You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2008.
I’ve decided to celebrate Labor Day with a sale! Through Tuesday, September 2, take 20% off your total order in our Etsy shop (before shipping). Just put “Labor Day” in the Buyer Notes to Seller and wait for an adjusted invoice before paying.
Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend!
I have quite deliberately held off on blogging about my vacation knitting, for very good reason. There was some secret knitting going on. My friends Paula and Amy are both expecting and due within a couple of weeks of each other. Last night, we had a shower for them, so I can finally reveal my vacation knitting: 
A Baby Surprise Jacket for Paula and 
A cotton hat for Amy.
The BSJ (my first) was the bulk of my vacation knitting. I love the pattern. Several people suggested that I not try to second guess the pattern and just go with it (admittedly not my strong suit). Their advice was sound – it really makes no sense until you get to 2/3 of the way through and can fold it. I’m still puzzled as to how this piece of knitted origami (also resembling an aemoba) turns into a sweater. I’d love to know what Elizabeth Zimmerman was thinking when this one came to her! I only made one change to the pattern: the addition of a row of single crochet around the outside finishes it nicely. The yarn is Sock Candy from Blue Moon Fiber Arts (its one of their BSJ kits). The hat for Amy is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It may be familiar: the Children’s Cotton Hat is my very favorite knit for a newborn. The yarn is Farmhouse’s Cotton Blossom.
There was a bit of other vacation knitting: 
I got up to the arm holes on Lilla’s Wallaby. Most of this knitting was either in the airport or on the plane itself – we had some very long flights! I also did a couple of inches on my Charade sock – though no pictures (other than the what I’ve shown you already). Quite the productive vacation, right? I’m happy with it.
My goal for the week is to either do the sleeves on the Wallaby or turn the heel on the sock. Which I accomplish will depend on my weekend plans. We may head up to Vermont to my parents’ place for the weekend. And if we do, Miss Lilla herself will be there – so no working on her sweater. It’ll be the sock instead. If we’re home (also a great option, as we just got back from being away), the Wallaby it is. We’ll see what the weekend holds…
Our trip to Colorado was wonderful – relaxing and fun. The in-laws weren’t all bad – it was after all, their beautiful home that we visited. I had never been to Colorado, never seen the Rocky Mountains and never been to the Southwest. So it was a trip of firsts for me. That was pretty amazing! Ev’s parents (and brother, who lives with them) are in Salida – a small town in the middle of what felt like no where! Its very rural, with Colorado Springs the nearest city at 2 hours away. They have a beautiful adobe style home, complete with endless pool, 2 happy dogs and incredible mountain views. The house is a few minutes from “downtown” Salida, very much in the country. It backs up to a cattle ranch. The neighbors have horses, llamas (not fiber ones – pack animals) and dairy goats. Several mornings we saw antelope in the field behind the house. The mountains were so beautiful – what a view!
Much of our trip was very low key. I had plenty of time to knit, Ev finally finished reading the last Harry Potter. We visited with his parents and brother, who we hadn’t seen in years. The dogs (one of whom was practically a puppy when we started dating – Abby is 13 now and every bit as sweet and spunky as she was then) were great fun. Even we cat people enjoyed them! On Sunday and Monday, we poked around town. Salida is very pretty, ringed by the mountains and with the Arkansas river going through it. I was surprised to find a great art community – there were several galleries and shops. Very cool! On Monday, I wandered into a shop in town and found a perfect print for my office, by Gail Austin. Its called The Goddess Returns – its an amazingly powerful image of a goddess, exactly the thing I was looking for. We also found a bead shop, where I picked up some perfect seed beads for Mystery Stole 4 and for another pair of beaded socks. Tuesday was pretty low key, with our quick attempt at hiking (altitude/asthma prevented me from getting very far) – it turned out to be more a drive through the mountains. Friday, we took a drive to Monarch Pass and the Continental Divide. That was great – we rode the tram to the top of the Pass, at 12000 feet and could see for 150 miles in every direction. Like nothing I had ever seen before. Of course, we took a ton of pictures. They are all on this Flickr set. Fair warning: there’s 100+ pictures there!
Now all that was great but for me, the highlight of the trip was this: 
That uber-happy grin is because I had just been in there for 2+ hours and had scored 5 amazing skeins of their naturally dyed handspun yarn. I’m wearing and holding it. I’ve been fondling it ever since. Its amazing stuff. Ev actually argued with me about packing it in the suitcase. I had this neurotic fear that the airline would lose my luggage and it would be gone forever! (its home – safe and sound) I have been longing to go to La Lana for several years – ever since I was a new knitter and picked up Knitting in America. I read the profile of La Lana and Luisa Gelenter and wanted to meet her and her yarns. La Lana lived up to my expectations and then some. Luisa was not there when I visited but I did spend time with Lynn, who runs the shop. She’s amazing – just a beautiful soul. Much of my time in the shop was spent just looking – at the yarns, how they’re dyed, how they’re spun, how colors are combined. There are knitted samples everywhere – some of the most amazing sweaters, shawls, bags, etc, etc, etc! So much to see and touch (and try on!). Lynn just encouraged me to sample everything – play with the yarn, see it in different lights, combine colors, try on sweaters and shawls. Oh! Heaven! After two hours, I picked out these amazing skeins: 
This is Forever Random Fines Obverse (60% Romney Wool and 40% Yearling Mohair) in the Sonrisa colorway. I’m not sure what its dyed with – I can’t get over the true red from a natural dye. Stunning! I bought it in kit form, to make their Holly’s Triangular Scarf/Shawl – two skeins will make a large scarf (not shown on the website). I also bought this: 
The two outside skeins are Forever Random Fines Glace in the Moonmist colorway. The center skein is Bombyx Silk that is double dyed in cochineal and brazilwood. All three will become a Magic Fez. It was so hard to choose just a few skeins – I wanted to take home every skein (and roving) in the shop. What a place!
We did lots of other things in and on the way to and from Taos. There are many artists in Taos, so much of our time was spent wandering into galleries, studios and shops. Its a very friendly town, with a great downtown area to walk through. I was a little disappointed in the historic Plaza downtown – a bit touristy with a few too many trinket shops for my taste. We did find a great restaurant there though and even better chocolate shop! We visited three other yarn shops on Thursday – fiber arts are very big in that area. There’s actually a fiber arts trail in New Mexico (imagine, combining that with a wine trail – I’d move there in a heartbeat!). We went to The Yarn Shop, near the Plaza – tiny and cute, but with stuff I could get at home. Just north of Taos was Taos Sunflower Yarn Shop. The shop was OK, though again it had stuff we could find at home. The service was terrible – we were greeted briefly then watched the whole time. Ick. No stash enhancement there. We also went to Weaving Southwest – part of it is a gallery focused on local weavers, the other part a studio/shop. They have their own line of beautiful hand dyed yarn and roving. They also had this: 
Its a Rio Grande Wheel. I had a chance to try it out – it spins like a great wheel but with a treadle. I struggled with it a bit – no one in the shop that day was a spinner, so there was no one for guidance. I’m not big on spinning from the point – it was interesting to try and certainly not a wheel you find in your average shop! I did pick up a little treasure at Weaving Southwest: 
2.5 pounds of corriedale roving that I got for a steal – 50 cents an ounce! Good thing roving squishes (I have to wonder what the TSA person that searched my luggage thought of it!). I love the colors – very southwestern. Its destined to be spun up and knitted into an afghan. So Taos was wonderful. We loved our little getaway. We had more incredible views of the mountains on the drive back and forth. We stopped at the Great Sand Dunes National Park on the way there. I snapped this great shot:
I think this makes me officially a geek! Of course, its the sock I’m knitting. That is Medano Creek and the Great Sand Dunes in the background. We walked across the creek and onto the base of the Dunes. Very cool – the views were stunning. There are lots of pictures of the National Park (and the sock, in various locations) on my Flickr set from the trip.
There’s more knitting from the trip to share too – I’ll save that for WIP Wednesday. In the meantime, I have to recover from this trip. The kitties continue to cling to us – Gizmo has alternated between one of our laps and laying across our shoes all day (smart, that one – if we can’t put the paw covers on, we can’t leave him again, can we?). We came home to a garden full of ripe tomatoes so the afternoon was spent making sauce. We have laundry to do, orders to fill and many other things – and we both return to work tomorrow morning. I’d still like to relax a bit before then!
It promises to be a busy week, so I’ll catch up when I can… Have a good one!
Just a quick note to say that we’re home from vacation! All in all it was a great trip. My in-laws – well, they’re my in-laws – can’t change ‘em. They drove me crazy sometimes, I bit my tongue a LOT and quickly found out that my friends were right — being just a little bit drunk for most of the trip made them MUCH more tolerable 
Otherwise, it was a fun week. I got to see a part of the country I’ve never seen before, spent some quality time with Ev and did a ton of knitting. We didn’t end up doing any hiking (much to my relief) – the combination of the altitude (the in-laws live at 7500 feet – we’re at 190!) and my asthma made it too risky for me. We still enjoyed being in the mountains. Our trip to Taos was absolutely amazing. LaLana Wools was the highlight of the trip for me. I’ll post in detail about it later but for now, I’ll say that it more than lived up to my expectations. What a place! I have a ton of pictures to share of the mountains, the Great Sand Dunes National Park, Taos, LaLana, new stash (yippee!) and my knitting. I’ll get to it all later this weekend and early next week. I need to catch up on emails, orders and about 150 feeds from Bloglines. It will all wait just a little bit longer. For now, I have 7 kitties who are very happy to see Ev and I (new catnip toys helped smooth the way home – not unlike my situation with the in-laws). I need to spend some quality time with my furry ones…
Hello from day 3 of the vacation! At this point, its been a pretty low key kind of trip – lots of knitting time. I won’t say relaxed – I am staying with the in-laws after all (the in-laws who don’t read this blog it turns out!). Really, its been fun so far – we have great views of the mountains, a wonderful indoor pool and a couple of friendly pooches to entertain us. Plus, I found a great wine shop in town Mind you, I needed the wine shop less than 24 hours in. I suppose it could be worse – at this point, we’re talking wine and not hard liquor! The thing that I did find hard was that the “life line” I was counting on – my internets – is less than accessible with dial up at the house. I’m at the library stealing a few minutes. So, I’m able to check email but essentially cut off from blogs, Ravelry, etc. I do miss “my world” – I was counting on you all to keep me sane! Oh well – in another day and half, we’re off for our side trip to Taos. We’ve now added in a stop at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, which promises to be amazing. In the meantime, I’ll be knitting and drinking – oh, and something called “hiking” that I’m not looking forward to tomorrow. Ev promises margaritas in town (without the in-laws) at the end. Maybe not so bad?
I’ll check in when I’m able! Have a great week!
At least Gizmo is packed and ready to go. I, on the other hand, am a completely different story! And I’m not the one staying home with the cat sitter!
We’re off for a bit – visiting the in-laws in Colorado, with that little sanity saver getaway to Taos mid-trip. I can’t wait to get to LaLana Wools! There will be stash enhancement…
I’ll have internet access, so I’ll be checking email, blogs, etc – not sure if I’ll have opportunity to post or not. All Painted Sheep orders placed between now and August 24 will be shipped on Monday, August 25.
Have a great week!
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