I wandered on over to Estes with my two sisters and nephew.  I wanted to make sure that Maddock (nephew) is introduced to wool early and has an adoration of alpaca so he can buy me some when I am old.  Here he is giving it a try.  My sister decided he should start small and this did the trick. 

Next year he may get the alpaca on the stick so he can look like he is riding an alpaca.

I saw several knit bloggers and the big event but was not able to chat long as I had to hurry back to Boulder for a camping trip.  Yep, we were gone a big 16 hours or so.  (I know, sorry excuse for the term "camping")

Anyway, back to yarn.  I bought some Brooks Fiber Farm.  They had a new yarn this year that is sock yarn with some superwash.  Since I still have two large skeins that i have not used from last year I opted to purchase the sock yarn this year.  I love the colors and there are 440 yards/skein!  There may be some holiday gifts in these. 

I also made it to interlacements and my sister and I had to cut ourselves off.  I think at one point I had twelve different items.  I ended up with four.  Here are the lovelies. 

I have never purchased interlacements before so I am curious to see how it turns out.  (Whenever I get around to knitting it)  I know that Michelle went to a cool dying class at their place and it looked like a lot of fun.  I might just have to check that out at some point. 

I also purchased this wool from a cute little couple and I left the booth smiling because they were so sweet.  I like to support the small farms.  They love what they do and they love to tell you all about their stuff.  The husbands mother still spins and I think he was in his sixties.  Can you imagine how old his mother is?  I was impressed that she is still spinning up a storm.  Gives a whole new meaning to the term GO GRANDMA!!

Finally, I found this.  I bought this merely because you hardly ever see it and since it was rare I had to have it.  Does anyone know what this is?  Take a guess.........

The is the fur from a great pyraneese dog.  Hee hee!  Yep it was pretty cheap and I have enough for a scarf.  I think that Pete's mom will get the scarf since she is the dog lover in the family.  It is a great color and a little rough but I can try and fix that later.  The woman I bought this from said that she is going to mix it with some mohair next year.  Maybe I can give her Zack for a year and see if she can spin him.  I might be a ble to get a little payback for all of the knitted items he has been eating.

Happy Knitting.

Well, this has no knitting content but I thought you all might like to know that I beat Barbie yesterday.  Not literally (I don't have those tendencies) but on the race route.  I did a 10K yesterday and did ok.  I did not do as well as I thought I would but this was just the thing I needed to get my butt out and running. 

So I was about 3/4 mile from the end when this woman passes me.  I was allowing myself a two minute fast walk to get my breathing organized.  She said in a excited voice "Oh, you are doing so good and by the way you were my target and I have passed you".  

Now, I got irritated.  She seriously looked like Barbie and was all thrilled that she beat the woman with a not so Barbie look. 

Let me describe by family genes for just one moment.  I can gain muscle like no tomorrow and have never really had slender body parts.  I have not lifted with my arms in probably six months and still have biceps that some women would die for.  (Not sure who but I have received comments)  Currently you just have to dig through the extra fluff I have at the moment to really see how huge they are but they are there.  Because of this type of body structure running has never been my thing.  Track in general was the last thing I ever wanted to do because my strengths were in other areas.  To give you an example, my sister joined track and guess what her main event was?   Shot put (not sure if I spelled that right)  So you get the picture.  If I were an animal I would probably be an ox and not a graceful gazelle.  I think running is mainly a gazelle sport. 

So back to the story.  I was gracious and smiled back to Barbie.  Little did she know that I had Seether playing on the shuffle and I got a little irritated.  So, I started my jog/run again and passed by the water table.  Who can drink at a time like this?  I passed her before the water table and beat her in the race.  People that will teach barbie a lesson.  Don't tell your target before the race is done that you have beat her.  If I get pissed I will find a way to beat you.  Even if it means I might throw up on the ticket lady at the end of the race due to exhaustion.  I will have your number and you will NOT have mine.

Ahhhhh...Sweet Victory.

Happy Knitting.

Zack made an appearance this week and I thought I owed it to his fans to provide the evidence.  He was sneaky and sly and waited for me to snip out for a minute to water the garden before he sunk his teeth into some wool that I have been working with.  Look for yourself.

He was punished.  He was drenched by a squirt bottle but I swear as he was running away I heard a wee little laugh. 

In knitting news I have this for you.  Call it a test if you will.  Ready.......What is wrong with these?

Give up?  One litle foot is way bigger than the other.  These are the duck feet booties from 50 Baby Bootees to Knit by Zoe Mellor.  They were easy to knit.  They would have been perfect on the first try had I not been staring into space and making one large than the other.  I am sure some of you are asking "why didn't you compare them as you were knitting?".  I did not do a comparison when I was mid knit because the finished bootie was in hiding and not with me when I was knitting the second one.  So, I had to redo and here are the two similar feet.  What kid would not want some duck feet huh?

These were knit out of leftover yarn from my Wild Stripes baby blanket (which I have yet to fix from the cat disaster). This particular color is Merino Style Harvest from Knit Picks. I have a lot of little leftovers from this blanket and thought that booties might just be the way to use up the extras.  I have another pair on the needles though they are not duck feet.     

Here is the Cashmere scarf/shawl that I knit from the pattern Daisy Meadow Scarf from Fiddlesticks.  There is supposed to be a little tassle but I am going to block it again and see if I can get it a little bigger.  This was knit out of Mongolian Cashmere that I bought when I was at a craft show in Denver.  I cannot for the life of me remember what the darn event was called but you get the idea.  It is really soft and I do believe that my mom will be getting this.  It is right up her alley.  Even if it does have a flaw.  I have decided that a weird corner edge on a shawl is going to be my signature.  I try really hard to avoid them but they show up anyway.  Maybe it will be my "thing".

So there you have it.  My knitting adventures since I last posted.  I am toying with a few new ideas on projects and will post more on those later.  I leave you with my soon to be (Pete's rather but I get to share and help with color decisions) vacation home.  Let me introduce you to Pete's tree. 

As some of you know he has a family farm in southern Indiana and I have no idea how big it is but it has a lot of trees.  Well, he has gotten addicted to a new magazine called Make and it had an article on tree houses.  So, he flew to the farm last weekend and found the perfect tree for our "love nest".  (Don't all throw up at once on the love nest thing.  I could not help myself)  I have requested that there be a knitting nook, breakfast room and hot tub in the tree house.  These have all been shot down but I am still throwing out ideas.  What do you think a treehouse needs? I am FULL of ideas.  

Until later.

Happy Knitting

 I figured I had better post since I actually delivered a baby blanket.  It has been done for a while but needed a final blocking.  Pete has the camera in Indiana so I could not take a picture.  I was cute and green/yellow and I delivered it just in time for the baby to use (maybe) before he grows to be a giant toddler.  Whew.

I also finished a little shawl yesterday but have to block it.  I screwed up at the end which does not surprise me.  Any shawl I do I manage to fudge.  I wasn't even drinking wine either.  Oh well.  I will just give it to my mom.  Hee Hee    It is made out of cashmere.

Happy Knitting.

Loser Knitter/Blogger Baby

I am alive and I am still residing in Colorado.  However, my brain is not really in tact as my life has been in a chaotic mode since April.  I am ashamed to say that I have not even had time to READ blogs let alone actually do posts myself and I have not done much knitting either.  CRAZY!!

Let us start at the top shall we.  England Scotland trip with my friend Laura.  She actually lives in England at the moment and so I decided to jump the pond as some say and go and visit her for two weeks.  We had a great time and flew into Scotland and stayed there for about five days.  I tried to find Nessie so I could sell the picture for millions and these are what I came up with. 

Pete says this is a stick however I am still undecided

This is obviously fake.  Mission Failed.  Not a millionaire yet.

I got some amazing pictures and since it was still winter we saw snow in Scotland.  Here is a picture of Scotland snow.  It is very similar to Colorado snow.  Who knew?

Here is a picture of one of the many castles we saw. 

Since I was in England and there were sheep EVERYWHERE I thought that I may be able to score some yarn.  WRONG.  All I could find was acrylic.  So alas I came back empty handed. 

I used the should be yarn money to buy Pete a kilt and he ran the Bolder Boulder in it. 

Here he is.....my man.  FYI - It is a fake cigarette.

I also bought a kilt for my nephew who was born while I was on the plane to England.  Here he is.........super cute. 

This is the little fella at Easter.  He is trying to contemplate the family and trying decide if he should go back in my sisters belly or not. 

I can honestly say that I will spoil him rotten if my siblings do not have any more babies for me to divide the spoiling.  He is super adorable and is always asleep which is o.k. I guess.  He will grow soon enough.  He is going with my sister and I to Estes wool market so that he can see an Alpaca first hand.  Oh yes.  ALPACA 

So after my adventure I came back to crazy work.  We moved offices and I am just now getting back into the groove.  I am also working on personal stuff that I will not divulge due to paranoia of failure.  Yep, I have loads of confidence.

I was going to do the Bolder Boulder (see Pete above) but two nights before the said race I stubbed my pinky toe and it turned many shades of blue.  This kept me from running!!  But, Pete and I signed up for a Half Marathon training group and we start the 10th.  Jenifer is also doing a half marathon but it is different from what I am doing.  However, if I feel good around that time I may do that one as well.  I think she is faster than I am though so I will let her lead the way!

Pete and I have gotten a community garden and we have just gotten that all organized and we love it.  I will show you pictures of the green babies later when they are more interesting.  Pete refuses to call them babies because we will be eating them but I am sticking with babies.  Tasty babies.  MMMMM

We have another set of friends that are going to have a baby so if anyone knows of any good patterns let me know.  I have just finished this pinwheel blanket and I like the way it turned out.  I have put in the washer and dryer and it feels really nice.  I am now blocking it to give to the little fella.  I would have delivered it sooner, like when he was born, but I am blaming jet lag.  I will post a picture later.

I am working on finishing a certain somthing and will post more of that later.  I don't want to bore you all to death. 

All of this rambling is what you get when I come back.  Ramble, Ramble, Ramble

Happy Knitting.

and I totally blame the booty!  It kept me back.  If I were only in the best shape of my life (like when I was 19) then I surely would have succeeded.  My fingers ached and I thing my butt actually spread another few inches.  I did get this far though which is nothing to laugh at.  Internet knitters meet Lady Eleanor...........about 85% of her anyway.

This represents 8 balls of Noro Silk Garden and I have no idea what the number is as I am at work but if you wanna know let me know and I will pass it on.  This is a fairly simple pattern but in the haste of my project I have found a few dropped stitches which has left a hole that I will have to fix.  If you look close at the picture you will find one of them.  I would like to shrink it a little as well.  Anyone have any tips for that?  Maybe I will have to ask the NORO QUEEN.   I am going to try and finish the 9th ball this evening and possibly start the fringe.  It will be nice to get it all done and blocked. 

Since I have been a wanna be olympian and have not been posting I would like to share my scarf exchange scarf with everyone now.  Cynthia was my pal and she was very sneaky about it as well.  I met her for coffee and there was my scarf.  Ladies and gentleman, feast your eyes upon this......

When I showed this to Pete he said "wow that is really fancy".  It takes a lot for robot man to be impressed and Cythia did it.  What a pro!  It is gorgeous and super super soft.  I love my mittens as well and have worn my new accessories around quite a bit.  She also gave me kitty stationary, lip stuff (which I love) and some yummy peach tea. 

I am off to do some accounting and will post again when the lady is at another level of completion.

Happy Knitting and remember to stretch all of you olympians.

because you just piss me off. 

1.  Please do  not load up on cologne or perfume if you are going to be in the cardio area.  People, the gym is a place where sweat is welcome and encouraged.  I do not need to be running on the treadmill and gasping for air and have to smell your cheap ass Stetson nastiness.  (I am not sure if stetson is cheap but since my man does not wear cologne it is the only thing I could think of.)  Please feel free to drip and stink.  I would prefer to have a man next to me sweating his little heart out and have a neutral smell than to be next to a man who is walking smelling like my grandpa!

2.  If you are the skinny fit chick who is trying to get the attention of a good looking man doing sprint intervals on the treadmill you should probably not be reading mom and baby magazine.  Girl, you can flip that long blonde hair around until your neck falls breaks.  Just the thought of a baby probably put that man into celebate status immediatly.  He was not interested and I certainly don't need your cute as a button butt in front of me!  Heck your following him from machine to machine probably qualifies and stalking.  This just makes me want to kick your ass.  You don't stalk people at the gym.  That is just weird.  Do it again and I may sit on you.  He might even give me a prize.

3.  Don't put your make up on before you enter that actual gym to work out.  Refer to #1 and note that fitness is about sweat and not to get a date for Friday night.  Geeeesh!!  (My little sister tells girls off like you and she is fit as a fiddle and can also kick your ass.  Not because she is heavier but because the girl has muscle)

4.  Men,  do you really need to feel your chests as much as you do while at the gym in your cut off t shirts.  Really, I have never seen so many young men feel themselves up all of the time.  I do not find it attractive and quite frankly am starting to wonder if I should avoid your area all together.  I would hate to get whatever illness you have that makes you do that.  I almost lost my pants while running and can you imagine if I started massaging my chest in public. I think Pete would leave me.

5. My final bitch.  If you are going to use the pool DRY OFF BEFORE YOU ENTER THE FLIPPIN LOCKER ROOM.  MY SOCKS ARE NOT GOING TO DRY IN THE HOUR I AM GETTING BUFF AND I DO NOT WANT TO WEAR MY RUNNING SOCKS TO WORK.  

Can anyone tell I had a bad day at the gym?  Regularly scheduled knitting programming later.  I did get my scarf and I will tell you all about it in my next post.  I have to take a picture now that I have my camera back!

Remember, don't wear perfurme while on the treadmill.  One day I might snap and I would hate to snap and injure a knitter.

Happy Knitting.

Here is my scarf ladies and gentlemen.  Remember what I said.  DRINK!!

I am off to work on the lady.  Here is a shot of her so far.

Yep, I do have all of the stitches on a straight wooden needle.   Crazy.  I am way behind as Pete's uncle dropped in unexpectedly.  Figures that would happen when olympic knitting was supposed to be done!

Must Knit

The last month has been an absolute fog!  I swear that I do not know where the time went.  As far as knitting goes I am still plugging on the Wild Stripes baby blanket and will not bore you with a picture.  It looks the same only a little longer.  I have been fighting with the seam on the scarf for my scarf pal and hope that the last attempt to make it "Kristen" approved will be this evening so that I can mail the little sucker off.  I never knew a scarf could make me this crazy!  It is so soft and pretty but I should have designed it without having to seam two peices together.  That would have made me happier and less of an alcoholic!  I will post a final picture when it is blocked.  Hopefully tomorrow afternoon.  Woo Hoo....... If I do complete this I expect everyone to take a big swig of something good in honor of its being ready to mail.  I don't care if I know you or not.  It will be a scarf party across the knitting community.

I am also working on this scarf as I have signed up to be an angel to a knit a long that I have joined up with and will not tell which one.  (However, it will not be hard to guess). 

This is Knit Picks Andean Treasure and I thought that it was going to be a brighter and happier yellow.  However, it is more of a gold and it is still pretty.  Do not ask me why I chose yellow.  I don't know.  For whatever reason I was on their website and since I made my sister the wavy scarf out of this yarn (only pink) I knew I wanted to make another scarf mitten set out of it.  Despite my reservations on the color I have to say that I am happy with it and it is super soft.  This is so soft that Zack even knows not to eat it.  (Either that or he knows it is for someone else and that he better keep his teeth off!)

I have joined the knitting olympics in hopes that it will inspire me to get Lady Eleanor done before my trip to England/Scottland in early April.  My need for the lady comes from the need to be warm.  Whenever I am on an airplane I end up freezing my butt off.  The thought of spending 8 hours on a plane without enough to keep me warm is freaking me out.  It is bad enough that I am going to have to make myself sleep so that I am somewhat with it when I get there.  Also, we will be touring the highlands and that is very north and from what I understand it should be fairly chilly up there so while on a train or whatever I can snuggle up in my wrap.  My only problem will be to keep my friend from taking it.  She can be very sneaky and is a skinny bean pole.   I will have to watch her closely.

I will be knitting it out of Noro Silk Garden.  I was excited to hear that Cynthia is also doing this as a project for the olympics but is using a different yarn.  I can't wait to see what hers looks like.  Also, Heather has recently completed a scarf that is  out of Noro and inspired by the lady and looks fabulous.  She has a great picture of her modeling it.  She looks all warm with snow flying.

Other yarn related activities include the Creative Festival that was in Denver last weekend.  I went with my very pregnant sister and my mom.  My poor sister was being pushed around like a ball because she is so round.  What is it with people having to drag suitcases around with them at events like this?  I can understand strollers, I can understand wheelchairs, but I do not understand why someone can't just carry a bag or even better get a backpack and put your stuff in it.  Don't flippin trip me because you are lazy!  It was really irritating.  I did manage, in all of my frustration, to purchase these lovely items.  Yummy!!

Now I will end this post with a little exercise humor.  I am contemplating doing a triathlon.  So, I have been jogging and trying to get back into the shape I was in before the holidays and I am struggling with that.  It's hard to exercise when you can knit!  Anyway, I bought some workout pants that have cropped legs because while I am jogging I tend to overheat and I am to self conscious to wear shorts.  So, I ordered these pants and went by the size info in the catalog and while I knew they would probably be to big I figured that these people must know what they are talking about.  I get to the gym and put them on for the first time.  The were a little loose in the leg but since I had no other pants I figured I would give them a try.  About halfway through mile one I felt that I was a little more exposed then I was used to and realized that my pants had fallen half way down!  OH MY GOD!!!  I am thankfully one of those people who wears oversized shirts to cover the booty and I immediatley stopped all jogging and walked a little to get the heart rate down then left.  People, the catalog exercise people do not know what they are talking about!  Can you imagine if I had not noticed and would have been rockin along to my black eyed peas and not noticing a thing until some kid next to me turns real red and has to leave while laughing in disbelief!  So, I am going back to my trusty stretch pants that I have had since I was 18.  They are only twelve years old and have not died yet.  I don't need to look hip, hip is for wussies...(that is my new gym motto!).

Happy Knitting!

I am addicted to the new tea I bought from Adagio teas.  It was an assortment and I can't even remember all of the names of the tea that I had gotten but  I love it.  I am a pretty hard core coffee person but I have to say that this stuff is good and I am going to have to buy me some more.  I am not quite sure what it is but it does not taste like other tea.  It has more flavor or something.   I have to thank Michelle again for giving me a little gift certificate.   MMMMMM

On the knitting front I have completed this hat for my dad and I keep forgetting to post a picture. 

This hat is knit with love out of alpaca.  I have lost the tag but I bought it at the alpaca extravaganza last year and it was spun by a local farmer in Ft. Collins.  It is super thick and soft.  I love it.  I was going to make Pete some socks with this yarn but my guage was off and next thing I knew I needed a fat yarn to knit dad a hat and since I have been pressuring him to go into the alpaca biz I figured the hat should be out of fancy alpaca.  (Trying to win major alpaca points)  It is a belated holiday gift and I will be giving it to him on Friday.  He is doing some mule thing (should be alpaca) at the National Western Stock Show and he called me Monday to hint at the fact that I should come.  I will post pictures as I know the knitting world is all about MULES.  (Note: these are not the shoes mules but animals with big ears!)

Other knitting news is that I am 95% finished with my scarf exchange scarf and I need to finish the fancy fringe, weave in ends, and block it.  Then I start on the mittens.  This is a knit picks yarn that I have been wanting to try.  It is Andean Silkfrom Knit Picks and so far so good.  It is very soft and should not be scratchy so those are characteristics that a scarf should have.

I have also been plugging along on this baby blanket.  The pattern is Wild StripesfromKnitty and due to being super busy I went ahead and used the yarn that was used in the pattern. 

I did not want to have to think of a yarn mix by myself.  If I had to do that then the thing would still be in the "what colors should I use?" phase.  I am not sure which baby will get this sucker.  I think my cousin is due in February so since she is first to give birth she may be first to get a blanket.  I have two other babies to knit a blanket for and one is my soon to be nephew and a good friend is due in the mid to late April so I have some time for those.

Other exciting non knit news is that I have bought my ticket for England and I will be leaving on April 4th for 10 days.  I have a very close friend who has moved out there because her husband was offered a job he could not refuse.  This gives me the opportunity to hang with her at her house and then we will be flying to Scotland and drinking beer there!  We are both pretty excited.  I did have to renew my passport so I sent that out in the mail yesterday.  I hope to have it by March.  I hope they give it to me since my picture looks like a totally stoned person and not really like me.  If I see any shady characters following me around I will know that I am under observation.  

Ta Ta for now and happy knitting.