Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a spook-tactular Halloween~!

Exploring the Possibility of a Knitting Retreat

While I was out this weekend I stopped in Buena Vista to look at cabins and to visit another knit shop, Serendipity.

I am looking for a place to have a knitting retreat next spring and to find an instructor to teach the group something fun and new.

I met some great people, got some good ideas and saw a fabulous scarecrow while I was there.

This area has some wonderful things to see and do, plus it is only 100 miles from Colorado Springs. This may be the place!

IJ2S: Planning Retreat

 The drive was beautiful to Salida this morning. The air crisp and the sun bright. There were hardy fisherfolk trying their luck in the Arkansas River and a small band of bighorn sheep near the road for a photo op.

My goals for the weekend included a long-overdue visit with the friend from Crestone that I met on the way to SockSummit 1 and a visit to Salida's yarn shop, Fringe.

The rest of the weekend included time for planning for next year's knitting classes and corresponding samples that need to be knit, and the new techniques I want to learn.

All of these plans have to be done early because of class proposal deadlines, there is no luxury of waiting til New Year to come up with goals/resolutions. I have given up with resolutions and have replaced that with just goals to accomplish. 

All in all it was a fun road trip and nice visit. I did get some ideas written down and ready to review over the next couple weeks to prepare the requisite paperwork.

I even snuck in a little knitting time on the mystery socks. See the update post below. I hope everyone had a productive weekend~!

Mystery Sock KAL: Update

I have made it to the gusset decreases on one sock and to the heel turn on the other. I am ready to knit the last two clues. This is a fun pattern with lots of twists and turns. You can find it on Ravelry at the Fans of Through the Loops forum, this is the Mystery Sock KAL 2010. Join us if you can.

Monday Morning Muddle

This was an odds and ends weekend for me. I spent a little bit of time on a lot of things, finishing and restarting projects.

1. I worked with mom on the folded fabric project. We are working on secret holiday gift items so no pics are available. However I thought we should feature our assistant, Pedro. He was instrumental in keeping the cutting board from running off by laying on it. What a good kitty!

2. Had a successful mitten knitten class which is in the previous post. And just in time for cooler weather headed our way.

3. Today I started folded fabric projects for the shop where I will be demonstrating the technique over the Thanksgiving weekend during their big sale. How fun will that be!

4. I restarted my knitting on the Mystery Sock KAL with Through the Loops. I have one leg done and am working on the second. I hope to have them both through the heel and gusset by the Friday so I am only two clues behind. I like the patterning so far and am glad I chose a solid color yarn for this pair.

5. And I started my Halloween movie marathon this week. I have a collection that I watch which includes: Practical Magic, Bedazzled, The Craft, Beetlejuice, The Village, Witches of Eastwick, Van Helsing and Young Frankenstein. So much fun!

I hope everyone had a remarkable weekend~!

Mitten Knitten

I am happy to report that my mitten class went very well today. We laughed a lot and learned the basics of knitting mittens with thumb gusset on double point needles. I think next time all will be ready to learn the magic loop or 2-circs method. The pattern that I wrote can also be used for fingerless mitts.

The next pattern I am going to try is the Knucks pattern from Knitty.com

Those look like a lot of fun.

I hope everyone has fun projects on their needles~!

FO: Mock Croc Socks

I can say the Mock Croc Socks are a great knit and are completed. I really like the way the Serenity Sock Yarn feels, it has bamboo in it. Cannot say that it stripes as you can see in the picture. But the pooling effects are interesting.

This pattern made a great car knit. It was easy to memorize and count the repeats to match the second sock. This pattern comes from Knitpicks as a free pattern.

I will be doing this pattern again possibly on the Knit One Crochet Too Soxx Appeal yarn to see how it works on the elasticized yarns.

At least I am working my way through the sock yarn stash. Next on my car needles are the Mystery Socks KAL with Through the Loops which I started on October 1st and got bogged down with other things I had to finish. So that makes me three clues behind.

I just started clue two this morning which is for the leg of the sock and, so far so good. I will be posting pictures as I get further along in the leg, more to show, you know. I hope everyone has fun things they are working on~!

Note: the bright green item in the picture is one side of the new Sock Doctor keychain. The green side is the directions for the infamous Kichener Graft, and on the other is the sock construction diagram. I purchased this from NobleKnits, it is made by PolarKnits .

Monday Morning Muddle

This weekend went by pretty fast. There was lots of electronic updating and fussing with a too-slow internet at the folks' house.

1. Spent some getting my carpets cleaned first thing Friday morning, this was the last part of my declutter/clean project. I am glad to have it all done.

2. Played with electronic updates and shopping for dad's nook on Saturday. Got that accomplished so he is reading happily again. Taught mom how to download from ppld.org for the audiobooks he likes. Of course this is a simpler task when the internet runs faster than a snail on percoset.

3. Knit gnome hats (see the chocolate fudge and marshmallow one Duckers is wearing) and braided scarf sample and helped with fabric choices for upcoming projects.

4. Then I sewed three of the folded fabric projects together on Sunday, and knit on my car project sock to get it through the heel so I can finish it this week.

All in all, it was a productive weekend. I hope everyone had a great time themselves~!



Monday Morning Muddle

 It was a perfect, cool, quiet day in Cripple Creek on Saturday, according to these pictures. A lovely day to be up in this high, mountain town.

Besides the annual trek to see the Halloween play, I had a busy weekend:

1. I downloaded the second clue to the Mystery Sock KAL and reviewed it. It is a little more complicated and probably won't be a car project until I get the pattern memorized.

2. I worked on the second Mock Croc Sock, I am a third of the way down the leg. Hope to have this one finished this week.

3. On Sunday, I finished my six-week long declutter project by cleaning out the outside storage project and getting the last of the storage buckets out of the house. Now I am ready for the carpet cleaner the end of this week. I like this way of doing it better, just one room at a time.

4. With all that, I still managed to get the extra sleep my body has been craving. I feel much better starting my week.

I hope that everyone had a great weekend~!

News Bulletin: Werewolves in Cripple Creek

This marks our 5th annual trek to Cripple Creek for the Halloween play. This year I think they outdid themselves.

When I say "they" I mean the Thin Air Theatre Company (TATC). This group went above and beyond to create a spooky love story complete with three focal points on stage and the sense that you did not know who was coming up the aisle behind you at any given time. It was brilliant.

The original play was penned by long-time favorite, Chris Sorensen. He is a veteran to the theater scene in Cripple Creek and started out as one of the original Imperial Players. His other favorite plays include: A Cripple Creek Christmas Carol, The Vampire of Cripple Creek, Miracle on Bennett Avenue and Dr. Jekyll's Medicine Show, just to name a few. Some little know fact about him: he is also an award winning audiobook narrator for Recorded Books.

In the direcotor's chair this time was Chris Armbrister, another veteran to the Cripple Creek stage and a co-founder of the TATC. He also graced the Imperial Stage back in the day. His use of the surround-the-audience-with-actors was a wonderful addition to the already fun experience we have come to expect from this group at the Butte Opera House.

The acting was great, especially the casting of Mel Moser as the villianous southern colonel. It was fun to boo the villian and cheer the hero, played by co-producer, Mickey Burdick. It is evident that this troupe really enjoys performing together.

The original score was beautifully done by Jamie Malbin, and he turned out to be the third focal point on stage as you tried to watch the action center of the saloon, stage right with the meat locker and the werewolf activity and his facial expressions stage left as he played the tunes. It was action, action, action no matter where you looked. And for a small stage that is a lot of action.

Once the play was concluded with as happy an ending as you can expect from werewolves, the all-original Halloween olio began. I cannot say enough about the creativity that goes into this part of the production. It is singing, dancing, comedy and people dressed in ways you did not expect. I will say no more, because I do not want to ruin it for anyone who is planning to go.

Take heed! This play is only done during October, currently it is running on Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings at 7:00 p.m. and Thursday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 1:00 p.m. Hurry and get your tickets for a great time! They can be ordered online here.

Don't forget to take your wolfsbane and silver shavings for there be werewolves in Cripple Creek this October~!

Ruffled Scarf Necklace

What a fun little project! I knit this in one sitting out of some fancy Italian yarn that was gifted to me from Oregon. Now I have a little necklace scarf to wear to work with my black suit jacket.

Once I finished the first one I decided that I needed to make one for mom to wear to the Halloween play. I knit it out of some of the leftovers from my Spooky Socks and it looks great.

Now on the needles is one for a shop sample out of Lion Brand Sock-Ease SourBall as another idea of something you can do out of sock yarn.

The pattern is from NobleKnits blog, date October 4, 2010, found here.

I have some other yarn I am going to try this pattern on. These will make great gifts for those friends that still work in the "dress code" world. I hope everyone has found a great, new idea to play with~!

Three on Thursday

I "borrowed" this idea from Sheri @ The Loopy Ewe because I think we should all consider the things that we are grateful for in our lives, sometimes me especially. So here goes:

The 3 things I am happy about are:

1. I am happy my cat, Pedro, still loves to play with his toys. He will bring them to my desk when I am updating my blog and wait for me to toss them across the room. Can't train a cat, huh?

2. Fall colors make me happy, it means cooler weather is coming and I will be wearing more of my knitwear.

3. To have a job that supports the lifestyle I have chosen.

And the 3 things that I love about Fall:

1. The colors as mentioned above. It makes the best backdrop for sock photo shoots. Remember Spooky sock in Vicksburg (the ghost town in Colorado) where he earned the name Weenie (for Halloween and because it made folks laugh).

2. Seeing the pumpkins at the farm stands in all shapes and sizes.

3. Hot spiced cider and more opportunites for me to make homemade soup and bread. Yummy!

I hope everyone has things they are happy about and that they love about Fall. Let's share~!

The Mock Croc Sock

While I am waiting for the next clue in my Mystery Sock KAL, this is my latest sock project. It is the Mock Croc Sock pattern from KnitPicks and a free download. The specs are on my project page at Ravelry.

These knit up really fast because the pattern is easily memorized with only one row of fancy, twisted stitches.

It's mate is on the needles and should go faster because I have written down all the key points, like how many repeats it is to get to the next step. That helps me to create the second sock to be almost identical. In this case, the color patterning will not match but I like them that way.

I hope everyone has a fun project going~!

In other news: I have been nominated in the Fresh Ink Festival** for my article about the demise of Buckskin Joe's. You can find the voting page here and I am under the Fountain nominees, you will find a link to read the story there as well. Please vote!

** Fresh Ink is the online community news source that is sponsored by our local newspaper, The Gazette.

Monday Morning Muddle

When I work on projects, I have help. As you can see this weekend was no different than others. Isn't he the sweetest helper ever?!

Besides touring with CatWithCats on Saturday, I also accomplished the following:

1. Finished the first clue of the Mystery Sock KAL with Through the Loops on both socks.

2. Started a new sock - from a free download pattern from KnitPicks called Mock Croc Socks. I am knitting these out of Premier Yarns Serenith Sock Weight from the Deborah Norville Collection. I am using the Amethyst colorway. So far it is pooling in a very interesting way. When I get further along I will add a picture to show this.

3. Built myself some simple beaded stitch markers to use on socks that have a patterned cuff.

4. And, photographed all my new product that I will be offering on my Etsy shop. I will annouce it when I get it loaded. I have cats and dogs, sea life, new Halloween ones, owls and some Fairy Bears. All make very cute double point needle protectors.

I hope everyone had a great weekend~!

Castle Rock: Day of Adventure

 Today I spent some time with my friend, CatWithCats, in Castle Rock. We have been looking for a mid-way place to meet occasionally and this fits the bill.

We visited The Barn, looking for the fabulous Solmates socks I mentioned in a previous post. This place is really cool, it has some of everything, a great place to find a gift for everyone on your list. They even have some yard art that is worth looking at.

 Then we went to the best bakery around, Dream Pastries, for lunch. It was yummy, they even have a coffee bar and gelato dispensary. We bought pastry treats to take home before we left town.

While we were there we also visited the local yarn shop, Stash. They have a nice selection, great staff, and a lovely location. Definitely a place to come back to at a later time. We found new projects to knit, however did not find any time to knit a stitch. Maybe next time~!

Mystery Sock KAL

I joined the mystery sock knit-a-long (KAL) with Through the Loops at Ravelry.com. The first clue came up this morning and I was ready with the yarn, KnitPicks Risata in Burgundy, and the needles, size 1US (2.50mm) in circulars.

My goal is to knit these two at a time so by the end of the month I will have an new pair to wear. The first clue was the cuff, cast on and twelve rows. Those are knit and ready for the next clue on Friday. No pictures yet. I have substituted one from our visit to Vicksburg where Spooky and Soxx got to be in a picture together.

I hope everyone is finding fun ways to ease into October~!