My New Best Friend.

This is a little cabled jacket that I'm knitting.  It is a well written pattern and it knits up quickly.  I also discovered a little cable needle that I'm in love with.  It was a cheap little thing - 2 bucks.  You have all probably seen this type of cable needle, but it was new to me.

 It's U shaped with one side longer than the other.  It took me a while to figure out why.  Put your stitches on the shorter side of the cable needle,

flip it down, out of your way,

then use the longer side to knit off the needle.  Voila!  I LOVE this thing!

My Aspen Yarn

My souvenir purchase from The Aspen Yarn Gallery.  Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn #15 "Vegan".  I don't like the name.  So I'm renaming it "Aspen".    Socks?  A wrap?  We shall see...

Free stuff to do in Aspen.

Seriously.  It was free.

Glenw$$d H$t Springs

We had to donate a kidney and sell my youngest for slave labor in order to swim here at the Glenwood Hot Springs.  Maybe it wasn't quite so expensive, but after shelling out money for admission, lunch, rental towels, "I can't touch and I need a floaty toy" needs - it added up.  And then, just to pour salt in your gaping monetary wound, the water slide is extra. 


BUT, I can chalk something up to experience - don't ever go to a hot spring on an 85 degree hot day.  It sort of cancels itself out, see?  On a hot day, go to a cold pool.  Cold day = hot pool. 


And it smelled like pee.

Still in Aspen

We're still out west, having a ball with Grandpa.  (He is hosting me and the kiddos - poor hubby is home with a sick dog with a shaved head and a plastic cone around his neck . . . the dog, not hubby.)

finding a fishing hole

a small grave in a beautiful, quiet spot, Ute Cemetery

Anyway, we have spent a few days hiking around town.  Just east of town, you can hike through an old cemetery and then down to the Roaring Fork and through the aspen trees.  It's quiet and green and warm, with wildflowers in their peak. 

This afternoon, I'll take more wildflower pictures and some shots of my new green sock yarn.

Here and there, I've managed to get a wee bit of knitting done.  This is a secret gift for a friend that I'll try to finish this weekend.

I started my next project called Baby Cable Yoke Jacket by Cotton and Cloud.  I was inspired by Picerfic who whipped out two of these babies.  (By the way, the pattern is one of THE best written patterns - she has links on her pdf to video tutorials online - brilliant!)

I'm using Cascade Yarns 220 Paints / Hand Dyed in "Paradise Beach" (9843).  I started this coat a while back but after about 5 inches, I had to frog and rip.  I am really excited to start this but forgot my cable needle, so I'm off to that GORGEOUS yarn shop to pick up a little one. 

It's going to be another sunny day.  Happy knitting and happy happy glorious summer to all of you! 

Happiness is a dog.

Aspen's children's fountain.

Window Shoppin' in Aspen

So after a delicious dinner at a Chinese restaurant, what is a gal to do.

(and yes, it was her idea to dress like the karate kid and stick chopsticks up her nose and who's to stand in her way).

Why. Window shop, of course.


This little girl dress? Oh, about a million dollars.

And this one? Maybe around a million billion. But I'm just guessing.

And these mittens?

Who cares. 

We knitters can whip these suckers out in one evening of American Idol, am I right? 

 But I DO want one of these.  Just cuz.

And here, the kiddos run off some Chinese food induced steam by livin' it up at the skate park, sans wheels.

The Aspen Yarn Gallery

Yes.  There is a yarn store in Aspen.  And I mean . . . a Yarn Store.  Don't let this plain facade put you off. This ain't your granny's store, either.  Way back (2007ish) the shop was selling beaver, fox, mink "yarn".  Thin strips of hide, laser cut and sold as yarn.  Interesting.

But the new owner has a completely different take.  And the eye-candy.  OH, the eye candy. . . .

Well.  Let's take a look.

First (and excuse the crappy pictures), this is Mango Moon yarns. 

Look again more closely.

The yarn is made up of recycled fibers, yarns and silks and loaded with stone and glass beads.  It's absolutely gorgeous!   The pictures don't do justice.

Mango Moon also makes Zing String shown here:

This is cotton thread with hand-tied stones and glass beads.  It's drop dead gorgeous.  You carry the string with your yarn when you're knitting.  It really is amazing.  It's a very new 'yarn'.  I haven't seen it on Ravelry, yet.

She also features regional yarns that are hand spun and dyed.

Here is yarn from Snow Leopard Trust.  "Founded in 1981, the Snow Leopard Trust is the world's leading authority on the study and protection of the endangered snow leopard." - Snow Leopard Trust website.

The yarn is camel wool.

The walls were FULL of Misti Alpaca in different weights and luscious, rich colors. 

And there was so much more.  Just beautiful.  The owner gave me a thorough tour of the shop, which is tucked into an upstairs location in downtown Aspen.  She was very informative and had loads of ideas on how to use this unusual collection of yarns.

She doesn't have a website, so I told her I'd blog about her beautiful little shop of wonders.

Did I leave unscathed?  HA HA HA.  If you know me well, you know that I left there after spending way too much money. . . on only one skein of yarn.  But beautiful deep forest green Misti Alpaca sock yarn.  I'll post pictures later.

No famous people yet.  My son thought he saw an NFL player, but didn't verify that.  We saw a band getting out of their Cadillac SUV's for a gig at Belly Up, but we didn't recognize the faces or the names.   Aspen. . . you never know.

Here are the specs for the shop.  She does sell kits and will ship:

Aspen Yarn Gallery
520 E. Cooper Street #205
Aspen, CO  81611
aspenyarngallery@yahoo.com
(970)925-5667

We're on the road.

The Open Road

One tunes in . . .

and one tunes out.

Next stop: Aspen!

So there we were, minding our own business, when things up in the sky got a bit interesting.  It was really this yellow.  Eerie and quiet.  This took place last night just after a light thunderstorm had rolled through.

Earlier (and by earlier, I mean a few days ago) I managed to knit like the industrious Guinifer by bringing my knitting to Lunker's lacrosse game.  We lost 16-0 but I made some progress on a secret gift.

Until next time . . . I'll leave you with this lovely quote I found on Neuroknitter's beautiful and inspiring blog:

The flower that follows the sun does so even on cloudy days.
~ Robert Leighton

Look what crawled out of the closet!

My son is lying on his bed complaining that he's bored and it's day 1 of summer break. So this morning, I opened up a fresh can of kick ass and had them clean the house top to bottom. Now I'm stuck in my daughter's room. Sort of like playing Candyland and landing on a sticky licorice and loosing a turn.

The room is like a snow globe except instead of snow, it's Barbie clothes, sticky Popsicle sticks, books, puzzle pieces, socks, plastic beads and a blanket full of cat hair. And it appears as though someone picked up her room and shook it hard.

I did find two Icelandic sweaters on the floor of her closet that would be interesting to try and copy. The hood, in particular, is appealing to me. Whoever knit this thing has some talent. It may have been a relative. Not sure. It's too small for my kids now. Belle wore it this winter a few times but wouldn't stand the itchiness for long.
The other was also hand made, but is falling apart on one side. Not sure how to handle that. I may frog it and salvage the yarn?? Old Lopi. But it may just pull to pieces when I unravel it all.
Until next time . . .

Remember this...

This is my little niece wearing the sweater I made for her when she was just a wee one. She has been wearing this almost every day for the last 5 months! My sister is raving about the fit, the longevity of the yarn, the mild colors that seem to go with just about everything.

If anyone needs a great baby sweater to knit, I highly recommend this. It was tedious because it's knit on a US 1 or 2 ~ but it was worth every ache in my fingers. It's a free pattern: Drops Jacket

5 months and still looking like new.

So as I was saying,

"Olive Pink"

It has been a while since I've been a consistent blogger. It's about time I get back on board and catch up on all of your blogs. My knitting mojo just went ~VOOOP~ out the window, but the winds are shifting and I think I may be ready to pick up the needles again.

In honor of baby Olive, I am going to try and knit a gown/blanket or hat every month. This June will be a yellow gown. I'm sort of improvising as I go and if it turns out, I'll type up the pattern for Olive Branch website in case anyone is interested. (Blurry pics because I can't find my other camera. . . sorry.)

I have a load of new stuff. I won (YES WON!!) this gorgeous skein of sassy yarn from Karoline Knits. It is destined for a girlie hat for my daughter. THANKS KAROLINE! It's a whopping skein of ABC's Creative Pursuits Fiber hand-dyed "Licorice Twist". And it is as delicious in person as it looks.

I also treated myself to this darling little glass charm. I can't own real chickens . . . yet . . . but I can wear one around my neck! This is a little glass chicken on a nest with tiny little wood beads that look like brown eggs. I ordered it from the famous Glastonbury Glassworks ... also a baker extraordinaire. It's creator is married to the even more famous and wonderful Live and Let Learn - mistress of creativity.

~ again, sorry for the crappy picture ~

Some cloud blue yarn I bought on sale. Compulsive. Any ideas?
On a tip from a friend, I stopped by a garage sale and the kind woman sold me all of this yarn for $10. The pink and blue will be donated to people who knit stuff for Olive Branch. The purple may be a Tangled Yoke Cardigan.
Now how is that for catching up. One last parting shot. We were out in New York for a Twins/Yankee game (we won the trip). We were trying to get on the field after the game when I turned to see Billy Baldwin. I panicked and started off in the opposite direction (I can't explain that. . . it's just what I do) and my husband says, in a loud voice, "Billy!! How the hell have you been?" And Billy went along with it, even going so far as to ask, "Did we act together?" OMG! The gloating that followed. The picture was taken by a friend because at this point I was hiding behind some seats . . . mortified.

It's kind of fun to be married to someone for 13 years and know that he can still surprise me!

Love ya!
Rani

ps. I think I just might finish that EZ sweater. It needs to be put to rest and given away. It makes me cry just to look at it.