End of the Month Crafting

My daughter, Emily, asked me to make a troll hat for her four year old, Eve, and I was happy to do so. I admit that I had my doubts as I was attaching the hair, strand by strand, to the crocheted cap that served as a wig base.

Doesn't look like much, does it? But a couple of hours later the strands were in, I had brushed out the yarn, and I had a pile of fiber.

AND, a cute little troll hat/wig.

It has been put in the mail and I can't wait to see my granddaughter's photo of her wearing it.

I also finished knitting my Hanasaku Cowl, designed by Tori Gurbisz, and am very pleased with it. It was an easy knit.

I really like the thick 'n thin yarn in this, with little bumps.

Besides crafting, Bob and I also visited the Yellowstone Historic Center, a museum dedicated to telling the story of travel to and through Yellowstone National Park.

The town of West Yellowstone was founded in 1909 with the arrival of rail service to this location. The museum is housed in the former railway station and is a beautiful building.

We enjoyed the exhibits featuring information on early tourists who visited here, some of which got the "royal tour" and others who camped in the park.

The museum has a nice collection of original carriages, used to offer guided tours.

Bob was startled by a huge grizzly bear named Old Snaggletooth. And we learned about the 1959 Hegben Disaster following a series of massive earthquakes that buried 26 campers. Apparently, the Yellowstone area is due for another massive earthquake. Any time now.

Tomorrow we leave this magical area and head towards Idaho Falls, then Salt Lake City for a few days.

Grand Teton National Park

How did the Tetons get their name? Well, according to Climbing Magazine, "French trappers are responsible for naming the three peaks now known as the South, Middle, and Grand Teton. They called the mountains “Les Trois Tetons,” or “The Three Breasts.” The Grand Teton—the tallest of the three—literally means “the big tit.”"

OK, all I can say is that those French trappers must have been REALLY lonely, because I don't see what they did. Nevertheless, these mountains are seriously breathtaking.

Bob, Auggie, and I left the rig at 7:30 on Wednesday morning to visit this park. It took a little over two hours to get to the entrance of Grand Teton National Park, traveling through Yellowstone and stopping along the way for a "bison jam."

These big fellas were covered with frost as they lumbered down the road.

We also had to stop to marvel at this little guy, a red fox who posed for me before trotting off into the woods.

What a view we had as we drove into the park!

These folks were enjoying the crystal clear day in their little rowboat. It was 25 degrees when we left West Yellowstone, but it gradually warmed up to the 50s and we started shedding layers of clothing.

Jackson Lake was enlarged in 1911 when the Jackson Dam was built. The dam was enlarged in 1916 and rebuilt in 1989.

Can you imagine having a little summer home here? Yeah, as long as no one else is allowed to build in the area...

We drove the loop through GTNP, then returned home by passing through Yellowstone again and crossing the Continental Divide. The Continental Divide snakes across Yellowstone National Park so that you go over it three times as you travel in one direction. And after 6 1/2 hours of driving, we made it back to the rig, tired but happy.

Old Faithful

Bob, Auggie, and I got up at 5:30 and left our rig at 6:30 am Monday morning to drive to Old Faithful. Five thirty came awfully early, especially as I really didn't sleep well the night before, but since the geyser was nearly an hour away we wanted to get an early start.

We watched the sun rise over Yellowstone, an awesome sight. The morning was cold, about 29 degrees when we left West Yellowstone and became even colder as we continued to climb in elevation.

In the early morning the mist rose off the rivers as elk grazed.

We passed a lot of geothermal areas to reach Old Faithful. When we arrived it was in "resting mode," gently steaming away.

I texted my sister in Massachusetts, Cher, and gave her the link to the webcam at Old Faithful so she could check to see if we were visible. Sure enough, she could see us but only on a frozen screen so we couldn't wave to her. This is her screenshot.

While waiting, a woman came up to ask if she could pet Auggie and we struck up a conversation. I admired her handknitted hat, she told me it was a WestKnits pattern, and we started chatting about knitting. Rosemary even recognized my cowl (http://weavingdowntheroad.blogspot.com/2015/09/southern-alabama.html as qiviut which impressed me to no end! Such a fun encounter! Now I'm going to have to knit one of these hats, especially since I already own the pattern (Kvosin, by Stephen West.)

After almost a 40 minute wait, Old Faithful erupted with an audible whoosh. This was the start of the eruption. As it continued over the next several minutes, the cloud became wider and higher than I am able to show here because the steam completely filled my camera screen. Old Faithful is a cone geyser, erupting from a mound of siliceous sinter, and its eruptions reach up to 183 feet high.

Then it was time to move on. We stopped to look at Mud Volcano (picture a photo of steam) and Sulphur Cauldron (above.) It was smelly but not as bad as the ones we had visited in Iceland, so many years ago.

We saw herds of bison grazing near geothermal fields. What a sight! Twice we came upon bison walking along the road, blocking traffic both ways. Auggie is fascinated with them and enjoys these close encounters.

If you look very closely you may be able to see the two coyotes in this photo, hunting for mice. Occasionally one would leap straight up and pounce when he spotted one.

The Gallatin River was a lovely sight.

Yellowstone is incredible, and even if you are wimpy like we are and afraid to hike along the trails for fear of encountering a bear, it can be enjoyed by car.

We saw less snow on the ground as the day wore on yet we saw it lingering on the mountain tops. After driving around for seven hours we returned home tired but very happy.

Raptors and Wolves and Bears, Oh My!

Yesterday Bob and I went to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone.

This place takes in grizzly bears, wolves, and raptors (birds who hunt with their talons) that can no longer survive in the wild. We saw a very nice raptor program featuring two birds: a Rough Legged Hawk (above)...

...and a Northern Saw Whet Owl. While they eat mice in the winter, these tiny owls' main diet in the summer is moths.

Outside we came face to face with a huge grizzly bear.

The sanctuary focuses on community education and had exhibits that were very nicely done. Bob and I were amazed at how big the polar bear was.

And aren't baby grizzlies adorable? Here's what I wanted to know--what to do if I meet a bear in the wild.

We learned a lot here. Now we are ready to go into Yellowstone.

We Leave Livingston, MT

We've been here a long time, expecting to stay for 7 days and ending up lingering for an extra 4 days because of weather. We still saw snow, waking up on Friday to this scene in the campground.

But it had melted by mid day, and we were glad we had waited out the weather. We saw plenty of evidence of snow in the higher elevations on Saturday morning while traveling to West Yellowstone, MT.

The road south ran along Swan Creek, which was very winding. Pretty, but not a relaxing drive for Bob who had to focus on all those turns. At least we saw no ice, rain, or snow on the roads.

We settled in to our new campsite, and it's a very nice park. There appears to be lots to do around here (besides Yellowstone, which is right around the corner.) There's a grizzly bear/wolf sanctuary, an IMAX theater, lots of touristy shops, and a quilt/yarn shop in town. We are also not that far to Grand Teton National Park so I hope we'll get there as well. And there's no rain or snow forecast for the next week!

While waiting to get to the Yellowstone area I've been working on a knitted cowl in linen stitch...an odd number of stitches on a circular needle (in this case, 107)... knit 1, slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front. Place a stitch marker after the first round and move it every time you come to it. Repeat k1, S1 throughout the entire piece. 2 rows color 1, 2 rows color 2, starting and ending with color 1.

I figured out another use for the seat from my Harrisville Design weaving bench--that of a knitting desk. I clamped 2 small (Walmart) bar clamps to it so I could impale the balls of yarn on them, keeping them from rolling off. Under 1 of the clamps I slipped the pattern, and put a pair of scissors under 1 ball. My small IKEA lamp sits on my "desk" for extra light. I even have a rare earth magnet that sticks to the lamp and holds a needle for yarn ends. When I stand up, I turn around and set the desk on the chair like so.

It works very well and keeps everything organized. The 1/2" board is 9" wide and 28" long if you want to make one for yourself. Handle cutouts are not necessary.

Today we are off to start exploring the area.

Crafting

I have been as busy as a bee the last couple of days, finishing my Flower Band...

...sewing another Tag Along Bag (this one with fabric from Back Porch Quilts--what a great shop!)

...and whipping up a couple of cord tamers to keep my cabinet a wee bit more organized.

These took just a few minutes to sew, since my sewing machine and iron were already out. That's the time consuming part, the set up, so little projects like this get postponed until I can tack them onto the end of another one. I used my Kam Snaps for closures--gosh, I love finding ways to use them!

The wind howled today, strong enough to blow our door out of Bob's hand when he opened it to take Auggie for his walk. The rain held off all day, though, and it is supposed to start a little later this evening and continue most of the night. I drove over to the quilt/yarn shop and picked up a few more fat quarters for future projects.

Since we are expecting rain we have one of our slideouts in. We seem to get water in the coach if the rain is driving from a certain direction, which is minimized if that slidout is not extended. We'll have to get that looked at when we are settled this winter. Fortunately we still have plenty of room to move around with only three slides out.

Bracing for Weather

Bob and I have, after careful consideration, decided to stay here in Livingston, MT until Saturday. Weather reports are still predicting snow for West Yellowstone every day from Tuesday to Friday. We called the next campground and were able to postpone our arrival, and we can stay where we are for an extra four days. We are breathing much easier having made that decision.

Last night I warped up my little Ashford Inklette loom to weave a flower band. With a little picking up and pushing down of two center threads, a little flower appears in the pattern.

It's a quick and easy weave. As usual, details on weaving this are on my Ravelry page.

We spent part of today visiting local antique shops, and Livingston has several in the downtown area. There was nothing we needed but it was fun to look.

The next few days will bring rain, rain, and more rain. A good week for weaving, sewing, and knitting projects!

Sightseeing

On Thursday, Bob and I went into Bozeman, a nice little city about a half hour west of Livingston. Bozeman was surprisingly hip, featuring many trendy-looking restauraunts in the downtown area. We chose to eat at the Nova Cafe, where Bob ordered a fritatta and I enjoyed a Vietnamese salad.

I find that I'm really enjoying eating a plant based diet and am having fun trying foods that never would have been on my radar before. We walked around the area after lunch and stopped into an antique store. We were tempted by a couple of items but resisted bringing anything more into our motorhome. It sure was fun to look, though!

Today we went into Livingston to learn a little more about the town. There's a very nice museum here called the Yellowstone Gateway Museum that we wanted to see. The building itself was originally an elementary school, and inside were a lot of exhibits that piqued my interest.

You've all seen pictures of these, called High Wheel Bicycles, but you may not have known that in 1870 people paid $125 (six months' salary) to own one. The phrase "taking a header" was coined by users of this bicycle. If the front tire encountered an obstacle, the front axle rotated forward and the rider was dropped on his head.

In 1915, the Yellowstone Trail was completed, connecting Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts to Puget Sound, Washington. The first automobiles began crossing the country, ending the railway's monopoly on coast-to-coast travel. It was America's first highway, and I'd never heard of it before.

Outside in a separate building are antique vehicles such as this bright yellow surry, used by Yellowstone Park to provide horse-drawn tours to visitors in the late 1800s. There were also two fine examples of sheepwagons, considered "...a marvel of practicality and efficiency." This type was made in the 1880s-1920s and provided the sheep herder with shelter and heat, mobility and storage. Nowadays sheepwagons are still used but are more like a modernized RV.

In front of the museum stands a fine example of a train car. It was surprisingly large and airy inside.

Bob and I are watching the weather carefully. It has been rainy and cold for the last three days, so cold that I could see my breath (a sight that I had thought never to have to see again, to be honest.) There is snow in the forecast this week but hopefully the forecasters are just looking for high ratings. Those of my readers from the mid-Atlantic region of the country know how often snow is predicted that never actually appears. I'm kind of hoping it's the same here, but we'll find out. We move on to our next destination, West Yellowstone, on Tuesday.