sheep in the city

Christmas gifts and goodies

I couldn't go a day longer without showing you a few pictures from Christmas!!!

Here's our Christmas Pajama's for 2005. They had dice all over them. My grandma, who seriously can do anything, took a small pair and made little pj's for Alice!! So fun...I have to say that this is one of the most fun traditions we have in my family!!

I can't believe that Alice even left this reindeer headband on long enough for us to take a picture! But she did!! Of course, she was the star of the show at our house!!

My niece, Alice, got a trike from my parents. She seemed to enjoy it once she figured out what to do. It was so fun to have her there and watch her experience Christmas.

Here are the goodies that I received on Christmas. Dutch Blitz is a card game that kind of reminds me of Nerts or a fast paced Skip Bo. Very fun and addictive. The cat tin had an initial charm for my Pandora bracelot. The book AlterKnits, Yarn Harlot, and a Mary Engelbreit book on collections. A Tania Howells Knitty yellow messenger bag. I love that it doesn't have velcro!! A brown "String: A Knitting Boutique" GoKnit Pouch. And the coolest thing was a surprise that my Grandpa Poland brought me. It was a folder of all my Grandma Ailene's old crocheting and knitting patterns. She passed away a little over a year ago, and she had been looking for a pattern for me at the time. She made all of her grandkids an afghan when they graduated from high school, and this was no small feat since my dad came from a family of 7 and she had 4 kids of her own! That's a lot of afghans!! Anyway, I had asked my grandpa if there was anyway that he could find some of her patterns for me. So cool...this one is even the exact pattern she used for my afghan written out in her handwriting. That's a treasure.

3•2•1 and a day of fun!!

*this is me in my new T-shirt that says,"Got Yarn?" and Choppy, one of the fun crazy ladies who works at the shop! She was all decked out in her bathrobe and curlers again this year! I love it!

One of my favorite times of the year is when A Knitted Peace has their annual 3•2•1 sale. They open the doors of their store to a bunch of crazy kntters at 6:30AM and everything in the store is 30% off until 8:30. Then until 10:30 it's 20%. After that the rest of the day everything is 10% off. So, Cynthia and I had plans to get a good spot in line, which we did, and have as much fun as we could considering that it was so early and neither one of us is a morning person. We were about 10 or so people back in line when we arrived there at 6:00am, thankfully it wasn't too chilly! They opened the doors and everyone promptly scattered to the various corners of the store that held the treasure that they wanted to purchase. Obviously many people bum-rushed the needle section. I mean, who can resist AddiTurbo's at 30% off?! Thankfully, I got my size 0 and size 1's that I need to have for a toe-up/magic loop sock class that I'm taking this spring. (I can't believe that I have to wait until April to take that class!! I want to learn now!) I had a mission when I went in though...I was headed straight for the Opal sock yarn. My brother-in-law needed some and I wanted a particular shade that I had seen earlier that week. Yippee! I got just what I wanted! Then I had a momentary lapse in self-control. I went to the book section, can you see where this is headed? They had 2 of the Barbara G. Walker stitch pattern books so I grabbed those up, and I picked up a book on lace knitting, and the funny Knitorama book. I didn't do too bad...my Grandma did tell me to buy something that I "needed" with the Christmas money she gave me?! I alway's need new books...and yarn...and needles...ha! I also picked up some Jaggerspun Zephyr (50 Merino/50 Silk) in a Fushia color and a bright lavender. I'm thinking that I might make the Ene scarf from ScarfStyle out of the bright pink...but that's way down the road. (like after Cynthia gets further along on her's so that I can see and hear how it's going!!)

So, you may be wondering what yarn that is in a big pile in the center of the picture...well, we didn't just stop when we hit the sale at AKP. Where's the fun in that? We had gone to Colorful Yarns the day before to see what they had on sale for 50% off!! That's the big pile. It's Artful Yarns: Serenade. (70 Pima Cotton/30 Angora...can you say soft?!) I bought 10 skeins for $40. The kicker is that I had thought about buying this yarn a few months ago at full price!! I love it when patience wins out in the end. Of course, I'm undecided on what I should make with it, but that's never stopped me before. The colors don't really come across in that first picture, so here's a close-up. Isn't that a great colorway? It reminds me a little bit of the Knit Happens Lorna's Laces. We had to reenergize at this point, so we went to breakfast at the best breakfast place in Denver. Then it was on to String for a little knitting and chatting with Cassidy. What did I buy there with my gift certificate?! A skein of Helen's Lace in the bittersweet colorway.

That's all the lace yarn that I'm buying for now though. You heard it here...no more lace weight yarn until I finish my Charlotte and at least one other lace project!! (Maybe I do need to join Kim's knitalong?! What do you think?) It doesn't get much better than this...a whole day of hanging out in yarn shops. Unless maybe all the yarns on sale?! And it was. Sweeeet!

Charlotte Update!

First let me say that it's not very easy to photograph this scarf, while it's still on the needles, if you are by yourself! So, that being said here's a picture of where I'm at.

I have really been enjoying this project. It's my first attempt at lace, and all things considered, I haven't had too many problems. On my way home from Oklahoma I messed up the row count andmy pattern got all goofed, but luckily last friday night there was a knit group and Tamara helped me fix it! Thanks Tam! I'm now on row 85 out of 154 rows total. I'm a little over halfway through the rows, but as you probably know, the rows are just going to be getting bigger so I still have a ways to go! I can't wait to start the next color though. That's what motivates me with this kind of project...getting to the next color. It has slowly been changing to more and more pink, but the next color is going to make the shawl look a lot more pink!! Here's a non-glamorous shot where you can see the shawl a little more stretched out. (ignore my messy desk...I really need to clean up!!) The Cherry Coke in the picture is just for scale:) I'm enjoying knitting this "lace" so much in fact that I think I'll be knitting much more of it in 2006.

Oklahoma: Part 2

Here's the promised tale of the rest of my trip to Oklahoma. We arrived on Friday evening just in time to go to the rehearsal dinner. It was fun to see all my cousins again...I can't believe that they are old enough to get married!! (It was my cousin Danny who got married, and he's only 21...so it's debatable if he's really old enough?!) Saturday morning we got up and the three girls all went to 2 yarn shops in Oklahoma City (thanks to my handy new guide). The first stop was at "A Gourmet Yarn Co."

They opened up in August and had a nice selection of yarn. I didn't find anything that I couldn't live without, but I did pick up the new Knit Simple magazine. From there we went to a little shop that was a combination knitting and stitching store called 'The Linen Sisters'. At this point we decided that we had enough time to drive up to Guthrie and visit S.W.A.K. (Sealed With A Kiss). Boy am I glad that we did! What an amazingly cool store, check out the inside!!

The way they displayed the yarn was so creative. They used tons of old antique dressers and kitchen cupboards. My favorite display was the huge tub of Cotton Classic:

And I do mean TUB!! Isn't that the coolest?! I picked up a book at 50% off that I've wanted for ages...it's called the Sweater Book. The weather was kind of crummy so we didn't get to walk around Guthrie, but if I make it back to OKC I'm definitely going back! The wedding was Saturday night (congratulations Danny and Ashley!!) and we headed back to Denver early Sunday morning. We stopped one more time in Salina for lunch on the way home at the neatest little Italian place just a couple doors down from the yarn shop. I highly recommend the spaghetti and meatballs if you have to drive through Salina anytime soon.

It was nice to get out of the car and relax a bit at the restaurant. We had a few laughs when my mom showed us her "progress" on her Charlotte, and my grandma replied, "well...that's real impressive." Ha! I continued working on my Charlotte until it got too dark and then I started on a little "secret" project for Alice. I was knitting by the light of the visor mirror. Has anyone else ever done that?

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope that everyone is able to spend the holiday's with someone that they love. I'm getting ready to eat Christmas dinner with my family...mmm!! Merry Christmas!!

Papers and Peppermintini's!

I've been buried in this huge pile of papers at work since I returned to town. I have about 6 huge papercuts on my right and left index fingers...can you say, "Ouch!" We are sending out a year end letter (it's between 2500 and 3000 pieces) and it's taking longer than I thought. Ahhh! Only 4 days until Christmas! Believe me, I'd much rather be home knitting. If I get unburied...I may post some FO pictures!!

One good thing that happened yesterday is that I had my friends, Genia and Mandy, over and we watched the season finale of Nip/Tuck! This show is one of my guilty pleasures...I can't not watch it! Lots of exciting stuff was revealed last night in the two hour episode. To top off the evening we had Peppermintini's, courstesy of a holiday mix from Target. They were super yummy and hit the holiday spot!! Now I have to get back to stuffing envelopes...we're almost done and then it's off to the post office!

Whatever did I get?

I must be very predictable, or you guys know me really well!! Leah of White Lamb was the first person who guessed correctly when she said I always buy a bag when I travel. I'm not sure why I do this, but it has become a tradition and I do love a good bag. Here it is folks in all it's pink glory. May I introduce you to my new Namaste bag. It's the "Everyday" bag in their new collection. I had never seen one of these before Friday when we made a stop for lunch in Salina, Kansas and I "convinced" my dad to stop over at the local yarn shop there.

Here's the stats:
•16" L x 10" H x 8" W
•inside center zippered divider, with a total of 4 pockets on the inside and 2 on the outside of the bag.
•it came in chocolate brown, hot pink, light pink, robin's egg turquoise, and a camel brown

I had mentioned the book that my friend RayLynn got me for Christmas a few posts ago, and it surely came in handy on this trip. While we were lunching in Salina I noticed that they had a yarn shop listed...who knew?! So we headed over for a quick look while my dad gased up the car. The shop is called 'Yarns: Sold and Told' and has been open since August. It's a great big open store in downtown Salina. (it's very easy to get to off I-135. Take the Crawford exit and go north on Santa Fe) The ladies who own the shop were very friendly and helpful. My mom and I managed to find a few things while we were there. (surprise, surprise) All of the things that I got were items that I hadn't seen before! A shirt that says, "Got Yarn?" in my favorite combo, brownand pink. Little pink point protectors, and some Bryspun circular needles. Not too bad for a quick stop, huh? The shop had a huge inventory of every kind of needle out there. They had a pair of HUGE needles hanging from the ceiling as a display. It was a very creative touch. Then there was Fern. She greets people as you come in the door, too cute! Here's a shot of my mom and I with our new bags. (you didn't think that I would be the only one to come home with one, did you?)

From there we headed down to Oklahoma City and we managed to go to three more yarn shops on Saturday...but more on that later. I worked on Charlotte and made some good progress until I messed up something and I can't figure it out. So, I started and almost finished a little gift for Alice. I'll have some photos tomorrow, along with the rest of my Oklahoma adventure.

On the road again!

Well, I'm on my way home this morning and I can't wait to show everyone pictures from my trip. I managed to forget my cord to download pictures with at home, so there aren't any yet...you'll just have to wait! You'll never guess what I got at one of the three knit shops we visited?! Actually, if you can guess, in exacting detail (or close to it)...I'll send you a little prize. So, here's my hint...it's new on the market (or at least I've never seen it?!), I always buy one of theses when I'm out of town, it's in my favorite color, and it's knitting related! Okay, talk to ya later!!

I'll be back...

I'm going to be heading to Oklahoma City in the morning with my parents and grandparents for a wedding. I can't get over the fact that I've taken so many roadtrips this year! New Mexico, Arizona, and now Oklahoma in the last few months. Pretty exciting locations, huh?! This one will be about 10 to 12 hours...one way...can you say knitting time?! I should have lots 'o knitting to show you on Monday!!!

Charlotte Update!

Here it is...my progress on Charlotte's Web. I'm now on color C, alternating every 2 rows with color B. I think I'm officially on row 64. I am now loving working on this pattern, it just took me a while to get into it. I think I agree with what other people have shared, it really is a great lace pattern to start with. It's made easier because you are purling every stitch on the wrong side. Ummm, I guess that's it for me today, it's almost time to start working!!

Tonight I'm going to go see a sneak preview of the movie The Family Stone and hopefully I'll get a little knitting in. I'm headed to Oklahoma City this weekend for my cousins wedding, but I'll be back here in Denver by Monday where I'll be celebrating the holidays with my family. My mom and I are planning to visit a bunch of yarn shops before the wedding on Saturday night, and guess what came in super handy?! (hint: it's lurking beneath my Charlotte in the above picture!) It's my Christmas present from RayLynn! It's a guide to all the yarn shops...get this...state by state! It rocks! You too can have a guide to all the yarn shops, it's called the Knitters’ and Crocheters’ Travel Guide...go check it out!!

Decorations and Receipes

A little Christmas cheer from my house to your house!!

I bought a set of the Christmas "candy cane" striped needles a couple months ago, and the rest are vintage needles. You can pick up a set of the striped ones at Herrschner's.

Here are two of the cookie receipes that I used for the party on Sunday:

Peanut Butter Squares: (this receipe requires no baking, and it's one of my favorites)

ingrediants:
2 sticks butter melted
1 cup of crunchy peanut butter
(1/3 lb) or 1 3/4 cups of graham cracker crumbs
(1 lb) or 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1- 12 oz. bag of chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Mix melted butter, peanut butter, sugar, and crumbs together
2. Pat firmly into 9x13 pan
3. Melt chips over low heat or in a double boiler
4. Pour melted chocolate into the pan and spread evenly over other mixture
5. Allow to cool before cutting into squares, but no longer than one hour. You want to cut them before the chocolate gets too hard and will crack if you attemot to cut it.
6.Enjoy!!

No Bake Cookies:

ingrediants:
2 cups sugar
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
dash salt
3 cups Quick-cooking Oats
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp. Vanilla

1. Mix sugar, cocoa, butter, milk, and salt. Bring to a boilon your stove for 1 minute.
2. In another mixing bowl, (have this one ready as soon as the other mix boils!!) have the oats, peanut butter, and vanilla. Pour the boiling mixture over the oat mixture and stir. Make sure that all the peanut butter is mixed in.
3. Spread out wax paper and drop the cookie dough onto it by the spoonful. The cookies will spread a little bit.
4. Enjoy!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

I survived my week of Christmas parties...3 last week to be exact. It all culminated with a Knitting Open House that my mom and I hosted on Sunday, and boy was it fun!

Here's a picture of everyone with their heads down knitting...you have to just imagine that everyone is talking, because they were! We have Kim, Cynthia, (in the back) Jan and my mom, then Sharon, Linda, and Sheila. Off to the side were Michelle and Joanne. They were actually talking...see! I do love a good knitting party, I just can't believe that those are the only pictures that I took. Hopefully some of the other ladies took some?!
In preparation for the parties, I was finally able to get over to my Grandma's house and make cookies Saturday morning! In my opinion, there is no better way to start the day than to be with people you love making cookies. I arrived at 9:00am all ready to go. We had decided on 3 receipes: Almond Christmas Spritz cookies, peanut butter squares, and the old stand by "No-Bake" cookies. Mmmm. So fun and tasty too!

My Grandma has been making cookies with this little machine for years and years...if I'm remembering correctly, she made cookies with my mom as a little girl with the same thing. How cool is that? I also thought the fact that she has kept it in the original box all these years was cool too!

So, we made a red batch of dough and a green batch of dough. My grandma told me I could have fun with the colors, so when I asked her for the yellow food coloring she was a little confused. I had a color in mind for the green trees that we were baking...and I love how they turned out!!

They are a really bright chartreuse color. (and they taste good too, this of course coming in second to getting the cookies to be the exact right color!) I don't have the receipes with me, but I'll post them if anyone shows an interest. Just let me know. I am needing to run right now, but I have pictures ready to post tomorrow of my progress on Charlotte...I promise! I am loving the way it's knitting up, and I have to say, I'm not using the stitchmarkers and it's going much better! I am totally motivated to get to the next color. I'm already on the third color, knitting alternating rows of color 2 and color 3. Speaking of which I need to go knit a little before I leave for the evening.

I Chibi, do you Chibi?

A few months ago, in the strange world of knit-blogging, there was a feeding frenzy for people to find a Pink Chibi. Like this one. I've had it since I started knitting almost 4 years ago. I like the color pink, but I didn't understand the desire to acquire one at any cost. What I do understand is the desire to buy a new color when it comes out, especially if it's a cool see-through orange one! Nifty, huh?!

The cool thing about the orange one is that it came with a set of three different sized tapestry needles, all with a bent tip! (before the only bent tip ones were the big gold ones!) The see-through blue one comes with 2 of the gold bent tip needles. (just like the old ones did) I bought mine at my local knitting shop, A Knitted Peace. I'm sure that your local shop will have them too, and if they don't...ask them to order some in!!

Bithday X 2=Lots of Fun!

Two of my favorite knitters have had birthday's in the last few days. Cathi's birthday was on Thursday and Cynthia's birthday is today! I was lucky enough to celebrate with both of them last night at the Monkey Bean, along with Michelle. Go on, go wish them both a happy birthday!!!

Tough job, but someone's got to do it!

Since my sister is my boss, and everyone in our office was preparing and attending a luncheon this afternoon, look who I got to stay home and watch. These are three of my favorite recent pictures!

Sitting in her special "chair" that Grandma (read my mom) got for her. She's totally entranced by a Baby Einstein dvd! She kept her hair in those tiny pigtails for a few minutes total my sister told me! Doesn't she look like she belongs in Whoville?!

This was the first time that Alice had tasted Jello. I think she likes it?!

And my favorite...me reading to her. What does she bring over to me to read to her? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. So funny.

I will have some progress pictures of my Charlotte in the next few days. Thanks for all the encouragement everyone...things are going really well with it. I just finished row 50, so it's bye-bye chart, hello figuring it out myself. I think I'm up to the challenge though!!!

Gimme some of that Gilmore style!

Gilmore Girls has got to be one of my favorite shows on TV right now. Not only do they have snappy dialogue and wonderful actors, they have great clothes! Especially the character of Sookie. Check out this quickly taken photo from the episode where Luke and Loreili get into an arguement at dinner with Jackson and Sooki. (it's also the one with the really bad bedroom furniture!)

Doesn't this look like the Debbie Bliss Bolero jacket? Does anyone know how to figure out where this sweater came from, or if it is indeed a Debbie Bliss design? Sometimes I'm able to navigate my way around the internet, and some days I can't. Today is one of those days...I can't find any references to Sookie's wardrobe on the show. Any tips would be appreciated!

Nothin' but knit.

That's what this weekend felt like to me. On Friday, I headed downtown for a little late night knitting at the Monkey Bean with Michelle and Cynthia. (and I do mean late...I got there about 10ish and left at 1:30am-ish) By the time that I left it was snowing pretty heavily and by Saturday morning it looked like this outside:

It was the perfect day to stay home and knit, listen to Christmas music, drink hot chocolate, and cast on for my Backyard Leaf scarf...AGAIN! A huge thank you goes out to Cynthia who read me the first 10 lines of the chart so that I could get it started right this time! I owe you big time!!

Knitting and ripping...knitting and ripping...

I don't know what happened Wednesday night, but I think that it was partly being too tired and also watching an intense and involved TV show. (yes, I was knitting while watching Lost, big mistake!) Here is a picture of what my Charlotte looked like. Yes, I did say looked like. I was almost ready to completely switch over to color 2.

It doesn't look like much...but I was moving right along...feeling good...feeling confident. Oh wait, my numbers aren't matching up...Ahhh! Confusion set in. I'm looking at the pattern, looking at the knitting and I can't quite figure out where I went wrong. In an effort to avoid starting over completely I tink back a few rows. Nope. That didn't solve it. So guess what I did then?! Yep! I yanked the needles out and frogged back to where I switched to Color 2 in the first place. (click here for a closeup) I don't know what it is about pulling a whole project off the needles, but I think that it's one of the scariest things you can do! I did recover from the initial fright and I picked up all the stitches and got back on track with a little moral support from my roommate...yes, my cat knows when to stay off the lap and let me attend to my knitting!

He's laying there protecting his new favorite toy "grub" that my secret pal sent me, I mean him. It's a Nylabone "Cheeky Squeaky" and he loves it! In fact, this is what happened when I tried to put my hand on it! Note to self, don't attempt to take this toy away from him anytime soon. As far as what I did wrong on my Charlotte in the first place...I'm not sure. I know that I need to pay closer attention. Alot of people have told me to use stitchmarkers, but I've tried and they seem to just get in the way. I'm not really clear on where to put them in the first place. I understand the one in the center, that's fairly easy, but the lace patterns are hard for me to see. Does that make sense? Does anyone have any words of advice regarding using the stitchmarkers versus not. Or any advice on where they should be placed exactly. I'm sure that this is really simple and that I'll feel like any idiot later when I realize what was right in front of my face, but help please!!

This morning before work I was able to knit a little and I am now back to the point that I was before I ripped out. I should have some good knitting time this weekend! I'm going to be eating, I mean baking, cookies tomorrow with my Grandma and my sister over at my grandma's house and I'll get in a few rows between batches! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

**I just found out this morning who my secret pal has been...and it was Laura, of the blog Penelope Porkchop! Thanks so much Laura for throughly spoiling Jesse and I over the last three months! I have loved every minute of it!**