sheep in the city

Secrets DO make friends!

I'm participating in 2 "secret" exchanges right now...Secret Pal 6 and the International Secret Scarf Exchange. I am having so much fun with both of them! I got a package from my secret pal yesterday...she mailed it on Friday from Alaska, and I got it yesterday. That is some speedy service from the USPS!! Here's a picture of the goodies. Can I just say that Jesse is a very spoiled cat!!

There were 3 balls of Hot Pink! Mohair. The brand is Idéna, and it's called "Dream Mohair". Has anyone ever heard of this yarn? I am loving it! What shall I make out of it? Maybe I could combine it with the yarn that I got in the last package...remember? Does anyone have any suggestions? She also included more surprises for Jesse, a bottle of kittie treats and a new catnip toy. The package was rounded out by some sour candy canes and Frida stickers! Thanks so much Secret Pal. I can't wait to find out who you are?! When do I get to find out? I thought for sure that you would reveal yourself this time! Ahhh...the suspense is killing me!

I've also been communicating with my Secret Scarf Exchange gal. She is funny! She wants to be sure and knit something that I'll wear, so she's been really good about emailing me and asking me specific questions. In the first email she asked me if I wanted one of these three types of scarves:

******
a) would you like your scarf to be a
scarf to be worn inside (like an accessory)
b) or rather an necessity (thicker yarn, wider),
and to be worn outside with your outdoor
clothing, or
c) more a shawl-like scarf? Something that
you can wear either inside draped over your
shoulders or bundled up with your outdoor
clothing?

Colorado gets colder than where I live, so
I need a few pointers here LOL.
******

Isn't that intriguing?! Well, I emailed her back and this was her latest reply:
******
Hello Miss Stacey,
I have found your yarn, but I haven't started knitting yet. I'm supposed to finish some gifts first, so I can make a shawl-like scarf. As one of my lace knitting friends would say, I'm going to make you a Wooly booger shawl... a shawl for cold days :)
*******
Ha! I'm so excited to see what she comes up with! I can't wait to see what a "wooly booger shawl" looks like! If you ever get the chance to participate in this kind of exchange, I highly recommend it. I've met so many great people this way!

Somebody stop me!

Thanksgiving with my family was wonderful. It was full of good food and lots of laughter...the way it should be! I did get sick over the long weekend, just a cold more annoying than anything, but at least it was relaxing. I had lots of time to knit and decorate my house for Christmas. Here are the projects that I cast on for over the holiday weekend, they became my constant companions. It's the start of a pair felted clogs, the Backyard Leaves scarf (for my International Scarf Exchange pal), and my Charlotte's Web (with color number 1!!). Why are they so small you ask? Well, do you notice all of those papers beneath the wooden bowl? That's the detailed instructions for these projects, involving lots and lots of charts. I know how to choose them, don't I? I am having to write out the instructions for the Backyard Leaves (from the book Scarf Style) because I cast on 5 times the other night and just kept screwing it up! I need to say a big thank you to the girls who encouraged me the other night while I was casting on 5 times, you know who you are! Seriously though, you'd think that I had never looked and followed a chart before! The felted clogs didn't cause me any problems and they've grown since this picture was taken. I've complicated things with the Charlotte's Web though by reading out the written instructions wrong. (Cathi, I totally should have listened to you about that?!) I've worked quite a few repeats now that I'm following the chart. I'll have a picture update when I start changing to the second of the 5 colors...I'm going to love this shawl! The other reason that all my projects are so small is the book that I picked up on Saturday night while I was knitting at Barnes and Noble with a couple of friends (2 nights in a row, that's what I like!). I'm not ashamed to say that I am a big Nora Roberts fan and that I read the afternoon away on Sunday. Even though I had trouble getting these projects started, I'm thinking that they are going to be really fun. I'm excited about knitting them and that's what I've been looking for! Okay, time to go knit some more before heading to bed. Tomorrow I'll show you what my SP6 sent me today!!! Knitty night!

**For those of you that have knit a Charlotte's Web before, what kind of edging did you do? I have a ways to go obviously, but I'm still undecided.**

The votes are in!

I'm going to be casting on for Charlotte #1 this weekend! I can't believe it?! Wow! 161 people thought that I should knit Charlotte #1 compared to the 59 that thought it should be #2. Thanks for voting everyone! I have been wanting to knit this shawl for so long...I can't wait to see how it turns out. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!!

Let me lure you...

...into my Charlotte's Web! I have talked and talked and talked of knitting this shawl. I think that everyone in blogland has knit this shawl at least once, and some knitters have even knit it more than once! Well, I'm finally going to do it. No more talk, I'm going to cast on this weekend. If you have been reading my blog from the early days you'll recall that I have mentioned this shawl before. I've even started it before, only to be ripped out due to a lack of joy in the color choices that I had made. Not this time. I think that I've fallen in love with these 5 skeins of Koigu or maybe those 5 skeins of Koigu...ahh! This is where you come in. I have two options. What do I do when there is a decision to be made and I just can't decide? Put it to a vote!!

This is choice number one. Starting with the smallest section of yellow and ending up with the bright pink. There is a nice *"brownand" in the middle of this one that I love, and it's not in choice number 2. I'm heavily leaning towards this one!
*this has become one of my favorite ways to describe this color...brownand...thanks Cathi!

Then you have choice number two. Starting with the same small section of yellow and ending with a light pink.

**for those of you that haven't heard of this scarf (are there really any of you out there?) here's a couple links for ya! The first one is for ThreadBear. These are the guys who helped spread the craze through blogland. The next is just a google image search that will show you a whole bunch of finished Charlotte's web shawls. Enjoy!**
I have also cast on for a Ruffle scarf...no reason why other than I felt like it. That's as good of an excuse as any, right? I brought my camera to work today to grab a quick photo, only to find out that it is out of power. Crap. I hate it when that happens! It'll have to wait, but until then go vote!!! Help me out!

What a weekend!

My weekend started a little early on Thursday night with a midnight showing of the new Harry Potter movie. Oh my, I loved it! I went with Cynthia and Kim. Sadly, I didn't get my scarf done...but I knit on it waiting for the show to start, and during some of the less intense moments during the movie. (I have to admit that I was pretty caught up in the story, so I didn't knit much!) I think that this movie is probably going to be my favorite movie. I loved the Prisoner of Azkaban and saw it in the theaters at least 3 times, so we'll see if this one surpasses the last one. I'm going to go see The Goblet of Fire at the IMAX sometime soon, and I'm sure that I'll see it again with family this weekend. My Harry Potter scarf is just going to have to make it's debut at the 2nd or 3rd viewing.

Kim sporting her Ravenclaw scarf in the design from the first two movies and me sporting my sad almost finished Gryffindor scarf. Sorry for the rough looking picture of me...you have to remember that this was taken at almost 3:00 AM when the movie let out! I have to mention that my favorite thing about this movie was that they mentioned knitting again! So funny...see if you catch it! Of course I immediately picked up on it and laughed out loud. I highly recommend everyone seeing it!

Friday, I made a quick stop at String with a friend who needed to see the Koigu. Here's the "bouquet" that she purchased. Can you guess who it is? The colors don't give it away at all...ha! Then it was off to a meeting of the minds for a little brainstorming about scarves. This is what happens when you get 3 knitters together and you tell them to bring books with them. Believe it or not, we hardly had any duplicates!

We then moved on to the Mile High City Knitters get together that was being hosted by Amy. (who I now fondly refer to as the Queen of the Cookie cutter!) Look what she made for us!

You've got to love knit themed food items! They were tasty as well as cute! Thanks Amy. I got a chance to catch up with a bunch of local knitters that I hadn't seen in a while and see some fun works in progress. Theresa had the most gorgeous Cherry Tree Hill cabled socks finished...and even though they were blue I coveted them! I just love seeing what everyone was working on, so inspiring! Then as if knitting doesn't take up enough time, Jenifer tempted some of us (but sadly, Michelle and I were not interested) with a little spinning lesson. Maybe some day...but for now I'm going to stick with just buying the yarn at the store and knitting it. It already takes me forever to knit something anyway, I'd hate to see how long it would take me to have to make my own yarn and then knit it up! Sheesh! It wears me out thinking about it!

The rest of my weekend was spent knitting and hanging out with my sister and these two:

Alice and Jesse have become good friends, or so Alice likes to think! She loves all cats and Jesse is probably the most patient with her, what a sweetie! Stay tuned tomorrow for a new project that I cast on for over the weekend, it's an oldie (to most knit-bloggers out there) but a goodie!

You have now entered...the Koigu Zone!

**first let me say thank you to everyone who played along and put a pin in my map in the last few days! I think it's so fun to see where everyone is from!! If you still want to put a pin in my map, just look to your left and you can find the Frappr button!**

As many of you know, I love my local yarn shops. I love the yarns they carry, the cozy warm feeling that I get when I walk in the doors, and the greetings that they give me. Well, some shops just go above and beyond...and this week that shop is String, in Highlands Ranch. For weeks I have known that the Koigu was coming. I would call, or drop in once a week to see if it had arrived. Sometimes I'd just call, say,"this is Stacey, is it in yet?" and Cassidy (the owner) would sweetly tell me, "not yet".

Then Monday night I got an email from her that had IT'S HERE! in the subject line. The next morning I showed that I do indeed have some self-control and I didn't leave work at 10:00am when the shop opened, and then I had plans that evening. Ahhh! Finally Wednesday night I went by. Have you ever seen Koigu all bundled up in a big pack of 20 skeins...it's a beautiful thing. I wandered around the shop with one "bundle" for a good 10 minutes and then I slowly backed away and did the math. Nope, not in the budget. (no worries, I did get a little somethin' somethin'.) In my usual style, I needed to see the Koigu again. I went back today with my mom over my lunch hour. Oh yes, I've passed on this sickness to her. She's just as addicted to the Koigu as I am. See for yourself.

See how she's grabbing for it double-fisted style? That's one of the first signs of addiction right there. We both brought our Koigu stashes to show Cassidy, and to make sure that we didn't go completely nuts and duplicate a bunch of colors. Here's a peek at some of my mom's stash (all in little zippered plastic bags, she's so stinkin' organized!). It really is dangerous for us to go shopping together. Yes, my name is Stacey, and I'm addicted to Koigu. Isn't the first step to recovery admitting that you have a problem?

Jumping on the bandwagon!

I keep seeing these fun maps all over blogland that everyone can sign and say where you're from, etc. I couldn't resist...I must know where all you readers are from! I think that this could go one of two ways:

1-I'll be overwhelmed with the response and amazed at all the places around the world that people actually read my little blog
or
2-My sad little map pin is going to be the only one in the map.

Please don't let me have a sad map! Head over and tell me where you're from!! I love this kind of stuff!

Click here to get to my map, or click on the little button above!

If you have any trouble figuring out how to operate the map, those fantastic ladies over at Mason-Dixon Knitting have written a little 'how-to' guide. Thanks ladies!

15 people and a Harry Potter scarf...

Saturday I had 15 people through out the day, starting at 10am, in my little house to watch all 3 of the Harry Potter movies. It was a little crowded to say the least, but lots of fun! I love having people over...I think I get that hosting gene from my mom. We watched non-stop from The Sorcerer's Stone, through the Chamber of Secrets, and ending with The Prisoner of Azkaban around 5:30. You would have thought that I would get lots of time to knit on my HP scarf, right? Well...there was a little distraction named Alice that kept wanting my attention. She was definitely in her element being the center of attention and entertaining us all. I wish that I had taken a picture of her, she had on a little outfit that would have made the Gryffindor house proud! But alas, I didn't, so all you get to see are the ladies who lasted through the afternoon and into the night.

My sister and I had a hard time planning and cutting down on what to serve, so we had a little of everything. (once again, I wasn't thinking and I forgot to take a picture of the spread) We had queso, donuts, gummi worms, hot apple cider, puppy chow (which we changed to owl pellets for the occasion), butter beer, and baked macaroni and cheese (thanks Michelle! It was yummy!). Not to mention all the other various candy and soda that showed up. Overall, the marathon was a success, and I can hardly wait to see The Goblet of Fire!!!

On the knitting front, I have made significant progress on my scarf. I'm on the 11th repeat, and there are a total of 14 repeats. I think I just may get this thing done!! And none too soon because I'm going to a midnight showing with Cynthia and Kim on Thursday!!

Please excuse the lack of a pretty backdrop for taking this photo...I was at work, and a girls gotta do what she can, when she can. So, the next few days are going to be spent madly knitting stockinette in the round...I have knit about 32,670 stitches so far...and I only have about 8,910 left to go. That's do-able, right?

Email woes & yarn pick-me-up's!

**Email woes**I had planned on getting caught up on my email while I was down here this week, but when we arrived I was informed that I couldn't send out third party emails. There went that plan. So, any of you who have left comments, I'll get back to you this weekend.

**Yarn pick-me-up**Sunday the girls headed down to Jessica Knits for a little knit shopping. Of course I needed a little yarn to remember the trip by! So I bought a skein of yarn that I had never seen before called Malabrigo Yarn. It's the softest stuff that I've ever felt. It's times like these that I wish you could reach into my computer and feel it yourself! The color is Cognac and it's approximately 215 yards of worsted weight kettle dyed pure merino wool.

I only bought one skein thinking that I would knit myself a new hat for this winter, which I will probably still do, but it looks so pretty all twisted in a little ball that I may need to swing back by tomorrow and get some more. (so that I can have one skein to just sit around and look pretty!) I love the stuff! They have such rich beautiful colors. The rest of my purchases are shown in the picture as well. I picked up some addi-Natura needles to knit my Bamboo Clapotis out of and a container of knit themed gift tags (thanks mom!) from Knitterella. The other two things lurking in the picture are my comfort foods of choice...and constant companions on vacation, Cherry Coke and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. Mmmmm...chocolate and peanut butter. I didn't realize before this trip that my grandma and I both share a love of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

On the knitting front, I've been making some good progress on my Harry Potter scarf. I think I just may get it done before the movie! My mom and Grandma have both been working on their respective Clapotis. They are both knitting it out of SWT Co. Bamboo.

My Grandama is actually almost done with hers. She's at the point where you are dropping two stitches, one on each end. I think she can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My mom is not far behind her, but she's had a few other projects that she's been working on, Rogue, a knitted babe, and a HiP scarf to name a few. I wonder where I get my multiple project syndrome from?! I'll be heading back to Denver on Thursday, flying home instead of driving. (thank goodness, it was fun...once, not twice) This week has been great, but it's going to feel good to be home.

Extreme Knitting?

On the second day of our road trip we made a stop to go see the Acoma Pueblo, also known as Sky City. It holds the record as the oldest continuously inhabited pueblo in the United States. And guess who knitted on top of a 357-foot sandstone mesa? That's me...and my Harry Potter scarf, that's who!!

It really was a beautiful place. There are still 14 families who live on top of the mesa year round with no electricity or running water. They live a simple life, but sometimes that sounds good to me. I think I could live anywhere as long as I had my family and something to knit on!

They have 6 natural cisterns that gather water. They are dependent on the rainfall to fill them up and what little rain they get each year does the trick. Here are some more shots of the 70 acre village.

This is the church that was built in 1629.

This is one of the many traditional bread ovens on the pueblo. How would you like this view from your kitchen?!

Lastly, we have a picture of the ladies on the trip. Three generations are represented here. Happy Monday!

Arizona bound!

We're on the road again here at Sheep in the City. I'm in route to Arizona with my mom and my grandparents, blogging from a hotel in Santa Fe. My Dad flew down yesterday, he very lovingly gave up his seat in the car so that I could go with them. Wasn't that nice?! I told him that I would be happy to fly so that he could have the time to talk to my grandpa in the car, but he said, "no no, you go, you'll have more fun." Yeah right. But I'm just glad that I got to go. We actually would have been further down the road except that we had two things holding us up. The first one was a parking lot on the highway between Monument and Larkspur. We sat there for an hour and a half. Then, in New Mexico, there were super strong winds and we saw at least 3 accidents before we got to our hotel. This morning my grandpa called over to our room and told us that the highway we had been on was closed for 4 hours last night due to another more severe accident. Thank goodness we made it to our hotel safely! We should arrive in Scotsdale this afternoon. More blogging from there!!

This is my Grandma in her cute "travelling" hat!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Here's to you mom! I love you so much...I can't wait to hang out and celebrate your birthday week with you in Arizona!! You are the best...and I love all the adventures that we get to go on together!!

**it's my goal this week to convince her to start a blog of her own!!**

Say hello to my little friend!

Hi. My name is Paloma.

I just arrived at my new house yesterday after travelling all the way from Arizona. I was living there with my friends Matcha and Amy. As soon as I got out of the box Stacey introduced me to another cat who lives in our house, Jesse.

He didn't seem that interested in meeting me, but I know we are going to be good friends! I think I'm really going to like living in Colorado!

Harry Potter and Football?

Friday night a bunch of us met up to knit together at the Tattered Cover. It was a great group, Wanda, Joanne, Michelle, Kim, Sharon, Sheila, Laura, my mom, and a new girl (I think her name was Mercedes?! Ahh, help!) were all there. I pulled out my Harry Potter scarf to work on, and who else showed up? My sister! And she'd brought her Harry Potter scarf that she just started!!

We both plan on having our scarves done for the movie premiere, and we're planning to have a movie marathon the Saturday before the movie comes out! We're dorks, but we sure have fun together!! Sisters are so fun!

So, why did I mention football, you ask? Well, I wanted to have some quality time with my mom this weekend while my Dad was out of town. Sunday was the only time we could do it and the Broncos were playing. The rest is history.

We watched the game together and knit. She was knitting on her Rogue sweater and her second Clapotis while I knit on my Harry Potter scarf. (she seriously needs to get a blog don't you think?!) I have to admit, as much as I am not a big football fan the game was pretty exciting. My mom on the other hand is a HUGE Bronco fan. Did I just say that? Did I actually admit that football was exciting? What is the world coming to? Yikes.

****I keep assuming that everyone knows where to find the patterns for these scarves because it seems like so many people have made them. But since you asked, you shall receive!
Big Harry Potter scarf: (otherwise known as the Prisoner of Azkaban or PoA scarf) can be found at Atypically Knit They have a ton of cool Harry Potter patterns. I'm knitting mine with Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted. The colors are Sunburst Gold (308) and Brick Road (225).
Small Harry Potter scarf: (otherwise known as the HiP scarf) It was designed by Alison of the Blue Blog. My sister is knitting hers with Cascade 220 in a burgandy and golden yellow colors...Gryffindor all the way baby!!!****