A picture of health

I've made two visits to the vet in the last couple of weeks. It was supposed to be one trip for our annual checkup and shots, but Xena decided she was not interested in a trip to the vet with the kittens, so she went a week later. I'm happy to report that all three girls are very healthy - the vet even said that Xena, who is 12, had bloodwork of a much younger cat. She's a very svelte 7 pounds.



Ashford went first in during the kitten's visit to the vet. She weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds.



I knew we were in for a scolding when Purl came out of the carrier and the vet made the comment, "oh, she's much bigger than Ashford!" Which in her defense, she is a much bigger cat - look at this giant paw.



Purl weighed in at a hefty 10.2 pounds. The doctor advised us that she needed to stay active to keep her from getting pudgy. It's a good thing she loves playing fetch!

The day the kittens went to the vet, I decided that the Xterra needed to be retired.



I loved this car so it was a tough decision. But the cost of making the repairs it needed almost equaled what it was worth. So, I went car shopping, which I absolutely hate doing, and came home with a 2008 Subaru Tribeca.



I'm very happy with my purchase. It is quite posh compared to the Xterra...leather seats with seat warmers, a connection for my iPod and a control panel that could launch the space shuttle. And the best part - a remote starter! My dream come true during the winter time. It will be so nice to leave my office and get into a warm car.



With all of the vet-going and car-buying excitement, I have managed to get some knitting and spinning done.

This...


(superwash Merino from Pigeonroof Studios)

became this...



I finished a pair of socks. Happy birthday, Mom!



These are Swirls Socks from The Loopy Ewe Sock Club. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill. I'll be making a pair of these for myself. I love this pattern!

This is the first of 26 squares for my Barn Raising Quilt from the book Knitalong. I'll be making a square each time I complete a pair of socks. My expected finish date is sometime in early 2049.



I've also been working on a sweater for me. This is the Mr. Greenjeans sweater.



I'm throwing a bit of caution to the wind because my gauge is a bit tighter than what I should be getting...wait for the collective gasp from the knitters who read this blog. For the non-knitters, a conscientious knitter measures the number of stitches the get per inch as they knit to make sure the final knitted product turns out the size you want it to. It's really important when you make a sweater. I have chosen to ignore that my gauge is tighter than it should be because the size I chose to make was going to be a little bit bigger than I needed, so I hope it will turn out to be the perfect size. I'll keep you posted on the progress. I should be finishing this sweater at about the same time as the Barn Raising Quilt.



Purl would like to dispel any rumors that might be started because of this blog that she is overweight. While she weighs more than 2 pounds more than each of her sisters, she would like to point out that she is indeed, just a bigger cat. She would like to redirect your attention to the photo of her giant paw above as proof of her weighing just the right amount. She plans to continue her current exercise regime of obsessively chasing her ball or cardboard strip to maintain her toned figure.

Have I really been gone this long?

Over the last 10 days, I have been in Des Moines, Kansas City and Calgary, with brief stops at home in Denver. That much traveling tends to put a crimp in my blogging style. But I'm back and I have photos!

First, I never posted the photo of the finished yarn I sent to Janice for her Team in Training fundraiser drawing. I love how this yarn turned out.



It's about 370 yards of light sportweight yarn. Perfect for a pair of socks.



I was able to sneak in a trip to Des Moines for my annual pilgrimage to the Iowa State Fair. Linda, Megan and I had a wonderful day.

We saw the big pig...



and the big ram...



and a baby miniature donkey.



Megan was a farmer...



twice.


We saw the Budweiser Clydesdales. They are so gorgeous.



Their dalmation has the best seat in the house.



And this photo needs a bit more explanation



This is the llama costume competition. The goal of the competition is to cover as much of your llama as possible to show the trust between the handler and the llama. Many of them had their entire face covered and several were even wearing stockings. Very interesting.

A good day was had by all.



The next day, Linda and I broke out the Kool-Aid and yarn and did a bit of dyeing.





I'm really excited to spin this


The color is basically on the outside of the fiber, so there will be a lot more white than it appears on the outside. It will probably be either really cool or a complete disaster. It will be a fun spin no matter what.

I didn't do a good job of taking photos in KC or Calgary. There's nothing to show - you'll just have to believe me when I said I was there.

The kitties were obviously upset that I was away.

A Swap and the Ravelympics

With the secret spinning project and a crazy work schedule, I haven't had much to post about lately. But that has all changed! The secret spinning project is complete, and has made its way to Deidre in Seattle so I can finally post a photo here.





This is Rambouillet wool, which was a first time spin for me, and it was dyed by The Fox Hop. It is a super soft wool, similar to Merino, but with a much longer staple. It created a squishy yarn that you just wanted to squeeze. The final product was about 780 yards (~4 oz) of laceweight yarn. I loved how it turned out and it was sad to put it in a box and send it off...but I know it has a good new home. And I knew that there was a box crossing the pond on its way to me...



I received my HHHH swap package from Gill in the U.K today. She did an excellent job spinning a Navajo-plied sock yarn for me. It's is BFL which is one of my favorite fibers. See how pretty it is...



The package also included a braid of BFL fiber and some bamboo fiber for me to spin. It also had the book Knitalong (LOVE!)
and a package of Smarties - candy that I love, but can't get in the U.S. Thanks, Gill! You really spoiled me!

Now that this swap is completed, I have moved on to new projects. I've caught the Olympic spirit, and signed up for the Ravelympics, which is a knitting challenge to finish a project while the Olympics is going on. I may have bit off more than I can chew, but I've signed up for three events: the Sweater Sprint (my first sweater for me!), the Handspun Heptathalon, and the WIP (work in progress) Wrestling, where I will finish a pair of socks that have been languishing for way too long. I cast on for the sweater Friday night during the Olympic opening ceremony. I know all of that fanfare was just for me. I'll fill you in on the sweater in another post. And the sock will get some action next weekend. I'll be traveling to Iowa for the State Fair, and socks are my favorite airport knitting project.

For the Handspun Heptathalon, I am spinning some superwash merino from The Dyeing Arts (purchased at The Loopy Ewe, of course). The colorway is Orchid Dreams, and it is a Dazzling Duo, which means it comes with 2 oz of two different color combinations that compliment each other. In this, one bobbin is mostly green, with a bit of purple,



and the other is blues and purples with a bit of white.



I'm really excited to ply this together. It is going to make some cool looking sock yarn.

Once this is finished, it's not staying with me either. I am donating it to my friend Janice from the Loopy Spring Fling for a fundraiser. Janice is training for the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Antonio this fall as a part of the Team in Training which raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Since my family has been touched by lymphoma and I've seen how the treatments developed from recent research can save lives, I wanted to help her raise some money. You can see some of the other prizes (Wollmeise!), and how to donate by clicking here. The yarn should be on its way to her by the end of the week.

It's not a blog post without a photo of the kitties. My Ravelympics cheering section likes to be close to the action.

Hot.

This post won't be very exciting because I still can't show off what I've been spinning. I had hoped to finish the swap gift this weekend, but I started having water drip from the vent in my living room Saturday night. When I called the builder's emergency line they told me to turn off the A/C and keep it off until they could come fix it on Monday (I was told that A/C was a luxury, and they would not send someone out on the weekend...grr). Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but Colorado is experiencing its worst heat wave since 1901. 16 straight days of 90+ degree heat with many more to come. My house got hot and the thought of sitting in a chair with a lap full of wool didn't sound very appealing. I did manage to finish the first bobbin, and start the second. If I can find 1.5 hours to spin each night this week, I should be able to finish by the weekend. I can't wait to be able to show it off. It is really pretty.

I also managed to finish the first toe up handspun sock and cast on for the second one before the heat wave set in at my house. I love these socks.



I managed to get some biking in this weekend. I wanted to go up to Boulder to pick up something for the swap gift, so Gina and I met early for a 25 mile ride around town. It was a beautiful morning and a great ride. Then, to celebrate the end of the Tour de France and the success of the Garmin-Chipotle team, we had burritos at Chipotle. Yum! It was a fantastic way to spend a Saturday morning.

Fortunately, the A/C saga came to an end this morning. I called my builder's customer service person first thing this morning. She was confident she knew exactly what was wrong. I met her at my house at 11:30, she walked in the door with a hammer and went upstairs to the closet with the A/C, I heard a pop, then water draining, and about a minute after she arrived she came back downstairs. They had forgotten to take a cap off of the drain when they installed the A/C. I wish I had known it was so easy to fix. I'm sure if someone had walked me through it over the phone I could have fixed it myself and saved myself and the kitties a day of suffering in the heat.

I think this is my favorite picture of Purl ever.



She's just so photogenic.

A Musical Weekend

I've been trying to post at least once a week, but I've been busy lately so I'm behind. I was listening to some great music over the weekend, work has been crazy busy, and I've been spinning like a madwoman to get my secret fiber finished for the Hush Hush Handspun Hootenany. I can't post photos in case my pal has figured out who I am (I'm not very good at being a "secret" pal), but I am really enjoying spinning it. It's a new fiber to me, and the colors are awesome. I'm very happy with how it's turning out. I'll post photos after my pal has received her gift.

Friday night I met up with Mary, Phil and my friend Tanya to see Lyle Lovett and His Large Band play at Red Rocks. I'd still be sitting out there listening if they would have kept playing. If you've never been to Red Rocks, I highly recommend making a trip to Colorado, just to see a concert there. What an incredible place! Add a performer like Lyle Lovett and you have an amazing night under the stars. Sunday night, my former co-worker, Lauren, invited me to go hear Susan Tedeschi play at the Denver Botanical Gardens. I had never heard of her before but she has a new fan. She is a soul/blues singer, and has an incredible voice. The venue was very cool too. It's a small amphitheater with beautiful gardens all around it. You bring your blanket and a picnic and sit in the grass. Like a bad blogger, I didn't bring my camera to either show.

I had to finish some spinning to start on the secret spinning. It's the Bonkers fiber I bought at Estes Park. The colorway is Dragonfly. It is hard to photograph because it is so bright. One of the bobbins was mostly teal, and the other was about half teal and half purple, so it's a really nice mix. I'm guessing it's about 400 yards and is a sportweight yarn. I've been too lazy to measure it. It is a bit overspun, but I don't think I'm going to try to fix it since it is a sock yarn. It will make for a more durable fabric.



I have also been working on my socks from the rainbow handspun. I love these socks. I was concerned that I wasn't going to have enough yarn, but that is not even close to being an issue. I could probably make them go past my mid calf, but that would require shaping, and I have no interest in doing that. I hate to waste any of this yarn though. Decisions, decisions.



They're a perfect fit!



As I've been knitting and spinning, I have been watching the Tour de France. Purl would prefer that I watch her.

More visitors

The Hotel Zed has been busy lately. Yesterday, my friends from Kansas City, Kent and Allison, drove into Denver on their way to Crested Butte for a few days of mountain biking. I was excited to get to see them. Gina came down from Boulder, and we went to LoDo to do some shopping at the Denver REI flagship store. They happened to be having a big clearance sale, so we all found some good bargains. We went to dinner at an awesome little pizza shop then we took a walk to my favorite gelato shop, Gellazi. Delicious.



There was some excitement when we got back to my house because a fly got into the house. Poor Kent was almost a casualty when the fly landed on him. I have three mighty, but a bit inept, hunters living with me. This morning we took a walk to get breakfast, then they headed on to the mountains. I wish I could have joined them!

I started a new spinning project this week that I'm really enjoying. I picked up some really bright teal and purple superwash merino from Bonkers at the Estes Park Wool Market. This stuff is going to make a bright pair of socks! This is the second bobbin, so I should be able to ply sometime this week.



I also started a new sock project. Lately, I have been feeling like I was losing my sock mojo, so I thought maybe trying something new would help me get it back. This was the perfect project. I'm knitting my first toe up sock (note for non-sock knitters: there are two basic ways to knit socks...cuff down or toe up. All of my socks until now have been cuff down) using the skills I learned at Wendy's class at the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling. The benefit to knitting toe up is that if I divide my yarn into two equal balls, I can knit until I run out of yarn. No waste! I'm using my very own handspun yarn so I want to use all of it. I am mesmerized by the color changes in the yarn. It's all purples, blues and greens so far, but I'm getting close to a stretch of red and yellow...very exciting! I just started it this afternoon, and I'm almost halfway done with the foot so far.

A history of my sock:

This was the fiber I started with:



Plying fun:



Yarn!



And the beginning of a sock:



My handspun would go much further if my feet were a bit smaller...I'm hoping I have enough yarn to make a decent length cuff. I really don't want anklets.

In kitty news, my sweet Purl has lost all dignity. Not the most ladylike way to sleep.



She could learn something about dignity from Xena.

Time to get out the riding mower

Because I have a yard!



Look at all that land. Thank goodness the homeowners association is responsible for its upkeep. It would take HOURS to mow.

And the mostly dead plants they planted just add so much to the landscaping. Hopefully, someone will notice that and replace them soon.

I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July weekend. I had visitors this weekend. My mom, dad and sister drove in from Iowa, so we did some shopping and exploring and ate some really good food. We also watched some spectacular fireworks. Like the bad blogger that I am, I didn't take any photos. Mary has photos on her blog.

I finished some spinning. This is the seemingly neverending wool/silk blend from The Sanguine Gryphon that I got from The Loopy Ewe. The colorway is Fire. My goal was to spin a heavy laceweight for a shawl or a wrap. I got about 1750 yards from 8 oz. It is so soft and pretty.



And this was a quick and fun spin. It's 4 oz of merino wool from The Spunky Club in Mud Season. I think this will become some fingerless mitts.



Ashford has appointed herself the defender of the yard from squirrels and birds.