Road Trip Part 2 - The Ozarks

Second phase of the trip was through northern Arkansas and southern Missouri.

The Ozarks

The Ozarks are a very pretty drive, even in late winter/early spring, before everything is coming to bud.  Be prepared, though.  There are a lot of little towns marked on the map which are really just crossroads, no gas station, restaurants, stores, barely more than 4 houses...  Make sure you have a full tank gas in the car and have hit the rest stop before heading too far into the national forest!  There was a very friendly little shop near the junction of AR-16 and AR-21, on the north side of the forest.  Perfectly timed pit stop, and a friendly hiking suggestion from the store owner too!

We ended up taking her advice and stopping to stretch our legs at Glory Hole, a hiking spot just up the road from her store off AR-16/21.  It's a little hour-long hike (give or take) and pretty relaxed (kids could do it).  Perfect for a pair of people who had had a long day sitting in the car and needed to get out and stretch their legs before it got dark.

 

The trail follows a stream down the hill into a small valley, to where it makes a little waterfall through the rocks.  Well, relatively little.  It's not Niagra or anything, but it's still a sizable hole in the rock (Zach is about 6 ft tall, for a sense of scale in the picture below).

To make things extra fun, by continuing on down the trail, you come around to the other side of the rocks and can stand underneath the waterfall too.  Too cool!

 

And even without the highlight of the waterfall, it's still a very pretty hike along the stream.  Especially for a little water-baby who's been living in The Dry too long :)

 

Turning north from the mountains after our little walk, we came down into the Buffalo River Valley, very understandably a popular recreation area.  Pretty valley so a nice drive; two rivers join there, so opportunity for some water sports and paddling; hiking through some gorgeous woodland.  And the wildlife: ELK!

The elk are actually a reintroduced animal in the valley.  The original species was hunted out, so they have reintroduced a similar variety of elk, which has taken hold very healthily.  Lots of elk, as you can see!  Very laid back animals, it seems, completely not disturbed by the cars passing on the road nearby.  But, they are HUGE!  Would definitely do a lot more damage than the average deer, should you have an unfortunate vehicular encounter with one!  Thankfully, they just hung out and let us proceed along our merry way.  Big ol' fellas, though.  One of the ones closest to the fence line had a sneeze, and we could hear it distinctly from the car!  Line from the evening:  "Elk sneezes are very wheezy."

 

Once we passed through the Ozarks and Missouri started flattening out, it honestly wasn't as exciting.  Nothing rolling, and no small towns to speak of.  Just the occasional tiny, tired little crossroads of a town: a gas station, a church, and a restaurant where "they serve everything you could want.  Like burgers."  We actually heard that in more than one town.  We were very excited to cross the Mississippi and be back on the right side of the river (emotionally and geographically!).

Road Trip, Part 1!

Yup, I know I've been spotty over the last few weeks, but it's been Spring Break time around here, and we took advantage of it - Road Tripping!  Zach and I took a week and went up through eastern OK, through the Ozarks in northern AR and southern MO, and across to Mammoth Cave, KY.  And then, of course, back to TX.

With all those stops, now my Map of States Visited looks like:

visited 29 states (58%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

And my Map of States Visited With Zach looks like:

visited 17 states (34%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Yes, there are a few gaps on the "With Zach" map, but some of those states we've merely passed through (and not taking the scenic route), and not actually visited.  I stand by my maps :)

And then once we got back, I started a new job!  Woohoo!  Still working for the same place, but in a different department.  I really enjoyed my other job, but this one is still interesting, so that's good.  And then there is the plus of having a better schedule and other practical benefits like that.  With all the new schedule changes after getting back from meandering across the middle of the country for a week... well, it took some time to get the pictures organized and labeled and ready to post. But we're ready to go now!  First up on the tour....

Ok-la-HOOOO-ma, OK!

We went northeast up through Texas into Oklahoma to start the trip.  Neither of us had ever been before, so we picked out a few state parks and a couple museums to check out as we worked our way east.

Impressions?

• The Red River really is red.  The river runs through what's called "red-bed country", meaning it runs through a lot of reddish sedimentary rocks.  As the river carrying a lot of sediment, it appears reddish itself.  Think deep south red clay color to the streams.  Interesting.  (Yes, the geo classes are coming out).  
• Neither of us had ever considered OK to be a forested area.  Too influenced by what we know of Army bases in OK and by song lyrics sweepin' down the plain, but the eastern side of the state is logging country, very pretty forests.  Learn something new every day!
• You can tell states that have an active or outdoorsy population.  They take care of their state parks and support the park system in general.  OK has some pretty nice state parks, at least in the eastern side where we were.  Very pleased.
• The Texas vs Oklahoma 'thing' is weird.   Overheard at Beaver's Bend:  "Oklahoma is Texas' wasteland."  Who said it?  A college kid to his friends, a group that had driven up from Texas to spend money and camp in an OK state park.  How sarcastic he was being, I don't know, but we were in a park that has more and taller trees than anything in several hours' radius from where we live in TX.  Yeah, a real wasteland...

The first stop was in Broken Bow, OK to visit Beaver's Bend State Park.  Besides being a pretty state park, Beaver's Bend houses the Forestry Heritage Museum.  I know it seems like a random museum to stop at, but it turned out to be pretty interesting.  My curiosity had been piqued after having worked a little with US Forestry folk when I was in SC, so I figured it was worth a stop.  It covered forest history and conservation and so forth, and had a lot of history information about logging in the area, too and how folk expanded into that section of OK. Totally new history for us.  And being a wood-focused museum, it hosted classes on wood carving and displays from local artists.  Some beautiful pieces!  And as a random-trivia bonus, the mascot was designed and the dioramas painted by Harry Rossoll, the creator of Smokey the Bear.

 

Robber's Cave State Park was the second state park on the tour, a little further north in Wilburton, OK.  From a caver's perspective, it's not really much of a cave.  And from a history nut's view, I'd have loved to hear more about the robbers they think used the cave.  But it was still a nice state park.  Plenty of hiking a riding trails, and some easy rock climbing points too.  For us, a nice little stop to stretch our legs and enjoy the lovely weather as we worked our way through OK.

 

The highlight of OK was kinda a surprise, at the Cherokee Heritage Museum in Tahlequah, OK.  Not that it should be a surprise that it was a good stop (why would we stop someplace bad if we can help it?), but it was a more involved museum than I had expected.  I had picked it out as a museum to break up the driving, it was close to where we need to turn to start heading east, and I didn't know much about Cherokee history to start with.  All good reasons to stop and visit.  But it turned out to be a very well done museum.  Restored buildings, artwork, history, demonstrations, a pretty thorough tour, and changes in progress as more is learned or exhibits grow or evolve... we were both pretty impressed.

 

I really like all the incorporation of the Cherokee language.  Most of the labels in the museum were bilingual, and the displays on the reconstructed town outside included words in the Cherokee alphabet, as well as their pronunciations.  85 symbols in the Cherokee syllabary!

The demonstrators were very cool people.  The guys showed how to play Stickball, as well as use several traditional types of weapons: blow dart, atlatl, and bow and arrow.

 

We hung around a little to ask questions and Zach and a few others got to try out the atlatl (pronouced AT-lattle, by the way, not attle-attle like I said when I was younger).

 

I liked this one.  Yes, I know it's named after a person named Swimmer, but education and aquatics in one building.  Made me smile.

And a truly random surprise.  Our tour group included a bunch of student nurses from south FL also traveling over spring break.  One was wearing a sweatshirt from Lost World Caverns in WV!!  Zach and I met there, at that cave specifically, and we have known the owners for a buncha years through assorted caving activities.  And here was someone from FL on a tour in OK wearing a sweatshirt from that particular cave in WV!  Craziness!

Personality Time!

So, working in a new department, meeting new people, learning all sorts of new routines, keeping very busy.  One of the fun things we've done, though, is at one of the staff meetings we have each month, people have been taking personality, communication style, etc. tests to get to know each other and each other's work styles a bit better.  Here are my two from this month's meeting:

I am predominantly Left Brained (sorry, no real "results page" for that one).

Color Lingo Communication Quiz

GREEN The GREEN Approach – OBJECTIVE & STRATEGIC When communicating, Greens tend to think before they speak. They like to analyze what they have just heard, explore the many ways they could respond and choose the reply that most accurately and pertinently expresses their thoughts on the matter. Their goal is to obtain information so they can figure out, fix, improve, or invent something as a result. To learn more about the GREEN communication style go to: http://www.tinyurl.com/GreenStyle Have fun!

Facebook quizzes & Blog quizzes by

Oh So Pinteresting Wednesday: Lip Balm

This Wednesday is a project I've been meaning to try for a while, and am finally getting around to it.

Homemade lip stuff (gloss, balm, whatever you want to call it).  I am a dry person physically - skin, hair, nails, etc - and living in the desert kinda killed me.  My body just couldn't handle it.  I am not built for the desert!!  Texas is a bit better, but it's still pretty dry where we are.  I'm always looking for good moisturizers that work and don't cost an arm and a leg.  And my new office is pretty dry too, so I figured this would be a good time to try out one of these recipes.

There are BUNCHES of different recipes for this out there, from 2-ingredient versions that would be easy to do with kids, to ones that have a dozen different oils and waxes and moisturizing what-nots.  The ones I've read through are below, in case you want to browse through for your own inspiration.

• Brilliantly Bland has a Honey Orange Lip Balm recipe, with some great tips on using a double boiler for beeswax.
• Mountian Rose Herbs gives recipes for three different variations, plus tips on customizing your own favorite.
• Rustic Escentuals uses much more specialized ingredients in their Swirled Lip Balm Recipe, but I do like the detailed instructions and the swirled pattern idea.
• Beautylish has a Cool Winter Lip Balm recipe.
• Instructables provides information about using empty tube containers in their Delicious Chocolate Honey Lip Balm directions.
• The Camera's Lying's Tinted Lip Balm was the first set of instructions I saw that used lipstick to color the balm. 
• Torie Jayne gives instructions on coloring with food coloring, as well as other decorations, in her Hand-made Cool Mint Lip Balm instructions.
• Cheeky Kitchen also plays with coloring and with flavors in her Homemade Kiss Gloss instructions.  I also like the container tips (Bead organizers!  Genius!)
• Design Sponge gives instructions for a Solid Perfume Pocket Watch Locket.  Yes, she's not making lip balm, but I really liked the idea of the pocket watch as a tin.
• And what crafty DIY list of links would be complete with a Martha Stewart version?

Now, after all this research, what did I do myself?

Ingredients

• Vaseline with Cocoa Butter
• Coconut Oil - yup, just regular from-the-kitchen coconut oil
• Peppermint Essential Oil
• Lipstick - I had a stick of Clinque Pink Chocolate that I used.  Like the color, but more of a gloss person, rather than a lipstick girl.
• Small tins - as I am addicted to Altoids, I had an assortment of small mint tins to refill.

• Double boiler or microwaveable bowl (depending on how much you are making)
• Spoon
• Aluminum pie tin

Directions

1. Add 3 heaping T of Vaseline and 4 T coconut oil to small bowl.  
2. Add lipstick, broken into pieces if possible.  This will help it melt more evenly (Vaseline and coconut oil both melt much more quickly).
3. Melt in microwave.  I used 60% power and 30-sec bursts, stirring after each one.  I used a plastic spoon to stir the mix.
4. Mix in several drops of flavoring oil (I used mint, my favorite)
5. Pour into clean, prepped containers.  I set up mine in the pie tin, to give myself a clean, contained workspace.  I knew I'd spill some, after all, and didn't want it all over the counter.
6. Let cool.  Some of the recipes above recommended putting them into the refrigerator as they cooled.  I just left them on the counter all afternoon, but I didn't use beeswax either, which does take longer to set.
7. Enjoy!

Overall Comments and Thoughts

• Let the rest of your household know what's cooling in the kitchen.  I came down to check on them, and found a fingerprint in one of the tins.  Zach was curious as to what I'd been making :)
• I like the small tins to hold them, but don't like the big Altoids logo.  Thus, my tins sport a coat of nail polish to make them a little more decorative.  Also to keep me from getting my lip balm confused with my mints when reaching into my purse!
• I like the soft balm that I made (I've often used just plain Vaseline to help my lips when they get really dry) but I'm curious about some of the other variations.  I think I might try a honey-beeswax version when I make my next batch in several months.
• I know the picture on the right is a little blurry, but it best shows the color of the lid.  Which is a nail polish I really like :)

 

A Back-dated Test Knit

This was a test knitted pattern done a while ago, solidly in my non-bloggy-chatty period. I saw it on the Test Knitters forum board and just couldn't resist. Even with all the color work! It just screamed my name. Books AND hand mitts (I'm always cold at work, and it's even worse in my hands if I'm at the computer a lot). Too perfect to pass up!  Anyhoo, since I just finished the Surprise Cowl, to match a recent test knit, I felt motivated to write up this test knit too.

The Yarn:

Most of the yarn I used was Patons Stretch Socks. The books and the shelves were other sock yarns, not Stretch Socks, but in the same weight. Just stash yarn, so nothing more specific. The Stretch Socks (being stretchy, after all) had to be held with a loose touch. Pulling it too tightly stretched it out and would affect the gauge. So, use a gentle touch. Otherwise, nothing really to striking to mention about any of the yarns.

The pattern works best if there is a good amount of contrast between the background and the books. So, I have dark books (purple, dark rose, burgundy-brown, and navy) on a mottled cream background. The shelves are, of course, brown. The background can be a little darker than what I chose, if you like, just as long as you have some good contrast to the books. No navy mitts with dark green books, or cream mitts with butter-yellow books. You get the idea.

The other thing to consider with the background yarn is that it needs to be relatively plain. No bold stripes or busy patterns. Once again, because you'd lose the books to the background. It would be a lot of work for books you couldn't see!

The Pattern: 

Reading Mitten by Lotta Groeger (my project is Raveled here).

This is a great pattern for using up lots of odds-n-ends of sock yarns (and c'mon, who doesn't have those?) The books don't need to match, and each book uses a yard, give or take. So, long-length repeats of variegated sock yarns are perfect for the books! I actually went to the skein I was using for the books and cut off the number of lengths I needed, just snipping the yarn as the color changed. But that would be just as easy to do if you're working from multiple skeins of leftovers. I did find it helpful to cut the lengths of yarn for the books, so that I could handle them, lay them out, and decide what color I wanted for which books (try not to have like colors adjacent, that sort of thing). The duplicate stitching was by far the most time consuming part of the whole project!! But, when the alternative was stranding multiple colors on teeny-tiny US 2s, working in the round... I'd rather do the duplicate stitch!

Notes, Alternations, etc:

No modifications, really. This one was pretty much as-written.

I made the Size Small mitt (6 inch hand circumference), and it fits my tiny hands just fine. I cast on and bound off with US 4s, not the 2s I used to reach gauge in the rest of the project. I tend to cast on and bind off rather tightly, so the larger needles were needed. Other than that, I reach gauge just fine with the US 2s. Did feel like I was going to snap them in half the whole time, though - been a while since I worked with needles that small!

One thing I might add would be a word around the cuff, that long stretch of cream before the first bookshelf. "Read" or "Book" or something. I'm still deciding on that one. There are plenty of free charted alphabets out there, in a variety of gauges, that it would be simple enough to do. It would give wrist a little more structure, (more duplicate stitching), and it would immediately associate the book pattern above with reading (instead of a less bookish person just thinking "Oh, what a cool geometric pattern"). And it would help me tell the right mitt from the left :)

 

Overall: 

I really like this pattern. The mitts fit comfortably, and are not too bulky. The knitting went very quickly, so these might make nice gifts for family or coworkers or future grad school friends. Other bookish people :)

Bragging on Zach for a moment!

So, I'm not the only one in the family with a geeky, crafty hobby!  Zach has started learning chain mail!

He took a class back when he was a kid in Boy Scouts and had always been kinda interested in it.  So, in looking for something to keep himself busy and to learn something new, he decided to pick it up again.  There are TONS of good references online, lots of videos on YouTube and so forth.  He's been burying himself in the computer from time to time learning a new weave (I still call them "stitches") or browsing the galleries on some of the bigger sites looking at inspiration projects.  

And there are some absolutely lovely pieces!  People work more with jewelry-sized projects nowadays.  Smaller, more portable, less supply costs, and (let's face it) how many people wear chain mail shirts nowadays?  Still, there are some very impressive pieces, both in the costume category and in the jewelry one.

The best moment so far, though?  We were getting ready to wind down for the night, close up downstairs and head up to bed.  Zach says, "Just let my finish this row."  Both of us are quiet as it sinks in that he has just used one of the classic knitter's lines that he teases me about!  One of those, "who's going to mention it first?" sort of moments.  Classic :)

And in all this practice, he has finished his first project!  He's working on a shirt as a long-term project, but from time to time will put together swatches to play with other patterns.  He was learning a new weave and was realizing that it was almost as long as a bracelet for me.  So, he measured my wrist and worked a length long enough to fit me.  I got to choose out a clasp and a charm to make it more decorative.  I love it!  

 

For technical details, it's 17-gauge steel wire worked in 3-in-1 Half Persian Weave.  With a copper clasp and charm, it's a lovely contrast of metals.  I am quite fond :)

Test Knit: Surprise Hat

The Surprise Hat (Raveled here).  This was a test knit that I knocked out in a weekend.  A lovely, quick knit.

The Yarn:

Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.  The first time I'd used this yarn. Was a portion of a bag o' yarn that I'd found on clearance.  Need a larger quantity of this yarn for another project I've got on the queue, but don't need quite all of it.  So, since it suits the gauge I needed for this project, we had a match!

 

The jury's still out on how well I like this yarn.  There are a lot of colors available.  I chose Peridot, as it was one of the few times I've seen a shade of my birthstone that looks spring-time-y and not an ill yellow-green.  So, yes, color was key.  It also worked very well for me, being a cotton-wool blend.  Not too warm, so I can wear it longer here in oh-so-hot Texas.  Important to consider, since I want to make the whole set for this one (there's a cowl to match the hat).  And for a cotton yarn, the wool portion is enough to make it not quite so heavy and stiff a yarn as some cottons can be.  The stitch definition is pretty clear, which is important in a pattern like this.

On the other hand, there were things about this yarn that frustrated me.  It tended to split (un-ply?) as I knit with it. That was the biggest frustration, really.  And, like a lot of cottons, it can be kinda dry to work with.  Not my most uncomfortable yarn (my dry skin makes me sensitive) but not a particular favorite either.  Also, like any cotton, it kinda 'blooms' a little as it's blocked. That's a nice way of saying it grows a bit.  And with this being a very stretchy pattern, I was a little worried.  BUT, while it was still a little damp after blocking (and worrisome-ly slouchy) I tossed it into the dryer with my delicate load for a few minutes.  Perfect fit!! 

Further notes, a lot of comments on Ravelry indicated that the colors tend to bleed and that the yarn tends to pill with heavy wear.  I don't have I'm only making a hat and scarf (cowl) from it, so I'm not too worried about the heavy wear and pilling.  I'll be careful about the washing though.  Like colors only, just in case!  Some good advice from the Ravelry comments too:

"I wash them in the washer, in a sweater bag, and dry them until damp in the dryer and finish drying them on a rack. No shrinking, very minimal pilling (mostly under arm area that gets a lot of friction anyway) and no fading. Also, I do not get any stretching out of shape or growing during wear."

The Pattern:

The Surprise Hat and Cowl by Cinzia.  The hat itself was the test knit, but the cowl was part of the pattern too, so I am making one too.  It's on the needles right now, actually :)  There are two varieties of the hat in the directions, a fitted cap and a slouchy one.  I made the fitted one, more to my personal taste.

I really liked this pattern.  After reading through the directions and doing one repeat, I really didn't need to look at the pattern again until I began the shaping for the crown.  It was one of those patterns that's very easy to follow on the needles, so you kinda know what's coming next.  Makes for a very nice traveling project.

 

Notes, Alternations, Adjustments:

On the hat, I actually had no adjustments!  Everything was knit as directed.

On the cowl, I went down a needle size and knit the Large size.  It's giving me a slightly denser knit, not quite so open.  I wanted that, as I tend to snag on things, so wanted the cowl lacy, but not too snaggy.  Besides, I tend to block... aggressively, shall we say? 

Also on the cowl, I did 7 rounds of seed stitch for the borders, making wider borders than the pattern called for.  I wanted it to match the hat :)

 

Overall:

Great, very fast knit.  The most time-consuming part of it was blocking it!  I would definitely make this hat again.  It would work best with a solid, or semi-solid yarn, I think. It's nice and pretty without being overly complicated, always a nice balance.  And the mock cable (which is explained well in the directions) is a technique that you don't see all the time, so that's a nice plus too.  Definitely a pattern worth a repeat!