sheep in the city

I'm baaaack!

I promise to update tonight, with pics and fun stories from my travels. I was in Boston and then in Vail, Colorado. Good times were had by all, but I am so jealous of a certain rabbit we all know...go check out her amazing pictures from her recent travels in France!

Vacation time!!

I am headed to Bean Town tomorrow, yeah that's right...Boston, MA! I've never been there before, but I hope to see some fun sights and maybe a shop called Circles,that I've heard a lot of good things about!! I'll be back in a week or so!

Harry Potter Update

My Harry Potter POA scarf is coming along nicely, and so is my roommate Genia's. As far as who's beating who, because of course, it's a competition...she's still winning! Dang it! I hope to get moving on it this week! Sorry, no updated pics yet.

Carding and Dying

It all started with a contest over Joanne's Keep Talking page. She had a contest a while back for who could find the ugliest knitting pattern. I won second prize, which was a box full of fleece. Not being a spinner or dyer, I had no clue what I was going to do with it! But...I remembered what a great resource I had in the DenverKnits group. (It's a yahoo group for Colorado based knitters.) So I laid out how clueless I was, made a few suggestions...and Judy came to the rescue! She offered for me to come to her house, with two of my knitting buddies, and she would teach us all how to card wool and pull it into pencil roving, and then rainbow dye it! Wow! Sounds like fun, huh?! I knew it was an involved process, but I now have a much better appreciation for "handpainted" yarn and people who make their own yarn on a regular basis! You have my utmost respect!!

We went over to Judy's about 1:00pm, Sunday afternoon. And boy was it hot! In the 90's by 11:00...sheesh! Judy has a dye kitchen set up in the third bay of her garage. It was very cool, in the neat-o sense, not temperature:) Anyway, long story short, I learned a ton, made a mess, and had a lot of fun in the process!! Thank you, thank you Judy!

Judy showing me how her carding machine works. Fascinating stuff!

RayLynn, Judy, and I getting messy!!

"Hand Painting" the pencil-roving.

81 Squares of Love

One of my favorite local yarn stores is a little place called Knitty Cat . Ann Myhre, the owner of this fun shop is featured in this month's issue of Family Circle Easy Knits. This is not a magazine I usually read, but hey I know someone in it! I love that she is getting more exposure! Way to go Ann! She is starting up a great charity called 81 Squares of Love. We are making the Magic Carpet Afghan from Debbie Abrahams "100 Afghan Squares to Knit". I am making 4 squares with beads and sequins on them. I've never used either one, so it will be fun to learn some new techniques! I love a good cause...I'll be sure to tell you more about it in the months to come as the afghan is put together.
The square with the four little boxes is one of the ones that I am in the process of knitting. I hope to finish them when I go on vacation next week! Lots of good knitting time hopefully!!

I'm a Gryffindor!!!

I'm a Gryffindor!

When I learned to knit 2 years ago, I got totally into it. My roommate, Genia, on the other hand learned and then put it away. It took Harry Potter to get her back into it! I told her that I was planning on joining the Prisoner of Azakaban Knitalong over at Woolgathering she wanted to have one too, and I told her she would have to make it herself! Whoo hoo! We are both knitting right along, trying not to compete to see who can get to the next pattern repeat first! (wow...i just reread that last sentence and I sound like a major dork) Currently she is winnning! A big thank you goes out to the wonder-knitters over at Atypically Knit for coming up with the fun design based on the new movie. My Genia's mom even wants her to knit her a scarf...I see much knitting in her future, she's been bitten by the knitting bug. I assured her that it doesn't hurt too bad!

Yarn Sale!

The pull of the yarn sale is very hard to resist. There are some stores that you frequent more than others...but then the flyer comes in the mail, with it's promises of 30% off everything in the store. It's from that little store you avoid because it's so disorganized it would drive the messiest person crazy. You literally have to "dig" through piles of yarn to find anything, and I've actually had yarn fall down on top of me and a little old lady while I was shopping. Do I go...of course...just one time...no. Two, yes two days in a row. Because once was not enough, I dreamt of yarn and had to go back and get what I had decided the day before to forgo. I am weak. Very weak.
I had been thinking of making a light summer sweater. So what better yarn than Rowan Summer Tweed. So I bought many skeins in Brillant (the above pic does not do it justice). It is a really pretty magenta and purple yummy color! Love it. I picked up Rowan #33 and am debating between Trigger ,a fun poncho, Dune ,a lacy sweater (which I would need to adjust the size on) and Seabreeze ,a belted sweater. What are some opinions?
I also picked up enough Cotton Tape to make Brit (from Rowan's current Summer issue #35) with a little skirt for my future sister-in-law's honeymoon. I topped off the shoping excursion with some back issues of Rowan magazine. Even though I may have a lack of respect for the way they organize or don't organize their store, the owner is the sweetest lady! She actually gave me an extra percentage off and 2 free books...so I guess I better shut my mouth now. I promise to actually show some knitting progress soon!

The Stacey "knitting" Barbie

I keep meaning to post this picture of my new Stacey "Knitting" Barbie! My brother's fiance made it for me for my birthday...how cool is that! She looks for Barbies that somewhat resemble you, cuts their hair, adds the appropriate accessories and clothes, and presto a custom made barbie is born! She comes complete with black glasses and freckles, skeins of yarn at her feet, cell phone in hand, knitting bag with a copy of "Stitch n' Bitch", and black clunky shoes. Did I mention that Jackee (the fiance) is definitely a keeper!! She's the best!

Here's a cute pic of my brother and Jackee right after thay got engaged in May...awwww...so cute!!

mmm....books...

I love books, can't get enough of 'em. I worked a number of years ago at a large bookstore and I was in heaven. A 30% discount on books, oh yeah, I can handle that! To this day I cringe everytime I pay full price for a book. Throughout my life I have gone through different "hobbies", scrapbooking, needlepoint, beading, a brief attempt at stamping. Of course, I would have to buy books on said hobby. So two years ago when I started knitting...the purchasing of knitting books began. May I say there are some mighty fine knitting books out there. I'm about to start my second shelf...and my amazon wish list is overflowing with "not yet published" titles! Whoo hoo! I'm always looking for fun and different books...what are some of your favorites and why?

I recently met the author of The Knitted Rug, Donna Druchunas, on my trip to Brown Sheep. She sat in the seat in front of me. I got to see pictures of some of the rugs, there is a spiral one that I'm going to have to make! Check out her book!!

Here are my knitting books, in all their glory! There are even about 5 missing, not to mention the 7 Rowan magazines I recently aquired at a very discounted rate...I love Rowan...it's a beautiful thing!

It's quiz time! I am so fascinated by all the online quizes...nine times out of ten they are right on the money. It's crazy to me that through just a few odd questions they can catagorize people so accurately!

You're The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
by Douglas Adams
Considered by many to be one of the funniest people around, you are quite an entertainer. You've also traveled to the far reaches of what you deem possible, often confused and unsure of yourself. Life continues to jostle you around like a marble, but it's shown you so much of the world that you don't care. Wacky adventures continue to lie ahead. Your favorite number is 42.
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

Baa, baa Brown Sheep...

Have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir...three bags full!! Wow, what a day. We left the shop at 8:00am and headed 3 hours north to Mitchell, Nebraska to the home of the Brown Sheep Co We were able to tour the facility and then shop from their "seconds" store. I bought lots of Brown Sheep Bulky (limeade, thistle, RPM pink, lotus pink) and some Cotton Fleece to make more baby fruit hats. The coolest thing was that I needed 10 skeins of Nature Spun WW in Brick Road and 3 in Sunburst Gold so that I (and my roomate and her mom) can start our Harry Potter POA Gryffindor scarves. And that was exactly how many discounted skeins they had! It must have been meant to be....Eileene over at Woolgathering is the Harry Potter Master that organized this growing knitalong. The shop provided a project for the bus ride. It was a drawstring bag using Black Water Abbey yarns. If you haven't seen this yarn, check it out! Marilyn King, one of my favorite knitters, owns this business and was the leader of our trip to Nebraska. Two of the shawls featured in Folk Shawls were made with her yarn. I love the Aran Pocket Shawl, it just might need to make its way into my winter knitting projects. On the way home we watched Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave. I hadn't ever seen it...oh my gosh, so cute. The whole bus was cracking up. It was a fun day, knitting, yarn purchasing, and cartoons. It doesn't get better than that!