Never a dull moment

It has been a busy month here at Chez Zimm, plus I am fairly certain Colorado is trying to kill me with all of the pollen that is in the air right now. I have never sneezed so much in my life! But in happier news...

In March, I met six of my best friends for our annual girls weekend. This year we decided to meet up in Sedona and we rented the most incredible house. It was the perfect place for us to make dinner, hang out and catch up.



It was also a quarter mile from this.



The view from the top of that looks like this.



And the woman who owned the house is a wedding cake baker and she made us a fantastic cake. Yum!



Of course, I didn't manage to get a photo of the group of us. I'll have to do better next year!

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in St. Louis for The Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling. One of the highlights (aside from shopping at The Loopy Ewe!) was getting to take a class from Jared Flood, who is an incredible knitter and an equally incredible teacher. He helped make sweater knitting a lot less mysterious. I took my handspun Girasole - made from a pattern he designed - to class and I was beyond thrilled that he thought it was beautiful. It was a great compliment that someone who knew the pattern inside and out spent time looking at the detail. It was a proud moment for me. :)

It was a fun weekend full of spinning and knitting where I got to spend time with friends from past Flings and make new ones. It always goes by so quickly! I got to room with my good friend Stacy, and if you want to get a taste of what happens at the Fling, check out The Knit Girllls videocast - episode 7 was shot in my hotel room and features Stacy (I was in the studio audience and some of my projects make an appearance!).

In finished object news, I completed my Daybreak Shawl. It was also a big hit at the Fling and I think several other Flingers went home with yarn to make this easy and beautiful pattern. Mine was made from two different skeins of Madenlintosh Tosh Sock. Project details can be found here.



I loved making this so much, I've already got the yarn ready for number 2 - and maybe #3.

I also finally finished the Baby Surprise Jacket and it went to little Jasper in Taos. It probably couldn't have made it to him any later, because the sleeves are a bit short and he slightly resembles a sausage wearing it, but I still think he looks awfully handsome.



The BSJ pattern is the perfect pattern for handspun yarn.

Speaking of handspun yarn, I made some yarn as a gift for Sheri from The Loopy Ewe as a thank you gift for inviting me to attend the Fling.



This is 425 yards of fingering weight yarn spun from black BFL dyed by Gale's Art. The colorway is Cherry Blossom. Sheri happens to have some of that colorway in stock. It's a beautiful fiber to spin.

It is springtime in Colorado, which means it could be snow one day and a heat wave the next, but there is always sunshine. The girls have fallen in love with the sunbeam on the stairs.

Xena had to squish herself up against the wall to enjoy this one.



And Purl knows that the sunlight brings out her colors and makes her look serious.



It's not a sunbeam, but Ashford seems to have found her doppelganger.

Springtime in Colorado

It was 70 degrees yesterday. This is the view from my front door tonight.



5-10" is expected. Craziness!

Happy 2010!

What? It's March, you say? Seriously? How did it get to be March anyway? Life just continues to speed by and I'm just trying to keep up. At least I can say my new year has been a productive one so far.

In January, I spent a fantastic weekend in the OC with Megann and Denise. We met two years ago at The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling and became fast friends. Our rented beach house was perfect for hanging out and knitting, plus we went on a fantastic yarn shop crawl. We had so much fun that I only took one photo the entire weekend. At least I can prove that Megann and Denise were there.



I've also have spent a fantastic weekend skiing at Copper Mountain with my friend Allison, but I didn't even take the camera out. A photographer, I am not.

I have been doing a lot of knitting and spinning, and because photographing projects is much easier than capturing events as they happen, I have photos!

This is my first pair of socks made out of my latest obsession - self striping yarn. I love these socks. The yarn is Yarntini in Cheertini. Hard to believe I had completed a Christmas project in February.



The yarn is Yarntini and the colorway is Cheertini Stripe. Love them!

I also have finished a Stacy Shawl. My good friend Stacy dyed the yarn and it and the pattern came as a kit. This yarn is so soft. It's a blend of merino, cashmere and nylon. I definitely am looking forward to my next project with this blend. Yum!



On the spinning front, I can't believe I haven't shared this yarn yet. This consumed most of my spinning time for the last six months of 2009. Countless hours were spent spinning two bobbins of singles and I spent 13 hours plying this yarn. 1500 yards...out of 4 oz of a superwash merino/silk blend from PoppyFlowerFibers. Amazing stuff. And I'm quite proud of the finished product. I've picked a pattern, now I just need to get up the nerve to knit with it. Nothing but perfect will be acceptable for this yarn.



After the marathon spinning project, I needed an instant gratification project and spun some Romney wool dyed by Hello Yarn. I'm not a huge fan of the long wools - too coarse and scratchy - but I love the colors and I am very happy with the finished yarn. It even matches the kitty.



Finally, my grandma's birthday was over the weekend. I have a quilt that she made me for my high school graduation. It gets a lot of use in the winter since I keep my house fairly cool. I'm not sure who appreciates it more, me or Purl.



Happy birthday, Grandma!

Tis the Season

I finally drug the tree out of storage and decorated tonight. It's feeling a little more like Christmas! And the fact that it's supposed to be -2 degrees tonight means the holiday isn't very far away.

I was excited to get the tree up so I could put my new star on top. The pattern is the Star Tree Topper (Ravelry link) from the 2009 Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts issue. As soon as I saw the pattern, I knew I had to make one out of my handspun. The fiber was easy to choose. I dug out my sparkly batts from Enchanted Knoll Farms and picked the perfect one. Josette is the queen of sparkles!

The batt..


This is the yarn. Unfortunately, it's hard to capture the sparkles in a photo.


I think it looks great on the top of the tree!




Now, to catch up a bit...

In October, I was able to attend the Schacht 40th Anniversary Celebration in Boulder. Here I am with my handspun yarn that was a finalist in their contest.



Unfortunately, I didn't win the grand prize, but it was fun to get to be a part of the event. The woman who won the grand prize spun peacock feathers into yarn. How do you compete with that?

I also took a trip back to Oklahoma for my friend Andrea's baby shower. Of course her baby girl needs some handknits. I made her this sweater...



and this hat.



Mary, Phil and I also went to Taos for the Taos Wool Festival, and once again we had an amazing time with James and Becca.



This is the view from James and Becca's porch. How could a person not love this place?


Finally, I hosted Thanksgiving again this year and was very pleased with how the turkey turned out. Thank you Alton Brown for showing me the way and insisting that I brine the turkey. Yum! I used this recipe from Whole Foods Market: Honey and Rosemary Brined Turkey

The turkey looks a little crispy in this photo, but I promise you it was just right. So tender.



We had enough food for about 20 people. There were 5 of us. Yea leftovers!



Anybody want some turkey?

Xena would, but then she'd have to move out from under the Christmas tree.

Giddy!

Today I found out that a skein of my handspun has been selected as a finalist in the "I made it on my Schacht" contest. Schacht is the company that made my spinning wheel. They're celebrating their 40th anniversary this year and have done several special promotions. The first is the contest. Here's my entry:


It's hand-dyed superwash merino from AllSpunUp. I'll find out in October if I've won. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

The other special promotion is that they are making a special edition Cherry spinning wheel, which is one of the contest prizes. Not anticipating that I would be a finalist, I *may* have already purchased one. I guess I'd rather have two than none. The wheel is gorgeous (sorry for the horrible photo - I need to take it outside for a photo shoot to capture it in all of it's glory). It arrived last weekend. It's been a good week!



Over the Labor Day weekend, my cousin Darren and his wife Ceci made their first visit to Colorado. We had a wonderful weekend! We spent some time in the mountains and hit Copper, Breckenridge and Keystone Mountains all in the same day.

We took the ski lift to the top of Copper...



and hiked in the boulder field with the Marmots.



Riding the Alpine Slide at Breck (zoom, zoom - I think I missed my calling with the Luge. I love speeding down the mountain!)


Fondue at Keystone - they even had a polka band (we may have gorged ourselves and then did the chicken dance)


We came down the mountain and spent a day in Boulder and then the next day Darren, Ceci and I went to the Rockies game where we saw the Rockies hit 5 or 6 home runs and one player from the Diamondback hit 3 home runs. It was a great game and a beautiful day!



After the game, we met up with Mary and Phil at Rio for a margarita and then dinner at Steuben's.



To end the night, we stopped by Hamburger Mary's and sat outside on their fabulous patio.



We decided to take their last day in town easy and stayed close to home. We made a fabulous dinner to end an awesome weekend.



Purl was exhausted from all of the entertaining.

Iowa State Fair, Some Finished Objects and a Recipe

The Iowa State Fair is already over for another year, but I was lucky enough to make it back to Des Moines for the first two days of the Fair. Once again, it was a great time!

Megan in the tunnel at the Master Gardeners' gardens. I have a photo of her in this same spot over the last few years. I think she was able to stand up in the the tunnel the first year I took this photo.



Noah found his favorite spot in the same gardens



Megan got to try on the Fremont County Fair Queen's tiara. So sparkly!



I could have sat and watched the baby ducks all day. Too cute!



And future farmers...





It was a good fair.

I've also done some spinning.

This...


Became this...


And I finished my very first lace project in July. The Girasole shawl. It is made out of my merino/silk handspun and was a wonderful pattern to knit. Now, I'm trying to figure out my next lace pattern to tackle.





If you've made it all the way down to here with all of those photos, I'll reward you with a recipe. This is one of my favorite cookies that my Grandma makes. They're called Butterscotch Squares, but I've always called them Red Hot Cookies. No matter what you call them, they are yummy!

Butterscotch Squares

2 Sticks margarine
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Red Hots
Chocolate chips
Nuts (optional)

Melt the 2 sticks of margarine over low heat. Once melted, remove from heat and let cool. Stir in and dissolve sugar and brown sugar. Add two eggs (make sure your batter is cool - you don't want to scramble the eggs).

In another pan, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this mixture to the batter and add the vanilla.

Place mixture in a 9 x 14" greased pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chips and red hots and grind the nuts on top of the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes (may vary based on your stove).



Let me know if you try this recipe. I'd love to hear what you think.

Finally, I went to take Xena's photo the other day, and you'll never believe what happened. Those crazy squirrels are trying to get in everyone's photos.