WOW! What a weekend!

It was a good thing I posted that picture of the shawl earlier. As I thought, I had been doing my yarn overs completely wrong and as I predicted, I ripped the whole (pitifully small) thing out and started over. I did a complete section of the pattern correctly as a practice run before ripping out though and this second try is all the better for it. I was able to catch back up to where I was in one evening and now it truly looks like the picture in the pattern. All this pleases me to no end as I've never been able to knit an actual lace pattern and have it even resemble the pattern picture. lol To top it off, I'm really using Lace Weight yarn even! (An yes, I'm using a life line!) So here's a new (crappy) progress pic and the specs for the pattern. Remember, this is a gift for my Mom, so if you know her and have contact with her, no telling, k?!

The yarn is Knit Picks Gossamer (100% Merino Wool) in the Red Hat colorway. Pattern is the Garter Lace Triangle Shawl from the book Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls. When completed this will be a true milestone for me, 1st lace and 1st knitted shawl. To say I'm enjoying it right now is a bit of an understatement, however a little voice keeps whispering to me that every other row is adding two stitches, making every other row longer and longer and maybe, just maybe there will come a time when one row will feel like an eternity. ;) The happy knitter side of my brain keeps telling the whisperer to shut up and we'll deal with that when we get there. Maybe with wine, maybe with rum. We'll see. lol

Well the hubby has all of the coming week off and we decided to make the most of it that we can. I have Sunday/Mondays off and with Monday being a holiday, I'm given Tuesday as my day off this week. It didn't take much asking to get my boss to let me to have Wednesday off so that the hubby and I could take a road trip. With Autumn fast approaching and the weather here turning quickly, my motorcycle riding season is rapidly drawing to a close. We had plans this year to take longer and longer rides together to build up to an overnight visit to some family on the eastern side of the state. Time flew by this summer, and we've certainly had some beautiful rides, but it's now or never for that overnight trip. So tomorrow afternoon we head out to cross the pass and visit one of my sisters and her family for the night. Tuesday morning we'll head over to Don's sisters house (a few hours from my sisters house) to spend time with her family and spend the night there. Wednesday we'll head home. Both of us are looking forward to the trip immensely, but both of us are knowing that Wednesday will be a L.O.N.G day of riding with many stops to stretch out. I'm pretty sure our fanny's will be sore by Thursday. ;) That doesn't quell the excitement though. lol

As if all the riding planned for Mon-Wed wasn't enough, Don had planned a ride with some of his friends from work for Sunday. An all day ride. :) I was more than happy to ride along to get some seat time in and see how I'd do on a longer ride. The weather wasn't as gloriously sunny as I'd hoped, but it also wasn't miserably hot. The sun was out for most of the day, and we only got rained on a little bit, while we were on the way home. The true thunder and lightening storm didn't hit until we were well home and inside for the day. Perfect timing and a perfectly wonderful day!

The four of us started the day off meeting up at our local diner for breakfast. Our goal for the ride was to make it as far as Diablo, Washington, located approximately 3 hours NE of here on the North Cascades Hwy. One of the requirements of the ride was to stop at Newhalem, Washington, to poke around and look at the Hydro Electric power station there. The whole "city" is set up as a working tourist spot. I put "city" in quotes for the simple fact that almost every sign there was logo'd with Seattle City Light as I do believe they own the whole darn area. lol It's a fully functioning power supplier, but due to the history and beauty of the area, coupled with the sheer awe inspiring human machinery it's quite the interesting tourist stop. There are walking interpretive trails all over the area. We have far more pictures than I can share here in this one post, but this will give you an idea of our day. I'll post more pics later.

Here are the Don, Jim and Ken at Rockport, one of our stretch stops. This whole area is beautiful to drive through, and riding on a motorcycle through here is even better!

This is a gazebo that was built in Newhalem. It was made from recycled parts from electrical power stations. It's quite enchanting to stand inside it.

Here's the Powerhouse....from the parking area. There is a suspension bridge foot path that you take across the river. All around the backside of that building are beautiful pathways and gardens. Don and I both took numerous pictures there and I'll share some with you later on.

Just around the corner from the power house is this bridge. I don't remember the distance to the bottom of the gorge, but it's quite a ways down. I snapped this pic of Don as it reminded me of Tucker when he drops something off the side of the deck. lol Rut-rowe!
And this is my new desktop pic on my computer. That's the hubster on a suspension bridge that takes you over to a wonderful looking set of trails that I hope we can explore some day. What a wonderful reminder of a wonderful day!

Well I best be off to bed. I have some packing to do in the a.m. before we head off to the fairgrounds for a few hours. My spinning guild is doing a sheep to shawl demo at the state fair tomorrow and I promised to help. I'll be leaving it a bit early so we can head out on our trip at a decent time. The neighbor lady kindly agreed to dog/cat sit and I'm utterly grateful to her. This will be the first time we've left Tucker home alone for more than just a short over-nighter so I'm a bit nervous. She's got access to huge quantities of treats for him, so hopefully all will be well.

"What do you mean you're going on a trip without me?"

"Why can't I come too? There better be lots of treats in this for me!"

I'll post up as soon as I'm recovered from the trip and am able. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and that this weeks as much fun for you as it promises to be for me!