Further up and further in

The person that first spoke of life in "mountains and valleys" apparently never climbed a mountain before in his life.  If he had, he'd know that mountains do not usually have nice beds and yummy dinners.

But he was probably the same person that came up with the idea of a "green" Christmas.

Unlike this misinformed individual, I have seen a number of mountains in the long experience of my life, some tall and some not.  If you know me, or if you have followed my blog for a while, you will know some of my travels.  I have a deep love for Rainier, a fond comradeship with the Adirondacks, and I view Arthur's Seat as a nice little knoll to stand on at sunset.  You see, they speak of something unutterable; I can never venture over any of these peaks without repeating over and over, "Further up and further in!"

I say this to lead up to my Alpaca Mountains.  A dear friend of mine bought me two balls of Classic Alpaca for my birthday earlier this summer, one of blue and one of brown.  I debated for a long time what I should do with the yarn, and finally I was inspired to make a cowl.

In order to use as much of the yarn as possible, I started in the middle, just before the little mountains, with a provisional cast on.  I knit the mountains first, and then I continued in brown, decreasing some.  After a while, I used an i-cord bind off for an edging, hoping that it would keep the stockinette rows from curling.  It almost worked...but you can tell that the edge WILL roll.

I then returned to the middle and moved the stitches from the provisional cast-on onto my needle.  Then I continued in blue, increasing some.  You may be able to tell in the second picture that the stitches fan out a little due to the additional stitches.

And about the pictures having a cat in them....  My defense is that I chose that spot for the lighting.

My stash-busting is being put on hold for a little bit.  I just received yarn today that I can convert into a black cardigan for work, because I am always SO COLD.  The number of woolens that I have for work are depressingly few, so I am looking forward to stocking up my wardrobe.

Enjoy the long weekend, my friends!