Various Knitting projects

Tisha sent this pattern for a bike helmet earband and I immediate made one for Tim. This is made with a washable wool (cascade 220) from some leftovers from some fingerless gloves I made years ago. I think I will add a snap or maybe some velcro on the ear flap to keep it closed.



I also received this beautiful hand-dyed yarn from Ginny! Its South West Trading Company Tofutsies. Here's what one reseller says:

"Tofutsies" Yarn

For all you sock lovers who enjoy colorful combos & unique fibers, we have in stock "Tofutsies" sock yarn from South West Trading Company. Who knew that you could use chitin (made from shrimp & crab shells) to create wonderfully soft & durable fiber? Leave it to the yarn innovators at SWTC to add it to superwashed wool & traditional cotton plus Soysilk, South West's trademarked fiber made from tofu byproducts. The result is a terrific sock yarn with antibacterial properties. Made of 50% superwash wool, 25% soysilk, 22.5% cotton & 2.5% chitin.

Interesting Note: Scientists have found this type of chitin to be very compatible with human tissue and helpful in accelerating the healing of wounds.

Ginny dyed this hank herself! Itsn't she awesome! I can't wait to knit it up!

The scarf is made from Rainbow Boucle varigated yarn - Multi-directional scarf made up of small triangles to give the varigated pattern a different look.

This was a fun pattern to make. Bigger needles would result in a more lacy pattern. I was afraid that the fringe would quickly unravel so I crocheted little loops on the end.

Beautiful Spring Weather

I had an awesome flight this last weekend from Fairbanks to Anchorage. Every once in a while you get one of those days where the skies are bright blue and there are no clouds. On days like these you almost forget about all the hassles of traveling since 911 and you're glad to have the opportunity to fly by Mt McKinley, Mt Foraker and the other peaks forming the Alaska Range.


The ice fields too were gorgeous and it was fun to follow the ice's pathway down to the river.

Restaurant Review #16

I was just up in Fairbanks for a week in the office. On my way home I had a long layover in Anchorage and my sister and family took me to a restaurant downtown in a little pink house called the Gumbo House. It wasn't quite New Orleans, but it was pretty tasty. I had the kitchen sink gumbo (lots of chicken, shrimp, oysters) and have endured the heart burn with pleasure but my sister and niece had the jambalaya and it would definitely be my choice if I were to visit again. My bro-in-law and other niece had a Po'Boy which also looked very good although maybe a little messy. Portions were ample.

I think my bowl of gumbo was about $8 and it came with 2 scoops of rice. There was also a choice of ordering a bucket which must have been huge! I also had a corn muffin (nothing to drool over) and I couldn't finish it all.

So if you're in the area – stop by for some cajun! Its a great way to celebrate Fat Tuesday!

Braised Hoisin Beer London Broil

Photo taken from The Bitten Word

I had a london broil in the freezer that I've been wanting to use before it gets too freezer burnt and found this recipe using beer, beef, hoisin and ginger. I thought it might be pretty tasty and it was! I used Alaska Brew Company's Barley Wine to replace the ale and the london broil instead of the ribs, but everything else was pretty much as included on the recipe. We had two meals from it. the first time we had chucks of the meat with soba noodles and the second meal we shredded the meat up and had hoisin beef sandwiches on hoagie rolls. They were yummy!

Mural at UAS

I had read in the paper that Ray Troll was painting a mural out at UAS and I know it was in the Eagan building but I wasn't sure where. I was surprised when I went to my class on Thursday night that he was creating the mural right outside my classroom door. He uses a projection screen and has had a couple of helpers creating the outlines. Its was pretty cool process to watch before class started.


I'm sure that most of you in Alaska are familiar with his work - he does a lot of fish work and maybe most famous for his t-shirts and posters featuring the various salmon species. According to his website he's just done some outdoor murals for a NOAA facility in California. Pretty cool looking!

I always miss the excitment!

from Tim this a.m:

I saw a pod of harbor porpoise come up the channel by the house. About ten minutes later a large pod of killer whales came up stalking them. The orca fanned out in a hunting party kind of deal. For about an hour there were various hunting and hiding activities. The porpoises ended up right by the house, in shallow water, stopped and not making any noise hoping the whales would go by.

It was pretty much like National Geographic except I didn't see a kill. Much later the whales were grouped up and doing the gang swimming activity around the basin off of downtown. People were stopped on the bridge watching them. I don't know if they ate the porpoises or not. I didn't see the porpoise pod again after they slunk down out of the shallows by the house and quietly swam away. They didn't surface.

I spent about an hour on the deck watching. The battery on the camera was dead.

Walter Hickel was wrong... You CAN just let nature run wild.

Video
Juneau Empire Photos

Geology of National Parks

Anyone wanting an entertaining and informative opportunity to learn more about the Geology of National Parks should check out the Open CourseWare opportunity offered by Penn State. The online course content for GEOS 10 - Geology of National Parks is out there for you to look at without having to pay tuition. Complete with video lectures, virtual tours, some guitar! Lots of good content to ready and look through. If anything go here to see and hear the Rock (it is a geology class) Video Reviews. I did have some problems seeing the video lectures, but once I downloaded the browser plug-in I was good to go.

This was passed on by one of UAF's faculty who we've been working with at CDE on an online oceans studies course. We hope to one day open the course up as Penn State has, as an open courseware course but we have many details to figure out (like copyright).

What a fun class to have worked on! To get to visit a bunch of National Parks and hike around–that doesn't sound like too much work to me!

We had a nice sunny walk today at the airport dike. The temperature has dropped a little so we're seeing ice crystals forming on top of the snow that we had earlier in the week. I think it snowed about 6 inches in a couple of days and then it warmed up a little, and then it dropped again. It feels pretty good with the solar heat touching us but its only in the mid-20s.

Can you pick out any animals in the snow crystals? I think I see a cupid…


Happy Valentines Day!

Scenes from Boy Scout Beach…

and when I put my hand over the lens, I image that the breeze is a tropical tradewind that is closer to 70° rather than 40° and that I'm wearing flip flops and shorts instead of rubber boots and rain pants. And if you keep those thoughts in mind when you take back the hand from the lens you can almost image yourself on one of the Hawaiian Islands, with a storm coming in with the low clouds obscuring the distant islands.

Coasst Survey - See what we found!

This weekend we went on our monthly survey of Boyscout beach looking for dead birds. We timed the tide perfectly - getting there just as it was going back out for the day. The wrack line and beach were clear of snow and from the high tide mark to the water was maybe 20 to 25 feet when we started out instead of what it is at the low tide between 50-75 feet.

We didn't find any dead birds but we saw live ones! Raven, Eagle, Gulls, Ducks, and we heard some songbirds while walking on the trail to get to the beach.

But look at what we did find:

A fishing plug


A beautiful silk rose


Along with the above we also collected : a cut-up plastic 5-gallon bucket, 2 unmarked tins of "food" that we thought might be salmon but turned out to be cat food, a plastic pop bottle, a plastic liquor bottle (the small size like you would get on a airplane), misc. plastic bags, a wire band like you'd get on a load of lumber, a glass pint liquor bottle (whiskey), a really smoothly-sanded aluminum can, and a couple of candy wrappers.

But was was really strange was the spiders. As we were approaching the beach we started to see a few spiders along the pathway.


And the we spotted several more. They all seemed to be heading away from the water and towards to trees. I know its hard to tell but all these black spots (minus the black spots that are on your monitor) are spiders. There were maybe a 100 spiders all slowly walking in the same direction.


Maybe they were a new hatch of spiders that got blown away from the trees in the wind?
Maybe they had been feeding on the wrack in the high tide (it was about a 19 foot tide)?
Maybe they were just out for a Sunday walk, like we were?

Full Circle Farms is coming to Fairbanks

…or has been coming and I just heard about it! There are several pick-up areas around town with several at the university. I found it interesting that certain sites are limited to only those employees or users of the facility. I never noticed it set up that way in Juneau but I checked out the Anchorage pick-up sites and its the same there.

We have enjoyed getting these fresh organic produce boxes each week. The selections they make and the alternative choices you get each week seem to be a good mix and there seems to be quite a variety from week to week. I'm not sure how the price/box would compare to getting organic veggies at a local store in Fairbanks. The price for a weekly small box is $48. To me, the prices on produce is less in Fairbanks then down here and we pay $42 for a weekly small box.

Felted Earflap Hat

Its been colder here then previous winters and I find that with all the hats I have my ears have been getting cold. I've found plenty of patterns for earflap hats but I thought one that was felted with be better to help cut the wind and be better in the wet snow/rain for southeast Alaska.

So I had this left over yarn from other projects and found a pattern in one of my books, called Felt It.

You start out knitting the two ear flaps separately and then you combine them with cast-on stitches until you have the basis of the hat. Then you work your way around and around until you start decreasing for the crown.

If I hadn't added the snowflake pattern it would have been a very quick knit but then it would also have been boring!


Here we are in the pre-felting stage. I'm a little concerned that the snowflake part where I carried the yarn might be a little too tight but we'll see how it felts up.

And here we are - already to go! We had a windy walk on the beach and my ears were warm!


The middle part is a little tight but while it was still wet I wore it around to help stretch it out. I think if I make another one with a pattern in it I'll make the larger size.

Georg Steller

I've recently been reading a lot about Georg Steller and his experience with Bering on his voyage to Alaska. I read, Where the Sea Breaks its Back, (1966) by Correy Ford which is an entertaining read about Steller's last seven years of his short life. Ford took a voyage along a similar route that the Bering expedition took but 200 years later. I thought the book would be more about Ford, but was pleasantly surprised that it was a very thorough description of the actual voyage. I like maps and on the inside front cover is a map that shows the route for the St Paul (captained by Chirikov) and the St Peter (captained by Bering). These two ships took off from the Kamchatka Peninsula in 1741 in search of that mysterious land to the east. Keeping in mind that these were sailing ships, when looking at the map you can really see where they struggled with the current, tide and wind.

I also found another biography of Steller, Touched with Fire: Alaska’s George Willliam Steller by Margaret Bell. Bell has become one of my new favorite authors, mostly writing stories about life in Alaska for young adults. A lot of her stories are the same genre of Gene Stratton-Porter's writing. This is one of her non-fiction books and greatly mirrored the Ford book. One thing that was missing from the copy that I had was any references she used. It would have been really helpful to know where she was getting her information. From what I found, the original manuscript was written in Latin which got translated to German and then into English. A lot came be lost with so many translations.

I just started reading, Georg Wilhelm Steller: Journal of a Voyage with Bering, 1741–1742, from O.W. Frost which includes a short biography and then a translation of Steller's manuscript from its original. I'm very anxious to see if the first two books were accurate or what liberties were taken to tell a good story.

Steller was an amazing naturalist and collected and described so many species of flora, fauna, birds, and mammals. Everyone has heard of Steller's Jay and the Steller Sea Lion but there is also Steller's Eider, Steller's Sea Eagle, a Gumboot Chiton (cyptochiton selleri) and many more.

What intrigues me is how these early explorers were able to survive with so little and with such unsophisticated equipment and supplies. We really are spoiled! After landing on Alaska and making being the first european naturalist to make observations about the flora and fauna as well as the early Aleut people, the St. Peter became stranded on an uninhabited island not far from their final destination. Steller and about 40 others spent about 10 months on this island (Nov-Aug) living off the natural resources as well as what they could scavenge from the ship. They eventually rebuilt a new, smaller boat and make it back to the Bay of Avatcha. And upon returning, Steller immediate packed his bags (what he had left) and took off to explore and observe more of the Kamchatka Peninsula for another two years. I mean, come on, after such a long ordeal, wouldn't you think you'd want to hang out in town and have someone cook for you?

Anyway, he died before he could publish his own work. The manuscripts that he sent back to his HQ were finally published about 50 years after he submitted them.

Sad but True

Here's a short clip that you'll laugh with and then realize some truth in:

Weekend Skiing

Despite the rain, snow, and slain-slush we've had this last week, Terry invited us to go for a ski out at Dredge Lakes along the Mendenhall River. This is a great place for bird watching in the spring and riding bikes in the summer, and now skiing in the winter. I guess we can laugh about it now but the conditions weren't that great and I didn't think I would make it around the trail without hurting myself. We still haven't figured out how to wax for Juneau weather. Everyone else around here has waxless skis and that seems to be the best choice. Our skis aren't waxless and we never had any problems with waxing while in Fairbanks. After our attempts last winter I had purchased some softer wax in hopes of finding the right combination. It didn't work.

At first it was ok - it seemed we had kick and glide. But after a few 100 feet I noticed that the snow had started to clump up under my foot and started to collect. Soon I had no glide and had a lump of snow about 4 inches in the middle of my ski. And then I did a face plant–womp–flat on the ground. I thought about just staying there until the rest of our party could come back and get me but I slowly got up. That was the first of many falls as I became over confident my skis would glide along instead of collecting snow like a magnet. We went through some slush and that seemed to solve the problem until we got out of the slush back to the soft wet snow where it started all over again.

I know my sisters will remember going fishing with our dad and walking through the muck and clay. Our tennis shoes with their flat soles quickly became high heels that we wobbled around on, giggling all the way until one of us fell in the mud and then it wasn't so funny anymore (at least to the one in the mud).

We finally turned around when the slush became a pond and went over our boots. We knew it went over our boots because Tim sacrificed himself and went through it. He started off on top of the thin but then sunk into the cold, cold water. He has determined that his boots are NOT waterproof.

But we did have a nice view of the Mendenhall Glacier from the river side. And we made it back to the car without being twisted too far out of shape. And now the hunt is on for some waxless skis!

Tasty Pizza

I'm trying to clean out the freezer and came across some peanut sauce I had made too much of and froze. Then I was looking through one of my favorite websites, Tastespotting, and saw this recipe for a Thai pizza. Of course I didn't have all the ingredients that the recipe called for so I substituted what I had and what I thought would be tasty.

For the fresh topping the recipe calls for carrots, snow peas, green onions and cilantro and I used slivered carrots, bok choy, red pepper, red onion and dried basil. This was terrific! Even good the next day eaten cold from the tin foil!

Next time I'll use a little more seasame seed oil on the fresh ingredients and add fresh basil. I'm not a big raw onion fan so I might lightly saute the onions but nothing else. The spicy peanut sauce and the fresh salad on the top was a good complement for the tastebuds!




Note to self - don't take a picture of something on foil – its much too shiny!

Shadow Pattern

I started this bag pattern around the Christmas holiday but finishing it up got put on hold for various reasons. I modified the pattern roughly from this fair-isle felted tote pattern I found in Ravelry and changed the side pattern to strips like another bag pattern I saw that I really liked. The shadow pattern came from my Mosiac Knitting book. I liked how Lion Brand "Fisherman" yarn felted up so I used it again for this bag.


The sides are a little poochy, a result, no doubt of not carrying the yarn as tightly as I did for the patterned sides. I was hoping that when it felted it would all come out about the same size.



I used a large post office cardboard box as a mold - it seemed to be the perfect size. This box has had two feltings molded on it and is about shot.



And the final product - I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Grand Canyon Fly-over

Ever impressive Grand Canyon - even from the air, the beauty of the canyon's depths and color stratification is breathtaking.


I didn't get much time in Phoenix to do very much but one does have to eat and there were some good choices for dining right around the hotel and conference center.

One place I wanted to go but never had the chance is a small placed like Matt's Big Breakfast at 801 N 1st St. When I first saw this small square block building it was Saturday morning on my way to the downtown market. The line went out the door, around the block and down the street. From what I gather, its not a place to go for a healthy breakfast but if you're in the mood for greasy hashbrowns, thick slices of bacon or waffles, then you might want to check it out.

Here's some placed I did make it to with good results:

SAM – interesting menu with Spanish And Mexican food. I went with a large group and was amazed at the service. Without even asking the waiter gave us separate checks, all correctly itemized; the dishes were delivered to exactly who placed the order and all special requests were fulfilled. The menu was really interesting with a wide variety of items. I think most of us had something southwesty. I had shrimp tacos which were served with a mexican coleslaw. This is the same place that serves the white chocolate pecan tamales!

My Big Fat Greek Restaurant – unless its made at home I don't get a chance for greek food very often. I had a combo meal with spanikopita, pastisito and roasted potatoes with a lemon sauce and a baklava cheesecake to take back to the hotel with me. I have to say I was really disappointed in the cheesecake. It wasn't very good and I didn't finish it. It was bland and had a doughy crust. The potatoes were really good and this recipe I found is similar. I made too much sauce for the amount of potatoes I made but it was very tasty. I will add more lemon juice next time and would probably slice the potatoes so there is more surface area touching the sauce when it marinates (maybe even steam them a little before marinating). I used little swedish taters.

One note - I was sitting near a little girl about 4 who had a dvd player set up by her Dad so that she could watch movies while he talked to an older couple (maybe the grandparents). That was a first for me. It seemed to be that she was old enough to participate in conversation and start learning how to eat in a public setting. In fact the older lady kept trying to engage the little girl in conversation. But then, I don't have kids so what do I know.

Probably the best spot for dinner was a little doorway where you got a big slice of pizza, a green salad, and a big glass of wine (from a bottle) for $7.50!

Statehood Quilt

I saw an article in the Juneau Empire, a while back about a statehood quilt that was being put together by quilters all over alaska. Some of the panels are really impressive - take a look at all the pieces on flickr.

Totem Raising

I noticed a small blurb in the newspaper's Around Town events that there was to be a totem raising at the new high school on Friday afternoon. I haven't been to such an event so I thought it would be interesting to attend. I assume it would be outside and since it was during the school day, the program wouldn't be too long since it had to fit within the school schedule.

I set off dressed warming for the outdoor adventure, camera charged, and ready to go.

Well, I was wrong. I was wrong on many of my assumptions. The totem was already raised and in place so it was like an unveiling. And it wasn't outside, but rather in the main entryway of the new school. And although it was supposed to fit within the school schedule the intention was to take the entire afternoon for the festivities. One of the master of ceremonies apologized to the elders at the beginning of the dedication, that they would have to push things along and keep things moving to keep it as close to 2 hours as possible. I thought, well, ok. I could do that.

I don't know that much about Tlinglit culture and the two master of ceremonies were very good at explaining what was happening and why, as the events and their significance related to the traditions. And as each person involved got up to speak, their own take on what was going on came into play. Most of the short speeches were spoken first in Tlingit and then in English. And there was a lot of Gunalcheesh's (thank you) being traded back and forth.

The carver is from Haines and he brought with him his dance group to deliver the gift. I have noticed at other gatherings that making a dramatic entrance and exit are all a part of the activity, something I don't remember as being as significant at athabaskan gatherings.

After the totem was unveiled, its traditional for the carver to perform a dance to signify his release of the totem and giving it to the recipient. You can kinda see the guy with a hat and white shirt holding up a couple of carving axes (I'm sure they have another name). I couldn't really see his steps but he danced around the pole and the others sang a song that he had written, called The Mandarin Song. He said that he had come up with the design and worked on this pole for a year so you can understand the emotional attachment he must have felt when giving it up.


From the program:

The bottom figure of the totem pole is a Tlingit woman. She wears a traditional button robe. She represents our grandmothers, mothers and aunties, and the strong nurturing forces that guide us in growing up as we develop our individual potentials. The drum she plays represents her knowledge and experience.

She teaches and encourages youth to climb the tree of life, and reach for their future ideals. They hear her encouraging drum beats and begin to climb the 25-foot tall red cedar totem pole.

I thought it was interesting when the carver introduced one of the younger boys from his dance group. Apparently the carver had the boy lay down on the tree, hugging it and then traced his outline on the tree. His sister is on the other side. How cool is that! The boy said a few words about being a part of the process and hoped that the kids at the high school liked it.

The glass faces represent the youth of the generations to come, the children of the future.

So this is probably one of the first electrified totem poles. The faces are made of glass and they light up. The carver mentioned two children who helped make the molds for the faces. That must have been an interesting process.

The glacier on top of the totem represents the Mendenhall Glacier, and represents the land. The river flowing from the glacier is the Mendenhall River, representing the life of the land and the Aak'w Kwaan, the first Tlingit nation who lived here.

The top of the totem pole is the Falcon, mascot of Thunder Mountain High School.

I couldn't get the top part of the totem and after 2-hours, I had to leave the party before it was over so I couldn't sneak up and get a close look. Look at the Juneau Empire Story for more close up pictures. You can actually see me in the group photo - can you pick me out?

Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year - and welcome to the Year of the Ox.

We celebrated with a spicy green bean and beef stir fry and some miso soup. We started out the weekend with some vegetable moo shu made with some of the produce from the weekly food box including baby bok choy, carrots, mushrooms, with some bean sprouts. We steamed the mandarin pancakes (aka flour tortillas) in the rice steamer and they came out perfect and not rubbery like you might get when cooked in the microwave.

They say that, "The Ox, or the Buffalo sign symbolizes prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Those born under the influence of the Ox or Buffalo are fortunate to be stable and persevering."

Famous people born in the year of the Ox include Barack Obama. Sounds like a good fit to me and with this blessing he should be up for the coming year's issues!

Phoenix

I've ended up here in Phoenix for a follow-up conference with a group I spent a week with in Seattle last June. This is the 89th annual AMS (American Meteorology Society) conference. It just so happens that the last three years it also coincides with an Imaging conference for photographers. A guy I talked to in the elevator said that the photographers have attributed the bad weather they had at the last two conferences to the AMS because the AMS folks would have appreciated the inclement weather and the photographers were glad they this year they were all in agreement that the weather should be pleasant. It has been in the 70s during the day and 40s at night - and well, very pleasant.

I was not able to get in the main hotel for the AMS conference but instead ended up at the main hotel for the photographers. Its a different crowd. There are alot of black jeans and turtle necks at my hotel and the lounge and common areas are much more lively then at the other hotel. Everyone has a camera here and everyone at the other hotel has a gps and says "actually" a lot. The small group I'm with at AMS is a lot more humble – mostly educators at 2-year colleges who aren't specialists in the atmostphereic sciences but have been tasked with taking on assignments a bit out of their comfort zone. People who say "I feel like a goose out in a hail storm" And then there is me, completetly outside the hard science area but able to give some suggestions about best practices for online education and what seems to work well for success of students.

But anyway - enough about that! I just had my favorite tamale - a white chocolate pecan delicacy wrapped in a corn husk!

Moon over my hammy

I've been thinking of my dad lately, he would have appreciated this.

WInter Storm Warning

We made an agreement to survey the Boy Scout Beach once a month on the first weekend of the month so we had to venture to the beach for COASST. The road and parking area was nicely plowed and actually much better then the highway! Thank you David! We had our snowshoes and had great fun making our way out to the beach. A few others have gone in and a skier must have gone in earlier in the day or the evening before. There were a few places where the snow had drifted but it wasn't too bad. I mean, we never sunk up passed our thighs!



When we got to the beach it was low tide, very low tide and the beach was covered with a layer of snow. It was impossible to see anything and the wind was wicked. We made our way with the wind to our backs thinking about how cold it was going to be on the walk back. We were deceived many times by the small pieces of driftwood filled with snow that looked like turned-over bird wings but we didn't see any bird remains to identify. And the wind died down when we turned around and the walk back wasn't too bad. The trail out was nice as we had packed it down on our way in. Ran into a couple of skiers (Dave and Kristi) who were also out enjoying the day.

Statehood Fireworks

There was a tiny little blurb in the "Around Town" section of the Sunday Juneau Empire and I don't think Tim believed me until we arrived at the new high school's parking lot and saw others gathering, but it truly was the Statehood Fireworks Display! As often happens, the show started out pretty slow and with snow falling for most of the day and during the show I'm sure there were some difficulties keeping things dry. But finally after a few single bursts the real show began and it was a good one.

There's nothing like standing out in 20 degree weather to enjoy the warm, happy feeling of fireworks, well, ok, maybe standing out at minus 30 below is a little more dramatic!





Santa put a Statehood Almanac under the tripod tree so be warned that you're going to get some facts from it through the year!

Alaska entered the union on Jan 3, 1959 as the 49th state with a population of about 225,000, of which almost a quarter of the residents were Alaska Natives. As of the book publish date the population is 691,354 and about 17% being Alaska Natives. In 1959, the federal government owned 100% of the lands and in 2000 the feds owned 65%, state 25%, private 1% and Alaska Native Corporation Land 10%.