I took a walk around Mountain Lake with my brother today. We wanted to scout out the best campsite since registration is opening up at Moran State Park for the summer season. Quite possibly the best car camping in San Juan Island, WA is located in campsites #126 though #136. They all are on an elevated loop looking out onto Mountain Lake. There’s a boat launch, tiny stretch of rocky beach and a hiking entrance within 500 feet of the loop. Also, the area is far from the main road so you don’t get the car traffic like you do in the Southend sites.
Can you believe this is the view from campsite #130?
Read more about why my trees look black on naturephotographers.net. I’m still learning how to get a blue sky with a point and shoot and not end up with silhouetted trees. Suggestions are appreciated!
I took more pictures of the campsite loop but, for some reason, they didn’t register on the memory card. I think it was because I changed the batteries and the memory card was jarred in the process.
I did get the memory card to save pictures of my Quick Winter Headband. This free pattern gets an ‘A’ for adaptability. Not only does any yarn weight work, you can insert any crochet stitch you like for the body of the headband as long as it starts with a base of thirteen stitches.
The headband pattern isn’t beginner friendly though, as the stitch directions for the body are not written with the pattern. Instead, the reader is directed to the Vanilla Grit Stitch Washcloth.
I had to frog the first row a couple times before I realized that the stitch pattern should start with row 2. Since row 2 refers to stitches from the foundation row, it took a little extra work to figure out exactly how many single crochet stitches to skip to account for the unworked foundation. For this reason I wouldn’t recommend this pattern to crocheters just learning to read a pattern.
Once I had the first row figured out, the grit stitch went quick. It’s an easy stitch, but interesting. Also, the headband is worked entirely in one piece so there’s only two ends to weave.
The pattern calls for worsted, but I used Babysoft in Cream. The headband still came out pretty wide, about three inches. With worsted weight yarn in gauge, I think the final product would end up similar to Christina‘s St. Maurus Headwarmer.
I finally photographed my St Maurus Headwarmers from January with the buttons sewed on. I was really dreading the needle and thread until Christina suggested using buttons with large holes and a tapestry needle. Worked like a charm!
This striped one looks a little fuzzy since I’ve been wearing it a lot in the past month. It’s great in windy weather since my ears can be easily covered with my hair pulled back.
I like the style of this headwarmer. I’d like to try knitting the Calorimetry for the fall.
Also, remember the Jacob’s ladder stitch baby blanket I talked about? I found out the Rainbow Bright pattern is available for free on the Coats and Clark website.
*That’s cool* a random fact
Mosquitos are twice as attracted to blue than any other color.
Too cute! I love the pink one.
All the headbands look so good! Thanks for the patterns! I’m even going to start saving knitted patterns because I am going to learn! Also I find your tidbit very helpful I will have to remember that! Hope you got the campsites you liked!
Wow, what a beautiful place to go camping. Love all your photos, you are really talented with that. THe headbands look good, and warm. I really like that new stitch and think I will also have to give it a try.
I really like the color combination you used on the second headwarmer! I might have to make one and hopefully get a few week’s use out of it.
I love the pink headwarmer! I have too been eyeballing the Knitty Calorimetry… Let me know when you plan on making yours, I will make mine then too! (we can work together)
That campground is so pretty! I’ve never been camping. Your headwarmer is very pretty. I like the unique stitch. See, the big buttons are so much easier…I’m no good with needle and thread either.
Love the pictures oh so pretty. Great job on the headbands you did great. Love that pink one oh so bright and colorful.:)
Lovely pictures ! And the handwarmers look amazing
Hope you’re able to get a good campsite…..#130 looks like a winner to me :)
BTW, good job on your photography! The headwarmer pics are excellent (as are the headwarmers!).
Just thought I’d mention something about your photo problem, getting good exposure for trees and sky is very difficult with any camera (not just point and click). Cameras have far less dynamic range than our eyes, so you get the problem of either overexposing sky (going to white) or underexposing trees (sillouetted). I don’t know if your camera has exposure compensation, but this can be used to your advantage. If you shoot slightly towards the sky and adjusting your exposure comp to +.3 to + .7. This is telling the camera to make the whole scene brighter. You will have to see how much you can adjust it without making the sky look washed out. This will also work if you shot towards trees and put the exposure comp to -.3 to – 1.0 to make the scene darker overall. Or even try shooting towards the water, because this is a more neutral tone it may give a more even exposure. Make sure your camera is set to either landscape, or manually adjust it to focus on infinity. This will let you focus and expose on something closer to the camera without getting the whole landscape out of focus. (Phew long comment! hope that helps!)
LOVE your headwarmers!! I want them. we’ll be going camping soon – and i bet they’d come in handy. Ooh! maybe the hat. yeah – the hat, THAT would be warm.
looking forward to keeping up with you!
pia
Oh wow. I saw someone in our little town wearing the white one and I thought it was adorable. ^^