Monday, April 30, 2012

New Socks for Me

Before retreat, I cast on a new pair of socks for me. It was a recent purchase of a new yarn line at Loopy Ewe, called Felix from Biscotte and Cie. The yarn dyer is out of Quebec and the colors are rich and gradient within each stripe. Very clever.


I am knitting this pair in the Cupcake colorway. I looked for a simple pattern that would not throw off the striping. So I chose a simple K2, P2 rib for the entire leg and then on the instep to the toe. From my past experience knitting my first self striped sock in Vesper I learned that a sock in stockinette only has a tendency to slouch more than I like.

I love this yarn, it is easy to plan the length of leg and foot because a mulitple of two full strips equals just over 1 inch. that makes it easier to just knit and not worry about measuring all the time. Example: the leg of this sock is 12 stripes to equal the 6 inches that I need.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Retreat Debrief

The retreat was a huge success. We learned to knit with the new ruffle yarn that seems to be all the rage these days. This technique met with mixed results and opinions from "hate" to "it's okay and I may finish one". I do not think anyone really loved it. The issue came down to this: it is not really knitting. It is more a construction project and takes more time to open up the net to get to the correct hole to loop onto the needle than it does just to knit a row of something else. All in all, it was a good learning experience.

Entrelac was more interesting to everyone and the knowledge of knitting and purling backwards was met with great interest and glee. You can use this knowledge for other projects, not just entrelac. Here is the link the best video explaining it.

The weather was wonderful and the cabins very comfy. We had a fun evening of pizza and welcome gifts on Friday, after the ruffle yarn experience. On Saturday a couple folks wanted to go to Fringe in Salida, so I drove them so they could have the scenic experience as well. Then we had beer can chicken and potato and macaroni salads with a salad bar for supper. It was yummy!

The big sale on Sunday was pretty quiet by the time we got there at noon. Looks like they were doing a good business to celebrate their 7th birthday. The best of everything to the gals at Serendipity. They helped make this second annual event a huge success. 


 And we had visits from the neighboring mules this year. They were so sweet and would come to the fence to see us anytime we were outside.

Happy Knitting to All~!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Retreat Planning





Retreat planning is going well. I have most of the outline completed, the welcome gifts created and the menus decided. I hope the weather will hold, although this group will be very happy if it looks like this after they get there, because it is all the more excuse to sit indoors in the jammies and knit. Someday I would like to plan a mystery retreat location and all. I think that would be fun, with prizes to all that can guess where we are going by the weekly hints and clues.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Another FO

This is a secret FO, so I will just show the picture and leave everyone wondering who it is for.


This pair only took me 12 days to knit. That is amazing!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

TWW - Busy is the first word

It was a very busy weekend. So the second word is Sunburned and the third is Happy.

It was a weekend of yard work, staging of retreat supplies, reviewing welcome gift items and potluck with neighbors.

I went to bed sleepy and content.

Happy Nearly End of April to All~!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Preparing for Retreat - Interupted


I interupt this blog to bring you the cutest birthday card ever. Pedro received this for his special day.


Of course, Pedro looked just like this most of the day, minus the turban. :-)

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Pedro, The Pirate Prince is 9


My little boy is nine years old. That is hard to believe. I can remember the moment I saw him out in yard, pitifully looking for his momma. He has grown into a very handsome and fun companion.
His birthday will be full of all his favorite things. First a bite of fishy flavored canned food, then a romp on his favorite Goodwill bag, game of string with a bit of cord, a visit to his window to see his kingdom, and a nap in his favorite cozy hut. It's good to be a cat!

Roscoe Village Hats

I borrowed this picture from the designer of this hat pattern, I hope she does not mind, because I love this hat pattern.

And, after my visit it Loopy on Saturday, so do at least three other people.

The two that I have knit so far were done out of Madeline Tosh Vintage, one in Turqoise and the other out of Smokey Orchid.

My review of this is: if you use a more defined variegate then you do not see the texture stitching in the hat immediately, and if you knit it out of a more tonal, subtle color variegate you see the texture right away.

This pattern I highly recommend if you want a really great all-round hat~!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Baby Hats

Since I am now in a place that I have a better chance of knowing people who are becoming parents or grandparents, I decided that I should pre-do some gift items.

I found a really cute and simple baby hat pattern and some great yarn to knit them in. The pattern can be found here at Ravelry. The yarn is Bernat Baby Jacquard. The yarn is the secret to how cute these are.

Easter bunny duck is courtesy of my trucking brother.

Monday, April 16, 2012

TWW - Looking for Stuff

Find, Redistribute, Reuse - those are my three words for the weekend. I went looking for something I needed for retreat and ended up resorting and cleaning up my stash and project area. So I filled a bag with giveaway yarn plus the bag that CatWithCats shared with me, then I called my neighbor to come over and go through it before it goes to its final destination.

In the final stages of cleaning and repositioning, I found the items I was searching for, so I spent the rest of the day knitting on my secret Mother's Day knit.

It was a good use of my Sunday and my house looks better. I think that was a great use of my time.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

A Visit to Loopy

Today was another opportunity to visit Loopy Ewe in Fort Collins. The store looks even better than it did at Grand Opening in January.

While we were there, I went up with CatsWithCats and MaryKHansen, we found GurlyPurl from Texas and BabsStitches from Florida visiting for their own Spring Fling. It was lots of fun to reconnect with other like minded folks. We shared patterns and enabled  helped each other pick out yarn for new projects.

I picked up two new yarns to knit into the Roscoe Village Hat (one is a test of using sockweight yarn double to create a softer hat with the texture) and the other was the Malabrigo Worsted that I have not gotten to use before.

Afterwards we had lunch at the HuHot Express, yummy. Then I headed home before the weather became wintry again. Yes, I know it is April, however it is Colorado. I hope everyone had a fun adventure this weekend.