Hat Season

The snow a couple of weeks ago clued us all in that it is getting to be hat weather here in Wyoming. Here are two of my latest projects:

This is the Four-Square hat designed by Jared Flood, aka Brooklyn Tweed. You use two different yarns and change color every 2 - 6 rows. The greyish color is an organic wool from New Zealand. The brown is from Knit Picks - their Peruivan wool. A very southern hemisphere hat. I knit this for the accountant for work - he has spent a lot of time with me recently helping me understand our accounting system and this was to thank him for his time and trouble.

This hat is from the recent Vogue Knitting magazine and it knit up soooo cute. This is for Autumn, the 3-year old daughter of a friend. How is this for a perfect birthday present? The inside yarn is wool/alpaca mix (and since we recently visited an Alpaca farm it is very appropriate) and the outside is a 100% wool. It looks very cute on Autumn.

Literate Knitter

I bought two books last night and finished one and am half-way through the other. Yeah, I know absoutly nothing about delayed gratification. I blame my mother and grandmother for not knowing when to close a book and go to bed. It's a curse, but it is better than some other curses I can think of.

The book I finished:

"Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair" by Crazy Aunt Purl. What a great book! Now, I consider myself to be a drunk knitter covered in dog hair (Aunt Purl goes for wine, I love my beer and vodka tonics) but I can identify with her. This funny woman can go thru a very trying time in her life and eventually take the time to laugh and find the humor in her situation. There are also some knitting patterns in the book - if you want to knit a cat tunnel that is. Actually, there are some great patterns in the book and I would love to knit the bracelet purse for someone.

The book I am halfway thru:
"Free-Range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot. This woman is a very funny writer and I have read all of her books. Take the time to read her essays - there are some great knitting ideas and concepts in them. My favorite thus far - sock yarn is the knitters equivalent to methadone - when you need a yarn "hit" then sock yarn fits the bill.

I love both of the blogs that these two woman write. Take the time to check them out.

Coming the mail soon.....
"It Itches" by Franklin Habit. It has been released and I have it pre-ordered so it should be on my door any day now. I love Franklin's cartoons about knitting and I love his sense of humor. Also out now is a "beef cake" calendar he did called "Men with Yarn". Oh la la.

Just a Little Snow

It started snowing overnight Thursday into Friday and by Sunday morning this is what it all looked like.

Here is Ron brushing off the car so we can go take the dogs to the park and go out to breakfast.






Here is a view of our backyard. I figure we have at least a foot of snow, it not more, on the railing of the deck.








This is Lucie at the dog park having a most wonderful time. I don't have a speed racer setting on my camera so getting photos of her is rather hard, but I think I was able to capture her joyfulness. She and Pershing had a great time at the park.

This was a wet, slushy snow, so by the time we finished at the park I had wet socks as the snow was deeper than my boots were high.

Saturday I held a Fiber to Fabric Festival for the Girl Scouts of Casper - the event went off quite well and everyone had a most excellent time. The 42 girls and adults that participated were able to learn spinning, weaving, wet and needle felting, knitting and crochet, Kool Aid dyeing, and they worked on Quilts for Newborns in need. My volunteers were wonderful and they had as much fun as the girl scouts did. I was one tired puppy Saturday night. Planning these events are a lot of work but they are very rewarding. However, Mother Nature sees fit to have it snow every time I plan one of these. Last year in October I held a Scouts Tee Off golf event and it snowed that morning. But, Wyoming scouts are tough and we golfed anyway. It is pretty much a crap shoot tho with any event held in October. But with my luck, even if I hold an event in July it will still snow.

I am starting to knit Christmas presents. I have ideas of what I want to knit for people, I just have to find the time to work on them. I knit myself a pair of fingerless gloves out of a llama/silk yarn I bought the last time I was in Boulder. Very warm yarn - in fact, I am wearing them as I type this out. My office gets kind of cold and my heater unit is behind me so the back of my chair gets warm but the front of me stays cold.

Ok, I thought that all of this snow and cold and such like was supposed to kill off the flies!! No such luck. I have a really pesky one in my office right now and I'm ready to go postal on the guy.

Tools of the Trade

I've come to realize that my two hobbies have A LOT of stuff associated with them. Needles & Pens, Yarn & Paper, Patterns & Pictures, both use sissors. Needless to say I have to haul all of this around when I go to events and classes.

Last night was the first night of the knitting class I teach at Casper College. We have a huge class this semester - woo hoo! Darlene is teaching 5 new crocheters and I have 10 (yes, count them, 10) new knitters. And 4 of them are teenagers! This will be the largest group of new knitters I have had to teach - but I think I shall be able to manage.

On the first night of class I always haul everything to show the students what this new hobby involves. They get to see and feel and squish all the different types of yarn - lace, fingering, sport, worsted, bulky, wool, cotton, alpaca, llama, silk, bison, seacell, hemp, etc. They get to see all of the types of tools - needles (straight, circular, double pointed), gauges, rulers, cable needles, yarn needles, stitch holders, stitch markers. And they get to see the finished projects - I tear apart my house pulling out scarves, hats, gloves, sweaters, dish clothes, socks, shawls, blankets, and the like. The fall semester always has more of the finished projects to display as I am knitting Christmas presents. The spring semester does not have a much - just photos. I try not to overwhelm everyone with all of this - I just try to get them excited about the semester and all of the cool projects they get to create.

Tonight I am off to a scrapbooking retreat for the weekend. Instead of yarn and needles, my car is now loaded with paper, albums, and photos. We will be up on Casper Mountain for the next 48 hours! The golf pro claims that this is just an excuse for us girls to escape and drink beer for the weekend. He is right - I do have beer in the car. But we will be doing a lot of scrapbooking! I plan on getting my knitting album caught up, and I will also be working on the album from when I did my year abroad in 1994. Talk about a trip down memory lane.

Maybe I'll have photos to post of my adventures. For a scrapbooker I sure hate to take photos.

To keep you amused until then, here is photo of my mom wearing the shawl I knit her. It is out of Malabrigo yarn - the wool/silk blend. Yummy. And this is the Clapotis Scarf/Shawl:

Pass the Butter...

Spud of the West, aka Dr. Potatohead, recently had a birthday and I tend to knit her less than functional items. That is what friends are for.

A couple of years ago she received this:

Every mad scientist need a knit double helix of their very own. Here is Spud's under the microscope. They always look larger under the microscope.

This year she received....

Ain't he cute? As Mr. Potatohead still resides near Boston and Dr. Potatohead is in Gunnison for another year I thought she needed a little lobster to remind her of home. I bet her students really wonder about their professor. I now have to start looking for next year's pattern.

The Continuing Education catalog came out last week and the knitting class I teach is listed once again. I can hardly wait for the new crop of knitters to come to class and I can warp their little minds, I mean introduce them to the wonders of knitting.

I am very excited about taking a yarn dyeing class this weekend at Dancing Sheep. The instructor is from Thermopolis and sells her own line of hand-dyed yarns and fibers. This should be really fun.

In case I have yet to mention it here, Lucie is a wingnut! Yep, our little bundle of oddness is outdoing herself every day. Now, we knew that Lucie see dogs and animals on the TV - which means we have to block Animal Planet. But the Olympics have added to the list of "Things not to watch when Lucie is in the room". Anything to do with horses: dressage, jumping, pommel horse (yes, you read that right). She barked a little bit at the swimming but that might have been a leftover from the dressage. I was watching "Forest Gump" last night and whenever Forest ran she went a little nuts as well. Also, the scene where Jenny is throwing rocks at her old house - that set Lucie off too. (BTW - my favorite line from Forest Gump: "Sometimes there are just not enough rocks.") Pershing ignores the TV unless a doorbell rings on some show. Oh, and NBC aired some commercial for an upcoming series that had some high pitched noises at the beginning and that really wigged them out. Needless to say, this adds a whole new dimension to our TV viewing. And I don't care if shows are aired in HD - it doesn't matter when your screen is covered in nose prints!

Knitting Odds and Ends

Ok, so the reason I have not been blogging is 1) sheer laziness (I'll be honest), 2) I really do not have that much to say, and 3) I've been busy knitting. So I won't keep you all waiting any longer, here are some pictures of my recent knitting adventures:

Two Cable knit headbands. The green band on the left is out of Hempathy yarn (a cotton, hemp mix) and the red headband is 100% cotton. I love wearing them. You can't see the ties, but they are i-cord. (The headbands are "posed" on a lazy kate.)

Pershing modeling a scarf I knit. In my knitting classes at Casper College we do a scarf out of some sort of novelty yarn (like a fun fun, ribbon yarn, etc) and they have to pick two separate yarns to learn how to change and carry different colors/yarns. This was the sample I knit along with the class this past semester.

Socks, socks, socks. Yes, I do love to knit socks. The first pair are for me (I do so love selfish knitting). They knit up in this fair isle pattern in the browns and greens. I do so love these socks.

This are Primavera Socks. I didn't download the closeup but there is a pattern of sorts. These are knit out of Tofutsies.

Finally, my Mexico socks out of Regia yarn. The yarn band indicates that thier colorways are for the flag colors of various nations. These are Mexico, and not the North Pole as one might initially think. I think these will be a gift.

My life is not all knitting. Here is some wool I spun up. It is a wool, silk mix from Lucy's Sheep Camp in Thermopolis, WY where they dye the wool. Beautiful. I have no idea what I'll do with this yarn...

Finally, the baby blankets. As mentioned in a previous blog there are several babies due this fall. These two blankets are for the twins my cousin is expecting - a boy and a girl. The yarn is Universal. I purchased the yarn when I was in Tempe for the Ironman. They are so beautiful and so soft - perfect for a set of newborns in New Jersey.

I have knit some other stuff as well but don't have the photos yet and/or they are presents and have to be mailed off before I can post the photos. I have several other projects on the needles so I have plently to keep me busy.

In case anyone was concerned, the golf course is back to normal, and perhas a tad better, after the flooding we had in early June. We just finished hosting our largest tournament and the summer season is starting to wind down. Yes, you read correctly. School starts on the 18th of August around here and teachers have to be back the week before so we have only 3 more weeks of summer before we loose all our staff.

I did host a summer scrapbooking party at my house in June and we scrapped all day long in the A/C. I finished the Ironman scrapbook for Dave and am debating when to give it to him. I'll be home over Labor Day weekend for a wedding and would love to give it to him then (I am very impatient). I should wait until Christmas, but I doubt I will make it that long. I am going to a Girls Night Out scrapping this Friday night and will work on some more albums. It is a wonder I have time to work. Speaking of, I should probably get back to it.

Casper Yacht Club

It has been a very wet spring here in Casper - so wet in fact that yesterday the Elkhorn Creek overflowed its banks and flooded our golf course. It is rather disturbing to see whitewater where the driving range is/was. The fantablous grounds crew is pumping our bunkers, checking out the erosion around the bridges and just working their arses off getting the course back into shape before our big tournament next week. We were supposed to have a tournament today, but as we don't have boats to rent to the golfers, they are across town playing golf. Check out the coverage in the local paper.

We have also been installing new software at work so between the conversion process, the rain, and everything I will be working many more hours than I am used to. Thankfully I have a wonderful yarn escape! Tomorrow I get to work at one of the LYS!! Charlotte needs me to cover the store tomorrow so darn it all, I will have to spend the entire day in a yarn store. Mom says is like having the fox guard the chicken coop, but I think I will be able to restrain myself. I will be teaching a cable knit class at the end of June so I will probably be playing with fiber and figuring out a pattern. I knit a really cute cable headband this week - pictures are still on the camera - out of a poppy red cotton yarn (the yarn label is also at home - sorry for the vague details for those that care). I have also been doing some spinning this week. I purchased some roving from Lucy's Sheep Camp (out of Thermopolis, WY) and have spun up one bobbin so far. I also took a drop spinning class last night - I needed a refresher on the drop spindle - and it was much easier than I remember. Thanks Rebecca for being a most excellent teacher!!