The Wool Festival at Taos

Today we loaded up the car headed to the The Wool Festival at Taos. It was everything I dreamed it would be. We saw sheep, llamas, goats, and lovely little alpacas; Matthew ate a yummy lamb sausage, and I got a fresh infusion of fabulous yarn. Scarlett wasn't so sure about the festival, mostly because she had to ride for over an hour in the car to get there and she hates the car, but I think she ended up having a good time.

The drive up to Taos:
Me in heaven, I mean at the Wool Festival:
It was a beautiful day for a mow:
The spoils:

The purple/red/blue: Brook's Farms Mohair; White: Jabberwocky Farms Cashmere;
Gray: Elsa Wool Company; Green: Plain & Fancy Wool & Sheep Co.

We had planned to camp near Taos but unfortunately, despite getting our tent up in 50 mile/hour winds we had to abandon that plan when we discovered we had set up camp on a pricker patch and the puppy's paws were full of sticky prickers. Turns out the whole area was covered in them, and so we decided to take the hour drive home and put off Scarlett's first camping trip for another day.

Textured Tunic in Francis

With all of the unfinished objects (UFOs) in my knitting basket, it may shock you that I have cast on for a new sweater. For my birthday my mom bought me this fabulous worsted weight alpaca from a local ranch. It is a lucious light brown color that was named for the alpaca it belonged to, Francis. I had planned to turn Francis into the Textured Tunic with Side Buttons from Fitted Knits come fall, and so with the weather turning cooler, I had no choice but to cast on. So far, it's really fabulous. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

How much is that doggie in the window?

Little Scarlett chased a fly right into the window sill and then she decided to stay.

trail tail

We took our first hike in the mountains around Santa Fe today. We hit the Borrego trail with Matthew's co-clerk Sarah and had a great time. However, I forgot that if you go down a really big incline, you have to go back up it. With the altitude that was a little rough. Also, my darling puppy got so excited while running with another pooch she came across while hiking that she knocked me over with a tackle that would make any Sunday football fan cringe. Surprisingly, the blow doesn't appear to have caused any major damage. Scarlett had a fantastic time romping in the woods and frolicking in the creek. She did a great job off leash and we were able to keep track of her thanks to her blaze orange vest, which we received as a hand-me-down from our good friends Susan and Danny. I must say she looked adorable in it.
Enjoy some of the photos we took:
on down the trail
the queen of the forest
Our first family photo!
super puppy!!!

crashed out

We were all exhausted yesterday, but I think Scarlett was the most in need of serious R&R. I think the klink, I mean kennel, really wore her out.

in memoria

After a long battle with Alzheimers desease my grandpa Bob passed away late yesterday. I am at the Alburquerque International Sunport waiting to fly all the way to Atlanta and then on to Milwaukee, where I will join the rest of my family in celebarting both my grandmother's birthday and my grandfather's life.
While I am deeply saddened by the loss of my beloved granfather, I am happy that there is finally an end to his suffering and peace for our entire family. My grandfather was a quiet man who liked to garden and to read, and loved to play with me when I was a little girl and even let me sit on his lap when I was a gangly 17 year old scared to leave home for the first time. He was a good man and I miss him.

Shoptastic

I made a sweater! I've made shrugs, started sweaters, but this is my first ever finished, I can wear it, it makes me feel cute and accomplished sweater! It is the Shopping Tunic from Twinkle's Big City Knits by Wenlan Chia. I've had the book for awhile and oggled the designs, but have been unable to afford any of the necessary super bulky yarn. Yesterday, in desperation for a finished sweater, I decided to use the Rowan Ribbon Twist I purchased nearly two years ago to make my "first" sweater, the Beth (I know). Here are the results:



Knitting Details:
The patterns in this book are horrendous, filled with errors and not at all clear. This one was no exception, but was fairly easy to figure out. Now the Ribbon twist is only a bulky yarn and so there was no way I could get gage, so I knit a couple swatches on both 19s (the size needle called for in the pattern) and 17s. I decided to knit the sweater on the 17s but two sizes larger than what should be my size -- voila it actually worked. I only made one alteration, besides making the cowl a couple inches shorter, which was to add some 1x1 ribbing at the bottom to keep it from riding up. It is supposed to be a tunic but it came out a bit short (I did knit it an 1" short but it shouldn't have been as short as it came out, I think it was the result of my monkeying with the gage). I used ~270 yards of yarn.

I would make this again. It was really easy and super fast. I love the cowl neck. If I did it again I'd skip the pockets: they aren't as cute as they looked in other people's blog pictures and they were a real pain in the ass. I think if I did it again I would do some sort of ribbed lower half and use a super bulky in a solid color.

So there you have it, a knitting post on a knitting blog, who'd of thought?