sheep in the city

Yarn Sale!

Happy Halloween all you Red Rocks lovers!! Mary-Kay just put a ton of yarn up for sale on her blog...and she even has some special deals going! Go on over and buy some beautiful yarns, and tell her that I sent ya! :)

*the yarn pictured above is called "Halloween Candy"...it sure looks yummy to me!*

Happy Halloween!

Doesn't my cat look seriously scary in this picture? He's a vampire cat! Kind of like Bunnicula was a vampire bunny. Remember that book? And the follow ups, The Howliday Inn and The Celery Stalks at Midnight? Man, I was so scared of those books when I was in elementary school. Not of the stories, just the covers :) I was a funny kid like that. So, my Halloween project is not done yet...of course...but the day isn't over yet! I'm still going to try and race to get it done this afternoon. I think I can, I think I can. (this is the chant that is running through my head)

Does anyone have big plans for Halloween. I do! I'm getting together with some of my knitting girlz and we are going to watch scary movies, make spooky stitchmarkers, eat and eat and eat, as well as knit the night away. I'm making fajita soup, corn salsa, and a yummy sausage/jalapeno/cheese dip! Yum!

Have a fun and safe Halloween everyone! Cross your fingers for me that I'll be able to finish my knitting! Ahhh!

A few holiday knits.

I have a few holiday projects on the needles at the moment. Some for Christmas and one that I hope to debut this Friday night for Halloween! I can't show you that one for a few more days, but I will give you a sneek peek at one of the things I plan on wearing this Christmas!

These are the buttons that my mom and I are going to be sewing onto our super fun, super fast, bulky mini cardigans. Check out the size of those buttons! That's a quarter next to them to give you a little perspective. I can just hear it now, I know that someone is going to mention to me, "my, what large buttons you have....". I don't care though. I love the way bulky yarn knits up so fast. It's fun every once in a while to knit a project on big needles and just watch it fly! I've never really subscribed to the notion that a bigger person shouldn't wear bulky yarn. I say knit and wear what you want! You are the one that needs to be comfortable, so if you want to knit it than just do it!

My Mom and I are both using some more of the Limari that I purchased a few months ago when Colorful Yarns put it in the clearance room. (FYI, if you didn't catch it there, WEBS has some for a good price as well. Just in case you like the yarn. It's the same stuff that I knit my Bulky Cardigan out of back in August) I personally have really enjoyed knitting with it. The sweater pattern that we are using comes free from Lion Brand, it's called the Bold and Bulky Mini Cardi. and it was also in the book Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel. (rav link) I just started mine the other night, but my mom is really flying on hers! She's almost to the point where she is going to change to the border color. Go Mom! Gotta get back to that Halloween knitting if I'm going to get it done in time. I've got to keep knitting, knitting, knitting!

It's all pink, all the time....

I want to thank Tish for suggesting that I make the Fat Baby Booties (rav link)for Mimi. I already have one done and I'm ready to start the second one. They are just too cute!

My Mom surprised me with the pink clogs above last week. I love them! A few months ago I was saying that I needed to make some new ones for myself and how I didn't have time...so she suggested that she could make them. I said okay, delivered the yarn, and then promptly forgot about them. Now that I'm knitting clogs for the kids, my memory was jogged, and I asked her about them. She had already finished them up a few weeks before and had hoped that I would forget about them until Christmas. Oops, sorry Mom! I love them and want to wear them now. Especially now that the weather has turned. I love when I get handknits as a gift, I know that I could make them myself, but I love them all the more knowing that someone else knit them just for me! I'm silly like that.

Alice's clogs are at the same point that they were the last time I showed you. One clog down, one to go. Then it's on to Liam's little blue ones. Is anyone else trying to get some Christmas knitting done and out of the way? I'm trying to this year. So far, so good.

*edited to add*
The pattern for the top picture can be found here: Fat Baby Booties
The pattern for the adult clogs (middle picture) is from Fiber Trends. They are just called "Felt Clogs" and it's pattern AC-33.
The pattern for the children's clogs (bottom picture) are also from Fiber Trends. It's pattern number CH-38 and called "Children's Felt Clogs". I hope that helps those of you who have asked!

Sewing class...

On Monday night my sister and Michelle and I all took a sewing class down at The Fancy Tiger. We were making Amy Butler's "Birdie Sling" bag. It was a blast! It ended up just being the 3 of us in the class...so we got lots of special attention from our wonderful teacher Christina. I had a few issues getting started...first off, picking out a fabric from my stash that wasn't big enough. Bummer. So I had to switch gears. Then I picked out a different fabric...and proceeded to have upside down birds on the front of the bag. Oops. Gotta watch those directional fabrics. Finally, I was ready to get on the sewing machine after cutting and pressing for what seemed like forever. Those Amy Butler patterns are very well written, but they seem to be very labor intensive. Anywhoo....it was a fun night out with friends, doing something a little different, so it was worth it. I didn't get to finish the bag yet, but all the pieces are cut and pockets are sewn on, so it shouldn't be too much longer and I'll be able to debut my finished Bird bag! We'll probably meet one more time all together. If you haven't made it down to the Fancy Tiger before, I'd highly recommend it.

These are all the fabrics that I used. The birds are going to be on the outside of the bag, the lime polka dots will be the handles, and then the crazy park scene will be on the inside.

Doesn't Michelle look like a pro? She was really cruising on her project by the end of the night.

A political donut...

I went to Lamar's on Saturday morning last weekend with my sisters family and when we walked in, I was pleasantly surprised and highly amused by the political donuts that they had for sale. Check out their daily poles, here. The donkey was named Doughbama and the elephant was named McCandyCain. The woman behind the counter pointed to all the plain glazed donuts and said that they were all the "undecided" votes! She's a hoot. I rather enjoyed the Doughbama myself.

Check out this picture of Alice...who looks to be ready for politics already. She's got the wink, the smile, and the thumbs up all ready to go!

YarnCon loot...

I think that many of you were expecting me to come home with a ton of yarn and piddleloop bags and various other stuff. Well...I didn't go that crazy. What came over me? The yarn above is Sophie's Toes. It is the only yarn that I ended up buying at YarnCon. Isn't it gorgeous though? I had been told to watch out for this booth specifically and I'm sure glad that I did. The color is Deep Rose. I'm thinking it may end up needing to be a shawl of some sort. It was great to meet Emily, who besides dying yarn, is an amazing quilter. (the quilting came first actually...she even dyes her own fabric!) Check out the picture of the Barn Raising blanket that she's making that matches a quilt that she made! It's completely inspiring and makes me want to rethink my own barn raising blanket. Here's another link to her etsy shop.

I also picked up these lovely flower pins made from recycled sweaters. Aren't they fun? The one on the back left is going to permanently live on my orange tweed winter coat.

I got to meet Mickey, a long time reader of this blog, which was a fun surprise. (she participated in knitting 2 squares for my Dad's afghan and also made me the tiny red earrings) What a sweet woman. She gifted me with the lovely drop spindle and fiber you see above. Thanks again Mickey, it was nice to finally meet you!

See. I didn't go too crazy with the piddleloop bags! Before the girls that saw me buy a lot more bags than this tattle on me. Yes, I did buy many more bags than you see here, but they weren't for me. 5 girls sent me with money...so I bought each of them a bag. Then there was my mom, who I bought 2 bags for...but she ended up with 3?! :) Funny how that happens. Last but not least, I bought one of these aprons to wear when I work at the shop. I guess that pretty much sums it up.

Girls Only

Sunday afternoon I went with my Grandma and Mom to see a play downtown. It was hilarious! I highly recommend you go see it if you live in the Denver area. It's called "Girls Only" and is playing until sometime in December. I have a feeling that I may go see this one again with some of my girlfriends...it was just that good.

On the knitting front, I've started a few little quick Christmas knits. I decided to make felted clogs for the nieces and nephew, and boy are they fast and fun! This is my first time working with the Brown Sheep variegated wool and I have to say, I really like it. The colors for the girls clogs are Lotus Pink (solid) and Strawberry Smoothie (variegated) and Liam's will be Dynamite Blue (solid) and Blue Skyways (variegated). These little slippers will be done by the weeks end...and I'll be checking them off the list. I haven't decided which slippers to make for Mimi. She'll be getting pink ones too, but the ones that I'm making for Alice and Liam are just too big for her. She's just 9 months. Does anyone know of a good baby felted booty pattern? I'd really appreciate some suggestions.

Fall has definitely landed here in Denver. All the trees are changing colors and dropping leaves. The air is crisp and cool. All my hand knit sweaters and shrugs have come down off the top shelves of my closet and are being put to good use. Each night, Genia and I have been brewing tea and drinking hot chocolate while we knit. I love it!

**edited to add...the pattern for the clogs is from Fiber Trends and they are called Children's Felt Clogs (CH-38). You can see them here on Ravelry.

What's up and where have I been?

I've had a fun filled and exciting couple of weeks...sorry to have neglected the blog though. It all started with a long weekend in the mountains that turned into a mini family reunion. I just love fall in the Colorado mountains. There just isn't anything prettier than the aspen leaves when they turn colors. It was the height of the change the weekend that we were up there, so we all got to experience it.

This past weekend I was up in Chicago, visiting old friends, and making new ones. I was able to deliver a finished Tulips sweater to my friends John and Julie and at the same time, spend the day on Saturday hanging out at YarnCon. It was a blast to say the least!! One of the highlights to me was meeting Ann Shayne, co-author of the Mason-Dixon books and blog! I have "known" these lovely ladies for years through their hilarious blog and when I found out that they would be in Chicago, I was thrilled. Here I am, pictured with Ann at YarnCon, looking extremely short. :) It was wonderful meeting you Ann...and if there had been more time, I can totally see myself sitting and chatting and knitting with you. Oh, if only Nashville wasn't so far away. By the way, the new book is amazing. I want to knit a bunch of stuff out of it already, specifically the Kiki Mariko rug. I have tons of feltable wool just laying around, waiting to become something fabulous...and this just might be it! I have it on good authority that Colorful Yarns has a whole stack of these books just waiting to go home with people. Go on in and get one!

Moving on. YarnCon. It rocked! I loved hanging out with the Piddleloop Sewing Team. Even more fun was meeting up with a bunch of the Ravelry "Friends of P" group. I can now put faces with the names of all the girls I chat with in that group. So fun. The booth next to ours was empty, so we just set up shop and knit and had a generally great time getting to know each other. I love meeting new people, can you tell? I got to meet Franklin. Enough said. I asked if he was ever going to come to Colorado and he said that he hoped to! There were just too many other cool people and booths to mention and I didn't take nearly enough pictures. (why is it that I always realize that I didn't take enough pictures when I'm home already?) I'll share all the details of my purchases in a later post. Again, sorry for the blog silence. I'm back into the swing of normal life, I think, so I should be able to get back into this regular blog writing thing.