Colorado, Part 1

We left bright and early last Thursday morning on our driving trip to Colorado - ok, it was 8:30, but that's pretty early for me. First stop was an hour and a half out in Llano, so the little girls could visit their great-grandmother.

(click any picture to see bigger)

Then it was back in the car, stopping for lunch at a Burger King play-place for some exercise

and on to Las Vegas where the temperature topped a whopping 111 (didn't get a pic of that; 104 was bad enough though)

before we stopped for the night in the relatively cool - only 107 - St. George, Utah. The girls were thrilled that there was a pool for swimming.

I was thrilled that there was air conditioning!

I thought St. George was approx. halfway to Loveland, but I was very wrong. Thursday was a 9-hour car day but Friday saw us spending a whopping 12 hours in the car.

Thank heavens for the car DVD with dual screens that we purchased before leaving.

The girls enjoyed their movies and hubby and I enjoyed the peace and tranquility that only Disney on headphones can bring.

We also picked up a few toys along the way. Naia got a word-cross book and Leia fell in love with one of those little eraser boards with the attached drawing stylus.

She spent over an hour contentedly drawing, which is a looooooong time for an almost 3-year old. Best $1 we spent on the trip so far!

Saturday started our Colorado fun.

We spent the day at Rachel's house, letting the girls get reacquainted. Once it cooled off, we headed for the local Fair, admiring the 3rd place ribbon Rach got for jewelry, non-silver;

another 3rd for jewelry, silver;

and a bright blue first place ribbon in photography.

The boys stayed on the 'right' side of the fence while the little girls played in the petting zoo.

We played carnival games - Addison and Naia each won a horse at the balloon dart game and all 3 got a ball in another booth - and visited all the animals in the barns, enjoying the giant fans that were keeping the air moving and the flies at a minimum.

John bought each girl a headband - maybe so we could find them more easily in the pre-fireworks crowd? Didn't matter the reason, the girls were all thrilled.

Tomorrow - Colorado, Part 2, the tourist edition.

Sew Compulsive

I seldom sew. My mother was an excellent seamstress - making matching outfits for all 8 of us kids at least twice a year, plus designing all our prom dresses - and taught me to sew when I was young, but it never really took. Over the years, I've forgotten a lot of what I once knew. I prefer crafts with a 'fudge' factor, where you don't have to be super precise to get a nice finished product.

But these past two days, I've been on a mission. My buddy Wenona gave me a pattern for t-shirt dresses. So cute! And easy enough that even I can pull them off. My problem now is that I can't seem (seam?) to stop. I think I've made 10 of these so far. I'd have a better idea, but Leia insists on wearing them as soon as they're done, swapping out an 'old' one (soooo 5 minutes ago) for the newest edition.

Leia and her friend, Hannah, in matching dresses.

All the t-shirts came from the clearance or sale rack at Target and the fabric was on sale at Joann's. The most I paid for a shirt was $4 - and the least was $1.50. And since I can get two dresses from a 1/2 yard of $6-7 a yard fabric, these dresses cost me almost nothing. I do love me a bargain!

And every seamstress needs a supervisor, right? Lily filled that position yesterday - although I have to admit she's not the brightest. Notice her bed? And the bright yellow pins sticking out everywhere? I tried moving her but she insisted on coming back.

Leanne kept me in line today, playing happily while I finished up two more dresses for the bigger girls. Maybe I should make her one (or two) for being such a good helper.

Weekend Review

First thing Saturday, I took the little girl to get her hair cut. Leia's hair was getting so long - and it's so curly - that trying to get it prettified every day was leading to some cranky hair combing sessions. Leia was a little fidgety until Summer gave her a spray bottle and towel to play with. After that, Leia didn't care how long the haircut took; she was having a great time.

Once that was done, hubby and I headed north on another antiquing mission. Since we had a late start - didn't get out of town until almost noon - we decided to head straight for Arroyo Grande and the antique stores we didn't have much time in on our last trip. I found some great tatting shuttles for $5 each (!! The next store we went to had them at $30 apiece. Score!) and a couple of nice vintage hooks. On Sunday, I found two more hooks tucked away with a crocheted butterfly and this colorful hexagon trivet. Love it! I'm definitely going to make a few of these . . . . some day.

Saturday night we spent at the 1880 Union Hotel in Los Alamos. We'd had lunch here on a previous trip, gotten a tour of the rooms and loved it. Our original plan had been to head further north from Arroyo Grande but . . . summer weekend . . . no reservations . . . State Fair in Paso Robles . . . . all added up to no rooms available in any of our favorite antiquing towns.

The 1880 Union had vacancies; we got to choose from several rooms and picked the Presidential Suite because it was niiiiiice and also because Lucas - our tour guide, bell hop, registrar and, later, dinner waiter - told us the bar noise might be kind of loud in the other 2 rooms. (More on that later.)

We had a living room with plasma TV, balcony overlooking the back yard bbq area, bedroom with stained glass window over the king size bed and a frosted window over the jacuzzi tub (next to the 2-person tiled shower.) Whoever designed this suite did an excellent job. It was a very pleasant blend of new and old - the door to the bathroom was left in original condition and the (original?) exposed brick over the bedroom windows was a very nice touch.

This was a great getaway spot that would have been absolutely perfect for us except for one minor, little, itty bitty detail that nobody mentioned when we made the reservation or when we checked in. The v.e.r.y. loud live band that set up in the dining room about 8 pm. And played v.e.r.y. loudly until 12:30 am. So loud that we could hear them over the noise of the TV that we'd turned up to try to drown them out. When I went down to inquire as to WTH was going on, I was told sorry, it's in our contract. At least I think that's what she said as we were screaming into each other's ears.

Overall, it was a great weekend. Just wish it had been a bit more peaceful. And sleepful.

2-2-Tunisian

Finally finished the shop sample for a class I'm teaching in two weeks. Can you say 'oopsie'?

I started this back in May with two totally different yarns, but just wasn't happy with it. Put it in time-out for a month (or two . . . ) before deciding to change yarns for a more dramatic color variation and switch up to a bigger hook. It's hard to go wrong with two colors of madelinetosh pashmina, with its blend of merino, silk and cashmere. And these colors were left over from the Brioche Cowl, so it's almost like using free yarn.

The name - 2-2-Tunisian Scarf - comes from the use of 2 colors, 2 pattern rows, and a 2-ended hook to make a reversible 2-sided scarf. Really pleased with how this turned out. A friend suggested turning up the ends to make pockets (folding it where the solid line of color is in the pattern.) The scarf is long enough so I'm seriously thinking about it . . . . .

Viva la Tour

The Tour de Fleece is done for this year and I love how much I was able to accomplish -

Left to right: 504 yards of superwash BFL from BeeMiceElf; 424 yards of Polworth in 'Caribbean' colorway; 200 yards of alpaca/Romney blend from Morro Fleece Works; and finally - 224 248 yards of a Spinderella mix in the colorway 'Harvest'.

For a grand total of 1352 yards. That's three-quarters of a mile, spun in just 22 days. If you consider that each skein is 2 threads plied together, the total was 2704 yards - or 1.5 MILES of spinning. I *love* the Tour.

Busy Day

Towels, gifted:
Fiber, spun:
Knitting, done.

I've had the woven towels finished for awhile, but was waiting until I'd given them to their recipients to share pictures. The pattern is from Webs (here) and details are on my Ravelry page (here). All three towels were done on the same warp; just the weft color changed in each one.

Started spinning the first of two 3-ounce batts from Spinderella - in 'Harvest' - that have been in my stash since 2006 or so. Love this colorway, especially how it sparkles. I'd been saving it for "special", for when I became a "better" spinner. Finally realized great fiber should be enjoyed (so I have an excuse to get more!)

Both fronts and backs are done on the Scarf Trick Sweater. On to the sleeves!

Spun, Plied and Done

It took every bit as long as I thought it would and maxed out my jumbo plying bobbin to the point that I had to wind the last 120+ yards into a center-pull ball and finish plying by hand. But it's done and I love all 504 yards of it.

Color is accurate in the top 2 pictures.

It hasn't told me what it wants to be yet . . . . a shawl? A vest? A really long scarf? Sooooo happy to have this done.

Wonder if I have time before the Tour ends to spin up another batt or two??

It Made Me

Want to see what jumped out of the stash and demanded to be spun today? I bought this 7 ounce batt from Morro Fleece Works at the Guild's fiber fest last year. I thought the colors were the most gorgeous thing I'd see all day.

I hadn't planned on spinning it for this year's Tour de Fleece but sometimes you just have to listen to the fiber when it calls to you. And once I started spinning, I couldn't stop. The fiber prep was so smooth, so even, so addictive. In less than a day this was spun, plied, washed, whacked, photographed and hung up to dry. 200 yards of 2-ply fuzzy alpaca/Romney goodness.

Wasn't sure what I was going to make with this, but its been whispering all night that it wants to be a scarf. Guess I better start looking for patterns.

Tour Progress

The sweater is coming along; not much done since class on Friday but I did get photographic evidence today. Still hoping to get this finished by the end of the Tour, but since I have little to no idea how to put sleeves in, I may be off by a day or so.

Today's BIG news is that I finished spinning all 9+ ounces of BeeMiceElf's 'Serene'. Whoohoo!! Planning to let this sit tomorrow in honor of the Tour's rest day, then start plying it on Tuesday. Sooooo pleased to have this done.

The colors in the first photo aren't accurate - bad lighting this time of day, I guess - so this is more what the yarn actually looks like. I still think it's Christmas-y.