What I did Yesterday...

I regularly get the LBY Studio blog from the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. This wee project caught my eye on Tuesday and appealed to me in many ways. It's about memories and I have a lot of them relating to knitting. My mother taught me to knit when I was six years old. She also owned a fiber retail business called By Hand in Philadelphia, PA when I was in my teens. I spent many an hour either knitting samples from our new yarns or helping our knitting customers to be more successful with their projects. The memories of being taught to knit and the various projects I worked on over the years is a very long thread of my life. When I was in England two years ago, I was working on a pair of kilt hose for my Da whilst riding the train down from London. A wee lassie watched me for awhile and then asked me what I was doing and how long I had been doing it. I thought about her questions and realized that I had been knitting at that point, for fifty years!

I also am enjoying passing those memories on to the next generation as I have taught both my daughter, Erin and my niece, Mimi to knit. I think both of them will far surpass my skills in the end. After all, Erin has become an extraordinary independent yarn dyer with her own business called The Asylum for Wayward Yarn and Mimi has just finished up a lace shawl project called Evenstar that also included 3000 beads.

So, onto this project. I grabbed some of Erin's hand dyed yarn that was leftover from a hat I knitted for my dear old friend, Rocky. I just cast on 15 stitches and did 4 rows of seed stitch and then 4 inches of stocking stitch and 4 more rows of seed stitch. After casting off, I folded the fabric in half and crocheted the seams and then the loop. Wallah!

There will be a meet and greet for this project at the studio in NYC in May, which sadly, I will not be able to attend. After that, the wee bags and their stories will go to the Wales National Wool Museum for an exhibit during the summer. I, of course will not be able to visit the museum while the exhibit is there, but the thought of my bag being part of it makes me smile. Hopefully I can convince Erin and Guy to make a run to Wales and see it for themselves.

Garden of the Gods - Colorado Springs

Yesterday, we took my niece/daughter, Leilani aka Mimi to the Garden of the Gods for a walk about in the glowy sun. She hadn't been there before and it was also Erin's first visit to the Garden that it wasn't actively snowing or a drive through in the dark.



Another giveaway, go check her blog out!

http://lazyquilter.blogspot.com/?spref=fb

The Birthday Surprise

The Birthday Girl, Erin and her Surprise, Leilani aka Mimi. Yesterday we had a very long adventure to celebrate the DD's birthday on the actual day of her birth. I very nearly didn't go as I had given up my ticket to Wicked for Eriy's cousin and I hadn't slept well the night before. So, I was grumpy and not so sure that I wanted to spend the whole day out of the house. In the end it was a good day had by all.

Anyhoo, we left the house at 5:30 am to drive to Boulder for breakfast with another birthday girl, Katte Beth (her's is on Monday) at the Boulder Tea House. Erin and I hit the WalMart in the Flat Irons before hand to finish up some grocery shopping in anticipation of potentially being snowed in. Mark, Darla and Aidan joined us as well as the surprise that wasn't, Leilani aka Mimi, who flew in the night before from CA and stayed at the Judd House until we all met up for breakfast.

After breakfast, I took the whole gang to Gypsy Wools also in Boulder, to look at and fondle fibery goodness. Darla found some bamboo and merino to spin together for socks. Aidan got a BIG foam mat for his needlefelting projects. I got some lovely lavender fiber to spin(think I will ply it with the silk/wool that I have going) and Katte got some yarns and patterns for a mitt and scarf set, that I am going to knit for her.













Then we headed into town for the Wicked Ticket Lottery sign-up. I gave up my ticket for Mimi, so she and Erin could see it together. Sadly, I didn't win a ticket in the lottery. That means I get to see Wicked in London next year. Sad for me, NOT! The gentleman with his back to us in the brown leather jacket in the waiting group is Don Stewart. We met this fellow conspirator while waiting in line to get in the lottery for tickets. He joined the three of us and we all entered for 2 tickets each. As we only needed the one for me we would give him the other and vice-versa. Don didn't win either, but he was going to try again last night and today as this is it. Wicked ends this evening and moves on to Cleveland...

Since the ticket lottery sign up started at 11:30am and the drawing was at Noon and the show didn't start until 2:00pm,we had time to kill. So, we hopped on the 16th Street Mall shuttle and went down to the Tattered Cover at 16th and Wynkoop in LoDo to peruse the books and be inside til the show started for the girls. We sat in the knitting/art/craft area on the second floor and rested the feetsie and looked at the books. The Joy of Sox which has two patterns by my friend, Gina House was on the shelf and it was the first time I got to really look this book over. I so want to add this book to my collection of knitting books. The girls left me at the Tattered Cover when it was time for the show and I pulled out my knitting (I had a pair of socks with me). I discovered a huge mistake and put them aside to peruse the magazines. My phone rang and it was Sheila checking to see if I had gotten a ticket. She also wanted me to know she and her friend, Sue were heading to The Lamb Shoppe for the afternoon stitch in. Since I was at loose ends, they very kindly came downtown and picked me up and took me with them. It was a very satisfactory way to spend the afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to the shop and my visit with Sheila and Sue.

After the girls picked me up, we headed home to the Springs in the snow storm. We had planned hand built pizzas for the supper, so we stopped to pick up the fixings at the Whole Foods after we got Pan's supper at the Pet'sMart. We were smart to stop even at the lateish hour as this is what we woke up to...