lace in progress

So this first photo has my class swatch at the top in the tanish brown alpaca, doesn't look so great all bunched up and small, but really it was pretty good - there just isn't much I want to do with it - the bottom, is 2 and a half hours of knitting into my lace scarf with double strands of lace weight cashmere. I figure I can do 7 or 8 repeats of the 72 row pattern (shown on the side) before I need to bind off in lace pattern , which should make it a nice long 6' scarf. I am allowing myself one hour every morning to work on the scarf, since there is still christmas knitting to do. I figure that by the end of December it will be done - it is going pretty fast!

Down here is a close up of the pattern, the first 24 rows plus border and first two corners - next time I will have to get Bill to stretch it for me, so the pattern shows up a bit better . . .

That's all for now!
Have a good week!

spoiled with coffee

Well, the coffee swap is over and here are the spoils - thanks to Jess!! There is the minnesota cup (she is from St. Paul) that will be going into the coffee cup rotation at home! A pound of wonderfully fragrant french roast coffee - my favorite! I am very excited about the coffee, especially since it is supposed to turn cold tonight and snow. Nothing is better then yummy warm coffee, knitting and snow. Two skeins of beautiful Atacama alpaca yarn - in blue/black - I love this yarn, but have never seen this color before, its beautiful!! Matching blue stitch markers, I can never have too many, and I am trying to banish all the plastic ones for cool ones, so this should help! Some wonderful chocolate in three different varieties - and I wonder why I run - there is chocolate with caramel, dark chocolate truffles and chocolate covered cashews, which my husband will be trying to steal (and they are great, I snuck one, but promise it won't ruin my dinner) and the card was so cute it is sitting between the truffles and the cashews. Thanks Jess!! The coffee swap was really fun - I look forward to doing it again in the spring!

lace knitting

So this morning, I jumped out of bed and landed at my LYS for a lace knitting workshop with Galena Skaska. I was really nervous because I missed the first day of the two day workshop, she is Russian so a little difficult to understand and a little gruff, and everyone has a head start on me. This workshop was for knitting russian lace warm shawls - which to the rest of us is a scarf knit out of lace weight cashmere. These shawls are knit in one piece - start with the bottom border, turn the corners, add the body and continue the border as you are knitting the shawl - no grafting borders and pieces. Everything was also done on double pointed needles - no circulars for this class, kinda scary - who wants to drop a stitch or two while knitting 55-63 stitchs on a size three dpn. While we practiced for a warm shawl, everything was related to gossimer shawls - which are also knit in one piece. Then I learned that Orenberg shawls are the ones knit in 5 seperate pieces and assembled. It was a wonderful and inspiring class. As it turned out, my previous lace experience worked to my advantage and I was able to pick up the technique and even demonstrate the knitting of the third and fourth corners of my square. While I came away with a not very exciting looking square with lace teeth, I was really glad that I took the class. It was so interesting to hear about russian lace knitting, look at some of the beautiful examples that she had brought with her, learn about the techniques -- especially lace blocking (who knew that nylon twine was the key!) -- of course get some good lace shawl patterns; warm, gossimer and orenberg and inspiration. As soon as the holiday knitting is done, more lace, more lace, more lace. Maybe tomorrow I will post my swatch . . .

the punk tree is up . ..

I am so very excited - after a long day yesterday, of spray painting clear christmas balls, then spraying them with
spray adhesive and dipping them in glitter and then sealing them with polyurathane (not sure on the spelling of that one!) The punk trees are up in both sunneshine stores! The black on the silver trees looks great! You do have to look closely to see the skulls on the christmas balls and the necklaces hanging from the trees (and there are some black hearts on there for balance as well) So only those with a keen sense of observation will get it, but they are probably the only ones who deserve it, too!
And yes, the balls right below are the ones that I made - who says black isn't a christmas color!
Maybe there will be a knitting post next time!
Have a great weekend!

christmas is coming . . .

Yesterday, it finally felt like the beginning of the christmas season! The tree is up and our little house is beginning to smell like pine from the tree - we hunted the tree last weekend just outside Pine, Colorado. It was so fun - but there are no photos as the camera broke and wouldn't focus. Somehow, it just needed a good cleaning and is back on track now. I had to post a christmas tree photo - it is so cute and all the ornaments and presents.

Yesterday was also the first day that I began to wrap all the presents that I have purchased/made. I think my little felt flowers made the packages look cute and special (and probably a little dorky).

No knitting posts yet - working on a surprise for Rachel - it isn't perfect but its fun and her box has to go out tomorrow! Did finish my mom's knucks, but haven't woven in the ends yet - that leaves me with three (and one pair to fix) pairs of mittens/knucks to make before christmas - I am feeling pretty good about that!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

the indulgent hat, charity knitting, and a rant!

So these little guys are my charity hats for the season - I did them with two handed fair-isle knitting, I would not have put them up but the colors worked out so well, I am enjoying looking at them. I really wanted to practice my two handed knitting and this time the tension really worked out for me :) Plus, it gives me just one second to jump on a soap box and say that I am very proud to be a knitter because of all the charity knitting that goes on. Everyone has their cause, does their thing, but it is nice to see that people with talent give to those who are in need. And there is nothing in this to make anyone feel badly - it seems that when we can, we do - not every cause, not every time, just when it is heartfelt. These hats are going to knit for the homeless tomorrow morning. It has been really cold here - so there will be four people with a warmer heads!

So to balance out the charity hat, there is the hat of ultimate indulgence! I bought this cashmere on sale at PurlSoHo last year and it has been sitting in my stash calling out to me since then, It has gotten so cold here - unusually cold and I was wishing for a black hat, when I found this pattern on line and fell in love. I figured there was no better time then now. This was thursday and we were leaving for our tree hunting expedition on sunday, plenty of time. I finished it on saturday morning, just in time to wear to work! I love it - it fits perfectly - it is basic black - so it goes with everything - its cute and its warm, what could be better!! (More on tree hunting later . . .)

Finally, the promised rant! So, we get our first christmas card of the season on saturday - and it was address to Bill Meyer!! Not Sunne and Bill, not the Meyers, the Meyer Family - AHHHH! And this is one of Bill's good friends - we have to go to her little brother's wedding in January and I am petty, but still pissed that I wasn't referenced on the card! This is our fifth christmas together (although for two Bill was in Antarctica) so its not like I am a new addition!! Ahhh! Cranky!!
Phew, much better now -- thanks for listening!

coffee swap!

Sooo, for the coffee swap there was a contest about your favorite place to get coffee. Mine is at home, generally in bed with my husband. As much as I begged, he was not game for the photo of that. Kinda funny, since I am sure I have much worse morning bed head then he does -- but I do respect our privacy.

So here is a photo of our morning coffee this morning, in our favorite mugs, and the tote from the little indie shop where I buy our coffee. The blue and black mug I made in ceramic in college - that is Bill's cup. I get the "wake up sunshine" -- its not spelled quite right, but then it never is!

The tote says "Boulder invented the organic half skim (skinny) soy milk half calf (schizo) double dry ristretto fair-trade shade-grown green chai mate cappuccino." Which pretty much sums up Boulder, but damn if they don't have good coffee there -- and I am all about the little indie places. The back of the bag list all the indie coffee shops in Boulder. I think this is a great idea and maybe some of the other indie owners in other places could band together and support each other, plus the tote is a great grocery bag -- when not used to tote yarn around.

Well, I am not sure if this will count as my entry - but there you go!
Have a nice and well caffinated weekend!