Outbound

The secret knits are on their way to Germany. I have alerted the Evil Elf to be on the look out for them. I think they will be well received and I hope to get some great pictures from them.

Now it is one to more local gift knitting.

Cowl-a-bama

No, it is not a new area demanding statehood or the call of a free-flying maniac. However, it is taking over my immediate knitting time.

Most of what you see here will be gifted away. Some are finished and ready for their "care" tags, others on the needles or just listed next to an undisclosed name.

I am liking the fact that I get to knit with colors that are not my own and with yarns I chose especially because I had not knit with them before, some I like enough to re-buy, others - not so much.

Here's to more fall-ish weather in the near future to make me think of warm, cozy things to knit and yummy, stewed foods to fill my house with fabulous fumes~!

Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland

On my way home from the northern end of the state, I made a stop at the Benson Sculpture Garden on the north end of Loveland Lake.

It is a beautiful place with many paths to walk and view the many pieces of brass scultures. I took the opportunity to photo one of the secret knit pieces that are on their way to Germany next week.

This is another great place to visit if you are in the area.

More Yarn Shops: Visited and Reviewed

My final destination for this scouting trip was Fort Collins. I found a lovely cupcake bakery called Butter Cream. All I can say is: Yummy!

I visited the now famous knit shop called Lambspun, as it stars in Maggie Sefton's knit mystery series. It has so many rooms of fiber and books and ideas that it is difficult to decide where to begin looking. If you visit be sure to find the sale room. It is worth the time to sort through the pile for a treasure of yarns at less than retail prices.

There is also a little restaurant attached to the shop called the Back Porch Cafe. The food smelled great, and it is near the golf course. Well worth the stop to see all that they offer.

I also visited the newest shop on the main drag, Your Daily Fiber. It had some lovely offerings for knitters, spinners and weavers. It is located nearest to the college and I will bet at certain times of the week/day it is full of fiber art students plying their education.

My favorite find is My Sister Knits. It is a challenge to find, but, oh so worth it. It is located in an older residential area that used to be one that the trolley serviced, you can still see the tracks. I could have spent the afternoon in their yard, knitting and watching the flowers grow. The shop is a two-story carriage house in the backyard of a beautiful home and full to the brim with the best yarns ever. The ladies who run it are very helpful and delighted to see their customers.

I highly recommend a visit to all three of these shops when you are next in the Fort Collins area.

Yarn Shop Review: Mew Mew's in Lafayette

After Boulder I found another fun knit shop on my way to Fort Collins. It is located in Lafayette, on highway 7 just before you make the turn onto highway 287.

The shop is small, and full of lovely yarns including a great collection of Shetland wools for Fair Isle knitters.

The name of the shop comes from the owner's cat, who I got to visit with as she laid on the knitters table on a piece of soft knitwear.

It was a lovely place with inviting warmth provided by the owner and her helper.

Yarn Shop Review: Shuttles and Skeins - Boulder

I recently visited this shop in Boulder that I have heard so much about but never had been within easy distance to stop by. It is located in Boulder on the south end in the Table Mesa Shopping Center, just down the hill from the National Weather Observatory.

The view from their balcony is beautiful and the shop is huge, full of yarn, all manner of gift items for knitters and samples for inspiration. The book section alone makes you feel like you are in a library. They also have two other rooms, each dedicated to a fiber craft - spinning and weaving.



It was so much fun to stop there and meet the ladies who run the place, and to find a Wacky Woolies mug that I have wanted.

Celebrate : National Rum Punch Day

Do you see a theme here? Pirates have it good.

According to the article, that includes 27 recipes of ways to add rum to your life, rum is:

made by distilling fermented sugar from sugar cane and is fermented from “cane juice, concentrated cane juice or molasses.” Most rum comes from molasses which is loaded with sugar. Rums are available in several classifications – white, golden or amber, dark, spiced and Anejo and Age-Dated. While rum is made in many areas, the Caribbean is known for its rum production.

Whether you drink it straight or prefer your rum in a tropical cocktail topped with a colorful umbrella, the following rum recipes are sure to tickle your fancy and whet your whistle!

I hope you find ways to celebrate that are fun and safe~!

Celebrate: Talk Like A Pirate Day

Even knitters have pirate-y tendencies. Notice that Loopy has a new friend that he he picked up at the Pirates exhibit in Denver a few weeks ago.

So, in celebration of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, here is the link to the official site with a sing-along that will make you wish that you were bound for Tortuga, and if you want to learn the language of pirates, click here.

I hope everyone has a great day and drink lots of rum for those of us who cannot~!

Kool Aid Dyeing in the Mountains

While the colors are beginning to change in the mountains, mom and I zipped over to Serendipity Yarns  in Buena Vista to take a class in dyeing yarn with Kool Aid.

It was very fun and educational. We learned ways to dye wool by immersion, sprinkling and spraying the dye.

We came home with some fun sample yarns that will probably get knit up into handwarmers that will not match.

 The tools are minimal and Kool Aid is non-toxic, easy to use and readily available. It was amazing the lovely colors you can get out of a packet of drink mix.


We bought a couple skeins of yarn to play with later this month, enough to make a neckwarmer and a hat.

We actually found the Malabrigo Rasta in an off-white color and will be trying our own version of a green colorway to knit up one of the chunky Moebius cowls.                                  

I hope everyone had a fun-filled Sunday~!

A Break from Knitting

This afternoon I went to a card making class with my neighbor. It was hosted by the ladies of Stampin' Up and was lots of fun.

I created some one-of-a-kind Christmas cards for this year. Next time, I will do birthday cards. I hope everyone is finding fun, new things to create.

Termination Dust

Finally the view of the mountain has cleared and, yes, there is snow on the top. Fall is on the way!

UFO Update: Tunisian Crochet and More

I finished seaming the Tunisian Crochet vest together yesterday at the yarn shop. I had to get out of the house and away from the 9-11 coverage. It was at times too hard to watch yet it must be remembered.

When I got home from the shop, I started watching shark movies, much better.

I am halfway through my mystery knit for Germany, and a scarf for another family member who is not expecting it. It is that time of year for me to be knitting a lot of gifts. I hope to have this batch off the needles and in the mail by the first of the month.

Then I have to finish my July sock. It has been languishing since the first of August. I only have three pattern repeats on the foot and the toe to do.

I am looking forward to the moment I can cast on something without a deadline. Happy Knitting to All~!

Never Forget! Can It Be - Ten Years Ago?

Today has been full of bittersweet memories of tragedy and heroism and moments of levity around the day that changed how many Americans look at their place in the world.

My sharpest memory was in the days following of how quiet the skies were with no contrails or sounds of planes.

Now we must be ever vigilant, ever observant, ever aware and always grateful to live where we do~!

What I Learned Wednesday:

An easy, and more secure way to change yarn or add in another skein, is to do it at the beginning of a row.

I learned that to make it more secure is to knit the first two stitches of that row with the old yarn and the new yarn. That bit of helpfulness came from the Tunisian Crochet class I took earlier this summer.

Camp Loopy - Finish Line!

The third challenge is completed and today was photo day. It is a lovely, fallish day here so I took Loopy and the shawl over to the Garden of the Gods.  This was a very fun camping experience with Loopy Ewe and I hope they offer this next year.

I hope everyone has fun, camp memories for this summer~!

Camp Loopy - Final Mod!

So, I got through the thirteenth wedge, the second of the grey, and rewound the yarn from crumbling cake to ball so I could determine how much I have left.

I realized that is was not enough to do one more wedge (about 1090 stitches - if you are interested) and decided now was the time to start the just garter stitch rows sections. For the grey, that consisted of 8 rows, each right side with the increases at the markers, and then two rows of purple, same right side treatment.

I finished one section like that and decided that to ensure my sanity it was time to bind off, not wanting to run out midway (bind off was over 450+ stitches). I knit the last right side with purple and bound off with the Galina bind off, a purl version that lays down a very nice edge to show on the right side, using a size larger needle.

Once the ends were woven in, it got a warm, sudsy bath and laid out on the bed to dry. It will be going for phots tomorrow.