Colorado Weather, Gotta Love It!

We had a beautiful weekend here in Colorado. There was great company on Saturday, Lisa has pictures on her blog. She always remembers not only her camera, but also to actually take pictures! We had a Spin-In at the Llama store. I got quite a bit of the light cocoa brown Teasdale fleece spun up. After a very helpful tip from Anne, it was nice and thin. It's almost even as well. I spun a lot more after I got home as well. I should be plying it this weekend. I'm going to try a 3-ply, since I finally have yarn thin enough to do that without getting a super bulky finished project.

On Sunday my youngest son and I went to my daughters rugby game. This is a picture of the great weather and Pikes Peak from the stands. Pretty, no? And there were no major injuries during the game, which was great. Not even much blood :o)The wonderful weather lasted until today. I woke up to take a call from the place I work saying the site was closed, stay home. Now I don't know about you, but the feeling that I get when a "free" day appears makes me very happy indeed. I used to live for snow days when I was going to school, and I love them more as an adult. Yes indeed, a snow day. Actually, a blizzard day. By one o'clock, this is what my deck looked like:About 2' of snow on my table. The dog nearly vanished in the back yard when I let her out. The snow was up to her back, all I could see was the top of her cute little brown head. She's a Springer Spaniel, and was bouncing all over the yard. She absolutely loves snow, I had a hard time convincing her to come inside.
You would think a lot of knitting got done, but you'd be wrong. I got up late and then did a lot of nothing, and it felt really good. I did spend some time updating our friends and family on my son's last call from boot camp, and talked to a friend I haven't spoken with in way too long.

Late in the afternoon the snow stopped, the sky began to clear, and the shoveling began. I shoveled out my car so I can go to work tomorrow. I also shoveled a bunch of space by my mailbox, since I'm hoping a letter from Mike will show up there tomorrow, and I want the path clear for the mailman! I was really hoping for some mail from bootcamp today, but the mailmen took the day off too.
Shoveling the wet, heavy snow was a pain, but it had to be done. Here are a couple pictures of my reward:


A beautiful sunset sky. 

Fall? Really?

This is what fall looks like here in Colorado Springs. This is a picture I took of my front yard on Wednesday morning.Here's a picture I took on my way to work Thursday morning. Part of what I like about living here is that one day there are slidey streets and crappy weather that makes you want to hunker down at home with an afghan, tea, a good book, a classic movie, and of course your knitting...and the next day it's blue skies, sunshine and nice temperatures.
There has been some knitting this week, but not the bootcamp sweater or any helmet liners. I'm really not ready to admit that it's time to knit those, as if not knitting them somehow will change the fact the Mike is at Marine boot camp. Monday we did go to this buildingand said goodbye to him for 13 weeks. We thought we would be able to see his swearing in, but it turns out that had already happened earlier in the process. We did get a chance to visit with him for a bit, and I didn't cry, which surprised all of us. I had been carting my cell phone around with me since then (except the first day because I forgot to) in case he got an opportunity to call. He did get to call, but he called on the house phone at 7 pm last night, and neither Bob or I was home, so he got to talk to Matt. It was a 45 second call, all he was allotted, that went something like "I'm here, I"m fine, how did the Bears do?" He's on day 4, and I miss him a bunch.

Fall

I love fall, it's my very favorite season. For some reason, I seem to have more energy and get so much more done this time of year than any other. This includes knitting, but maybe not blogging. I have posted a couple of finished item photos, which feels great because it means something is done.
I am also getting the Twisted Stitcher group that used to meet on Friday mornings back together. For the time being, we will be meeting at the Pike's Perk on Academy just north of Vickers on Wednesday mornings at 8 am. I can only stay until 10:30, but y'all can come whenever and stay for however long. Everyone's invited, the more the merrier. I can't promise I'll be there every Wednesday right smack on time, but I am going to try!
I got some spinning done in the past couple of weeks, it's the gray Teasdale
and the blue sparkly mix from Estes Park. There is about 110 yards of each. I have no idea what to make. So naturally, I needed more roving from the store. This is a wool/silk mix called "denim". Seeing it in this picture shows how much I love these colors right now, it looks really good with the sweater yarn.It feels fabulous, and I am looking forward to seeing how it spins up. While at the store, I picked up this wool (which was on sale) for mittens. On the subject of roving that feels great, do you remember the roving we had processed up in Victor that was, let's say, a disappointment? Well, some other people had merino from the same flock, sheared by the same woman, processed at the same place and it turned out really fabulous. How weird is that? I will be trying to get a sample of what they ended up with and wander up to Victor to talk to the owners and see what the **** happened to ours. Stay tuned. (Hey WW, I lost your email address, tried to send an email with what I thought it was, don't know if I guessed right. Please get in touch with me, OK? I have a book you wanted to borrow.)
One of the things I want to learn in the next year is how to spin better. Not only more evenly, but how to get the colors looking the way I want to. I love the surprises I've had so far, but it would be nice to have more control.
The other current big project is the Trekking sweater. It's all bunched up on the circular needle at the bottom, but you get the idea.I'm knitting it top down and have finished the rolled neck, a few inches of each sleeve past the spot where it is divided into parts, and down to a few inches under the bust on the body. I used the short row bust shaping from this book and I must say it seems to fit very well so far. I love being able to try it on in progress, because I can see how far I have to go and what adjustments I need to make. I did some decreasing for the waist and was able to just try it on to see if I'd decreased enough or not. How cool is that? It's a nice easy knit for work, just seemingly endless no-brainer stocking stitch.
There are a couple more projects in the works. Our Saturday group is going to do a KnitAlong for this sweater starting in January. Some of us will not be changing the color chart, but there are a couple who plan to definitely mix it up. I'm planning on sticking with the pattern, but I have been known to veer from the path once or twice before and can't promise not to again. The box o' yarn for that is in my craft room, waiting patiently for it's turn on the needles.
But my biggest challenge for the next 13 weeks is to knit one helmet liner per week and finish this sweater. It will be just like the picture, but shorter, in red, and with no pockets. It might also get a cable around the bottom like the sleeve has, and may get clasps instead of buttons. But other than that, it will be just like the picture.
I have had a hard time blogging about this sweater and especially why I am knitting it. Some of you know the story, but most of you don't. Last July my oldest son told us that he was thinking about joining the military. There was much discussion and he did decide to join the Marine Corps Reserves. He has a 12 year plan and he has given careful consideration to this decision. We support his decision and are very proud of him. That doesn't mean I'm not worried. He is leaving for boot camp on Monday morning.
One of the things that was decided was that our family will be traveling to San Diego for his boot camp graduation. To keep my mind busy I decided to make myself a sweater that will be a challenge to knit to wear for the occasion. Then I got to thinking that seemed sort of self-centered and decided that knitting helmet liners would be a good idea also. The one per week of boot camp seemed reasonable to me, until I remembered I wanted to knit a whole sweater also. I did not think that my deadline was realistic, but my friends reminded me of my Olympic knitting, so now I think I can do it. After all, compared to boot camp this will be a snap.

Third and Final Trip Thoughts

Let's wrap up the trip details and move along to more current events. On Monday, the weather turned quite a bit cooler up north. The high was about 58 degrees; very, very chilly in the creek, I can tell you that. I took another drive and ended up here. It's a cute little yarn shop just outside of St. Germain, WI called Sutter's Golden Fleece. The nice ladies there took pity on me because of the cold and poured a nice, hot cup of really good coffee for me. I love the wildflower garden in front of the place, and can imagine what a relaxing place the front porch would be to knit on in better weather.We had a good visit and I was just about to purchase a ball of locally spun yarn as a souvenier, and got totally and completely side-tracked by this sweater kit. It's Trekking, which we all know I have a weakness for. I did buy the blue colorway, which will be great with jeans. The sweater is being knit as a top down raglan, I'm not using the many pieced pattern directions. The picture was taken when I got home, the kitty in the background is questioning my sanity. The rest of the day was spent beading the infernal green mobieus and taking a really nice walk around the property. Here are some pictures that do not show the incredible beauty of the place, but are enough to give you a hint.
Tuesday I got up early and drove back to my sister's house, and then went to the train station and caught a train to downtown Chicago. From there, it was a quick trip on the L to Midway airport, and a flight to Denver. My husband picked me up there and drove home. I think I spent over 16 hours travelling, but because of the great knitting time, it wasn't really much of an issue. All in all, it was a very fast, very wonderful trip, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.