sheep in the city

I am sooo spoiled!

I am headed to Arizona tomorrow morning, so there will be fun adventure pics when I return, and also knitting progress to relay to you. I'm truckin' along on my crumpets dress for Alice. If you haven't looked at her blog lately...go check out the latest batch of pictures...soooo cute in her little Big Bird vintage dress! I digress, I'm down to the wire on getting her dress done. It needs to be done so that she can wear it on August 6th for her birthday party! Guess what I'm taking on the plane to knit on?! Not my socks, not my Rogue swatch...just me and a bunch of bubblegum cotton-ease. I'm going to finish that mile long stockinette skirt, oh yes, I am!

I'll be back on Monday morning. Have a great weekend everyone!!! I'll leave you with some pictures of the super-cool package I got yesterday from Kim! Her blog is Dioramarama and she is one crafty Texan! I love the stuff that she has been doing lately with fabric...go check out her modern quilt, it's beautiful. This was a completely out of the blue, surprise package. Sometimes those are the best kind...and the contents of this box covers all the crafty endeavors I'm into these days...sewing, beading, knitting, embroidery, vintage fabrics, and cheesey/weird pictures of food!

This is what I saw first...and in my opinion, any package that starts out with a guitar playing Gumby, you know it's going to be good!!

Then there was a little fabric to add to my newly started "fabric stash"! It kicks ass...literally!

Oh yeah! It's karate guys!!! Next to it is the softest skein of yarn...it's Baby Alpaca Grande in a pink and orange colorway.

Little glass beads in the shape of elephants, ducks, and teapots. Some black cat beads, and just to add a little Texas flavor...some cowboy boots:)

Then there was the fun polka dot apron! Oh my goodness...the girl on the front is hanging laundry and ironing! You know, doing all her wifely duties, it cracks me up.

Click here for a close-up! She sent two iron on transfer embroidery sets, and last but certainly not least she sent a stack of old receipe cards. Here are a few of my favorites, for pure gross out factor, the Cauliflower Meatloaf and the Glorified Cabbage. I can, in her words, "cut up, frame, or use these for my next surreal dinner party". Thanks Kim!! You are a crazy crafter after my own heart, thanks for the lovely surprise:) Have a great weekend everyone...you'll hear from me Monday, unless I melt down there in Scottsdale!!

Thank you mystery woman!

So, yesterday I received a fun package in the mail...but it had no note and no return address, just 2 balls of this yarn:

The only clue that I have of who it's from, is that the postmark is from Boulder. So mysterious! Whoever it is from must know me, or read my blog because those colors are totally me!! I love Tahki Cotton Classic and I haven't had a chance to try the Cotton Classic Color yet!! Thank you mystery lady! I love it!

Knit-bloggers Unite!

In less than a week, I will be meeting this crazy crafter!

Or, maybe you might recognize these:

That's right, I'm heading to Amyville, um, I mean Scottsdale! Why, you ask? Isn't it like Eleventy-billion degrees down there? Ummm, yes, but my parents needed my help and bought me the ticket so I'm going!! It's a little mini-vacation, I'm always ready for that!! I'll be in the Scottsdale area from Friday to Sunday...and don't you just know that I'm hopefully going to be visiting this place...

...for the first time!! I wish you were with me Cathi!! Amy's taking me to all the cool, funky shops on Saturday...so watch out! It's going to be a shopping extravaganza!

Socks: a beginning

I finally picked out a pattern, after seeing these finished socks, I simply fell in love! They are from Melanie Falick's Weekend Knitting, which I happen to own...and love! So this was an easy decision for me. I am knitting with Interlacements Little Toes, in a white and pastel colorway, it reminds me of sherbet. Sounds good to me, especially with this hot weather we've been having!
I cast on using a provisional cast on for the first time. It was much easier than I had anticipated, which was a good thing. It has a picot edging that I am starting to think is my favorite edging of all time. It's so pretty and easy and it adds that little feminine touch.
Here's a shot of the picot edge, just as I got done with it:

The little picot's are lined up all in a row, they make me happy just looking at them!

After picking up the stitches that create the edge, came the scary part, taking out the provisional cast on...which you cut. Gulp. Then pull out...like so:

Ahhh...you can breathe a sigh of relief with me. It worked. I didn't royally screw anything up by cutting the yarn. It's all good:

Here is the finished picot edging right next to the torn out provisional cast on. I'm now ready to start knitting the 4 row pattern repeat, something like 59 times. So I better get started!!

Where does the time go?!

Today I realized that I hadn't updated my blog in a while, except for the little blurb on Friday...and I had to ask myself what have I been doing with my time?!

Well, Wednesday I saw the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I have to say, I was a little disppointed. They didn't have any of the old songs, the Oompa Loompa's were different, and they had squirrels instead of golden geese. I loved the golden geese!! Just messing around on the internet, I found this link and it tells you about the original book and what the Oompa Loompa's were like, but I still have an affection for the white haired orange skinned little men of my youth. Other than that it was an enjoyable, entertaining movie. Johnny was a little creepy, but overall he was really funny.

Thursday I met a super fun knit-blogger from Boston...

Yes...it's the Bookish Girl, Wendy, right here in Denver!! Cathi hosted a little shindig so that we could all meet her. One of the girls at the gathering was wearing this shirt...you'll never guess who?! Ha! The usual crew was there, yummy drinks and red velvet cupcakes were in abundance, it was lovely.

Friday I got some fun mail...and you all know how much I love goodies coming in the mail!! I received stichmarkers from Jenn as an RAOK, which is funny because at first I thought that they were part of the marker mania that I'm participating in, but nope! She sent them to me just for fun!! Thanks Jenn! Here's a picture...aren't they so cute in their little watchmakers tin?! I love that extra little touch!!

(Marker Mania update...I think that I'm going to hold off showing pictures of the ones I receive until I get them all, and I take a picture of them all together!! I already got one set in the mail last week. Hey all you other participants...what are you doing...posting individually or as a group?! Let me know your thoughts!!) And that's not all I got in the mail on Friday...Joanne sent me some of the fun fabric that she sells over at her knitting blog/website! Thanks Joanne, you know that I needed a "knitting" skirt!! I love all the colors in all the balls of yarn!!

You can purchase your very own knitting fabric, here! Seriously cute stuff, so be warned...you will want to buy at least a yard of each fabric!!

Friday night, I had dinner and a movie with Cynthia. We went to see The Island, and boy was it good. Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor did a great job...and they weren't too bad to look at either:) I worked on my Crumpets dress (read boring stockinette portion of pattern) for a while, but then the movie got so intense that I couldn't knit and watch at the same time. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes futuristic thrillers, it was highly entertaining! Saturday was spent helping my sister make desserts for a baby shower, going to said baby shower, cleaning my studio (I'll show pictures eventually) with the help of my mom (thanks mom!), almost melting in the heat, and then collapsing into an exhausted sleep. Which brings me to today! I've been lounging up in the loft here at home, knitting on my Sockapal2za sock, and blogging. But look who's been keeping me company.

What a good buddy! I've managed to cast on a provisional cast on for my sock pals socks, which I had never tried before. I have my picot edge all ready and I'm starting to knit the 4 row repeat, yippee! I have some pics of the process to show ya, but that will have to wait until later, or tomorrow, laundry and other assorted housecleaning duties are calling my name.

Favorite things...

...here's another one of my favorite things. It's a little statue of David that stands on a stack of old books.

I think it's funny that he's standing on a copy of "Little Men"...hee hee! I crack myself up!!

No...you didn't!

Oh, yes...I did! I said I'd take pictures, didn't I?

Everyone at my dentist's offfice got a big kick out of it! And, I have to say that it did make my trip to the dentist more enjoyable. For those of you that are interested, here's a close-up of the toothy fabric! Look at what is just down the street from my dentist's office. So as a treat to myself, because I'm just a big kid, and I need a little positive reinforcement after I go to the dentist, I stopped in to the Strawberry Tree for a quick peek. I picked up some Tahki Cotton Classic in a pretty pink color, that I plan to make into a Soleil tank, so that I can be just like Cynthia! (scroll down to the June 29th entry to see her purple version!) This tank won't be started until after I finish my Crumpets dress for Alice, which needs to be done by her birthday party in August. So I need to keep on knitting that stockinette! That's all folks...I'm headed home soon, to check my mailbox for some back-tack goodies!!

For those of you that are interested, this was the world's easiest skirt. It was also the first garment that I have ever made! Whoopee! Here's what I did:

•buy 2 yards of super cute fabric (i did end up cutting off 10 inches...so you could obviously buy less), and 3/4 to 1 inch elastic, and some sort of all purpose thread.
•cut said super cute fabric exactly in half
•sew side seams together, iron the seams flat
•sew hemmed casing for elastic waistband (because my grandma sue said that raw edges were BIG nono's), leaving a 2-3 inch opening for the elastic to fit through
•feed elastic into casing and fit to waist, then sew elastic together
•figure out what length you want your skirt. Cut then pin, and press.
•Hem the bottom edge.

Voila! A really easy, fast gathered waist skirt!! Enjoy!

I need a new hobby, right?!

So, many of you know that my Grandma gave me her sewing machine. Well, I have been having so much fun playing around on it. Plus, it's really fun shopping for fabric:) I made a couple purchases over the weekend at my all-time favorite place to shop for fabric, Denver Fabrics. Gotta love getting fabric for 50% off! Here's what I picked up:

I got 2 Yards of each fabric. I had to get the one covered in chocolate, I mean, come on! It's candy! And then I just loved the one that kinda looks like an impressionist painting. I plan to make a couple skirts out of these. You can't beat making a skirt for $8.50...well, I guess you could, but I was proud of myself for shopping in the bargain section:)

Here's what else I worked on over the weekend, it makes me smile just looking at it!!

Guess where I plan to wear this tomorrow?! Yep, you guessed it! To my dentist appointment!! Hopefully the ladies who work there won't mind helping me take some pictures while I'm in the chair! Oh the things that I do for my blog!!

Favorite things...

I was looking around my house this morning, and I noticed that I have these little things around, nick-knacks to some people, but precious to me. Whenever I see them, they make me smile. They are little bits of whimsy that live amongst the everyday objects around my house...and I have decided to share them with you!

The first is a little bird pin cushion that I got years ago in an antique mall. You know the kind, the converted grocery store that you need at least a couple hours to really go through in detail. My mom and I used to visit one on a regular basis, and we had a system. We always started on the same side, and it was like a race to see who would spot the days treasure first. This could be bad, because we have such similar taste. But it sure was fun. Anyway, I digress. This little bird now sits next to my sewing machine (thanks Grandma!!) in my newly arranged sewing area in my loft. He keeps me company while I sew.

The other favorite thing I have to share with you is this little girl who sits on a pile of old books next to a little teapot filled with crayons. This little teapot is probably one of my favorite things...if not the most favorite thing I decorate with. I don't know what it is, but I just love it. Maybe it's my love of mini teapots, or crayons, I'm not sure. Do you have things like that...things that you have found in a flea market that you become attached to for no apparent reason. It wasn't expensive, it isn't a family heirloom. But it's a treasure to me!

I started knitting some anklet socks last night using Alison's free pattern and a skein of Koigu. I picked up this skein at my local shop last year sometime and didn't know what to make with it because it's a tad on the bright side. But the socks are moving along, and getting me geared up to cast on for my Sockapal2za socks. I needed a little warm up:) Ha! Who am I kidding? I just wanted to make something for myself! I'm going to decide on a pattern this weekend for my sock pal...the list of people that are finished is growing, so I need to get busy. I'm also going to be doing a little bit of sewing this weekend too! I picked up some fabric on clearance a few days ago to make some skirts. My first garments. Wow. I'm really excited! I'll be sure to take pictures if they don't suck:) Have a good weekend everyone!

Secret Pal...I think I love you.

So, yesterday was a long day at work. One project after the other, and because I had an early lunch with a friend, the afternoon just dragged on and on and on! I needed a little pick me up. Well, boy did I get one!! I showed my sister the package that I got...and her comment was, "she sure knows you well!!"

Thanks for all the fun stuff Secret Pal, I was overwhelmed by your generosity. I'm going to have so much fun with the yarn, it's a ball of Meilenweit Trend sock yarn by Lana Grossa and a big skein of Brown Sheep Burly Spun in "Orange you glad". You can see a tiny picture of the way the sock yarn is going to knit up by looking here at the LanaGrossa site. I'm super excited to start these socks...but the sockapal2za socks must come first!! The book is super cute, it's called Style Your Own Kids' Knits, and it has a ton of design tips in it! Let's not forget to mention the loads of Reese's Big Cups!! The candy came in little take-out boxes, the flowers on the outside of the box were watercolored, all the tissue paper was hot pink and orange...and last but not least check out the card she "made"!

The quote on the card reads,"I don't say we ought to misbehave, but we should look as though we could."- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) She printed off that goofy picture of Cathi and I from a post a few weeks ago, what a great idea! Thanks for brightening my day Secret Pal 'o mine!

Cute parents, cute shoes!

Let me start by saying...how cute are my parents?! They are so much fun! I spent time with them over the weekend, it was my dad's 61st birthday on Friday! Happy Birthday dad!

I finally got my Sheep shoes in the mail last week...all the way from Germany! (of course my mom got some too!!:) You too can have some sheep shoes, just order them from Baumhouse. I had a great experience with them, no problems at all. Aren't they just soooo fun!

I spent the majority of the weekend at home straightening and rearranging things in my studio, doing laundry, etc. But in between the practical stuff, I did manage to start a secret project for my SP5 over the weekend, and it's moving right along:) Here's the early stages...and that's probably all I'll end up showing you, I can't give away too many hints!! She's a sneaky one my secret pal. She's been known to cruise the blogs trying to figure out who her secret pal is:) Ha! Gotta finish getting ready for work...I'm debating whether or not to tell you my mini-drama that happened over the weekend. But that will just have to wait:)

Weekend Update

Knitting at the knitty professor's house on Friday night was a blast.

A funny thing happens when the stash is pulled out...we all pounce like rabid dogs on the yarn. It's quite funny actually. Michaele's stash is very well organized, into bags that she has little slips of paper with what pattern she was going to use with that particular yarn. I think that's a great idea, because sometimes I can't remember! She also has one of those gorgeous wrought iron/basket 3-tiered organizers made by Lantern Moon. This is where she houses the 32! projects she's making for her sisters baby! Wow! Talk about ambitious! I have yet to finish one of the many projects that I've started for Alice. (but the Crumpets is coming along! I'm already in the stockinette portion of the dress!!) Speaking of things that I'm coveting from my trip to Michaele's house, look at this "designer" kitty bed?! It's called a kitty pod. I love it! Her kitty Perry loves it too! Thanks for hosting us Michaele!!! Good luck in Salt Lake City...you will be missed! But the good thing about knitting blogs, is that I can read about your life and the time will fly by, until you're back in Boulder before you know it!

The rest of the weekend update is going to have to wait until tomorrow!

It's the little things...

It's been hard to think about blogging about the little things that are going on in my life, when there are so many other, bigger things going on in the world...but we all just have to keep on going, you know?! I wanted to just blog about something that made me smile lately. This is what I found when I came downstairs a couple mornings ago.

Jesse had claimed my Buttonhole bag as his personal cat bed! So, I guess I need to make him a Kitty Pi bed of his own. I made a couple of them last year for charity, but never one for him. (poor guy!) He seemed more interested in the un-felted beds than the felted ones...so I'm still not sure if I'll felt it or not. We'll see. This project is going to go on my ever-growing list of things that I want to do.

I'm going to a "finishing" party tonight, so I should have a couple finished projects to tell you all about this weekend. (these are of course the projects that I've been procrastinating on doing that tiny bit of finishing on! I'm not sure why I put them off?!) Have a great weekend, I plan on staying home and knitting as much as possible with season 4 of Felicity that just came from Netflix. Sounds good to me!

More Knitting = Less Blogging

I have been sooo busy the last week...knitting, sewing, hanging out with friends and family, basically just having a good time. But when you add it all up, it's kind of exhausting:) Of course I have the photos to tell the story with.

So what have I been up to, you ask? Well, my holiday weekend started by heading up to Jenifer's house on Friday night with Cynthia. We had to stop at Shuttles since Cynthia had never been before, I mean, the rule is...if you are in the vicinity of a yarn shop that you've never been to, you stop, right?! She was very good and only bought yarn that was for others. I on the other hand, was still reeling from the fact that I bought nothing at Estes, so I bought myself a little somethin' somethin'. I have been looking for one of those little black sheep since I heard that Lantern Moon only puts one black sheep in every dozen or so that a store orders! Can you see the little black sheep in the middle of the herd?! So cute!

Moving on, we then arrived at Jenifer's to find that she had prepared a ton of yummy appitizers, swanky beverages, and had the greatest help around in the form of her 2 adorable kids and her Big Sweetie, who seems to live up to the name:)! The highlight of the evening (in the non-yarn related catagory) was when her son and daughter came outside and asked her to come in and sing them to sleep! Seriously, does it get better than that?! After the kiddies were asleep, we headed down to the yarn room where we all gathered around and oohed and ahhed at all the Noro and Debbie Bliss that she kept pulling out. Her stash rocks, and she was even selling some of it. I fell in love with this yarn, but alas she didn't have enough to make the size I need to make. It did go home to a good home though, and I know it will be well loved there. Not to mention that it has a cozy new place to live. If you haven't seen Cathi's (or should I say Cathay's:) Ha! That joke never gets old!) remodel, go check out her "Wonderwalls" entry.

But...I must make this sweater! I'm eventually going to have her order me some more, especially after I made Jenifer model her own A-line sweater made with Debbie Bliss Cathay.

The modeling didn't end there though, I wanted to see her OSW up close and personal because yes I do indeed have some of the same Noro Silk Garden in my stash! So, I am indeed going to be making one just like hers:) Isn't it great?! Too quickly the evening was over, and we were left, but not before receiving a party favor, in the form of a mix cd entitled "Mellow Knitting". Jenifer, you out did yourself, thank you, thank you. I haven't stopped listening to the cd at work!

Saturday I was up and at 'em early, it was one of my favorite days of the month...Paris Street Market! RayLynn and my mom and I braved the scorching hot weather to find a few treasures. And we did! Check out the antique Swedish spinning wheel that my mom got!

It looks great down by the door of her craft room...the room that I'm going to start calling Craftopia, because it really is perfect. In fact, when Cynthia arrived, she was looking around and said to my mom, "now all you need is a photocopier." To which my mom answered, "just turn around." Then she saw that my mom does indeed have a mini photocopier. It's a wonderful inspiring space. I love spending time over there, it may have a little bit to do with the fact that it previously was my bedroom:) Maybe just a little. We had lunch at the Platte River Grill after unloading my mom's goodies and it was yummy as usual. Cynthia and I are now determined to have a knitting group there some evening this summer out on their huge patio! After lunch we split up, RayLynn and my mom headed home and Cynthia and I went on to the next crafting adventure, at my favorite local bead shop, Bead it! to make some "Rogue" stitchamarkers. Of course I needed special ones for such a special project! Any excuse, right? Saturday evening was spent hanging out with some old friends I worked with eons ago at Barnes and Noble. Much time was spent reminiscing and laughing about funny co-workers and customers. It was fun to laugh with those girls again.
Sunday was spent knitting and sewing. I started and re-started my Crumpets dress. I started out with the picot edging, abandoned that, because holy crap, it's slow going and tedious! So I went with the more traditional plain old cast on. Much easier and quicker:) Then I just kept making boneheaded mistakes like, slipping stitches the wrong way...riiiipppp. Twisting when I joined it in the round...riiiipppp! And various other stupid mistakes. But, I am now good to go and I've made it a couple inches into the pattern on the bodice of the dress. I am lovin' this pattern!

This was taken when I first began...so it is a little bit bigger now. Libby you are a designing genius! I love this pattern...and made with CottonEase no less. (Beneath the yarn are the sweet TV-trays that I got at the market over the weekend, they have the Eiffel Tower on them!!) Monday was a family day, starting with breakfast with my sisters family, knitting at a local shop that opened just for us!, and then an early dinner at my parents house with my grandma and grandpa. What a great weekend!! I needed a few days to recover, so that's my excuse for the delayed post:) Now I've written a small novel it feels like. Hope everyone else had a great 4th of July!

**if it seems like I keep saying, "Cynthia this and Cynthia that" it's because I've hung out with her a ton this week! It's been a blast!!**

I'm going to be a knitting machine!

Literally! A kind gentleman (that's what I'll call him, since I don't know if he'd want me spreading his name all over the knitting blogiverse) here in town found my blog while searching for people in Denver who knit, and he emailed me to see if I'd be interested in the knitting machine he had. Well, I've never really thought about getting a knitting machine because I truly enjoy knitting things with my hands. But when he said the magic words "free" and "knitting", I thought I'd check it out! So off I went last night, after a dinner with a bunch of friends, at 9:30 at night, to get my knitting machine before the kind gentleman left town for the holiday weekend. RayLynn stood in for my mom in the worry department last night though, she was very concerned that I was going by myself, and had me call her when I got to the guys house and when I left, so that she knew I was safe:) Awww, thanks RayLynn! So...here it is:

I haven't really had a chance to do much with it other than take it out of my car and photograph it. But, it's a Passap Duomatic, made in Switzerland. It came with two boxes of gadgets and an instruction booklet. I showed my brother-in-law, Drew, a picture of it this morning at work and he asked how much they wanted for it. I then told him...no, no, it's in my garage, I picked it up last night, it was free! His eyes got all big, and then he asked if he could come over and play with it! Oh yes, this is going to be fun!

Yes, I am alive.

Thanks everyone for all the well-wishes about my root canal! I, obviously, made it through the ordeal, and am going to live to blog another day. My face is still swollen and I'm going to start to take antibiotics today to help with that. My dentist decided that I have a very high pain tolerance, because it hasn't hurt me at all. I guess that's a good thing?! This weekend is getting off to a good start, I'll be knitting at Jenifer's tonight, and then hanging out with friends and family all weekend! Have a great 4th of July everyone!