Smoke Haze Knitting

This is what it looked like at my house at sunset yesterday evening. It was really murky, grubby air looking around here with the smoke haze coming in from the BIG fires in California.


Even though the weather was cool I did not open the windows when I got home, just turned on a little AC to stir the air, did not want to bring that grunge in the house. I really feel sorry for those having breathe that stuff in CA.


Pedro begged to go outside and did not really like the air either, just laid and looked around for a few minutes before I said he had to come back in the house.

He thinks he is the king of his domain on his concrete version of Pride Rock. In reality, he never gets off his leash to prowl outdoors and does not realize that he is a cat.

Once we came back in and got settled for the evening I picked up the Reversible Vest and made some more progress on the right front of the project. As the picture shows it has been divided into the parts that you have to knit.

The front sections go very fast because you are only knitting across 25 stitches for the small size. The back will take a little more time because it is over 41 stitches.

I plan to use a three-needle bind off on the shoulder seams with the seam showing in two colors to add a little more interest to it.

Once you get the pattern technique down, this is a very relaxing knit. I can hardly wait to try it on a hat and some handwarmers for myself.

I hope everyone is finding fun ways to relax!

Progress on the Reversible Vest

I am happy to report that I am making great progress on the shop sample of the Reversible Vest from Knit One Below.

It is going to be a fun sample and the colors I chose will go great with jeans. I have plans for my own vest and hope to find some recycled sari yarn to blend with a purple shaded yarn.

I am still looking for that combination.
I hope everyone is having a great week!

New on My Needles

Today I spent the majority of my time getting the Knit One Below Reversible Vest on my needles. I started and ripped out the cast on about 5 times before I had it the way I wanted it. This vest will be the casual version and in a size small because it is for a shop sample. I reasoned that if it is on display at the shop there is no reason to make it in my size because I won't get to wear it.

I really like this technique. Once you get the cast on and about two repetitions of the pattern going it is almost a mindless knit. You still have to remember where you are but you can "read" your knitting to know what is your next stitch.

This is one technique that you do not want to "tink" if you can avoid it. It can be done however it is not an easy thing to do correctly. My recommendation is: if you are in the early knit stages, frog it and begin again. And don't start a larger project until you have mastered the technique. And for a vest or other clothing item, do the recommended swatch. The technique knits up much looser than stockinette.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and have fun, new projects lined up for their week!

Holiday Weekend: Update

My 4th of July weekend started out quiet with planning for two knitting classes next week. Then I went early to farmer's market on Saturday to buy corn and cherries.

I found a patriotic duck in a window. That brought to mind a song about how much is that ducky in the window....okay, so I was making up the words as I went along.

Then the market had lovely mixed veggies baskets. That is a great marketing technique if you do not know exactly what you want.

By Saturday afternoon the rain had moved in and by the end of the day we were bbq-ing indoors and making national news by getting an inch of rain in a very short amount of time. Needless to say, it made for very soggy fireworks watching.

And while it rained, Pedro did a lot of this on his dream curl. It is his favorite place to take a nap now that the weather is warmer.

In knitting news: I finished my first BSJ (baby surprise jacket). I have to say that just following the pattern without question worked just fine (thanks for the tip, CatWithCats).

And I finished my first pair of Fiber Trends felted clogs. They are all ready to felt. I will felt one and leave the other alone for display purposes. I think it is very fun to compare the size of what you have to knit to get a certain size when it is felted.

I moved on to knitting a trumpet flower from the Nicky Epstein Knitted Flowers book to make sure I understood the pattern before I try to teach it next week. And I will be practicing the cast on for the Inside Outside Scarf pattern, the other class on for this week.

And the SS09 countdown is at 30 days-ish, I am knitting wee tiny socks for TheCraft'sMeow booth during all my other available time. It is lots of fun to see the baggie filling up with colorful sample socks.

I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday weekend!

FLS Update: On the Way to Finished

For the last two months my February Lady Sweater has languished in a mini tub next to my knitting chair, waiting for me to finish samples for the shop and my ventures with wee tiny socks.

Since I finished the Knit One Below Scarf and delivered it to the shop as a sample I realized that I should look at all my UFOs and make a list to get them on track to finish.

So I pulled out my FLS and reviewed where I was, actually tried it on to see how much longer I wanted to make it and, to my delight, I was one lace pattern repeat away from the garter stitch border at the bottom. Yippee!

And after knitting for so long on the body I think the sleeves will be a breeze.

My goal for this week is to finish at least the bottom and one sleeve. Then next week I will finish the other sleeve and get it ready to wear.

I hope everyone is making progress on their goals!

K1b Scarf: Finished and Delivered

My first Knit One Below project, the scarf, is finished and now on display at Nuts and Bolts in Woodland Park. I finished it with one end fringed and the other just focused on the double loop cast on.


I love this technique! My next project will be the Reversible Vest. I can hardly wait to get started.

I will be teaching this technique at the shop in September.

Summer Toes and Progress on K1b Scarf

My neighbor came by to show off her first pedicure of the summer. Her toes are a beautiful red with some sparkly bits and a flower design on the big toe. Very sandalicious I think.

I have ripped out my Knit One Below Inside Out Scarf three times to get the look I want. In class we had started it on needles much smaller than the pattern called for. I believe that was because they expected we were all there to start the vest.


So I went back to the pattern and finally chose the needle size that the pattern called for, a size 10. Things are going much better now. My plan is to fringe one end of the scarf and leave the other end plain to show off the fancy double loop cast on. The scarf will be on display at Nuts and Bolts in Woodland Park as soon as I can get it done, as a sample of the Knit One Below class I will be teaching there in September.

It is a very fun stitch and, once I figured out how to read it in my knitting, has been very relaxing. A couple notes: do not get overconfident when you slide the stitches over to the end of the circular needle to finish that section on that side. I can attest that they can go shooting off the end of the needle and create quite a mess. :-)

For my next project using this stitch I will attempt the Reversible Vest. I have a skein of fun yarn that I bought for a vest two years ago at the Estes Park Wool Festival. I have not gotten around to the other vest pattern, however I think this yarn will go well combined with a solid color of worsted and make an interesting look for a casual vest.

I hope you are finding fun, new ways to spend your leisure time!

On the Go: Steam Train Trip in New Mexico

My brother (the one I affectionately call the "Evil Elf", who currently lives in Germany with his family) arrived here for a visit this week. He had planned it ahead of a work obligation that he has stateside. With much planning we were able to book tickets on a narrow gauge steam railway trip that we had not been on before (I think mom and dad had been years ago - but not us).

The morning started early in Alamosa where we had spent Friday night. From here we were only 30 miles to the northern rail terminus where we picked up our tickets and boarded a motorcoach to ride the 48 highway miles to the southern terminus train station of the Cumbres Toltec Railroad.

The weather could not have been better. It was sunny, cool and clear to start the day. The train left Chama on time to a local crowd that waved to the passengers, some even followed us to each crossing we made of the road so they could take pictures. The road only follows the train to the halfway point then the train goes cross country into areas that you cannot see from an easily accessible road.

The folks rode in the coach car out of the cool air. My brother and I "commuted", with lots of staggering as the train rocked back and forth,from where they were riding to the open car where there was a very knowledgeable docent (which he told us later means blabbermouth in French) was talking about the history of the train - 64 miles long built in 9 months and is now the longest and highest narrow gauge railroad in America. It was built in 1880 as the San Juan spur of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad to tap into the mining districts in southwestern Colorado.

The passenger service operated until 1951, then the line hauled freight to the areas where oil and gas was being processed until just prior to 1970 when the state bought the line for a tourist attraction.

Our docent was also quite knowledgeable about the geology of the area, a lot of volcanic activity happened in this part of the country as evidenced in the rocks we were traveling by. The volcanoes in the area are now dormant (or so we hope, he said smiling) and are mostly basaltic shield volcanoes that are formed by oozing lava not by exploding and spewing lava.

The scenery on the New Mexico side of the line was forests and rock formations and lots of water. According to our docent, this is the wettest spring they have seen in many years. The upside to this is they will see wildflowers bloom this year that have been dormant for quite a while. It takes spring rains for some of the wildflower species to germinate. It should be a blanket of color down there in a month or so.

Pictured to the right is the tallest trestle on the Cumbres Toltec line, it is called Cascade Trestle and is 137 feet high. We had lunch at Osier, the halfway point, where the two trains meet to have lunch and switch engines. You can start from either the Chama N.M. side or the Antonito CO side of the line. At this point if you are going all the way through, as we were doing, you change cars for the ride down the other side. There are trips available that you can go roundtrip from your point of origin, up to Osier for lunch and then return. They served a full meal that was scrumptious, gave you time to stretch your legs, use the facilities and browse the gift shop before blowing the whistle and starting down the other side.

On the way to Antonito we got to go through two tunnels. The one pictured here is Rock Tunnel. It was bored out of solid rock, is 360-feet long and is very dark. The other tunnel is called Mud Tunnel and has supports running through its 342-foot length.

Once you head down out of the mountains into the high desert area of the south end of the San Luis Valley the landscape goes over to sagebrush and juniper and the occasional pronghorn. The picture on the right has a dormant volcano off in the distance.



We arrived in Antonito around 5 p.m., visited the gift shop and jumped in the car for a picnic dinner in the Alamosa city park that houses an old train engine, then it was a fast ride home so my brother could get on a plane Sunday afternoon to go to his jobsite. We had a great time on this excursion.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Fun New Item

In preparation to take my blogging on the road I ordered a Dell Mini 10 while it was at a hot sale price. I have been reading about these for some time now and thought it was time to make the committment.

I ran it by the IT guy at work because they recommend Dell exclusively. He thought it was a really good deal and gave me some pointers on how to change out the security pack (icky Norton) for something just as good and takes less juice to run. And he advised to get the larger battery (6 cell vs 3 cell).

It arrived yesterday as well as the custom netbook cover that I ordered from a gal on Etsy (bertiescloset.etsy.com) Shout out: She did a great job and even went out to find the cat print fabric I wanted. It was a very fast and great workmanship custom order! Thank you, Bertie's Closet @ Etsy.

Now I just have to get the thing set up and take it on a couple test runs to wi-fi hotspots to see how it works. It is much smaller and lighter than my other laptop and will make it easier to carry on the plane and go through security. I will be excited to blog my trips in real time versus coming home and trying to remember everything for each day and match it up with pictures. I hope to run a test with it at Estes Park later this month when I go there for the Wool Festival.

In knitting news: I am currently attempting a hat using the Knit One Below technique. I needed a little, portable project to take on the train trip we are doing on Saturday and this fit the bill. Will have pics to show after Saturday of knitting on a steam train in New Mexico.

The other pic in this post is because I find this a funny thing. This is the mascot for a carwash here in town. He is certainly eye-catching when you drive by. It is called the Quick Quack Car Wash, they specialize in express service and have shops in California and Texas. It just "quacks" me up.

I hope you are finding fun things to giggle at in your world!

Holiday Weekend Update

What a great holiday weekend! I attended my youngest nephew's graduation. That is a picture of him with his mom. It was a lovely day to be outside between persistent rain showers. They had four flyovers, all unplanned. The first was a pair of geese, then two commercial jetliners, one on approach for COS, the other on take off. Then at the very end, when the kids had dispersed onto the field and were meeting with the family members, the Thunderbirds roared into town. They are here because they do the flyover for the Air Force graduation scheduled for Wednesday, May 28th.

Then I went to Woodland Park for the Frankensock class on Sunday afternoon. There was much hilarity with tiny needles, the showing of Young Frankenstein and planning the next classes the group wants to take. All in all a great afternoon.

In between all this I did the usual weekend chores and tried to get some more knitting done. I delivered the felted samples to the shop for the beginning class scheduled in July.

And I worked on the Knit One Below Inside Outside Scarf that has to go to the shop for display. I am also knitting some samples of this stitch technique that will serve as working swatches for those who want to start by getting the feel of the stitch and then we will learn how you have to rip out this technique. Yes, there is a special way to do it so you do not end up with a horrid mess.

And the whole weekend it seemed to rain. At one point the creeks were flooding on the west side of town. It is much needed however it did make for a soggy time to be out enjoying all the festivities. I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday even if you had to bring the grilling indoors!

Happy Monday: Weekend Update - Middle of May

First note: can you believe it is the middle of May? I cannot. Time is racing by this year. By the looks of Pedro he does not care what the calendar says, he is just glad that there are birds in the yard to talk to. Between those visits at the window he likes to lounge around on his scratching curl.




On Saturday I took my dad to see Angels and Demons. It was really good. Lots of action and great location shots in Rome and Vatican City. Dad said he really expected monsters and such in the movie. I found out after that he had not read the book. He is going to now.

Then on Sunday, I went to Hollyberry Needleworks in Old Colorado to take the Knit One Below class. I had read the book and struggled with the cast on technique for a month. Once I watched the class instructor I realized my error and the rest came very easily. Goes back to I am a mulit-facted learner with an emphasis on visual. I am about six inches into the scarf that I will use for a upcoming class sample for Nuts and Bolts. This is a really fun knit and makes beautiful fabric. I hope to make the reversible vest for fall wear after I finish the scarf.

I hope everyone is enjoying their spring!

Happy Easter

Easter morning started out with white rain and progressed until it looked like this by noon. It was a welcome sight to see so much slush because the we have had such a dry warm winter.

It was a good day for housecleaning and knitting. I did more of the former and a little of the latter.

Duckers had her family around and we needed to do the spring family portrait.

What was missing from my Sunday was my faithful sidekick, Pedro. He is spending the week at Camp Mouse with his grandparents because they are doing unit inspections this week that include fire alarm and sprinkler inspections. I thought he might not need the stress. I do miss him though.

I hope that everyone had a great Easter. I am glad to get some serious spring cleaning done and am ready to spend this week catching up on my knitting. I am starting the lace section of the FLS and am experimenting with a swatch sample of the newest rage, the K1b by Duvekot.

I have attempted the cast on about 8 times and still have not figured out what instructions are trying to get me to do. I looked for videos and have not found any yet. I am signed up for a class in May to master this technique so I can teach it later this year. I love the look of the fabric it creates. I hope everyone had a "Hoppy" Easter, ate lots of candy and had a great time.