sheep in the city

Headed to Camp!

Well, the weekend is almost here, and I'm taking my yarn and heading to the mountains tomorrow morning for a long weekend of knitting with the girls. I can't wait. It's just what I need right now.

There will be lots of pictures and stories when I return to reality on Monday, but until then...I'm living in the land of yarn and knitting. Doesn't that sound fun?

**note to self...before leaving the house, make sure all yarn and knitting bags are out of the range of Jesse, just in case.**

edited to add:
The yarn pictured above is going to be a February Lady Sweater. The yarn is Dream in Color "Classy" in the color In Vino Veritas. I just love that deep burgundy wine color. If you wondered where I picked up this gorgeous yarn, you guessed it! Colorful Yarns has tons of Classy in stock right now. And no...I haven't bought it all yet, but I've been tempted! I just love this stuff...plus it's washable! It doesn't get much better!

Anybody want a cat?

Okay, I have to start this by saying...no, I'm not getting rid of my cat. But last night, I was close, seriously close to giving him away. Remember....I love my cat, but there are just certain things that they are not supposed to touch. Like your knitting. I had been home about half an hour when I noticed him digging around in my knitting bag. He then proceeds to PEE IN MY KNITTING BAG! My brand new knitting bag no less. What was in there? Well, three works in progress, about 5 other skeins of yarn that I was going to wind up, including three skeins of Red Rocks (these lovelies), assorted patterns and notions, etc.

Yesterday had already been a bit of an emotional day for me...so I was a little on edge to begin with. (read my Dad's blog here if you want to) Then to come home and have my cat do that....right in front of me no less...was the straw that broke the camels back. To say I was upset is an understatement. I pulled everything out and started the process of cleaning everything. What a process it was. I didn't know what to do with the projects that were already on the needles. I didn't want to throw them away. My Mom kept saying that it was all replaceable...but my time wasn't?! I managed to calm down eventually and get the job of cleaning everything done. Wool wash to the rescue. I soaked everything and hung it all up overnight and everything looked and smelled normal this morning. What I've learned from this is that I'm just going to have to watch where I set my big knitting bags. No more leaving bags unattended that he can fit into! (for those of you that have met my cat, you know he's a big boy...so this was a really big bag!)

This is his "I'm so ashamed" pose. Ummm, yeah right! :) I couldn't stay mad at the big lug for long.

It's Friday again! Whoo hoo!

This picture is another one that is just too precious...I had to put it on the blog! It's my grandpa and my nephew....his great-grandpa. I love that my they live close enough that we all get to hang out together on a regular basis.

My parents flew to Arizona this weekend, almost immediately after my Dad had his first treatment yesterday. I'm trying to stay upbeat and positive about this new clinical trial...but some days its hard. There's not much more to say about it now, other than my Dad still needs prayer. Just that he will be strong and that this round of treatment would knock this cancer out! The side effects may be harder this go round. Cancer sucks. Okay. It's good to just have this off of my chest. Okay. Moving on. Let's talk about knitting. That always puts a smile on my face.

This weekend should be a restful one. It's looking like I'll have lots of knitting time. Those kinds of weekends are the best. It'll be nice to just hang at home with my roommate and my kitties. Although...next weekend is the one that I've been waiting all year for. It's Camp Wannaknitknit time again! I can hardly believe that this is the 4th year?! Cynthia is flying out from Boston, which I am thrilled about! It has been way too long since I've seen her, way too long. I've been gathering up lots of fun stuff for everyone and putting together a few simple crafts for everyone to do. (You can check out previous years here: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3)

Have a great weekend everyone!

The birthday weekend!

Here it is...what all of you have asked for...pictures!

Group shot...Estes Park Wool Festival 2008!
From left to right: Kelly, Wanda, Michelle, Jeni, Genia, Me, Terrie, my Mom, and Mary-Kay. In the front row are Sam and Michaele.

These are the 2 cabins that we stayed in at Meeker Lodge. The bigger cabin had a really fun porch where we all got to hang and knit. It was so fun to be out of our normal element, but still all together knitting. We had dinner that night to celebrate my birthday. Needless to say, we laughed a ton and really had such a great time.

The next morning it was Wool Festival time. Our first stop was Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool. I love their sport weight wool. I made a Seraphim with the yarn I got a few years ago.(here on Ravelry, mine is pictured here) I picked up 6 skeins in the color Dark Magenta to make a sweater for myself. I would normally only buy 5 to make a sweater, but I was wisely guided by Michaele when she told me that if I was going to do something with a hood or cabled at all, I should get an extra skein. I'm thinking about knitting Roam with this yarn. I'm not 100% decided, but it's a thought. I also picked up 3 more skeins of Plain & Fancy in a gorgeous Reddish-Orangey color aptly named Red on Red. This is to make myself another Seraphim since I gave the first one to my Grandma.

Saturday afternoon, all the knitting girls went home and the rest of my family came up for the night.

We went to dinner at The Stanley Hotel that night. Seriously...the best meal that I've had in a long time. I highly recommend going there and eating at Cascades. We made S'Mores in the fireplace, instead of making a cake. The kids had a ton of fun with the s'mores and we all ate way too many. Boy it was fun! We all got up the next morning to a home cooked meal of biscuits and gravy. Thanks Drew! (my brother-in-law makes the best gravy ever!) We ended up going back to the wool festival on Sunday so that the kids could see all the animals. All in all...it was a fabulous way to spend my birthday.

This is my favorite picture that I took all weekend. It's my Dad and Mimi taking a little snooze together. Too cute!

My Dad starts a new chemo treatment on Thursday...we are hoping that his body responds well to this new clinical trial that he is participating in.

*You can see more pictures here!

Estes or bust!

This is us last year.

Estes Park Wool Festival 2007.

The Estes Park Wool Festival just happens to be this Saturday, which also just happens to be my birthday...which also just happens to be National Knit In Public day! What are my plans you ask? I'm heading for the hills this morning with 11 other lovely ladies. We've rented a cabin and will be knitting the night away and heading out early to get to the festival all bright and early. You know that saying that the early bird gets all the good yarn...well it's true!

My family (that means grandparents, parents, siblings, and nieces and nephew) are all coming up tomorrow. Except my mom, she's coming up today...you know, she can't let me get all the good yarn! We'll be dining at The Stanley Hotel tomorrow night for my birthday dinner. I"m really excited! I've never been there...and it's a Colorado landmark ever since The Shining came out. Have a great weekend everyone and don't forget to knit in public somewhere on Saturday!

Swatching and sweating...

Boy was it HOT today. I'm sitting at home, directly in front of a fan, it's 11:00 at night, and it just won't cool down. One cat is laying mostly on the linoleum in the kitchen. The other one is laying on the bricks in the entryway. They have the right idea!

So...what have I been up to? Besides sweating? Well, it seems that I've got a case of the swatches.

This beauty is the Drawstring Raglan. Does it look a little bigger than a swatch? Very observant. This one was cast on a week ago Sunday in the yarn that it calls for, Berroco Seduce. I was at the shop and I fell in love with the yarn and the colors that I chose. I think I may have called them my pretties. I couldn't just leave them at the store. I did switch some of the colors around. I'm just using 4, instead of 5. My colors are the three that you see in the photo above, plus a really pretty plum purple. This is a great sweater. I'm now about 4 inches into the body. You'll be seeing more of this sweater in the near future because I'd really love to wear it this summer!

The lacey little swatch you see here is knit out of Berroco Love It, in the color Rosebud. This all came about because the group that has been knitting at Colorful Yarns on Tuesday night has turned out to be a bunch of enablers. I totally blame them. I saw Joy (here on Ravelry) knitting her lovely version of the Vine Lace Vest (this is a pdf link, so don't click on it, unless you want to download the pattern!) out of Love it. Then I noticed some Love It in the clearance bin...in pink no less. It was a match made in heaven. It too needed to go home with me. And yes...I have made many, many jokes about "loving" this yarn named "Love It". You can see Joys almost finished version here on Ravelry.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Clapotis that I started last weekend. I'm knitting it out of Red Rocks Fiber Works Aspen. The colorway is named Boleyn Girl. The markers are from Knitty K8. She specializes in Clapotis stitchmarkers...so the set you get has enough markers to put across your whole project. Very cool...and don't they just match perfectly?

Okay, time to head to bed. Ugh. It's hot.

Mmmm...candy.

You all know that I have a bit of a sweet tooth, right? Well, the last round of Special Swap had the theme "Sweet Treats" so I just had to participate! I want to say a big thank you to Renee for my oh-so-fun treats!! Wow. Where do I start?! How about with the big yarny ice cream cone that she created! It's 2 balls of super soft yarn on a little vase with needles stuck down inside. So clever! Or check out the super cute cupcake lunch bag that I'm going to be sporting. And did I mention the candy...mmmm...candy.

She sent me some Flat Feet sock yarn which I had never seen in person. What an interesting and fun idea to knit right from a flat piece of knitted fabric. I'll let you know how that goes! (a little birdy told me that Flat Feet should be at Colorful Yarns in the next few days! How exciting!)

Renee included little embroidered stichmarkers that are from the lovely and talented Jelby. Oh so cute. I never can understand how in the world she is able to do all those teeny tiny stitches and french knots. Go check out her stuff.

What a fun package to get in the mail...thank you again Renee! *on a little side note, I still have the little sheep that Renee mailed me years ago for my birthday. It glows in the dark and is one of my favorites still!

**edited to add: The Flat Feet yarn has landed!! I saw it all at the shop last night. There are some really cool color combos...and I didn't even buy any of it yet, so no one can accuse me of taking all the good stuff!**