August: Days to Celebrate

The end of summer is nearing however not without a slew of reasons to celebrate in August. We start off with August 1st - National Mustard Day followed by August 2nd - Friendship Day, August 3rd - Watermelon Day, August 4th - Chocolate Chip Day, August 7th - Lighthouse Day, and August 8th - Happiness Happens Day. This year, in particular, the 8th will be happy because all the sock knitting eyes will be on Portland Oregon and the one-of-a-kind Sock Summit.

We have the opportunity to celebrate our national heroes on August 14th with National Code Talkers Day, artists of all things sandy on Sandcastle and Sculpture Day and my own favority hero, my dad and his 89th birthday on August 15th. Way to go, Dad!

As the kids are getting ready to go back to school they should be able to celebrate August 17th Pencil Day while school supply shopping.

For all you pilots out there August 19th is Aviation Day. And after flying somewhere fun you may as well celebrate August 24th National Waffle Day over breakfast. Let's hear the cheers for combined celebration of National Hotdog Day and Women's Equality Day on August 26th, Global Forgiveness Day August 27th, ending the month with National Toasted Marshmallow Day on August 30th. And to top it off, August is National Panini Month.

Labor Day, signalling the end of summer is right around the corner. And to top it off, August is National Panini Month.

I hope all of you have found lots of fun things to celebrate!

Sock Knitting Machine Demo Day

Green Valley Weavers and Knitters treated their customers to a fun afternoon event with prizes, food and drink, and a demonstration of the sock knitting machine.

Within the time that I stopped to visit she had produced two socks. It was amazing.

They are planning a stash party soon. Check their website for all the details and a list of their upcoming classes.

Sock Summit Homework and Tools

Even though I am signed up for five classes at Sock Summit, I have no real homework. The hardest part has been pairing up my tools with the yarn I will use to practice the new skills I will be learning.

I am going to knit a couple sets of sock legs so I am ready to practice the bind offs that Chrissy Gardiner is going to try to teach us in one hour. My other classes include one for the Magic Loop Cast On, one for adding beads to my knitting, another for creating the perfect rib with Cookie A, one for short row heels that are used with toe-up socks and finally some Japanese stitch techniques used in socks being taught at Knit Purl by Judy Sumner.

Sorting the tools that will have to go in my checked baggage has been a challenge. I don't want to forget anything however I do not want to take everything I own.

And the last mystery is what do I want to take for a travel project. I have considered the very small Harmony dpns on another mini sock which I should be able to finish en route to Portland on the nonstop flight. Then I think I should be working on a sock of actual size so I have a pair by the time I return from the Sock Summit. All these choices and so little time left to decide. As Cockeyed said this week, it is only (number inserted from countdown of how many days until I travel to SS09, in this case - 6) more sleeps.

I hope everyone has great plans in their future!

What's On My Needles?

I am loving this cold front train that is making a daily progression through Colorado. Last week when we were attempting to break the 100-degree high temp mark (pfffftttt....) I was hoping some cold front weather god would take pity on us and they have.

I just came back in from lunch and it is 58-degrees outside -- in July and it is wet. Yippee!

In knitting news, I have more fun things on my needles this week. To begin: I have two mini socks yet to knit for The Craft's Meow's booth (#1115) at Sock Summit. I will be delivering them to her when I arrive. I have a little bit left of some fun colors so I may knit another pair of the magic slippers for display purposes at the shop. They are so fun to knit and what a clever way to use up leftover sock yarn.

Last night I finished a second sample of lace knitting in the form of mini scarves for shop samples. I will be teaching a beginning lace class in September. These patterns will make up beautiful scarves which are great for holiday gifts.

Then I started the Prairie Boot pattern. I had the sole all knit and decided that I did not like it in single strand weight so ripped it out and knit it in double worsted strand weight. That is much better. I hope to start adding the top color to it. Again, this is a sample for the shop because one of my August students wants to knit this pattern.

And, hopefully this week, I plan to put beads on the yarn for a pair of Wristwatchers from this month's edition of Knitter's magazine. They are one of the Lite projects featured in the magazine and look fabulous and another great gift idea.

And in my other projects category, I have been creating stitch markers out of buttons for my swap item at Sock Summit. I have them all built and will be trading them attached to my Moo minicard to interested folks. It should be a lot of fun.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Heat of the Summer

I think the solution for the heat of the summer is lightweight knitting. (At the end of this post I will add my other solutions to beat the summer heat that are not knitting related).

I have been working on lots of projects this summer so far, most of them for either the shop where I teach as samples or for the upcoming, much touted Sock Summit 2009 event in Portland.

So when I realized that I will need a project, possibly besides a sock, on the needles for the trip to the "Big Show" I started looking at lace ideas. Since I have to be able to carry this item on the plane it cannot be the project shown on July 22nd on Loopy Ewe's blog.

My plan for this project is to work it on DK weight yarn and make a long skinny scarf for summer fun wear. Of course, I have to find yarn in my signature color. I am working on a couple versions of lightweight lace scarves to show different stitch patterns to display in the shop.

My signature color is being set up to knit during the World Record attempt at Sock Summit. When it is done it will be a faux mo in purple glitterspun that is more for fun wear than warmth.


And while I get all these things ready and lined up for future knit projects and SS09, I took a little break to do some fishing. And, as you can see, I caught a "cat"fish. I hope everyone is finding fun ways to beat the heat!


Other solutions: work a job that does not require you to wear a suit jacket and, for the guys, a tie; iced coffee or tea break, drinks with umbrellas, cold food for dinners, someone else's AC (aka shopping mall or Starbuck's) for blogging; trips to high mountain lakes; and a clean house.

How many ideas can you come up with to help beat the heat? I hope you are all cool and happy!

Weekend Update - How July Flys

This is how our weekend began. Pedro is perched on his new vantage point that I built, not for his usage, but for the floor-clearing that was necessary for the carpet cleaning of traffic areas for the year. The leasing office is kind enough to offer this service after you have signed your lease for the year.

Once that was done on Friday morning, then I met the folks and my sister for the much-anticipated sixth movie in the Harry Potter series. It was great. Several humorous moments of teenage love pangs and new revelations of what drives who to do what. Of course, if you have read the books you already know the story but it is so much fun to see how they will interpret it for the big screen. Just a note, for this movie, IMAX is not really necessary for all but the first 15 minutes of the movie.




In knitting news, I felted the first clog for my class sample. It turned out beautifully. I really like this pattern for a fun knit and a great wearable item.

I will be teaching this class in October, just in time to make holiday gifts for your loved ones and friends.






In other knitting news, I am working on finishing the knitted samples of The Craft's Meow's sock yarn for her booth at Sock Summit 2009. She will be in booth #1115.

Only 17 days away and I have three more skeins to knit up. I decided that I have done several mini socks for display and needed to mix it up a little, so, I knit a pair of Magic Slippers from a free pattern off Sock Pixie's blog.

These are really cute and fun to knit. They will make a cute baby shower gift if you have or know of anyone with babies on the way. This pair took less than 25 yards total of sock yarn on size 1 needles.

In other knit related news, I have been adding DPN holders to my Etsy shop and have some new additions that I think are really cute. I will be adding Beach Monkeys this week, and I have a selection of Christmas ones that include precocious penguins, caroling raccoons, snowmen, Santa plus reindeer and Halloween ones. I will also be adding alligators and more monkeys.

While I was doing all this I was writing up my list of knitting supplies I have to pack in my suitcase to take to Portland for SS09. I am very excited to be going.

I hope everyone had a fun-filled weekend!

Weekend Update

Busy weekends that equal three days are the norm this summer. It has been a gift to have the extra day to pursue all the things I love and want to accomplish. That is top of my gratitude list.

This weekend I finished a pair of what my knitting class students are calling "recession stockings" since I showed them at our Christmas in July knitting class. They are knit off the Los Lobe Hose pattern and out of yarn from The Crafts Meow.

The photo is the first one I have taken in my new Deluxe Photo Studio that mom got me for Christmas. I have some more to learn about my camera settings, but so far I like the pics that I am able to take for my Etsy shop.

In other knitting news, I was reading someone's blog and saw that they had cats and remarked that the hardest part of their knitting life is the yarn competition that they have with the cats. I guess I am lucky because Pedro is not all that interested in yarn unless I leave it out for long enough that he just cannot resist the temptation any longer. Then he tries to eat it.

This week, while I was not knitting, I was designing and building more fun knitting accessories for my Etsy shop. I concentrated on DPN holders and have them in Halloween and Christmas themes, plus safari animals, devil ducks, monkeys, and some one-of-a-kind sheep, cow and donkey sets. Next on my to-do list is to make some more stitch markers.

And I discovered Electric Sheep. It is a podcast out of the UK. She has quite a following and discusses everything from weather to tea and lots of knitting related content. She is fun and funny to listen to, well worth a listen. Check her out by clicking here.

I hope everyone has multiple reasons to be grateful for their weekends!