sheep in the city

Back-Tack and other various goodies!!

I am overwhelmed by the package that I received in the mail over the weekend. I participated in the first round of Back-Tack over the summer, and I loved it. I was introduced to all sorts of new-to-me crazy, creative bloggers, and was inspired by all of them. The one thing that kinda sucked was that I never received my final finished project. Alison and Nicole, the organizers, came to the rescue though and they hooked me up!! They set me up with an "angel" who within days had emailed me 3 times, then she sent me a postcard while she was on vacation in Las Vegas! She turned out to be none other than Cindy of Sauvage Blue, one of those crafty people that I mentioned before! She blew me away with her generosity and sewing skills.

Click to see the inside of the needle roll!!

Besides the beatuful needle roll that she made just for me, she included other little gifties that she knew I would love...and indeed I did!! There were a couple kinds of stitch-markers, and some fancy notions (including a birch cable needle that I've never seen before), and 2 books!! I've been eyeing the new Sarah Dallas Knitting book for a while now and just haven't had the chance to pick it up...plus she indulged my love of Japanese crafting books! It's a book on making traditional Hawaiian floral quilts. Very cool. There's a pattern for making a cushion, a tapestry, and even a bag. (can you say knitting bag?!) Thanks sooo much Cindy for helping make my experience with Back-Tack end on a positive note. I absoulutely love all the gifts, but it's the thoughtfulness and kindness behind it that I really appreciate!! Thank you, thank you!!

This past weekend was very knit-filled again. There was an insane sale at one of the local yarn shops starting at 6:00am on Saturday, so Cynthia I decided since I didn't even get to her house until 1:00am, that we would just stay up all night:) I kind of dozed a little while we watched a couple movies, and would occasionally wake up to see Cynthia madly cleaning something (apparently she got a second and third wind halfway through the night:) Before we knew it, it was time to head out at 5:30am!! Why would we go out this early??? Ummm, all yarn in the store was 60% off...ummm yeah...that will get me out of bed anyday!! So what did I decide on?

How about a little Blue Sky Alpaca for $3.17 a skein?! I'll take 10 skeins please. Or Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock for 3.98 a skein? Oh yeah! I'll take 4. And last, but not least a little more Arucania Patagonia Cotton. (that's the yarn that I knit my OSW out of) Yummy stuff. We then left the shop, grabbed breakfast, and headed to a morning knit group. This day was dedicated to knitting on my sockapal2za sock...which I have been putting off for way too long! Here's a picture of the progress I made:

I'm knitting the Petticoat Socks from the book Weekend Knitting. So far I've enjoyed knitting them, with the exception that I'd like to be further along in the pattern. Slow and steady is the way it's going, so that has to be good enough. I think that I've finally memorized the pattern, so that should help:) Cynthia and I (she is participating in Sockapal2za as well) along with Michelle and Wanda had lunch (for Wanda's birthday!!!) and then headed to a different local shop so Michelle and Cynthia could become "real" knitters. They both finally broke down and bought ball winders!! Ha!

One last goodie bag that I wanted to post about was a little gift from Cynthia, given to me as a thank you for hosting a knit group last weekend. She had seen me eyeing this yarn at String last week, so she picked up a couple skeins for me! Aww! Thanks Cynth! The Yarn Bras crack me up everytime I see them! I actually didn't have this size yet, because believe it or not I bought the Jumbo! Yarn Bras when I bought some last year:) Ha! (no kidding, there is actually a "jumbo" size)

Thanks so much everyone for all the fun presents...I am continually amazed by the generosity of knit-bloggers. What a great community we have here!!

Hell freezes over, and a new yarn shop comes to town.

This is why I think that Hell has frozen over:

This is Cynthia. She hates the color pink. This is one reason we get along so well...because we never fight over yarn. She has her blues and greens, I have my pinks and oranges. We both walk away from a fiber festival or yarn shop happy because we both don't want the same thing. Why is she holding pink yarn then? Ha! Because she is going to knit a sweater for a friend who looks good in pink! I am going to throughly enjoy every minute that she is knitting that sweater! I mean come on...look at that face! This is going to be fun!

So, where did she buy that lovely shade of Rowan Kid Classic? At String, the new yarn shop here in the southern part of the city, and it's less than 5 miles from my house. One word...dangerous! Especially when you walk in and it looks like this:

Click to see the other wall! The shop is arranged by color, which I think is visually stunning, but may be slightly annoying later on when you are looking for a specific weight of yarn and have to go all over the store to find what you need. Other than that, it's got just about everything that a knitter could want. I forgot to take a picture of the little bag that my mom got me there...but guess what color it is...pink and orange! It's made by the ladies at KnowKnits, and it's called a Go Knit pouch. I love it, and I've been carrying around a pair of socks in it ever since! (and working on the socks too of course!!) I love when shops start carrying things that I've never seen before. This shop has been open less than a week and it's made it into the top 5 on my list of good local shops. Stop in if you're in the area...it's called String: A Knitting Boutique, and it's located in Highlands Ranch. Of course if you come this way and need someone to go with you to the shop...I think that you could probably twist my arm!!

**I'm having a bit of technical difficulty at home in the internet department, so I'm only going to be able to receive mail while I'm at work. Hopefully this problem will be solved in the next week though! Or I may just have to head down to my sisters or Panara Bread for a little free WiFi access!**

Relaxation is sweet... (part 2)

Our little knitcation (thank you Cathi for coining that little phrase) continued on, and one of the highlights was having my friend Marilyn there. Why, you ask? A little thing called Black Water Abbey!

She brought some of the samples that she has knit up for shows and a bunch of the purse kits, it was great!! Nothing like having your own private trunk show...we even got to try on the samples. Here's Cynthia trying on a gansey, she may be making one in the future since she couldn't keep this one:)

Of course, we had lots of silly moments, because that's what happens when you get a whole bunch of girls together. Like when we wanted to go to WalMart at 3:00am to see if we could buy yarn at all hours of the day...but then they were only open until 11:00. We went anyway though, in our pj's!! Ha! It was hilarious!

The ever photogenic Cathi, who has never met a camera she wouldn't pose for! (that may sound harsh, but the girl is a huge ham when the cameras are pulled out!)
Then there is Wanda, who flees each time the cameras are pulled out. But, ha ha, I chased her down...literally, to get this picture! We were being so loud, or I should say that I was being so loud, I'm surprised they didn't send someone back to check on us!

Amy, me (in my penguin pants!), Cynthia, and Michelle were supposed to be posing with gross faces because so many of the Halloween/Fall colored fun furs are hideously ugly but no one did, except me. So I'm the freaky one in the picture...again. What we expected to find, we did. Lots and lots of fun fur. Lots and lots of novelty yarn. The only thing that kept the night from being a total bust was the fact that WalMart carries Interweave Knits. Who knew? They totally win points for that!

Sadly the group picture that the little old man who stands at the exit door took didn't come out. But, on Sunday morning my mom took a picture of all the "younger" girls out by the duck pond.

What a fun weekend! I had to pick and choose which pictures to post because I took so many! Some progress was made on both my Rogue and my sockapal2za socks. I'm going to take pictures of those soon, but right now they are both pretty unimpressive. Tomorrow I'm going to post some pretty pictures of a new yarn shop here in town that I visited on Tuesday. Gotta love having a new yarn shop just down the street from my house and work!!

Relaxation is sweet.. (part 1)

How sweet, you ask? Check it out for yourself!

These were made by Amy who I now believe can make anything...go check out the Huppa that she knit for her brothers wedding (scroll down to the June 28th entry), it's amazing! She knits, she bakes, she does it all! Thanks Amy!

My second weekend in Vail was perfect, it couldn't have been better...well, unless maybe it was a bit longer. Some of my knitting buddies came up to knit for the weekend in Vail with my mom and I, and boy oh boy did we have fun! It all started with that secret project that I was sewing up last week. They were indeed little goodie bags for all the girls.

Click on the picture to see the color-coordinated goodies inside:) There was lotion, pens, sticky notes, gum, and of course candy! Plus, my mom and I bought plain votives and candles and wrapped yarn around the votives to spruce them up. We had so much fun putting them together.
I found the pattern while I was looking for the perfect backtack project over at Thimble. She has some really great tutorials set up. I made a total of 10 zippered bags, any more would have driven me crazy...but I now have a whole new respect for all the indie crafters out there who are into production sewing. Seriously.
Here's a shot of the whole finished line up:

My mom and I were preparing for everyone to come up on Friday morning when she pulled out her collection of wine glass markers and inspiration struck. She had these beads that looked kinda like yarn balls! We had to use them:

Click for a close-up!

As far as knitting goes, it happened night and day around this place. We, of course stayed up late on Friday night...and you would expect a bunch of people on a weekend retreat to sleep in...but we didn't. Cathi brought her Espresso machine and made all of us yummy coffee drinks. Mine with more candy than coffee, just the way I like it! The knitting got started around 6:30-7:00am on Saturday morning. It just made me laugh to see a room full of women knitting away that early. Some of us moved on to making stitchmarkers later that morning, and then it was off to the local knit shop in Minturn called The Yarn Studio. I've talked about this shop before, and it's always one that we go to at least once during a visit to the mountains. This display of ArtYarns Super Merino caught my eye right away:

They make such pretty colorways, I could hardly resist, but resist I did, so no new yarn for me. I did walk away from the store inspired though. Look at this knitted ice cream cozy! What will they think of next?
Stay tuned for the second half of our weekend adventure. Get a peek at the Black Water Abbey trunk show that we had, our midnight treks to WalMart for yarn, and much more!!

No fear and no age limits!

I have the world's coolest grandma. Seriously! How many grandma's do you know that would knit themselves a One Skein Wonder? Not too many I bet...but my grandma pulls it off with style and flare!! Look at her...

She looks great! Later that evening I was upstairs in the loft talking to my grandparents when my Grandpa (who's 84) spoke up and said, "I like that camisole that you made Sue." My grandma was like, "what? what did you say?" He repeated himself adding, "you know, that thing that you've been knitting on." I just had to laugh when she told him it was a shrug, not a camisole.

I'm not the only one that is getting some knitting done this week. Way to go grandma!! Congratulations on finishing another great project!
*and yes...that is a knitting needle in my mom's hair!!*

Vacation crafting

I've been busy the last couple days working on a few sewing projects while I'm on vacation. It's amazing how many things that you can get done while you are relaxed and away from your everyday schedule. Here's a sneak peek at one project I finished. I can't say what they are yet:)

Before I came up to Vail, I was having a fun afternoon on Friday with two local enablers and I picked up this book and fabric to make a purse out of. I love this book!

I plan on making both the vinyl purse and the vinyl zippered bag. Of course I'll have photos of the process, I can't wait to start sewing this one up.

Next up in the craft lineup are the stitch-markers that I have to mail out to my marker mania partners. I have been a huge slacker...must get these in the mail tomorrow!! Here they are:

There's a lot of crafting going on over here at Sheep in the City! I keep meaning to take some progress shots of my Rogue, but so far it's pretty boring. Now that I have finished up some of these other projects though, rogue will get my full attention!!! I love vacation, don't you?!

Felted clogs and hardwood don't mix...

Umm, so I'm wearing my felted clogs the other night, being goofy running around and laughing with my family. I was headed to show my dad something when I slipped in those silly shoes! I fell backwards toward the steps and hit my shoulder blades then fell all the way to the floor and wacked my head on the hardwood. I caught my breath and was half laughing half crying when everyone ran over to see if I was ok. This bruise, pictured below, on my arm was the only one that showed up, but I had a whopper of a headache that night. My grandpa over the last few days keeps reminding me to be careful and that I really scared him...he's so sweet. The moral of the story is, don't run on hardwood while wearing felted clogs. It can only end in disaster!

Vacation time!!

I love this time of year...because it means that I need to use up the rest of my vacation time before it just goes away. So, I'm headed up to Vail with the family...my parents, grandparents, my brother and his wife and her family. It's a big group, but it should be fun! I'll be posting from the mountains...I have progress to show you all, but for now I need to get back to packing up my car and heading out. More later, I promise! Have a great weekend everyone!!

I'll leave you with a picture of another of my favorite things, it's the tin that holds all my sewing gadgets. Believe it or not, but my mom used the shoulder pads that were in this tin for years. If the outfit she had on didn't have shoulder pads in it already, then she had these babies ready to go:) Ha! I love it! The graphics are a crack up...do you see the woman telling her dog to "stay put"...just like the shoulder pads would!!

Gone Rogue!!

Tonight was our bi-monthly knit group (everytime that I say bi-monthly I think of that Simpsons episode where Homer goes to the Bi-Mon SciFi Con...does anyone else remember that episode?), and there were 4 of us working on Rogue and we were all using Peace Fleece! Of course I had to take a picture.

Michelle's is the pretty brown one, my mom's is the light green, bluish one, I'm pink of course, and Cynthia's is the green yarn. I'm a little terrified of this pattern, it's so stinkin' huge. I know it will get easier once I get used to it, but sheesh it needs it's own notebook and everything. We all have just cast on and Michelle set up a Rogue blog since there are so many of us knitting it here in Denver.

Go check it out, and join us if you want! I've heard from so many people that they have been meaning to knit this sweater...even if you don't live in Denver, there's no time like the present!!

Mmmm...cake.

****Warning...no knitting content ahead, just incredibly cute pictures of my nieces first birthday cake*****

I spent last Saturday at my niece's first birthday party, and oh my goodness she is the cutest thing! Here's a little lesson in the way that cake should be eaten...no matter what the age!

First we have the tentative approach. She doesn't quite know if she's allowed to make a mess or not.

Then we have the,"let me see what this stuff tastes like."

"Look mommy, no hands!" She just went at it face first...we were all laughing so hard.

This was the look at me, I love being the center of attention face.

And last, but certainly not least, this is the what was left of the cake when she was done with it. I think she did pretty good with her first taste of mass quantities of sugar. I'm thinking that she will love sugar and candy just as much as her Aunt Stacey and her Daddy does!!

Can't have too many, right?

I am a bag person. I freely admit this. My mom is a bag person, I get it from her. So, when Michelle was joking that she couldn't wait to see what bag I got when I was on my trip, I didn't really think anything of it. I just laughed it off like, I don't always get a bag when I'm out of town?! Well, she was right, I was wrong, I guess I do...and here's the latest! I had to go all the way to Arizona to get a bag that is made by some ladies here in Denver! That is funny to me.

I have been wanting one of these KnitOne bags for a while now. They reviewed it on the knitty website and said that they could fit 12 skeins of Koigu in the bag...so of course I had to try it out:) Guess how many skeins I fit in my bag?

Click on the picture to see the Koigu out of the bag. That's 18 skeins baby!! I didn't buy these all in Arizona, don't worry. They were part of my Koigu stockpile.

Here's a shot of the inside:

It came with a little zippered notions case too. I love this bag, it's such a fun shape, and amazingly enough, it holds a ton of stuff!!! I have been using it non-stop since I bought it and I get tons of comments about what a cute little bag it is:)

So tonight, the MHC Knitters are at it again...we are headed to Cynthia's house tonight to knit, but first we are meeting up for First Friday, where a bunch of local art galleries stay open late and serve wine and finger foods. It should be fun, have a great weekend everyone!

Arizona Adventure: part two

The story left off with me purchasing yarn at Jessica Knits, and Amy dropping me back with my parents. Both my parents and I were pretty tired at that point, so we headed back to our hotel...which happens to be one of the nicest places I've ever stayed. My Dad went up to take a nap, so my mom and I decided to knit in the lobby. The lobby? Most people wouldn't knit in the lobby of their hotel...well you would if it looked like this:

This is the fountain that cascaded down into the "lounge" of the hotel, which is pictured below. Are you starting to see what I mean? Umm, yeah...it was a nice lobby.

Here's a shot of me knitting in the lobby, waiting to see if any of the Arizona S 'n B group show up. I'm knitting on the Crumpets dress...it's still not done, but it only has inches left of stockinette to do. I'm convinced that it can still be done! (by Saturday at noon) As I'm knitting the miles of boring stockinette, I have that little voice in my head saying, "I think I can, I think I can, I know I can, I know I can". I'm waiting for it to start saying, "I knew you could, I knew you could." Back to the Arizona story.

Alas, none of them did (maybe next time!) so I was forced to go eat dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant. Oh darn:) The next day was pretty relaxed, my dad played golf, I slept in, we ordered too much room service. Then we headed out to shop some more. We found towels, and bedding, and all sorts of goodies. That little rental car was filled to the gills!! We stopped for lunch at this restaurant:

Mmmm...yummy....food from California. Click on the picture to find out where we were eating lunch if you don't recognize the cup. It's slowly making it's way east. Maybe someday it will make it's way to Colorado. I can dream can't I?! We headed over to the apartment to unload the car and put the latest purchases away. Then it was countdown until we headed back to Denver. It was a whirlwind trip, but so much fun! I can't wait to go back and be able to enjoy the furniture that we bought and just sit and relax. I'm going to try and meet up with a few more Arizona knitters the next time I go down there...so if you live in Arizona and want to knit, email me!! We'll set it up.

These are the promised stamp pictures, along with some "Flamingo" Opal yarn that I picked up Wednesday back in Denver...more sock yarn:) I couldn't resist the title and the colorway.

You want a closeup...okay, click away!

Here's the name of the stamp store Amy and I visited on Saturday:

Stampotique
9822 N. 7th Street, Ste. 7
Phoenix, AZ 85020
602-862-0237

That's all folks...we flew out late on Sunday night...and I do mean late, due to monsoon season and the freakish weather they were having. I'll post a picture of the latest bag acquisition...you had to know that I'd get one while I was gone, right Michelle?! She predicted that I'd get a bag of some sort...and I didn't want to let her down!! Thanks everyone for all the kind welcome home emails!!

Arizona Adventure: part one

I survived my trip to Scottsdale and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it down there, despite the heat. You get used to the hot weather, and I just had to wear different clothes than I would at home, here in Colorado. I went down there to help my parents furnish an apartment that they have rented for the next year to vacation in (read, my dad and his golfing buddies can golf all winter). Hopefully I'll be visiting on a regular basis this next year!!

As soon I landed in Phoenix, we headed to IKEA to start the shopping. I loved it...and had a great time looking at the showroom. My parents enjoyed it, but they weren't as impressed as I was. They thought that it was a little too "young" for them. So, I found lots of cool things at IKEA...none of which I could buy because...ummm, they wouldn't fit on the plane:) They had some really cool displays though, and I took a picture of this one. It's a bunch of plastic collanders...but it reminds me of a chandelier by Dale Chihuly. IKEA was like eye candy to me though, I loved it! On to the next furniture store though. The next place we stopped, my parents actually found all the big furniture at, it was much more up their alley, and didn't require them to assemble anything:) I had to take a picture of my Dad in this chair (which I'm happy to say, we didn't buy!!) because it reminded me of that Lily Tomlin character Edith Ann.

This picture cracks me up everytime that I see it!

Fast forward to Saturday morning, when Amy picked me up bright and early for a day of knitting/crafting adventures! First we headed to a Craftster group that she belongs to that was meeting up and going to see a fiber related exibit at the ASU Art Museum. It was a show of Mark Newport's work. I love visiting Art Museums when I travel...and to have this one displaying knitted stuff...knitted superhero costumes no less, was awesome! Some of you may remember seeing his stuff in an old issue of Interweave, I think. What a creative guy!

Amy and I were both inspired by his embroidered comic books. She just picked up a needle punch tool at a thrift shop for a couple bucks, and I have had a set for about a year...so don't be surprised if you see us doing some crazy embroidery around here. Go check out Amy's blog to see a funny picture of me, another crafty lady, and a book that is just about the funniest thing I've ever seen!!
Amy presented me with a Scottsdale Survival kit that included:

•Sunscreen...recommended 100spf, but 30 would do
•Eye Moisturizer...in case any desert sand gets in your eyes
•Aloe...for when I get burnt by the blazing Arizona sun
•Pepto Bismal...for all the spicy SouthWestern/Mexican food
•and last, some Hand Sanitizer, for all "questionable" surface contacts
What a cute idea!! Thanks Amy!!

From the museum we headed to the stamp store, where I reconnected with my inner stamper from days of old. I used to love stamping. Seeing some of the amazing things that they had on display was again...inspiring! I did buy a "few" stamps, but darn it all if I didn't leave them at my house, so there will be no picture today. There was a sheep stamp (had to have it), a monkey stamp, a Frida stamp, and an alphabet set. It's time for me to pull out all my old stamps, like another blogger I know. We headed to lunch at Flo's, Amy's favorite chinese restaurant, that I have to agree is pretty amazing. I liked it so much I wanted to take my parents back there for lunch on Sunday, but they didn't open until 4:00, so we were out of luck.

So, when did we hit the knit shop, you ask? Well, we saved the best for last of course! We headed over to what I think may be the cutest knit shop I've been in recently, Jessica Knits. The shop was well lit, had multiple seating areas, fun displays, and just about every yarn you could want.

(Sorry for the fuzzy picture...it's what happens when other people use my camera) They have a great selection of Koigu, Rowan, Lorna's Laces, and everything in between. They even had some stuff that I had never seen before, and I feel like sometimes that I've seen it all. I could have just looked and touched and played with yarn all day but I needed to get back to help my parents, and Amy had to go home and get dolled up for a night on the town. So, it was decision time! I needed to restrain myself, put back the multiple colorways of Koigu that I had in my big silver galvanized bucket (yes, they give you huge buckets to fill with yarn while you are shopping...very smart, that Jessica) and make a decision. So here's what I decided on:

Pretty, pretty Koigu in a color that I had never seen before, I bought three skeins. It's color 713. I think I'm in love. Can you love an inanimate object? Have I finally lost my mind, due to too much knitting and fondling yarn? Maybe. But, I had socks on the brain, so I got myself some sock yarn. I've never used Lang Yarns sock yarn before, so that will be fun to try out. I picked up 2 skeins in color number 0158. A Fushia/purple and light/dark gray colorway. There are more adventure stories to come, but I need to post this already...so stay tuned for more about my trip to Arizona. Pictures of the place we stayed, the most beautiful hotel I've ever stayed in and what I got when I went back to the knit shop for a second time! Of course I had to take my mom back to the store:)

I'm home!

I got home late on Sunday night, my flight was delayed due to weather in Phoenix. It's monsoon season down there...this I did not know! I've been lazy about writing and posting photos of the trip, but I have many to share and much to tell you about! I'll be putting together a little vacation run down in the days to come. I may have to split it up so that I don't overwhelm you with photos, but I'll leave you with this:

Oh yes, I have been to IKEA. It was just as cool as everyone told me. My only regret was that my luggage needed to be a little bigger, and the airlines should allow people to carry on furniture. Seriously.