Long Journey Home

I was included in a cattle round up with my sister in Knutsford. The scenery was stunning. All the cowboys were girls and I was on one of her tried and tested cattle horses, Quincy.

We very cleverly started where we were going to end. But we took a different route getting to the cattle than we drove them. I have a terrible sense of direction and just followed the herd.

These awesome active skies are not good for astronomy viewing which is what brought us there this time. D was partly disappointed because there were only specs of the sky. But not only did we hit a dark sky with a new moon, we were able to view a meteor shower. Awesome!
The round up took a couple of hours to move 180 head of heifers. They are going to a higher field to finish their days. There is so much grass because even the semi arid interior has had lots of rain.

Quincy was a good cow pony.

My sister brought her two border collies and we couldn't have moved the cattle without them. The owner had 3 red heelers and there were other assorted cattle dogs. I missed my big black dog, but she can't run that far and who knows what she would do around cows.

Herding cattle is a lot like working with children. Do don't want to be totally reactive, but you don't want to spook them with too much direction. Anticipate where they might go wrong and be a step ahead of them.

When we were done there was a big BBQ and we met some of the new friends and neighbours who are almost like family. I was invited to come back in October to move them again.

After we cleaned up a little, we went to my niece's. Kamloops is huge and it was a 45 minute drive. She was having a BC Day BBQ and celebrating the imminent opening of her new wool shop: Electrictree Yarns. yay!!! I missed the absolute closing of Twist of Fate, but Caroline said Erin was doing OK when they went there to wish her well. I bagged enough yarn last month.

Sitting in the huge back yard with two sisters and a niece, talking about yarn and laughing. I have a great family!

I only brought a scarf and a sock on this trip. I took 5 projects to camp, but only worked on the scarf and the sock. The scarf is for my head nurse whom I'm leaving to work in hospice. She has been a friend for many years and I feel bad about leaving and need some closure. I needed a non-colour and some non-lace in a non-shawl for her. I stashed out some Jo Sharp silk road in a putty lavender and am just finished the Lacy Ribbon scarf from knitty. It was a great knit and I'd do it again.

The sock is the Punta Marisock in a colourway  call lakeside. I finished the foot and turned the gusset heel at the ranch. When I started adding the diagonal lace rib pattern on the leg, Julie got out some knitting. Plus I am going to try to fix the socks I made her last year.

Thanks to Wendy Knits for answering my question about when to add pattern to a toe-up sock. I am using her generic gusset pattern, but the diagonal lace comes from her Socks From the Toe Up book.

Next I will try to get a copy of Barb Brown's sock book to prepare for the Electrictree retreat in October.

Always knitting in my dreams, it is a comfort to come home to the stash.