duchessofgravity

a lotta bit fun a while back i joined the sock.knitters.anonymous. group over on ravelry. cause i gotta admit. i have a problem. they have these neat sockdown challenges that encourage you to stretch your knitting wings a bit. so far i haven't joined in, but the july challenge is to knit socks using fairisle, colorwork, or intarsia! now you may remember that once upon a time i did a little bit of this . and it was tough. but it was great. having conquered my fear of lace i think it's time to face a little more of my fear. i've wanted to knit the venezia sweater from interweave knits - well since it came out. but i just can't bring myself to do it. it's huge. but socks. now that's doable. my plan. knit a pair of socks using the charts from venezia i want to stick to two colors so i don't lose my mind. more than i already have that is. so here goes nothing! whadda ya think? good color choices? the color names are coffee bean and latte. hey, what can i s...

where'd all that stuff come from? what's going on here? why the face lift? because it was time i've been wanting to share my photography for a while. so check out those boxes up top. they will take you to my flickr photos. i never got around to posting pics from my trip to europe or a lot of other things so now i can just dump 'em in there. eventually they will all be there so check 'em out! i needed to get a bit more organized. and heck there's some neat groups out there i wanted to join. and i've been a little stuck on green lately. so done, done, and done. sigh. i've been in front of the computer for a couple three days now. so now i think i'm gonna go knit . i'll tell you about the disaster when i've had a little time to cool off!

some people are mixing things up a bit and sometimes that is all it takes. please excuse the mess while gravity goes green. edit: well we're getting there. i have to wait til my resident genius gets back from his business trip to work out a couple of kinks but i mostly like it :)

so i missed my bloggversary by 16 days...but in my defense i was off having fun and just now realized. so yippee! 4 years with only a few hiccups along the way :) thanks for reading.

well, "finally" is what sue of mew mew's will say when she receives a package in the mail next week :) you see the thanksgiving before last i was in colorado. and i offered to knit up new store sample clogs for her when i stopped in to the shop. well. the yarn went into the suitcase. then into the stash. and i promptly forgot. because who thinks of felted wool clogs in orlando? right? well i just saw sue week before last. and guess what! they're done! and they're my colors. but alas i don't get to keep them. project specs: pattern: fiber trends felted clog women's size medium. yarn: kraemer yarns mauch chunky single stranded, mc - kiwi, cc - buterscotch needles: boye size 13 interchangeables (ick i know but i only use them for felting) modifications: i knit the inner sole from the cc. the upper clog from the mc. then the cuff in the cc. i then knit the outer clog (exceptt fo rthe last row) in the mc. I knit that last row in the cc. then attached th...

well on the return trip i didn't have a window seat and i guess it is just as well. it was cloudy the whole way back. i did get to finish up my colofornia socks though check them out! i have been reading cookie a's sock book. and i had been thinking about how to make stitch patterns do more than just cover an area knitted fabric. i played with several different ideas and came up withthe following: i started the stitch pattern at te top f the toe and created a diagonal triangle out from the center of the toe by tiling stitch pattern components. here i'm not explainin gwell check out the original pattern here . and take a look at my notes: see how the pattern lends itself to the modification i made? i really like the pointy toe. as i worked along i decided i had to change the heel up a bit too! i inverted the changes i made to the pattern on the toes for the heel. i wanted a longer stretch of stockinette on the heel so that the socks would wear a little more smoothly i...

after leaving the wool market we headed up to rocky mountain national park . i never get tired of this place and will always go back whenever i am in colorado. after renewing my annual pass we drove along trail ridge road through the park. mom an i have a favorite route back from estes park. it involves driving through r.m.n.p. from east to west along trail ridge road, down through winter park, then east along i-70. this is the long way for sure. but it is just beautiful. as we drove through the park we stopped at all my favorite pull offs for photos. i think i have these same photos over and over. the trees grow. the seasons change but they are about the same every time! there are a few pines in the foreground that look pretty bad. they are just a few of the trees in the park that are affected by the mountain pine beetle infestation that is terrorizing the rocky mountains. as we traversed the park it jut got worse and worse. there are thousands of acres of dead trees....

on our last day in estes we headed over to the estes park wool market . ive been a couple of other years and i was really looking forward to getting about a sweater's worth of nice wool. rememebr that? well i didn't get anything. not one stinking thing. but i did make quite a few new friends :) that guy on my right was blowing in my ear! dontcha just want to hug them all! bye guys :)

when we got to estes we hit the grocery store for firewood, marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers... kay had never had a real smore before! we then headed up to the y-camp to settle in for the night. my first morning in estes park at the y-camp started bright and early. mom woke me with the birdies. or even a little before to watch the sunrise. i love how the snow on the mountains goes all pink at sunrise for breakfast we had fruit salad and bagel pieces fried in butter. if you've never tried this, do. it is just decadent. obviously the diet was on hold for this trip! we headed in to town to do a little window shopping. it is so fun to wander in the shops up there. there are so many pretty things to look at and so many touristy junk shops. it is highly entertaining! i only gave in to the cheese factor once this trip. it is always so hard. but look at this little guy. isn't he cute. he's only about 2 inches tall. i think he needs socks. i have tons of ya...

the day I arrived my mom, cousin kay, aunt judy, and i headed off for one of our favorite pastimes. thrift store shopping. there are quite a few of these in the denver area and we just love to see what treasures we will turn up. i think mom's wardrobe is comprised almost entirely of thrifted clothing. :) I found a few sleeveless tops to fluff out my summer wardrobe. but my super score was a set of 4 cappucino cups "cappucino please" and a teapot. can you guess what i spent on these 5 pieces? i doubt it. you're going to guess too high. i just know it! i spent a grand total of $3.10 can you believe it? the cups were $.80 apiece, the teapot a whopping $3.00. it was all on sale for half price! i also picked up a couple of neat children's birding books. and a copy of tasha tudor's garden . it's a beautiful book . i'm ready to head out for more pots to plant just everything i can on my patio! after hitting several thrift stores we decided to call it a n...

a couple of weeks ago i got up at o-dark-thirty to hop a plane to colorado. i cast on for a new pair of socks while i was waiting for my plane. and got started with my tunes going on the i-pod... and i knit, and i knit. i boarded the plane, and i knit some more. i finally looked up from my knitting... and it was almost time to land. who knew. good music and good yarn. what a wonderful combination. mom has moved since i left colorado. i finally got to see her new place. can you tell why she picked it? can you tell we're related? not just the haircut, but our insatiable love of all things growing. pansies, cosmos, shasta daisies, and icelandic poppies bird of paradise, shasta daisies, lime tree, peonies, broccoli and cauliflower, delphinium, flax, nasturtium, zucchini, summer squash, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, sugar snap peas, bush beans, columbine, snap dragon, 3 kinds of roses, dusty miller, red and green leaf lettuces, carnations, holly hocks, tulips, daffodils, violas, an...