Thursday, October 09, 2008

Top of the world


Not really, but with a view like this it feels close to the top. A hugely windy and gusty day, I could barely hold myself on the planet, or the towels for window-cleaning. This is a challenging house even on a calm day, and most of the time the wind just howls along the cliffs here. There are 7 skylights on the roof; today I felt brave so I went up to do them. Even with my considerable mass, there were many gusts that staggered me and tried to whip the hat off my head, chin-strap notwithstanding, the towel off my shoulder and the scrubber right out of my hand. Makes it hard to gawk at the view, never mind stepping back to admire my work.


Here's another view from up there: Windy day, cliffs of Big Sur

As we drove down the coast to the job, we saw some strange fog configurations, I guess due to the wind and high pressure off the coast:
Strange fog above Big Sur

After the job we drove into Big Sur, and saw the evidence of the fires. Scorched, bare hillsides, lots of trees with blackened trunks and burnt leaves everywhere.
Scorched and denuded hills above Big Sur
helicopter flying through canyon in Big Sur, bare hills beyond
We are hoping for gentle, regular rains this winter. Already there are massive preparations against the mudslides that are bound to take place all through the area.

On the knitting front, I finally finished the Imogen Jacket. It is softer and more drapey than the original, since the yarn I used is a blend of merino, silk and alpaca. It's very light and incredibly warm. Finished Imogen Jacket

Close up, finished Imogen Jacket
I ended up with an extra skein of the yarn, which is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Peru, in the Raven series colorway "Thraven" so I cast on for a Shetland Triangle. I swear, I am congenitally incapable of lace, even at a giant gauge like this. It took me about 6 false starts with ripping back and even now requires lifelines, stitch markers and lots of whiskey. Oh wait, maybe that's the problem.

3 comments:

Marianne said...

The photographs, all of them, sights for sore eyes I'm telling you. Thank you SO much. I'm very glad you weren't blown off that roof top!
Yay for finishing Imogen! Very cool jacket, and thank you for the close up for the colours, LOVE those colours!
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to knit lace and drink whiskey at the same time :^) Keep at it, the lace... at some point it will all click and fall into making sense.

Daniele said...

Gorgeous pictures! And the Imogen jacket came out great! I'm still getting used to looking at the lace charts and figuring out what all that gobbly gook means! :)

CC said...

Your Imogen Jacket is beautiful! Good Job...

May I ask how you got the pattern so you could use the Raven yarn from Blue Moon?