My friend, Idella, besides being one of the most talented and interesting knitters I know, also is one of the most generous.  For two years in a row she and her husband, Mark, one of the loveliest men I know, have had my little family to their cabin at the lake in Minnesota for five days just because . . .  Their cabin on Lake Vermilion is an idyllic setting rich with the sounds of the loons and the lap of the water.  Each year we were blessed with splendid weather (for the most part, at least) which consisted of warm sunny days and cool night and the water was great for swimming - a little on the cool side for desert rats but nothing like the September lake temperatures that had me swimming in another Minnesota lake in a wet suit (but that's another story for another day -- just remind me to tell the story about the Vickie Square workshop when the lake was so cold I had to take my earrings out to swim -- they were so cold from the water they hurt my ears.)

On the boat on nearly our last afternoon with her, Idella observed, "You and your children are clearly water people.  What are you doing out there in the desert?"

She has something of a point there, except for the fact that we love the desert and mountains, too.

Perhaps I need to knit a water bag to go with this desert bag I designed and knitted in 2002 (with inspiration and some color charts from Susan Sari of Sisu Designs in Ely, Minnesota).

My only regret about this bag was having it lined by a seamstress who used a machine rather than sewing it in by hand myself.  I was intimidated by the "regular sewing" back then.  Making the bag for the KSKS swap helped a lot with that as you hopefully will soon see when it makes its way out of the country again and hopefully to where it is supposed to end up!  Goddess willing and the U.S. Post Office doesn't tazer me with bad mail karma again!  Here are a couple closer shots of the bag.

It was knit with many yarns -- some now discontinued.  One of my favorites was the Brown Sheep Handpaint for the mountains.  Here's that lining.  Looks intimidating wouldn't you say?  Well, it scared ME!

And I'll bid you farewell with one last shot of a sunset at the lake.

Here's to a great week.