Fort Collins and Boulder

Yes, I know I said Denver was next but I was wrong. We did stay in Denver but drove up on Wednesday to Fort Collins and Boulder. This was an exciting stop, Lambspun. Terri immediately requested we go to this yarn shop when we were planning this trip. There are some books written about this shop and some of the people who work there. It was not a disappointment. This shop had several rooms crammed full of yarn including some of their house yarn.   This is what I got:

(wow!!  I tried to insert that picture 3 days ago about 5 different times and finally gave up.   It worked today!!!  lol)  This is 3D Prism, Red Fritillary which is 50% merino and 50% silk.  565 yards.   I think this is destined to make a wrap of some sort.   It is soooo soft.

As most of you know we have this game we play which consists of whoever buys the most is the winner.   And most of you know who the winner is every single time.   Well, it’s time to say she has been dethroned.   We have a new winner, Terri!!!   lol   I have a feeling that the magical air of being in a yarn shop she had read about several times influenced  her a tiny bit.   Terri is usually the most frugal of our group and something just came over her.   She bought some beautiful yarns and hopefully, she’ll show you what she bought on her blog, Bella Gubbio.

I realized something after Terri posted about our trip.   I don’t have any shots of the mountains except these two pictures taken from the front porch of Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder.

Can you imagine having this view at your job?   I thought I was lucky to have two huge windows looking out onto Main Street here in Norman but now I realize how small my view is.   It was a very overcast day so the colors are not as vivid as I had hoped.

Ok, back to the store.   I’ve seen their ad in the back of most knitting magazines for a few years now.   All I can say is WOW.   They have a huge selection of yarn.   It’s mostly no frills in the way of eye appeal but hey….isn’t it all about the yarn anyway??  lol   They had a big rack of Koigu in addition to every color of Cascade 220, Quattro and Tweed you’d ever want.   They had Brown Sheep, Tahki Donegal Tweed (yay!!!  this is what I was desperately searching for), Mountain Colors, Karabella, and now I’ve gone brain dead and can’t recall any other lines.   But believe me, it is worth a stop.   Have your list ready.    The ladies working there were very friendly.   I think this might have been the first shop where we ran into a former Okie.   Terri?  Marjie?   Do you remember?   Please keep in mind that I was searching for the yarn I want for the Susie Hoodie.   So I only bought single skeins to swatch later.   This is what I bought:

and this:  

The green that appears to be brown is actually an olive.   It’s Cascade 220 Tweed.   The reddish yarn is Tahki Donegal Tweed.   That is the yarn used in More Big Girl Knits for the Susie Hoodie.   I thought this was the same colorway but I found out at a later shop that it was not.   You know me and reds….I want tomato red because the blue reds look horrible on me.   So I bought this skein for swatching purposes only.   I’ll tell you about the swatching in a later post.

Here is another pic of Shuttles Spindles and Skeins:

We drove past the Windsor and Greely area on our way up to Fort Collins.   As it turns out, we were there the day before the horrible tornado that killed one man and destroyed many homes.   We were shopping in south Denver when Terri’s husband texted to ask if we were aware of the tornado.   No, we sure were not.   It wasn’t until later that evening that we saw on the news about all the destruction.   (Thank you Carolyn for caring enough to call and check on us.)

Next post:   Denver (I promise).

We’re Back!!

Ok, maybe you didn’t even know we were gone, huh? lol My #2 niece graduated from high school this weekend from Cheyenne Mountain High School. As #1 aunt I had to attend. Why not make it into a huge yarn shop crawl? That is exactly what we did. My best buds, Marjie, Karen and Terri, agreed to accompany me on this trip. We rented a mini van (Chrysler Town and Country) that stated it could hold 6 adults, 1 child and 4 suitcases. Hmmmmmmmm, that sounds like it would accommodate 4 adults, 4 suitcases and various bags of yarn with ease, right? ha!! While we were not jammed in – it was a bit cozy. Overall, I was very pleased with the van.

We left on Tuesday and took the Texas panhandle route up through Raton Pass in New Mexico. It is the most scenic route I know to take to Colorado. We took turns driving to allow each person adequate knitting/napping time. We left Oklahoma early enough that we were able to stop at our first yarn shop in Pueblo by late afternoon, Colorado Fiber Arts. Yay! This is what I got:

Pagewood Farm Denali in the Fruit Freeze colorway. I had never heard of this yarn until Shelly of Loops in Tulsa blogged about it a few days before we left on our trip. I think I saw this yarn at every shop we visited in Colorado. It is a 450 yard skein of 80% merino and 20% nylon.

This is a very cute shop with a vintage feel. The ladies working in this shop were very friendly and a pleasure to meet. They had so many samples knitted from their various yarns. I liked being able to feel and see what each yarn would look like knitted up.

We left Pueblo and stopped in Colorado Springs at Steaksmith, a local steak house. The steaks were extremely good and they had a nice salad bar to accompany our meal.

Next stop: Denver.

A Mandarin?

This was interesting. I’m sure my age, my current workplace and the fact that I’m in a second career strongly affected my outcome. 🙂

h2>I’m a Mandarin!

You’re an intellectual, and you’ve worked hard to get where you are now. You’re a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world’s problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you’re determined to try.

Talent: 41%
Lifer: 49%
Mandarin: 54%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

Sunday the 11th

Even though I’ve been pretty quiet (blogwise) I have been knitting. Remember the Woodland Shawl/Scarf I started with Dream in Color Smooshy? This is how much I’ve finished so far:

I think the middle picture gives the best representation of the true color.   I set this aside for awhile and recently picked it back up.  One thing I’m very proud of is I am ‘reading’ my knitting and if I start a stitch that doesn’t feel right, I can look and see without scrutinizing the pattern and see what I need to do next.   And it’s LACE!!!  lol   Have you noticed something is missing?   Yeah, Ma, no hands errr I mean lifeline!!    I used a lifeline until about 4-6 inches ago.   That is when I realized I was reading my knitting and felt very confident and comfortable with the pattern.   This isn’t to say I won’t use a lifeline again but on this project I think I’m safe.

Have I mentioned how much I love this yarn?   It has the best cush and spring I’ve felt in a very long time.  It is truly a joy to knit with.

I’ve been knitting quite a bit on the sofa in the evenings and Lexi gets more lap time.   She has been fairly tolerant of my knitting.  She does try to chew on the yarn or my needle cable if it’s right in front of her.   But she only “took off” once with my project.   Bless her little kitty heart.   Lucky for her and ME it remained on the needles.   It isn’t as easy for her to do when she’s on my lap but she did manage that one time.

Hope all of you Mom’s are having a very Happy Mother’s Day.

My sister, the knitter

I think somewhere back in my blog history I said my sister was a person who knits and not a knitter. That has changed. Today she took her car in to get the oil changed and the tires rotated. You know what that means….she was going to have to wait in a testosterone setting. She took her knitting with her. She sat between two men and pulled out her knitting. One man says to her: you aren’t going to knit in here are you? She chuckled and said: I sure am. And then she pulled out her knitting and proceeded to knit.