Not of My Choosing

We went on a short camping trip recently. We have a new-to-us pickup truck, and my husband got a camper top with a pop-up top. I haven't been camping in years - it became too much work for me, and then for quite a few years we didn't have a very reliable vehicle to take. Anyway, my husband wanted to get out in the woods, so we went to Wanapum State Park on the Columbia River. It's just a couple of hours from Seattle on I-90, dry and warm. Not many trees, though, or what I would call woods! We had a good time - the weather was great, the view of the river was lovely, the campsite was quiet. Most of the other campers had RV's or big trailers, and they mostly stayed inside. Almost all of them had little dogs, too. It's quite windy there, especially in the evening. The leaves on the cottonwood trees rustle and rattle almost all the time. While I was sitting under them in the afternoon, they almost sounded like raindrops. I kept looking around and at the clouds to see if I was going to get caught in a sudden downpour.


The colors of the river and the hills beyond were so beautiful, and change according to the light, cloud cover, time of day. I tried to capture some of that. I love the shades of blue and green alongside the brown.


I took some knitting with me. One of my good friends from the Achenblog had given me sock yarn when she visited, and she knits while camping, so I thought that would be appropriate to take. I got the heel flap and heel and gusset done one afternoon. Luckily it wasn't too windy or it would have been much harder. Toward the end, a gust of wind nearly took the ball of yarn away. I really love the colors in this yarn, and best of all, the socks fit!


I recently knit another pair of socks with yarn that someone on Ravelry had sent with a market bag swap. I didn't think I was going to like the colors so well - it was not something I would have picked myself - but I loved how the colors flowed. They reminded me of a Monet painting, soft, muted golds and greens and blues. They were a pleasure to make - even on size 0 needles - and they fit too!


So, I seem to be going through a time of things not of my choosing, but which turn out well.