Alyeska in Montana: a photo blog

Hello lovlies! As you may (or may not) have noticed, I have been mysteriously absent recently. And that is because I was in Big Sky Country, also known as Montana.

Went with some good friends of mine, Patrick, Tara, Connor, and Ryan (that's left to right, excluding myself):

Please excuse my face, I was very excited. Everyone else looking like models
while I look like a freaking Animorph...

We took the train from Portland, Oregon to Whitefish, Montana, and I will  tell you that it was the way to go! I'm not a big fan of flying in general, but why even bother with the sky when you can rocket across the ground to the most breathtaking views?

Okay, Patrick isn't super breathtaking here, but in his defense I was snapping pics without permission...
Connor is pretty breathtaking in the background.

It did take about Fourteen hours to get there, which is rough, but we made the most of it. And when we walked out of the Whitefish Train Station on the other side, it was like walking out into a snowglobe.

I was seriously hoping we'd get snowed in and never have to return...

We went out into Glacier National Park (which has been on my bucket list since I was 12) and we were treated to some spectacular views:

And we would have never made it to and fro without Patrick's spectacular snow driving!

I love Tara looking all pensive in the background.

As Connor, myself, and Ryan are all Oregonians, we probably would have killed ourselves driving in this much snow. Tara (Ms. North Dakota/Utah) probably would have been fine captaining the ship, but Patrick (Mr. Pennsylvania) did us proud!

We ate good food and drank good beer!

Connor looking very "Portland Chic" while wearing my Cathedral Grove
(which we will discuss in just a second) 

And Ryan not liking my sticking a camera in his face.

I even tried skiiing! Of the Cross-Country variety. I will inform you now that I was not good...Turns out those bastards go both ways, and they endeavor to make you do the splits! I fell down pretty good, fattened my lip and did this to my knee...

Not pretty but you can literally see the tread of the skii
bashed into my innocent knee!

We watched the Winter Olympics (cheers to all the participants), we drank lots of booze, and we frolicked in the snow.

But what I really want to tell you about, my lovlies, is the knitting... Oh my, the knitting was good.

Tara and I of course, brought lots of projects to Whitefish with us, but that didn't stop us from visiting the LYS Knit n' Needle on our first day in town. There I was completely overcome by the pattern Cathedral Grove by Faye Kennington. There were several kits in various colorways so I had to pick one up.

It knit up like a dream.

The colors, the pattern, everything was perfect. It took me TWO DAYS to knit. And those weren't even full days, those were partial days where I spent a good chunk of the evening drinking heavily and watching the Women's Free Skate Olympic Event. If you look back at previous pics from this post, you'll see that Cathedral Grove was a crowd favorite. I'm pretty sure that everyone tried it on at some point. And it was perfect for those Snowglobe days where the flakes swirled around you like they were trying to take you away! I can't remember a single occurrence where my ears were cold in the 15 degree weather.

In fact, I enjoyed the Cathedral Grove kit soooo much, that we swung by the Knit n' Needle again on our way out of town and I picked up another Faye Kennington kit called Alpenglow.

The colorway I chose was more mauve, pink, and goldenrod, but it'll be gorgeous all the same. I also picked up some yarn in a different colorway so that I could knit my older sister, Adaira, a Cathedral Grove of her own... Shhhhh, don't tell her, lord knows she won't read it here...

Now, I know that this blog post is a bit more wordy than my norm, but I wanted to be sure to mention Alyeska... For those of you not in the know, Alyeska is a pattern that is currently sweeping the nation. And for a good reason:

It is freaking gorgeous!!! It's a pattern by Caitlin Hunter that calls for a yarn that is made by PDX dyer Ritual Dyes who is really really amazing. Tara and I were both enchanted by this pattern so we're both giving it a go at the same time. I bought my kit from Starlight Knitting Society, but Tara, like a true craft Goddess, dyed her own colors. I went for the green, but you can literally use whatever colors strike your fancy.

This is the green mohair section at the yoke of mine, it's a lot of fun.

I don't have any pictures of Tara's Alyeska, so I would check out her blog The Sweet Crafterlife. Wicked name, right? She might post pictures of it soon. Even if she doesn't, it's a swell read.

We're both hoping to finish our Alyeska's in time to wear them to the Knot Another Fiber Festival in Silverton, Oregon this April. We're even instituting an "Alyeska" night so that we can continue to encourage and support one another until our sweaters are complete!

Okay, so that was a lot of info, not going to lie! I encourage you to follow the links, check out the good knit gear, and work on your own Alyeska's! Tara and I are about to embark on the Rose City Yarn Crawl, that will probably be the topic of discussion in my next post. Take care, my lovelies, and may your stitch count always be exactly what it's supposed to be!