Wrapping up the Knitting the Seasons project (July--Alaska).

And so here is my final posting in this year-long project that I called Knitting the Seasons.  Regular readers will know that I started in August 2012 by choosing Blackberries as the theme, and spent the month of August "knitting" blackberries and their leaves.   (If you want to read all the posts in this series, click on the label "knitting the seasons" on the screen left.)

Back to the business at hand...

When packing up for our Alaska adventure at the end of June, I decided that I was going to knit "en plein air" while in Alaska.  This meant second-guessing what colours I'd need, because unlike a painter who can mix the right colour on his/her palette, I had to work with what I packed.

I assembled an assortment of greens, blue-greens, and blues as well as a few browns and other neutrals in anticipation of the ocean and rain forest.  This is the first time I had selected the yarns in advance of identifying the colours in a landscape.

Knitting in the solarium on the upper deck of the ferry.  The yellow fibreglas windows made this a bit of a challenge!

The result--A simple Alaskan landscape.

Knitting on the rocks at Bartlett Cover in Glacier Bay

Selecting the yarns

Getting started

The completed "rock beach" swatch, done mostly as short rows rather than intarsia or fair-isle.

Leaning over the edge of the railing--the ferry wake.

Interpreting the wake of the ferry in a random honeycomb pattern.

A calm day on the ferry

Another landscape from the ferry.  I found it hard to knit fast enough!  I started with observing the landscape above, and then by the time I got to the mountains, there were some higher peaks behind, so I added them in too.

Alaskan swatches.

Reflections about Knitting en plein air:   I didn't have quite the right colours with me, and found that I was looking for landscapes that matched my supply instead.  I also felt a little uncomfortable knitting in public on the ferry, fearing that I'd be asked what I was doing...and having to stop and explain.  It's way easier to knit socks in public!