sheep in the city

Knitalong Day!

Sockapalooza:
My sockapalooza pal was Kim of Kim's Knitting World and she recieved her socks last week and they fit, shoo-wee! I was worried about them being too small. There are pictures of her modeling them and everything over at her sight, go check them out!! I loved getting my socks in the mail, it was my very first pair of hand knit socks that someone else knit for me!! What a great exchange! Thanks Alison for organizing such a great exchange!!

Clapotis:
My mom is no longer calling it the Crapotis...which is a good thing! She and RayLynn are both cruising right along. I have no pictures of their progress, alas, you'll just have to make due with mine! (since I can't convince either one to start a blog of their own. They both say their lives aren't interesting enough! Phooey!) I still have only dropped one stitch, so I'll spare you the pathetic picture that I took of my one little ladder. I will show you that it is slowly but surely growing!!

Isn't it so fun with the sweet treats stitch markers!! I truly believe that anytime now I'm going to start knitting faster! (as referenced above...I've got to get to the next donut!) The last week or so, since finishing some of these other projects, I really want to start knitting something new. I haven't given in...I'm going to finish this Clapotis, finish the Koigu glovelets that are 2 inches from being finished (come on! why aren't these done yet??), work on the long neglected Ginger (since RayLynn told me the other day she doesn't think it will ever get done! Those sound like fighten' words to me!! I'll show her!), and my fry-up! No new projects for me...I do love a new project though!

Fry-Update!
My Fry-Up is still not finished...I am not leading by example here ladies, sorry! I do have a question for everyone though, what color should my purse be? I have three options: green, light yellow, or hot pink. You can vote below:

Here's what everyone else is up to:
•Niki just has to make one more egg and a piece of toast. She asks a good question...who only eats one egg, you have to have two!?

"Fried Up" and already served!!:
•Jessica has her hat done, and it's already been debuted by both her son and the intended recipient, her sister!
•Sarah B. has her purse lined and it fits all the necessities!
•Lori lined her purse with John Deere fabric. I love it!! She has a picture of herself modeling the purse out and about in her Feb.16 entry, it looks great.
•Megan has had her hat done for a while. I think that she was the first one done actually!
•Ann has had an adventure knitting her fry up. I didn't know if it was going to make it there for a while, but finish it she did!!
•Mozemen has a great picture up of the front and back of her bag. She even made her plate look all fancy!! Way to go!!

Seeing all these hats and bags knit up makes a knitalong hostess so proud...and it's motivating me to get mine finished too!! You better believe that I'm going to carry this thing with pride!!

Feast your eyes on this!

So I was meeting some friends at one of my favorite local book stores, The Tattered Cover, the other day, casually looking through the knitting section...and what jumped off the shelf and into my hands? It's Stephanie's book! You know...the bookbookbook that she has been writing. I checked just yesterday on Amazon and it still wasn't available, so the local book store wins out again! You may notice something a little odd about the picture...hmmm...you're not seeing double! I bought the only two copies that they had. Some people might think that this is a little bit selfish on my part, to not leave any copies for any other Denver knitters that might be searching for it. Well...I was caught up in the excitement of finding it, and honestly I was thinking of no one but myself! I gave the second copy to my mom this morning along with her stitch markers, which brings me to my next topic. Something else is lurking in the picture above. Click on the tin below to see a closeup of what's inside, and be prepared to shortly there after place an order...you won't be able to resist!

It's stitch markers from the amazingly talented Amy Secrest! You can buy her stitch markers at her little online shop called, Amyville. My mom and I went together and bought some. Each of us getting donuts and cupcakes, and splitting the chocolate bites! They are just too cute! And I just know that they are going to make my knitting go much faster, because you know, I have always been motivated by food!! :-)

You better believe that I immediately put them on my Clapotis! Here's a picture of a real mini cupcake and the stitch marker...people at work think that I'm crazy taking weird pictures all the time!! I have a knitalong summary/update mostly written, so stay tuned all you fry-up gals!! It is coming! In the meantime, I'm going to eat cupcakes, knit, and occasionally stop between bites to "meditate" with my new book!!

I'm on a roll, watch out!

First, let me show you the beauty that was our Easter Egg Cake:

Ummm, yeah, my mom goes all out for any and every holiday. This cake is from Child's, a local pastry shop, and boy was it yummy!! If this is dessert, imagine what the brunch spread looked like...it was delicious! Thanks mom! I just had to share that cake picture with you...now on to knitting!!

So I have recently been on a finishing kick, I don't why or how, but I am. It started with getting a few deadline projects out of the way, then Genia's clogs (must get felted picture...we felted them Saturday night...and I forgot to take a picture...duh!!!), my sockapalooza socks, and now a shawl for my mom that was loooooong overdue. Awww, she wore it on Easter! I love seeing people actually use the stuff that I knit for them!

The Stats:
•Yarn used: 1 skein each of Colinette Point 5 and Rowan Kid Silk Haze
•Needles- US 17
•Pattern: saw a shop sample here in town and just guessed at what they did...but there is a similar scarf over at Knitty called Loopy and Luscious if you want a pattern to follow.
This is a fairly easy scarf to knit, but I found it very tedious knitting with such big needles mixed with the thiness of the Kid Silk Haze. I couldn't knit as fast (not that I'm that fast:-) as I usually do...it just went slower than I usually like. Remember people, I'm an instant gratification girl!! Of course when I bought this yarn to make this scarf I picked out some for me too, but I can't decide if I want to make another one. It is fun though, guess what color it is....pink of course! Here's another shot of the back.

Next Up: Market Squares Bag

This entralac bag is the Market Squares Bag from an old issue of Knitters Magazine, although I think that it has been published in that Knitters dozen book recently. (correct me if I'm wrong). I knit it about 2 years ago for my mom, before I started blogging, and I had never taken a picture of it with the handles on. (this was a recent addition because we couldn't figure out how we wanted to attach the handles.
The Stats:
Yarn used: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in 5 colors (from the top) Garnet, Spruce (I think), a discontinued Heather Pink, Brown Heather, and Victorian pink.
Needles: what the pattern called for...can't remember, I'll have to dig for it.
I loved knitting entralac! This was one of the first few projects that I knit, and I loved every second of it. It was a challenge to get to the next color and it seemed to just fly off my needles. I have planned ever since to knit one for myself, but I just can't decide on a color combination. Hmmm, any suggestions? Here's a cool link that will take you to a page where you can plan out the colors you want to use. Believe me, I have played around and wasted so much time "making" different bags. It's loads of fun. Try it, and if you have an brillant color combinations, do share!!

There has been some progress on other projects, but I'm going to save those for tomorrow. I finally got to drop some stiches on my Clapotis!! Exciting times! I just noticed the time...gotta go get ready for work. Mmmm...monday's...I'd rather be home knitting!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I got a little taste of easter goodies early this year. After spending my day off of work friday with RayLynn, yarn shopping and seeing The Upside of Anger (great character movie by the way, loved it!!) I headed over to Cathi's house for a little bit of knitting with the Mile High City Knitters. Knitting, peeps, and a lap cat (courtesy of Cathi's sweet kitty) made for the perfect evening. Lots of laughter and goofiness led to me not getting home until almost 1:00am!! But it was so worth it! You know it's a good group when people put their knitting away, but then don't leave for an hour or so because they're too busy chatting! Here are just a few of the goofy pictures I took:

Cathi posing with her new yarn that I picked up while in California. Have I ever said how fun it is to shop with someone elses money...well...it is!!

Here is Michelle posing inside of her finished, but unfelted, My Constant Companion bag. It was huge! But it's going to look great Michelle!!

I love knitting groups! If you don't meet with a group of knitters in your town, I suggest you start something! There is something so fun about getting out of your own house, and meeting up with fellow knitters. You can share ideas, laugh, get help with problem projects, and have an all around great time. I have a bunch of different groups that I go to...4 to be exact, 2 of which I started. So if you need help getting a group started, I have lots of ideas!! Happy Easter everyone!!!

What's this? Finished projects?!

Iknow, I know...it doesn't happen that often. But I have a few finished projects that I keep meaning to post about. First, I am finally posting a picture of my sockapalooza socks.

They were mailed earlier in the week, better late than never, I guess. I think I've decided that I'm just not very good with knitting deadlines, at all. I do like the way that they turned out, so you'll probably see me knitting a pair for myself in the not too distant future. If you want a sock that is machine washable and a little bit larger guage, than this is the sock for you! I highly recommend it to everyone...it's called Interlacements Toastie Toes. Click here to see a couple of the things that I like to use when I knit socks. I love knitting with small double pointed needles. My hands are pretty small and so these fit just right and don't seem overly bulky. The little yellow things are the best way to keep your needles all held together. (I don't have the name of the brand with me at work, so I'll look it up at home**remind me if you want the name and I forget to post it**) It is a little rubber cap that fits over all of the points and keeps them together. Whoever invents this stuff is a genius in my estimation! Then there is the ever famous "pink chibi". I wonder if Clover brand is aware of all the hype that's been happening in the blogging world about this little needle case. This is the one that I have had since I started knitting 3 years ago. I got it at my yarn shop, but I've seen them even recently at big craft stores like Joann's and Hobby Lobby. Good luck all you ladies who want one...I understand the wanting since I love the color pink, but I don't understand someone paying over $50.00 for a tiny piece of plastic...which is what someone did recently on ebay!! That's crazy!!

Finished project number two is a pair of felted clogs for my roommate Genia...I guess I need to stop calling her that since she moved out a couple weeks ago.

Here's the stats-
Pattern: Felted Clogs by Fiber Trends
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in Victorian Pink held with two novelty yarns (both of which should felt a little, we'll see),and Lamb's Pride Charcoal and Onyx (because I was using up leftover yarn!)

This is the 11th or 12th pair of these clogs that I have made. I love wearing mine, so I love to make them for other people! I'll post some after shots as soon as she somes over to felt them. If you look closely at the picture you can see Jesse's glowing eyes in the background!!

And lastly...to be filed in the Dude, WTF file, I caught this on tv last night. It was on a commercial for the Tonight Show...what?

It's an ad from Petco for a goldfish sweater! Ummm...I'm thinking that this is a joke?! Just you wait, some poor schmuck is going to go into Petco this weekend to try to find one. I about died laughing when I saw the commercial! Have a great weekend everyone...I'm off of work tomorrow, yippee! RayLynn and I are going to go up to a knitting shop that I've never been to in Louisville. Happy Easter everyone!!

Somebody stop me...

I am addicted to

Oh yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. I now have orange, pink, and purple crocs. I am lovin' them! I think everyone needs at least one pair...and when in doubt more than one! Ha! I haven't had time to write a real detailed Knitalong update, sorry fry-up ladies! It is coming though! Hopefully I'll have some time tonight after I help paint my new classroom that I'll be teaching pre-school sunday school in at my church tonight!! Yeah! It's going to be super cute. Murals of circus animals, painted by moi, on one wall and a fabric circus tent hanging in one corner. I have lots of ideas!! Can you tell I'm excited? Anyhoo...I leave you with this...a super cute picture of my niece, who I watched over the weekend. This was the first time her parents had left her over night...doesn't she look like a little pink Jedi in that hoodie?!

She's holding one of my, I mean her, favorite toys...it's an incredible hulk teething toy! It cracks me up to see her chewing on it!

**you too can spell your own words here!

Have Clapotis, will travel- Part 3- the big finale!

Day 4: Sunday was a relativly unscheduled day. We wanted to make it to Laguna Beach and that was about it. My mom had wanted to get a macaroon that she had the last time she was here, they are reported to be as big as your fist, now that's a big macaroon! Anyway, on our way there, my dad acted like he was kind of "turned around", not lost mind you, and where did we end up?

The Alamitos Yarn Company! The last time my dad was in L.A. he had stopped in here to pick up a gift for my mom, and he wanted us to see the shop. I'm amazed that they were even open on a Sunday, that's almost unheard of here in Denver. But open they were, so we made a quick run around, found a couple things and we were off. Thanks Dad...again, you are the greatest! Our next destination was Huntington Beach where my dad had a lunch appointment, so we girls were left to our own devices. We ambled down the pier, and ended up at a Mexican restaurant where we sat in the bar area to eat appetizers and knit. Mojito's anyone?

This was probably the most relaxing day of the trip yet because we just kind of drove where we wanted and stopped whenever we felt like it. I'm really bummed that I totally forgot to take a picture of us knitting on the beach...that was one of my main goals, oh well. I can't believe that I forgot! After we left the restaurant we headed to Newport Beach...I kept thinking about different landmarks that I had seen on The OC (yes, I'm not ashamed to admit that I watch that show), but I didn't really recognize anything. We then drove over to Balboa Island and walked around some of the cutest shops. It's definitely touristy, but we still managed to find a couple fun things. My dad found these shoes on the sidewalk: Yes, they are knitted shoes by Steve Madden

If want to see a closeup, click here. They were on sale for $10.00, so he bought each of us a pair...doesn't every knitter need knitted shoes? I think so. Probably one of the funnier moments of the day was when we were standing outside a little shop called The Barkery. These two little dogs were coming out the door! When I asked what there names were she said that one of them was named taco-bella! So cute in their little pink outfits! My favorite little shop that we discovered was called, Melange. The owner, Holly Wojahn, was a fascinating lady. She is a painter and she sells her art out of her shop, but also has a lot of fun French imports because she has an apartment in Paris and spends a lot of her time living over there! Wow, what a life! That is a dream of mine to be able to suppport myself with the art that I create and live in Paris. Someday. It's going to happen someday. After we left Balboa Island we headed back to the city to have dinner with the bride and grooms parents, and then to the hotel to pack. What an amazing trip.

Day 5: The flight home, which could have been fairly routine, was much more enjoyable because my dad upgraded the three of us to first class! Yeah, it's much better up there. They had served me hot nuts (not in a bag, but in an actual little ceramic cup!) and a soda before we even took off! My mom and I were together so we made much progress on our Clapotis. By trips end, here is what mine looked like, no dropped stitches yet:

And here is my Mom's and RayLynn's progress. (click names to view) The idea of all knitting the same project really ended up being a good idea. We were all able to help each other out if we needed to, and plus it was just fun to be knitting the same thing, a bonding experience...I highly recommend it to any of you traveling with other knitters in the future.

Here we are, posing for one last picture at DIA looking a little travel weary. But it's good to be back in Denver...it had snowed while we were away and the air as soon as you walked off of the plane was so cold. My little red sweatshirt (insert Adam Sandler singing "Red hooded sweatshirt" here) that I was wearing just wasn't cutting it as a winter coat. Goodbye California sunshine, hello Denver cold and snow. Oh well, I'll keep the cold and snow and affordable rent and they can keep their ocean view and tiny apartments. (which is where I would have to live if I lived in CA!)

Now for the loot, I really didn't do too bad, I definitly saw more than I bought and that's a good thing. I really feel like I showed alot of restraint.

•Big green Frida knitting bag that my dad bought for me at Wildfiber
•Discontinued Noro Kureyon from La Knitterie Parisian in color number 39, dye lot C...it's yummy stuff! Pinks, greens, a little orange, brown, and turquoise. Fun, fun!
•2 skeins of Koigu, one solid pink skein and one bright varigated skein, click for a closeup.
•1 ball of sugar and cream yarn in a pink and orange color
•Eiffel tower zippered bag to put my knitting notions in because I always need more little zippered bags! Right, mom?
•My blue knitted shoes
•fun purple and green stitchmarkers and a Paris snow globe
Lots of fun stuff...but an even better trip with lots of good memories! Thanks mom and dad and RayLynn for making this trip so much fun!!

Have Clapotis, will travel- Part 2

Day 3: The day was finally here...the wedding day, you ask? Nope...the day that I get to meet some L.A. knit bloggers! My mom and RayLynn had planned on going with me, but at the last minute they decided to stay at the hotel because they didn't want to spend any more time in the car after the 5 hours of the day before. La was one of the girls that I was meeting up with and amazingly enough, she lived within 10 minutes of the hotel. So, my parents dropped me off (I have to say my mom had one of those mom moments, where she wasn't sure about me getting into a car with a total stranger that I had met on the internet, ha!) and away we went. It was an adventure getting there, and I got a lovely commentary on the buildings we passed along the way. But my favorite moment was when the traffice slowed down and a motorcycle cop drove by...and was it a terrible accident? Nope. The cops were scooping hay off the highway because a huge truck had dumped a bunch of it off the truck. It was priceless seeing those cops in there little Chips uniforms with huge shovels. Again, only in L.A.
So, our first stop was La Knitterie Parisian, which some of you might know as the home of Knit One, Purl Two. The shop is owned by Edith Eig (the host of said show), and bot do they have a ton of yarn!! Great stuff that you don't see at every other knit shop. I managed to stop myself from buying a really cute WoolyBully bag...they are so cute though! I tidge on the expensive side though. I did get some discontinued Noro Kuereyon.

Here we all are at Jerry's Famous Diner... Lauren, La, and Jen put together this little shindig. From left to right, Lauren, La, Jen, me, Lori, Allison, MJ, and Kris. Looks fun, huh? It was!

It was great to meet some of the people behind the blogs that I read. At one point we started talking about the projects we were working on, and Lori busted out her Rebecca and Phildar magazines. It was like a feeding frenzy, we all jumped all over those magazines immediately. It's not everyday that you get to see them in person...drool much?

I just had to take this picture...this is Lauren and Lori standing next to each other. Lauren is 4 foot something (sorry, I can't remember) and I think that Lori is like 6'3" or so. Wow. :-)

I got back from lunch just in the nick of time to change for the wedding, which was such a beautiful service and I'm so glad that I was able to go out there for it. This shot is one of my favorites...this is the groom Brian and I. Awww. What a cool guy.

The reception was one of the biggest that I have ever been to. There were 50 tables and probably around 400 guests! The cool thing was that alot of my friends were able to make it.

It was really fun seeing and catching up with old friends and meeting Brian's wife Dana. Bonus that they had a chocolate fountain. Have you ever seen one...oh my goodness...it is amazing, imagine liquid chocolate that you can put on Rice Crispie squares, pineapple, pretzels, strawberries, or marshmallows. Mmmm...it was a good thing.

I know what you are thinking, "where was the Clapotis in all of this?" In my purse, ready at any moment to be pulled out and worked on...but it just didn't happen that much today. I made up for it the next day though! I'm getting too tired to post anymore tonight, it's 11:15 PM and I need to go to bed...I'm getting old. Ugh. So tomorrow I'll conclude the stories of my travels...for now it's bedtime.

Socks are in the house!

Yippee! My sockapalooza socks are in the house!! I received them on Thursday, and I made a special trip home over my lunch hour to get them because I just couldn't wait!!! Thanks Rowena! I had just looked at these socks in progress last week over at her blog, GeoKnitting, and I thought, "Oh look, someone else is having a much better time knitting the Crusoe sock than I did...hmmm...I love that pattern, but I can't ever see myself knitting or attempting to knit another pair. Oh well." So what do I get in the mail, not even a week later? A pair of Crusoe socks!!! I love them...and now I'll never have to make a pair myself! And the colors are totally me...little pink, little orange, little purple, yeah baby! And the best part is that they totally match my new orange Crocs!

Thanks so much Rowena...you made my week!

Happy St. Patty's Day

Here's a few of the green pictures I had in my iPhoto library...I'm realizing that although I love pink, green is probably my second favorite color. Enjoy, and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This was a card from my SP4 last month, so cute!

This is Brynne's son John last month at our meetup modeling one of the hats she made for the Dulaan Project. He is such a sweetie, and so fun to have at the knit group!

One of the many pictures I took while I was at the Brown Sheep factory last year. It was so fascinating to see how they make up the skeins of yarn!

Someday I'll pick back up my Alien Illusion scarf, but for now the needles have been yanked out for some other project and this has been stuck in the on-hold-but-not-forgotten bin...yes, I have a whole bin of these kinds of projects.

Last, but not least is my John Deere hat that my friend Suzy gave me. Her parents have a feed store in Texas and they sell John Deere stuff, so she has the hook up! Thanks Suz!

Hope you enjoyed my little parade of green on this St. Patrick's Day...now go out and drink a Guinness or at the very least some green beer!

Have Clapotis, will travel

A few months ago I was invited to the wedding of a dear friend of mine, Brian, who happens to live in L.A. That's where the planning began. I knew that RayLynn would be going, and then my parents decided to go, so it turned into a little mini-family vacation! Fun, huh?! Absolutely! After the decision was made to go, I started joining lists and emailing knit-bloggers in California like crazy. I needed the low-down on the cool places to go, to see the stars you ask? Nope. Although I did see some. The cool places to knit of course! Thank you so much to all of you who took time out of your schedules to let me know which stores to go to! I made it to 4 of them, and boy was it fun.

On with the story though. I got it in my head that it would be great fun to all three (my dad still is the only one in my family that doesn't knit...so he got left out!) knit the same project. That's where the Clapotis came in.

I had been planning to knit it anyway, so why not make it a knitalong-party of 3. We all cast on during the flight out, note the handy pattern holder...yes, the tray locks work very nicely, although I'm sure that we looked a little bit odd. I chose to knit my Clapotis with Interlacements Texas and my mom chose the same. RayLynn bought a cotton/silk mix from Artful Yarns called Fable. The color number is 93, and it's named little red riding hood. The flight was a little bumpy at first, but then smoothed out and we were able to knit, or I should say they were able to knit and I was able to help them work the kinks out. So by the time we got to L.A. I had the tiniest little piece of knitting done, here's the picture of what I started calling the Mama, the Papa, and the baby:

My Dad navigated our way through the massive highway system they have there, to the hotel we were staying at, but by the time we got there all we wanted to do was rest. So I decided to forgo the session of Knit Therapy that I had been invited to by Mary Heather at Knit Cafe. (I'm still bummed that I didn't make it to that part of town) What did we do instead? Drove to a newly redeveloped part of Brea and had a late lunch/early dinner at a great restaurant called Taps, then headed bacl to the hotel where lo and behold...it was happy hour in the bar at the hotel...free drinks to guests...ummm, ok! So the girls knitted and had a few drinks while my dad rested.

Then it was pretty much time to call it a night...here's a shot of my parents, aren't they so cute?! They've been married 32 years this year, and I love just hanging out with them!

Day 2: Our mission was to drive to Santa Monica, visit Wildfiber, have a nice lunch on the ocean, and then get back in time for the rehearsal dinner. Sounds easy, right...we just needed to go about 36 or so miles. It ended up taking us about two hours to get there, seriously as lovely as the beach is, I couldn't handle that kindof traffic all the time. We made it to Wildfiber and horror of all horrors, I didn't take a single picture while I was there! The traffic combined with lots of great yarn...Socks that Rock, Manos, GGH, a wall of koigu, both KPPPM and Kersti to name a few, threw me off my game. I wasn't thinking about my blog or the people reading it...did I mention that I got to touch and feel the much talked about 'Socks that Rock'! If you want to see some shots of the interior, go check out Laurens. These pictures were the reason we decided to go to Santa Monica, be prepared to drool, just warning ya'! After making our purchases, we headed to the car, and look what was on each of our seats from my dad...go on, click to see! Aww, isn't he the sweetest? We each got a dozen in our favorite color! My dad is awesome! The ladies at the shop recommended that we eat at Pedals, a restaurant at the hotel Shutters On the Beach. It was a swanky place for sure, and this is where I had both my celebrity sightings. On the way out the door after we had eaten, walking in was Eugene Levy. I actually didn't see him at first because I was scouting out a place to take pictures, but then my mom says, "wasn't that someone famous?" Indeed it was. Here's RayLynn and I outside Pedals:

After lunch, we had to wait in the lobby for the valet to pull up the car, and since there was a big fireplace we waited by it. Who was sitting not even 5 feet away, talking on her cell phone? Mischa Barton. I didn't want to seem stalker-ish, so I didn't interrupt her while she was on the phone to ask for a picture, oh well! I was just glad that I got to see a couple celebrities while I was in town. (this is when I had to call Cathi because I knew that she would get excited about celebrity sightings, and she would know the name of the guy we had seen...and she did. It was Eugene Levy. Thanks Cathi, I'm always picking you for any trivia game!) We had passed one other knit shop on the way to the restaurant, so of course we made a quick stop there. It was called Yarns Unlimited. It was a small pretty cramped shop, and the walls were towering with yarn, but I managed to find a couple things (read bright pink Koigu) in the few minutes that we were there.

I hate to break it to some of you, but the poncho is alive and well in California. This was one of the shop samples that I'm modeling...it was one of many on display there. Yikes.
I don't even have the words to discribe to you the pain of the ride back home. Picture this, it's almost rush hour...on a friday...what does that equal? Let's just say that it took us a little over 3 hours to get back to the rehersal. Thank goodness for knitting, RayLynn and I sat in the back seat, happily knitting along on our Clapotis, which by now my mom has named the Crapotis because she hates the awkwardness of purling into the front and back. Silly mom, crapotis...that's funny stuff. So the plus side of L.A. traffic is you have time to knit if you're not the one who has to drive.

Probably the funniest thing that happened all day occured while we were on the freeway. At one point we were driving very slowly and noticed that something was littering the side of the highway. We kept trying to figure out what it was, was it paper, was it little bags of something...nope. It was bikini tops and bottoms. For miles. My dad kept telling us to grab one, but eww, and we weren't driving that slow!! Only in L.A. would the streets be littered with bikini's...what a city! We then headed to the rehearsal dinner, which we made it to just in time.

to be continued...stay tuned for more Clapotis action shots, and talk of L.A. knit bloggers, yes there are pictures of some of the people you and I only read about! Click here if you want to see what I picked up in Santa Monica. (note that there will be a grand finale, look at all the loot from California shot in the days to come) Thanks everyone for all the welcome home emails!

Sweet surprises!

So I arrived back in Denver yesterday, all in one piece, in the late afternoon. As much as I love travelling...it was so nice to be home, lounging around with Jesse last night, catching up on my TiVo, finishing up my socks!!! And I slept so good last night, ahhh, I love my little house! So, my plan had been to blog from the road...but as you can see, that didn't work! There just weren't enough hours in the day to do all of the things that I wanted to do. But, I did do a few things...I took over 100 photos (I promise not to bore you with all of them;-), met 6 L.A. knit bloggers and 1 visiting from the east, shopped at 3 completely different yarn shops, bought a "little" bit of yarn (some in a gorgeous discontinued color from Noro), experienced the horror of L.A. traffic first hand, laughed a lot, and had a great time with RayLynn and my parents!! Stay tuned for updates. I will be writing about my trip each day this week. I can't wait to share all the silly things that I saw and experienced with you!!

Here's how the trip began...could my luggage BE any more pink?! I love it!

When I arrived home from LA to snow here in Denver, what was waiting for me? Hold the phone....my secret pal strikes again. She rocks, I just can't say that enough, seriously! Not only did she email me last week, before I left town, with a $20.00 gift cerificate to iTunes (ummm, yeah, I've already spent a portion of it, and I'm hoarding the rest of it for a rainy day)...she sent me another package that arrived while I was gone?! It was filled with yummy goodness, of both the yarn and sweets variety. So, she obviously gets me. I don't need to gush much more, I'll let you see for yourself!

She sent two little post-it notes, one that says "Luv 2 Blog" on it...I'll be honest and say that I've had two other friends give me this post-it set, and each time I get so excited. I'm such a dork! They are sooo cute though! The other is an orange and pink flower. Then there was a refrigerator pad of paper that has a girl on the phone on it, it's hilarious. And then, there's the chocolate and Koigu. I had one bite of the chocolate, which came in a mysterious red box, and I' thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It's not just chocolate, it's peanut butter and chocolate!! Thank you secret pal...you are doing a great job...and you get me. Thanks!!

As if I didn't feel spoiled enough, I got a package from the "Southern Division" of Mason-Dixon Knitting. Ann, you amaze me. This was so sweet, and completely not necessary! Thank you, thank you! Now I just need to find a springy/summery top to knit with my 10 balls of linen drape! **notice the cute little note from her** So, anyone have any pattern suggestions?

Quick hello...

I have been absolutely swamped at work trying to get ready to leave town! Vacation sounds so nice right now! I plan on posting an update tonight about all the parties and knit groups that I've been to lately. I should have a finished sock, and a finished surprise project to show ya! So come back later!! Plus...I plan to blog from the road, yes, that's right...Blanche is coming to California with me! So now it's California Clapotis or bust!!!

I'll tease you with this picture of RayLynn and I standing outside my house after most of the guests had gone home from RayLynn's 30th birthday party. Yeah...less than 24 hours and we will be in California!!! Yippee!

New Yarn and Button Bags

Sounds like a winning combination to me! I got home from work a little early yesterday and there was the magic key in my mailbox that signifies, "you got a package!". Yippee! It's yarn from Emma all the way from England! I would have ripped it open right there by the mailboxes in my car, but it was taped so well I had to use scisssors. A while back when I had my survey to see which yarn to use for my Sockapalooza pal, Emma was very interested in that particular shade of Interlacements Toastie Toes that I had in my posession. So, what did we do? A little yarn swappin'...International style! The only parameters that I put on the swap was that I liked bright colored yarn.

Well, Emma sure knows how to pick them! She sent me 2 skeins of Silky Chic, in color 134/Jamboree, and 1 skein of Zanziba, color 34/Florentina.(note that this is a very Emma color, awww, now it will make me think of you when I knit with it!) She also stuck in a bonus book...all about things to knit with Silky Chic!! A couple options are these fingerless gloves that kind of match my orange tweed coat (this is a great representation of the brightness of this yarn!) or some furry muppet slippers. I'm leaning towards the gloves, because they only take one skein and then I could make something else with the second skein! Opinions are always appreciated!! Thanks so much Emma, you let me know anytime you need something from the states!!

On to buttonhole bags: (turn back now if you don't want to see a whole lot of buttonhole bags on parade...I'm warning you, many pictures of non-felted and felted items ahead!!)

Let's start with the pattern itself. The lovely Kay over at Mason-Dixon posted it a while back (January 24th to be exact) and it has taken off! There are so many people knitting this bag! They keep popping up all over the place! So, my friends Genia, RayLynn, and I all decided to make this purse together. It's a really quick knit, so if you want instant gratification than this is the purse for you!! Why is it called the buttonhole bag you ask? Because you use the same technique to make the handle that you do to make a buttonhole...it's just on a bigger scale! Exciting, huh? So here are a few pics of the process.

All three bags, pre-felting, lounging in my lap, while Genia and I watch Alias. Jesse loved laying on these bags. I think it's the Brown Sheep yarn because he doesn't like any other knitting as much as he loves this particular brand of wool. What a weird cat, but I already knew that!

My bag: (next to a Fiesta cup for scale...hee, hee...some of you detail people might have recognized that I have the same Chartreuse dishes that Kay has and used with her bag...no I'm not stalking her, I've had my dishes for years. I just thought it was a funny touch) I used a lighter green on the bottom because I have a ton of that Limeade color, and I only had 2 skeins of the Kiwi that I wanted to use for the sides of the bag. Here's the catch, you had to double the bulky yarn that you were knitting with! Double bulky! That's some really thick knitting. And to make it even worse, my Kiwi was worsted weight, so I had to quadruple it! That was not so fun. Note to self, only buy bulky in the future, and if the shop doesn't have it, change your purse color! I also made my bag a little bit taller than she calls for. I'm loving my little bag already, California, here I come! This baby is going to carry around my Clapotis!!

RayLynn's pink and orange combo looks great, of course they are my favorite colors...so it's a given that I'll love it. I'm glad you went with the orange instead of black, good decision RayLynn! You are on your way to being a knitting rock star!

Genia's purse, pre-felting, which I named the "Baby Bag". We have no idea how or why hers is so much smaller than both of ours, but it is. I know that I knit mine to be taller, but even the bottom of her bag is smaller. She followed the pattern exactly, or so she say's. Ha! Just kidding Genia! It's super cute, and just the right size to carry around the socks that she is going to learn to knit!! Yep that's right, she's learnin' to knit socks. Aww, it's a baby!

Ta-da! Here they all are after 1 cycle through the washer for Genia, and 2 full cycles for RayLynn and I! I love this bag and can definitely see myself making another one in the near future. I'm thinking I want one thats a little bit wider at the top and bottom...or just a deeper one...or, well the possibilities are endless! Thanks again Kay for this great pattern!!

One sock, coming up!

So, I have my first sock for my sock pal finished and the 2nd sock is well into the ribbing...it's looking like I might just get this thing done with time to spare! I didn't think it was going to happen last weekend, but that just shows you what you can accomplish when you set your mind (and fingers) to the task! Here's a picture of the completed first sock.

I can't get over these colors! Aren't they gorgeous?!

Here is one half of Poppy, just by itself...no Stacey foot modeling it.

The fabric behind the sock is my bedspread...and so many people, as I blog surf, have this fabric in their house! I'm pretty sure that both Froggy and Lynne have something with this design on it! Just a little side note:-) Well, I need to get back to work...so stay tuned for TiVo questions answered tomorrow and we'll see how far I get on my 2nd sock. There is much on the schedule tonight...dinner with my roomate at our favorite Mexican place (can anyone say Margarita's?!), then back to make some headway packing her up (sad...she's moving this weekend!) and watching season 3 of Alias, then felting our Buttonhole Bags!!! So tomorrow I should have some felting pictures to show off!! That's right, three bags...made by me, Genia, and RayLynn. Fun stuff!!

**I just noticed that these socks match my blog really well!**

You know what day it is...

Yep...it's knitalong day!

In Sockapalooza news...many of you have expressed concern about my poor Crusoe sock. There was just no other way, I promise he didn't suffer in the end, he went quietly in the night. It was just me that was left behind to pick up the pieces. Literally, one of my Pony Pearl needles broke. Yep, the tip just came right off. (I'm mad that I didn't take a picture before I took it back to the shop, bad blogger!) So, do you think that I'm a tight knitter, maybe? I keep trying to loosen up, but it just doesn't happen for me, but at least I'm consistently tight...I'm looking for the positive here;-) So, the Koigu has been salvaged, but alas, I am going to knit my pal a pair of socks with a different yarn. As much as I love that Koigu...I'm not ready to work with it just yet. It is being put back into my bucket 'o Koigu to be knit at another time. Sorry ladies...it just wasn't meant to be. So, let me introduce you to Poppy. She is an all purpose, plain jane sock. But wait...look at this color ! It is one of my all-time favorite sock yarns, Interlacements Toastie Toes, in one of my favorite colors, color number 216 Poppy Fields. I love the way these socks wear. They are machine washable and feel so good after you wash them, it's like they get softer, like butta'. I'm almost finished with the first sock, so now I don't have to worry about not getting them done by the deadline! Shoo! I was getting a little nervous the other night! Seriously though, thanks for all the encouragement, it really helped me not have a break down over the weekend.

** I was just asked to explain what went wrong with Crusoe (I guess I forgot that when I posted earlier). So I blindly cast on the first time with my #1 Brittany Birch needles, 44 stitches, innocently following the pattern. Not even thinking, 44 stitches?! That won't fit around any normal foot that I know of. I only knit a couple inches and ripped it out. Then I increased to 56 stitches, thinking that that was enough to get gauge, now using Pony Pearl #1's (but a 2.5mm instead of a 2.25mm...who knew there were so many #1's). I was almost ready to turn the heel when I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I thought it still didn't seem like it was big enough. I went to my LYS to get some reassurance and they confirmed my fears, I did need to rip it out, and I did need to add even more stitches. So, in an effort to save my sanity, I pitched crusoe and went with an old faithful. I really like the Crusoe pattern, but since I'm now in a crunch I just don't have the time to fiddle with the pattern like I need to. Some day this sock may get ressurected, but for now it's going to R.I.P.***

Fry-Up! What's cookin'? Let me tell ya...things are lookin' pretty good.
Mozemen is back and has pictures up of her completed purse! Go check it out, she has syrup and everything!
Jessica has made some progress...and she has the cutest picture of her cat sporting the egg as a hat.
I once again, was a little distracted and slightly traumatized from my sock debacle so, no news on my own fry-up! Sorry. Hopefully, I'll be able to give it my full attention soon.