Incline Village in January

Imagine a picture here

We're in Incline Village, NV, this week, staying at the lovely Club Tahoe with only dial-up Internet service in our condo. So you'll just have to imagine what it looks like until we get home and I can upload pictures.

Imagine our living room, with big sliding glass doors leading to a balcony overlooking tall pines covered with heavy mounds of snow. Imagine looking over the balcony at night and seeing a foot bridge downhill from us, with two globe lights illuminating the bridge. Imagine seeing the shape of a horse ready to cross the bridge, an illusion created by snow-covered branches near the bridge. Imagine the occasional squirrel racing from shelter to shelter as you stand quietly on the balcony looking over many imaginary shapes. Imagine icicles longer than a yard hanging from the roof. It's a picture right out of Narnia, or any other picture you want to conjure up as memories of winter stories float through your mind. It's beautiful here. We love being here.

(01/13/08 - here's a link to a picture of the scene I was describing above
http://rsroesner.blogspot.com/2008/01/tahoe-08.html
Scroll to the bottom of the page.)

We were scheduled to begin our week in Tahoe on Sunday afternoon, but Tahoe suffered a blizzard over the weekend. Steve and I, during our Saturday morning telephone call, watched traffic at the Truckee scales over the Internet, wondering just how bad the blizzard was hitting. We saw cars and trucks pass, and then nothing for hours when I-80 was blocked, and then a few more cars and trucks as some traffic was able to get through.

Lauren and I left to start our journey here after church on Sunday, staying in Merced Sunday night and ready to hit the hill during a predicted good driving day on Monday. And it worked. We arrived here on Monday just before lunch. We took the little drive to Diamond Peak, our nearest and favorite ski area after we checked in and unpacked. It would have been a beautiful day for skiing, but unfortunately we didn't take advantage of it. Diamond Peak is small but very resort, and seniors can ski for $18 for an entire day. The price, the nearness of the area, and the good skiing when snow conditions are good, make it most attractive to us.

I use the terms "we" and "us" loosely, because I don't ski. Only Lauren does. But I enjoy watching, and I enjoy being in the snow. One of the benefits of living in California is that we can drive to the snow and then drive back to our home in Southern California where the weather is moderate nearly year around.

Lauren's niece, Marea, and her husband Ryan came up Monday night for supper. We hadn't seen them since their wedding in 2006, so it was really good to have some time just to catch up. We loved hearing about their lives. They really like living in this area - and who can blame them! We're hoping we'll get to see Lauren's cousin, Londa, and her husband Luther while we're here. They have a condo at South Lake Tahoe, and we usually get together for an evening of supper and games. We always have a good time. If the better weather holds, the chances are good.

Lauren put the chains on yesterday. It makes for better driving in these snowy conditions. Even though snow plows are out clearing the roads often, there's enough snow on the roads that half the time we don't even know we have the chains on.

We were hoping Scott and Steph were going to be able to join us this year, but they both had to work. We're hoping that they can join us - along with Donna & Todd and the kids, next year. What fun that would be!!!

I'm spending my time knitting. I'm currently working on a pair of fingerless mittens for Lauren from http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTfetching.html. I made a pair, sticking to the pattern, for me, and they nearly fit Lauren. I'm making these a little larger and with an adapted ribbing (the cables look feminine to me), for Lauren. I'm also increasing the number of rows between the top of the thumb opening and the ribbing around the knuckles. The first ones I made, per the pattern, seem a little skimpy in that area.

I'm using Wool Ease yarn, and the gauge works out perfectly. It takes me about a day to make one mitten because I do other things, but the project is so small that it's a good travel project. I tried to do two mittens at a time on 2 circulars, working with both ends of a skein, but my needles are 29-inchers and between the long needles and the mess with the yarn, I spent as much time untangling and keeping the yarn straight as I did knitting. I figured it wasn't worth it. I think it might be a workable deal if I had 16-inch circulars and two skeins - less needle cable to mess with and the yarns wouldn't twist as I turned the knitting. So I settled for doing one mitten at a time, working about 4 rows on double-points and then transferring the mitten to the circulars. With a project that I pick up and put down so often, circulars keep the stitches on the needles better, no matter where I stop.

Just before we left, I stumbled onto another knitting group on Yahoo - http://monthlydishclothkal.blogspot.com/ It's a KAL - knit-along group. They do two dishcloths a month. I've already finished the first one for January - that is so much fun!!! It's the first KAL I've joined. These dishcloths, too, are easy knitting for traveling - or for watching TV - and these work up great using one circular needle. Again, the circular means that I can pick up and put down the work whenever I want without dropping stitches.

Today should be a ski day. The weather is overcast, but there is little if any snow predicted. My knitting and reading bag is already packed and ready to go! I'm looking forward to a day at the slopes, sitting in front of big picture windows watching the skiers, and running out occasionally to snap a picture of Lauren coming down hill!!!