duchessofgravity

finished socks!

2009-07-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

i really thought these were going to take forever when i cast on for them but the knit up really quickly! they also took a lot less yarn than i thought they would. at the point when the below picture was taken i had only used 2 balls of yarn (1oog). only 3 inches of sock were knit from that 3rd ball of yarn. i finally have sock yarn leftovers!

and i only used 20g of the third ball. woo hoo. there is plenty of grey left for a pair or argyle socks! not that i'll be casting on for those any time soon. one pair of color work socks is enough for me right now.

i also thought i would have to crochet some elastic into the tops to keep them up but i wore them around the house yesterday evening (dave thought it was ridiculous to wear them in july) and they didn't slouch once! actually dave may have thought it ridiculous to wear them at all. we shall see if he still thinks that they are silly come december. mental note. get a nifty wool skirt!

i did have a bit of trouble with the calf shaping. first i knit it as directed but it didn't fit right. then i had an epiphany and knit it my own way and that didn't fit. finally i did a cross between the two and magic. it worked! after that these socks were a snap.

better photos to come soon i promise. i just couldn't wait til dave gets home to take them!

the details:
pattern:
lacey cables knee socks by susan gutperl
yarn:
sock it to me 4 ply by elann in grey heather used 120g (2.4 balls)
needles:
sole, back of leg to calf to shaping, and inside of picot hem on 0's, instep, front of leg throughout, and calf shaping on 1's.
modifications:
some kind of wacky increases at the back center to get enough stitches for 2 pattern motifs up the back. decreased those increases away after calf so socks would stay up. 2 pattern repeats after decreases before picot edge.

friday foto

2009-07-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

this is one of my favorite photos ever. several years ago i took a school trip to some telescopes down in new mexico with my photometry* class from C.U. we took a side trip into white sands national monument. we spent the day playing in the dunes, rolling and sliding downhill, making sand angels, and taking photos. i guess there had been a storm the night before because there was this giant puddle in the parking lot. pretty neat huh? if you ever get the opportunity to visit there do. it is absolutely beautiful.

*a fancy name for an astronomy science class where you use telescopes with spectrometers to take data and use computers to reduce a nights worth of freezing your butt off at the observatory into a stack of numbers :)

mary mary

2009-07-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

way back in february or something silly like that i planted my vegetable garden. we only have a patio so everything is in pots. but seeing as it hardly ever freezes i doubt the winter will be a problem next year. i love the climate here! we have such even temperatures that everything was just able to keep growing without a problem!

well this is how we started out

tomatoes on either end (cherry and early girl) with peppers in the middle (banana and jalapeno) around the tomatoes i planted green onion seeds thinking that we would have enough onion tops for a few baked potatoes this summer...

well just look at them now...

the onions are almost taking over. the good news is that they don't seem to be slowing down the tomatoes. and the onions seem to have dissuaded the aphids from taking over the tomatoes.

just a few more days and we'll be eating fresh tomato salad!

if anyone knows why those tomato leaves are curling like that and how i can correct this please let me know. it is really weird.

oh and the peppers

they hardly look like the same plants do they?
and neige just couldn't stay out of the at least one shot!

the peppers are still babies but when they grow there should be dozens. the plant is doing really well considering that it took a dive off the patio railing a few weeks ago during a bad windstorm. it just lost one branch but i thought it was a goner! it lives on the patio floor now!

we've also got a few herbs.

the mint, oregano, thyme, and sage went from this

to this!

the rosemary is doing well also

and of course you can't forget the flowers!

the nasturtiums i started from seeds are just beautiful. i haven't planted these since i was a kid at my grandmother's house. we had a whole row in the garden one year!

they have been blooming so prolifically that i can't keep up with pulling off old flowers. they are even going to seed! i hope the gardeners for the apartment complex won't be too angry when they come up in the downstairs flower bed next spring! the flowers smell so sweet. and i have heard you can even eat them! the best part, they are attracting hummingbirds.

although we have had a bit of an aphid problem the petunias and snow carpet are recovering nicely

i don't usually go for chemicals, but when after months of dish soap, vegetable oil, boiled garlic, spraying with water, organic commercial sprays, and lots of love were not working on the bugs i had to resign myself to using bomide. it seems to be working. i'll have to apply it once or twice more to be sure, but so far the plants look much happier. i had to throw out a couple of the plants that were too badly infested to save, which was truly sad. but hopefully if i get things under control i will be able to get a few more before the end of summer :) i'd love to hang a nice geranium from the ceiling and get another mum. and i really do miss the violas. they were so sweet.

bad socks!

2009-07-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

almost a year ago now i was working on my pomatomus socks when i realized that i had one sock with 67 stitches, and the other had 73...the pattern calls for 72 stitches around the leg. d'oh!

these guys promptly went in the bad knitting basket to think about what they had done.

when i cast on for the cappuccino socks last week i couldn't figure out what had happened to my size one addi's.
then i remembered.
so out they came.

the 73 stitch sock was an easy fix. i knit two stitches together. switched to my contrast yarn. and knit up the twisted ribbing.

the second sock, well that is going to take some frogging. i have to figure out where the last correct stitch count was and re-knit from there. in the meantime. check out that twisted stitch pattern. neat huh?

gosh it sure is a pain to p1, k1tbl over and over and over again :)

well i just could let well enough alone. i knit through the gimpiness and just held my bandaided finger out of the way and figured out that it was only in the last row that i got off on stitches. what an idiot. i could have been wearing these socks for a whole year! oh well. into the basket with you! i'll wind in ends another day!

from left to right:
hippo, colofornia, ditto, grumpy, rainbow

knitter down

2009-07-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

so dave and i went to the farmers market. collected fresh eggplant, zucchini, and mushrooms. and brought them home for dinner :)

but while i was slicing veggies i sliced my finger. oops. and it's my index on my left hand! you know what that means right? no knitting. at lease for a couple of days. dang-it. and i was doing so well on my socks. oh well.

so after i washed the blood off what did we do with those veggies?
well dave cubed up the rest (my chopping privileges have been revoked for a while.) and we tossed the pieces with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, some sea salt and fresh pepper, and some dry herbs. then, we roasted them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes (which was may have been a bit too long) and served them up with a box of celery, onion, and cornbread stuffing and a rotisserie chicken from the grocery. what can i say? sometimes i take shortcuts :)

finish it off with a glass of what we like to call 2-buck-chuck* and you're done.

so, what's a broken knitter to do?
see, i know you think all those socks i crank out are actually done when i post pictures.
well, i have a confession to make...

i actually have a few ends left to wind in :)

*there is a line of wine available at trader joe's by charles shaw nicknamed 2 buck chuck. it is called this obviously because it only costs $1.99. before you run screaming, it is actually ok. perfectly acceptable table wine. we usually keep a bottle around the house. the shiraz or cab sav. are both good. and this trip i picked up the sauv. blanc just to try. decent wine, though i doubt i would serve it for guests :)

cappucino

2009-07-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

so the plan is to knit 2 socks before the end of september.

first you have to make sense of the chart.

i know there are mistakes in that but don't worry i fixed 'em.

then you knit the world's smallest swatch.

i realized i was carrying the pattern color in the wrong hand because it just didn't pop. so i switched for the socks.

then you wind up 4 balls of yarn and cast on. at like midnight. cause it is finally july and you can.

i learned the last time that 4 balls of yarn.
2 socks.
and 2 circs.
is a recipe for disaster.
so i am working these socks one at a time. magic loop style. so that is still 2 socks on 2 circs. just separate.

so i knit the toes together. why not. then i separated my socks and started the first sock.

and then the second sock.
leapfrog fashion.
when one sock gets to half a pattern repeat then i set it down and knit a whole pattern repeat on the second sock. then i knit a whole pattern repeat on the first.

so far i am 3/4 and 1/2 of a repeat in.

but let me tell you. i usually carry the yarn in my right hand when i knit. my left is seriously bad at keeping tension. and holy cow is it sore. bring on the tiger balm cause these socks are going to give me a knitting related injury i can see it now.

the pattern is looking pretty good. i think these will definitely need blocking. especially the sides where the magic loop thing happens. sigh. i never had socks with ladders before. myst be the colorwork and uneven tension. but i still love the yarn!

quizzie

2009-07-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Your Result

You are a Knitter, with the capital K.
You are never found without needles and yarn in hand. Your favorite place is the yarn shop and you can never seem to leave without buying needles or wool or a pattern or those fantastic stich markers. Darn yarn fumes.
Your stash of yarn is the kind that spills out of closets and is taking over the house. And it's still growing. Beware of SABLE (Stash Aquisition Beyond Life Expectancy). You may need to bequeath yarn to people in your will.
Knitting is a lifestyle for you, not just a hobby. You do it for fun, to make presents, or to cool off. We need more of your kind in the world. Go start a knitting club at your school or local coffeshop.

well, that's me now you try :)

happy fourth of july.

friday foto

2009-07-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

it only seems fitting that since dee started all this that i show florida a little love.

mom came to visit us in orlando a little over a year ago. we took a trip down south to the everglades and while we were there we made the long trek down to key west.
we had some shrimp.
and some pie.
and drove back just in time for sunset.

sock yarn from your stash swap.

2009-07-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

can i first just say that this is the best idea for a swap ever! everyone has a little ball of wonderful in their stash that they frankly just don't want or would be willing to part with so why not just trade it out? right?

so i know get to the point already!

i had a note in the mailbox today that they had a package for me at the office. the girl sorting through her junk mail in the mailroom looked at me weird when i squealed...so what if i'm thirty. i can squeal when i know there is yarn waiting for me! then i was at the leasing office to get my package and they handed me some media mail package for dave. and i saw in the teetering pile of boxes that there was a message on the side of another box saying "sock yarn swap." so i asked if i could have my other package too? they said that dave's stupid book was all i had. but i knew different. that yarn had to be mine! and it was!

karen. my swap partner. is awesome! by the way. check it out!

super cute notes right?

and great color choices. this is so me!

karen, you must know someone who works at starbucks cause that lotion is the only stuff we have ever found that will seal up the destruction we put our hands through every day. and there are the sweetest little and i love the chocolate. i heart cadbury!

the tealight is neato i've seen the electric ones but have never had one. and the bird holder is great. it goes with the bird theme i've been leaning towards in my half of the office! and can i just say that the guys at the loopy ewe are brilliant. that book has spots to write all the stuff you ever needed to know about your socks, yarn, patterns, and stores in one convenient and cute little book!

and yes. how did she know that we were changing over to green here in gravity land! this project bag is absolutely perfect. and from what i have learned reading her blog; i bet she sewed it herself! its perfect. i can put that new little sock book, a pair of socks in progress, as well as my pattern in there and still have room to spare for a piece of emergency chocolate!

and the last and best, trekking. heck yeah! nuf said!

karen you rock. thank you so much!

W.T.F!

2009-07-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

i mean really.

is it so much to ask that a product does what it is intended to do without crapping out on you?
there i was knitting along minding my own business when...

yup.
thats a sock.
half done with my first ever lifestyle heel.
you know i don't like change. i am perfectly happy with my plain-jane ordinary short row heels. heck when i try something new something always goes wrong...
but i was willing to try.
you know me i don't frog things.
i just go with it.
well i had frogged this stupid heel 4 times to get it how i wanted it...until disaster struck.

yeah see there.

here lemme help you out.

the cable just popped out of the needle.
the stitches just zipped off the cable.
and the heel with to hell in a handbasket.

stinking knitpicks circs.
"durable fixed circular needles" my @ss.
i had heard that this happens.
but never to me.
not til now.

sigh.
you'll be hapy to know that the sock was saved.
the heel navigated without further drama and the second heel went great.

see

not half bad if i do say so myself. i may even use this method again. its relatively straightforward. no holes at the turns - as advertized. just don'tattempt it when you're sleep deprived like i was the first time.

i am loving this yarn. it's elann's sock it to me in grey heather.
love love love.
did i say love?

soft. it is feeling like it will be sturdy. i get great stitch definition. it doesn't squish down to nothing on my 0's but i get a nice solid fabric on my 1's too.
i'm so happy i might just have to cast on for some more socks.

with one of the other 3 colors i got :)
yeay.

and cause i know you want to know the recipe is lacy cable knee socks.
i can't wait to get a spiffy wool skirt to wear with these this winter.

oh and as for the needles...
fortunately i had a couple more sets. unfortunately another one of my 0's did the same thing. yesterday. i will be contacting the company after i cool off. but do i really want them to send me replacements? heck it will probably just happen again. sigh. time to buy more addi's. this would never happen with addi's.

and i would have used my addi's but they are tied up right now.
with another sock disaster.
but we're not gonna talk about that right now.
maybe someday i'll try to figure that one out.
in the meantime.

knit knit knit.

a little bit crazy

2009-06-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

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 say?
maybe i have more than one kind of problem :)

i told you i was gonna get into more of that yarn!

now here's the kicker.
i can't cast on til july...

why?

2009-06-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

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!

it's contagious

2009-06-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

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 :)

i'm 4!

2009-06-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

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.

finally

2009-06-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

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 the sole and knit one more row to bind off*.

and because of the mods i made i only had to use 2 balls of yarn!!! super slick huh? she gave me three to use but i'm sending the extra back to sue with the slippers. i used this same kind yarn to knit up mom's slippers that i took to her over vacation. we felted those up and she loves them. but she has homework. i forgot to take a photo. so she has to take one and send it to me. oops. we'll see how long that takes :) so at some indeterminate time in the future you will be able to see how this yarn felts up. i liked knitting with it for the most part. i don't know why but it made my nose itch. that usually only happens with angora. i don't get it :(

* i call this the faux bumper. for those of you not familiar with the pattern you can knit an extra row with tons of increases to make this big floppy "bumper" on the clog. i don't like it. you trip over it. but i like the color contrast. so this is what i came up with to combat klumsy slippers :)

a little knitting update

2009-06-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

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 in shoes. it looks neat too.

the stitches in my socks came out more lacey than the seem to have in the ones shown on knitty. i don't know why that is. but they came out great i think.

specs:
pattern: coupling
yarn: trekking xxl overdyed by yours truly.
needles: knitpicks nickel size 0
mods: used stitch pattern to create a diagonal pattern for toe and heel.

colorado trip part 5

2009-06-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

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. the beetle is a native species. it would be hard on the environment, really expensive, and almost impossible to do any kind of widespread spraying to counteract the pests. so they are just trying to save trees in certain areas. in some places they had already begun to cut down the dead trees for fire safety. i don' t know how they could ever cut them all down though. the range of the affected area is just incredible. i couldn't even begin to photograph it. it was sickening to even see.

just to give you an idea. several years ago mom and i took a long weekend to grand lake remember? well i took this photo back then.

i drove down this same road just two weeks ago and i don't think a single one of the above pine trees is still alive. if it is. it doesn't have long...

ok. that is enough of the depressing news.

near the top of the pass, well above treeline, there is a stopping point where you can see the alpine tundra ecosystem. it is incedible that these plants can even grow. miniaturized versions of plants you may know struggle to keep hold in high windsand freezing temperatures.

i wanted to yell at those idiots for walking on the tundra. it can take years for the plants to recover from a single footprint.

anyhoo. the soapbox is officially put away. i promise.

as you drive along trail ridge road you see these poles standing up beside the road...

well they mark the edge of the road so the snowplows don't fall off the side of the mountain. aren't they exciting!

we continued our drive up to the alpine visitor center. it is high. i mean really high there. i've been living at sea level or just about for a little over 2 years. i was huffing and puffing just to get air! forget climbing up to the top. i was happy to just look out the windows at the view! makes you cold just to see it doesn't it? can you believe that was taken in june?

afterleaving the visitor center we were headed out of the park. after a final stop at the grand lake visitor center that is. mom has to stamp her national park passport you know! can't miss out on that!

we did have to stop along the side of the road a couple of times though. whenever there is a creature out and about everyone stops to get a good look...

this time we were suprised with a special treat. we saw 6 moose that day! i have never seen a moose in r.m.n.p. the last time i saw one at all was about 8 years ago in yellowstone. of course then we didn't take a picture because we expected to see so many. this time. we took pictures!

this guy was grazing on the willows near the far edge of a meadow on the west side of the park.

and this little guy was wading through the stream with his momma. while we were watching the moose my mom overheard a little boy telling his mother that this was a special day. yes it was little guy.

colorado trip part 4

2009-06-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

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 :)

colorado trip part 3

2009-06-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

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 yarn leftover from my colofornia socks. maybe i can make him a teeney little pair :)

he's the new gravity mascot!

we looked around in all the shops we wanted and then it was time to grab snacks! we got a candy apple (granny smith with caramel rolled in pecan pieces) and a bag of candies from the old fashioned candy shop. they had a bunch of things i hadn't seen since the last time we were in estes! we grabbed lunch at a little italian bistro and headed back to the camp. mom and i played miniature golf - I THINK WE WERE BOTH AT LEAST 30 OVER PAR- and we watched the sun go down over the mountains. the deer and elk wandered through camp grazing on grass and flowers while we watched. it was a really neat place to be! i'd never been to the estes park location but we have stayed at the grand lake location a few times.

before we left saturday morning i made sure to take some last minute photos.

i used photoshop to stitch together the view from or cabin :)

as always, click for big

you just have to love the timer function on your camera :)

colorado trip part 2

2009-06-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

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 night. we had to get up early the next day for a tour of the denver mint. the denver location makes only coins. you get to see the rolls of metal they use to punch out blanks. the dies used to print on images and the whole operation in motion. our tour guide was very high energy and he made the tour a lot of fun. especially for the kiddos in the group.

what really blew my mind was seeing hundreds of shiny new coins rolling off conveyors into enormous bins. then later seeing those bins waiting on the loading dock for a truck. i don't have any pictures of the mint of course. they are more strict than the airport about what can be taken inside...and i understand why.

after leaving the mint we headed towards boulder. mom needed a new spine for her stunt kite. if i remember correctly dave crashed it and broke it. but i'm not telling her that. we had some fun wandering around the novelty, kite, and toy store: into the wind.

once upon a time i worked there. talk about a fun place to spend the summer :) but boy is that place noisy. there are wind chimes, and tambourines, drums, and xylophones. blocks and wind up toys, dice and bouncy balls. and that is just the start. there are kites hung on every flat surface and tilted at crazy angles from the ceiling. the two story storefront has brick walls and a wooden floor. yes it echoes. loudly. i used to leave work at night ot sit in my car in the quiet with my eyes closed for at least 15 minutes before i even attempted to drive. talk about sensory overload!

the store is located on the walking mall, pearl street. i remember walking along pearl before the shops opened. grabbing a coffee or just enjoying the flowers planted in the beds along the street. the shop guys and i would hit one of 3 or 4 favorite places for lunch most days. there was foolish craig's for burgers, sandwiches, or breakfast, bj's brewhouse for burgers or pizza and of course the occasional after work beer (i say occasional but the bartender usuall had my order up by the time i hit the bar), lucille's for the best creole food outside louisianna, and of course the last and the best: illegal petes for the best burritos anywhere, where mom, kay and i grabbed some lunch before heading out of town. if you're ever in the boulder area i highly reccomend grabbing a bite to eat at one of these places. they are the epitome of the pearl street experience for me.

on our way to estes we had decided to stop in and tour the celestial seasonings plant just outside boulder proper.

i had never been before and it is really neat to see. they have all of thier teas available to be tasted before the tour. they had several teas prepared but the real treat was picking your own favorite tea off the list and having they prepare acup just for you :)

i had no idea that there were so many. you only see a few of them at the grocery store!

i tried one of their new line of whole leaf teas that comes in a pyramid shaped tea bag. it was really delicious! i don't think that these are available in stores yet but they are definitely worth the wait. keep an eye on on the tea aisle.

after the tour i grabbed a box of one of dave's favorite flavors. he love's green tea with toasted rice and brews it by the pot at home. now he'll be able to take a box of tea bags to work with him for break time.

i also picked up some white tea chai. i love chai but this tea has such a subtle flavor. i can't wait to have another cup!

i also picked up a couple of treasures for my sock yarn swap from your stash partner. but i'm not telling what til she gets her package in the mail :)

of course cameras are not permitted on the tour so i don't have any pictures of the inside of the plant. but it really is neat. you walk past bundles of tea ingredients from all over the world. crates are stacked nearly two stories high and every few feet the scent changes. clove and hibiscus, then lemon grass and blueberry. i hope you'll get a chance to check this out if you're ever in the area.

they have a whole room where they keep only tea leaves. this is so that the tea does not take on the aroma of all the other botanicals in the plant. and since mint is so strong and would overpower everything else. they have a whole other room just for the mints (catnip, peppermint, and spearmint)! the mint room is a mind changing experience. and i mean that literally. my sinuses have never been so clear!

after leaving celestial seasonings we headed up to the mountains. mom had booked a cabin for us at the YMCA of the rockies on the west side of estes.

more about that later :)

colorado trip part 1

2009-06-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

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, and a dozen others we couldn't name because they weren't yet blooming, and a few i've never seen before.

she took this apartment because the leasing agent said she could plant anything she wanted to in those two beds - except corn. no hardship there. corn isn't very pretty. i just wish i had taken a photo the day i left. it had been raining in denver for a week or so and this bed was a riot of color.

her apartment backs up to an open courtyard/park that has a couple of ponds. the ponds attract geese and ducks. one of the neighbors likes to feed the geese. about two dozen geese stand at his window - looking in - until feeding time. twice a day.

this guy got there first.

the babies weren't in as big of a hurry. aren't they sweet?

going home

2009-06-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

it is always bittersweet traveling home. i've had such a nice visit here; but it has made me terribly homesick.
for colorado.
we love california and have enjoyed our time there so far. but i've never lived anywhere as long as i did in colorado. it will always be home.

mom and i have had a great visit. don't worry photos of our travels are soon to come. and of the goodies oh my goodness the goodies. i had to shift some of my suitcase contents into my carryone for fear of having and overweight suitcase!

so yeah

2009-06-09T14:54:00.000-07:00

i was going to leave those socks to think about what they had done...

well then i was knitting on these and i finished them up!

and then i just couldn't bear to leave the other socks unfinished.

and now they even fit right :)

and they get the neige stamp of approval.

now i just gotta do something about the empty needle situation.

re-thinking

2009-06-08T15:44:00.001-07:00

otherwise known as re-knitting...

what do you do when you knit a super secret pair of socks for a happy no occasion surprise and give them to their intended recipient only to have them say "i love them but..."

those dreaded words.

dave's new socks fit like a dream. the toe was not too tight. the foot was perfect the leg didn't slouch. not too tall. not too short. but i knit them with that spiffy new "y-shaped" heel. remember that? well i was thinking he always says socks feel too tight in the toe or heel so maybe if i did this trick they would feel better? apparently not. the heel was too "baggy."

boys.
and then he asks. get this. "can you fix it?" well yes. of course i can re-knit the whole leg of the socks.

why not?

well then i started thinking. i've read about afterthought heels. i never thought i would knit an afterthought heel. why would i? i mean you knit a sock - be it toe up or top down - the logical time to knit the heel is in the middle right? why do it after? so i looked it up again. and i decided. hell why not right? how hard can it be?

famous last words.

before:

pick up the stitches along the edge of the heel.

hold your breath

the heel

the hole

the mess after unraveling those bits of string. short rows are not fun to unravel from the wrong side by the way.

get the stitches all even and aligned with the toe

and repeat.

these are going in the bad knitting bin for a while. i stared at the cross eyed for almost 2 hours. i don't want to look at them for at least a week.

i'll let you know when i have an after photo for you...

and there had better not ever be another "but..."

shame

2009-06-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

i admit it was pride that drove me to haul out the sock yarn today. and a little bit of rivalry. but shame rules now. you see i thought i might have as many pair in my stash as dee. but i find my sock stash meager and at the same time shameful. i have not nearly as many pair as she, but far too many pair to actually knit... no more sock yarn for me. i can knit another 45 pair of socks. i currently have 3 pair on the needles.

i went through the rest of the stash and got out all the wool ease and all the other ick yarn from my stash and it is set aside to take to a charity craft thrift shop. now thats a good place to support. :) it also makes a little space in the stash :)

so i have a little space, tons of sock yarn, and i realized that i don't need any more sweater yarn either. i can make at least 5 or 8 sweaters easy from the stash. so no more. i have to be good when i go to the woolmarket! well....maybe i can spring for some nice heathery or tweedy brown wool for a cardigan. i've been dying to make a nice wool cardigan for years. i'll let you know what i find when i get back from colorado :)

thats right i forgot to mention. dave is going to be all by his lonesome for a week and a half while i head home :) mom made plans for my cousin to visit too! we're going thrift store shopping. woo hoo. and kay (cousin) has never been to denver so we're going to tour the denver mint and the celestial seasonings tea factory. i can't wait to hit the peppermint room. they say it is life altering. or at least it clears the sinuses...then we're going to hit my all time favorite restaurant, oscar blues. it's a lyons tradition for us. then it's off to estes park for a couple of days. we'll check out the wool market, go hiking in rocky mountain national park, and stop in on some of the cool little shops in estes. and if i'm lucky we'll hit the the candy apple place. yum. so that's the plan. at least for the first couple of days. we shall just have to wait and see what other mischief we get up to :)

i will take tons of pictures of course. i promise ;)