sheep in the city

Purple. It's the new pink.

Can it be? Really? Purple is the new pink? That has been the trend over here lately. Every project that I've cast on has been with a purple yarn. In the past I've always said that I wasn't a purple person. I've changed my tune a bit...I'm a specific shades of purple person. I have definite ideas of which purples I like.

First of all, the purple has to be leaning towards pink. I love all shades of fuchsia. (scroll down a bit on the wikipedia entry to see what I mean) One definition says that fuchsia is, "a strong, vivid purplish red". I like the sound of that. The purple that I have a problem with is what I call a royal purple. Its dark and bright at the same time...and its just not for me. As I went through and tried to clean up my stash this weekend, I realized just how much purple yarn there is. I'll be showing you that photo tomorrow. I was shocked people!

In other news, I took last Thursday off to go on a little adventure with my mom, and Tiffany and her mom Carmen. We left in the early hours of the morning and headed to Boulder to a sample sale of Maruca bags. I haven't talked much about these bags yet...and I plan to. They are Colorado made...and I love them. More on them later. So, after the madness of the sale we made a quick stop where I picked up the lovely Manos del Uruguay pictured above. Simply gorgeous. Had to have it. It's color 118. (Click here for a close-up!) It is destined to become a vest, and before you say anything, yes, I said a vest. I tried on a sample of this vest, knit out of Manos, and decided that I needed one. When I discovered there were the exact number of skeins that I needed hanging there, I took it as a sign. Do you ever do that? We knitters are a crazy bunch! The other project that you see is the Lotus Blossom Tank from Summer 2006 Interweave Knits. It was the cover design. I have had the yarn for this project in the stash since last summer, it's the yarn that was called for, SWTC Bamboo. I'm using color number 138/Purplexed. Last summers issue was a good one. There are two, maybe three tops/summer cardigans that I plan on knitting. The yarn for the Pink Mimosa has already been ordered. (it's a dangerous thing working at a yarn shop!) We've had a hot couple of days here in Denver, so of course I'm thinking of summer knits. What are some of your favorite summer knits?

Kicking it up a notch!

For the past month, on an almost daily basis, I've been watching Cara's blog and have been witness to the amazing things that she has been doing with mitered squares. Seriously. It rocks! She has now knit 100 miters...in what seems like a few weeks. Crazy...but I love it! Over the weekend, (yay for natural lighting!) I pulled out all the different colors of Tahki Cotton Classic that I have in my stash. I'm not going to cast on for this afghan yet, by any means, but I am going to dream about it. I need to finish at least one that is on the needles before I will let myself cast on. I'm at the half-way point with my Mod-on-Mod afghan...so it may be sooner than I think. If you haven't checked out what Cara is doing, please, go now!

It doesn't look like it from the picture, but there are a few neutral shades. They are all the way to the right...kind of cut off a little bit. I do tend to be drawn to the bright colors, don't I? Some of you may have noticed my new gnome. I picked him up about a month ago and he still doesn't have a name. He's holding a lollypop in one hand and a half eaten cupcake in the other. I just couldn't resist!!

*Beth asked me in the comments to share what kind of yarn my Seraphim is knit from. I bought it last year at the Estes Park Wool Festival from a yarn company called "Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool Co.". As far as I know, they only sell at festivals...and only at 4 of those a year. They don't have a website that I'm aware of either. Sorry Beth!*

Weekend fun!

I played hookie from work on Friday and headed to the Denver Zoo with my sister and her kids. It was the perfect day to be outside. I think it was somewhere in the mid to high 70's. Everyone else must have had the same idea because the zoo was super crowded. We had fun despite the crowd though. Check out how big my nephew is getting. (click here for the sleepy picture of him riding back to the car!)

Sunday I was able to indulge in a favorite hobby of mine, beading! My friend Mary Kay had expressed an interest in getting together to make jewelry at our knit group on friday night, so she spent the afternoon with me on Sunday. In high school I used to spend hours working on beaded necklaces and earrings. Then I was able to incorporate my love of beads into my knitting in the form of stitchmarkers. Well, a few months ago, I attended a gem and bead tradeshow with Tiffany. Let me say that the old passion for making jewelry came back. I picked up tons of different stones, mostly coral and turquoise. Pictured below is the first necklace that I made, and I love it!

I also made some great progress on my Seraphim shawl. If some of you remember, I was knitting on this shawl back in October. Well, since I didn't get it done in time for Rhinebeck I sort of lost all motivation to work on it. It has been languishing in the "Work-In-Progress" pile ever since. The funny thing is...I did 2 things that I tell new knitters all the time not to do. First, I stopped mid row. On a lace chart. Big mistake. Always, always finish the row that you are working on. Second, I didn't mark where I was on said lace chart. What was I thinking?! Apparently I wasn't. Once I finally figured out where I was things just took off. I'm now only 6 rows away from the bind off. Hopefully this will be completed in the next few days.

In my Dad's health news...he and my Mom spent the past 6 days down at MD Anderson in Houston. He started a chemotherapy/clinical trial regiment and so far, so good. We'll find out in the days to come how his body is reacting to the chemo. Read all about it, if you want to, over on his health blog. It's kind of funny...in his latest post, he calls me the "knitting queen". Not so sure that I've reached that level of distinction yet, but it's the thought that counts!

Paying it forward...

Who would have thought, back in June of 2004, that this little blog that I started on a whim would ever become such a huge part of my life. I never thought that I would write 500 entries. That seemed like a crazy idea. But here I am, almost 3 years later, still going strong. Of course I've had the occasional ups and downs that happen with anything. The stops and the starts and the re-starts. But through it all, one thing has remained without change. My passion for knitting. I love the act of knitting. I love the texture and feel of yarn. I love finding the perfect yarn for the latest project that has caught my eye. I love watching someone that I teach to knit get excited and "catch the bug". I love watching the light go on with someone as you show them how to fix a mistake. Those "ah-ha" moments are the best!

**this is my Grandma Sue...and she is the best grandma in the world! She is soon to be 81 years old...and still going strong! Thanks for your un-ending support of me Grandma. I love you!**

Last Thursday was one of those great days. I spent the morning teaching 13 women at a local MOPS group how to knit. It was wild, let me tell you. When you get a group of young moms together in the same room there is going to be lots of chatter. Luckily, I had help, in the form of my mom, my Grandma Sue, my sister, and my friend Carmen. As much as I love the color and texture of knitting, I love the social aspect of knitting even more. That is what knitting has been for me...a way to meet people. My friends laugh at me because at any knitting group that I go to I hardly knit at all. But that's okay with me, I go to socialize and talk about knitting and be inspired and sure, to knit some. But that's not the most important thing to me. I want to connect with people. I don't care if I finish a project in a week, or in a year, as long as I've been in relationship with people along the way.

Let me say, once again, that I am overwhelmed with all the support that I receive from my fellow knitters and bloggers. Thank you all so much for your kind words and emails in the last week. (and months really) If you haven't received a reply from me yet, know that I have read each one of your comments/emails and taken them all to heart. If I'm ever feeling down, all I have to do is read one of your messages at random, and it helps. It just does.

Lots of news...some good, some not-so good.

It's been a while since I've blogged...and lots has happened here. One big thing is that the Yarn Harlot came to town. Did I get to go? No! Why, you ask? Well, I had pink eye in both of my eyes, and I didn't think that the hundreds of people that came to hear her speak would want to be exposed to that. Seriously though? I've never had pink before...ever! Of course it had to happen on the night that I had been waiting for since her first book came out. I can only hope that she loved Denver so much that it lands on her next book tour.

About the pink eye...well, I thought the first day that I was just tired and my eyes were a bit red from the tiredness. Umm, no. I woke up at 3:00am that night and my eyes were almost completely swollen shut. To say that I was freaked out is an understatement. That next morning I made a bee-line for my doctors office and got some antibiotics. I love modern medicine. I was 80% better by the next day, and yet I still had to miss the Yarn Harlot.

Is anyone else having a hard time believing that it's Easter time already? I definitely am. I spent last weekend in the mountains with my parents and a couple of friends. (thanks Cynthia for coming for a visit!!) It was great to get out of town and relax and knit. The weather back in Denver was yucky, the weather where we were staying was in the 60's. I love it when that happens...leave your everyday life behind along with the nasty weather. The picture above is the start of my HP House Afghan. I knit the Gryffindor squares, Cynthia knit the Slytherin squares, and Michelle knit the Hufflepuff squares. We wanted to be able to see how the squares would all look together. This is definitely going to be a fun knit.

In the not-so-good news department, my family has been waiting for the results of my Dad's latest tests...and the results were not good. They weren't at all what we wanted to hear. You can read about it a little more over on my Dad's blog...but basically, the doctors told us, “Remarkable increase in bone metastasis. A significant increase in many of the spots in your bones." So, thankfully, it hasn't spread to anything like organs or lymph nodes, but there has been a big increase in the number of spots in his bone. He'll be starting chemotherapy in the next few days. Please continue to pray for guidance for the doctors that are treating him. Thanks everyone. This has been really hard to wrap my mind around...so I've been a bit unfocused in almost every area of my life. Work. Knitting. Blogging. Keeping up with stuff at home. You name it, and I've basically let it get out of control. I'll sit down to write something out and the thoughts just blow away. Hopefully this lethargy will pass. Until then, I'll post when I can, and just keep knitting away on whatever catches my fancy and inspires me.