In the beginning

The second day of our trip was a doozy. We were in the car by 5 am. It’s part of our philosophy: at least once go hard and long, and early if possible. We loved doing this when the kids were little and we lived 6 hours from my parents. If you put babies and toddlers in a car when it is still dark, odds are they’ll sleep until 8-9 and it’s breakfast time.

That taxing second day meant that on the third day we had time to enjoy ourselves along the road before Portland.

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It especially meant that we had time to hike up and see Horsetail Falls.  It felt so good to be out and moving.  We were struck and bedazzled by the lush, moist air and the scent of the woods.  Such a sensory difference from the prairies.

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We even got to stop and see the Multnomah Falls.  There was definitely a strong tourist presence there, but it was still pretty.

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A few days later, after the race, we hit the shops.  Powells, Knit Purl, running clothes…it was a day of almost overwhelming choices.  In Knit Purl I totally caved when it came to my ‘local or really rare yarns’ stipulation.  I did get local yarns.  But I also got 2 skeins of Malabrigo Sock.  One of them was this one, Arbol:

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Then a train of thoughts led me to remember the Multnomah Falls Shawl.  The colours of this yarn seemed to echo the reddish brown trunks and leafy profusion around us.  The designer of the shawl had a similar process:

“The idea for this shawl was conceived while I was at home, but about 2/3 of the way through knitting it my husband and I made the 6 hour drive from our house to Portland. I’d been kicking several names around in my head, but nothing seemed right. Then we crossed the Multnomah county line. I looked at the landscape speeding by outside my window, then down at the knitting I had in my hands, and the colors of it were the same. And right then I knew my shawl finally had a name.”

For the moment, at least, the yarn seems to have a destiny.   But you know how it is with the way that possibilities and actualities go.

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