the manzanita’s pink heart-shaped buds . . .
A little bright wool resting on the grey bare vines !
This perhaps me knitting while hiking, satchels slung to each side, holding two colors being knit into another ( yes still another) pin-striped fingerless mitt. Even Jeff commented at the end of our hike how impressed he was that I was able to knit while walking over some of the terrain we just had. Well, I’ve had lots of practice in recent months !
Happy New Year All !!!
Yesterday’s knitting walk was lovely. I followed Emma down in the meadow above the canyon (coyote-ville), and to our surprise, Emma spotted something very curious flapping in the breeze ahead.
Closer and closer, curiouser and curiouser !
Ah ha ! There has been someone who has been adorning the mountain with Tibetan Prayer Flags around here lately. The Masked Flagger has struck again ! They are admittedly quite a spectacle of artistic beauty, even bleached by the sun and wind-whipped to shreds.