Garden City and the Red Sweater

Luke and I took a visit together on October 12 and 13 to check out Garden City before making any decisions whether we'd be moving there or not. We met a TON of people, got to tour schools and drive around and get to know the town. We even went to a high school football game that night! It was my first experience with the Kansas wind! Brrr!

Luke's sitting position on the way home was the first clue that were not as fit for the marathon driving of our "youth."

Take a look at the Southwestern Kansas scenery.

 The nice part about so much driving is that it gives me lots of time to knit! I spied this sweater on the cover of Knit Scene and had to have it! A few other patterns in the magazine that I was interested in helped me justify the purchase!

It was icing on the cake when I found the most luxurious Debbie Bliss yarn for HALF OFF at one of the shops on Yarn Along the Rockies.

 The only mildly stressful part was that the store only had EXACTLY enough yarn. I did the whole body of the sweater first and seamed it up.

Then I figured out how to do the sleeves top down and two at a time so that just in case I didn't have enough yarn I could make the sleeves 3/4 or something.

My sleeves turned out to be just about the same length as the sweater the model is wearing and I'm pretty happy with that. I usually end up pulling my sleeves up anyway so this worked out well!

This is my "That's right, I made this sweater and it's amazing" look.

American Golfic

Yarn Along the Rockies

In September of 2012 I heard about a FAB-u-lous Colorado event called Yarn Along the Rockies. While the event extended 9 days, I had work and was headed to California the next weekend so I had two days to get to 21 shops. (There were originally 22 shops but one withdrew last minute.)

 On the first day my friend Cami joined me!

 We made it to 11 shops! I can still hardly believe it! It got pretty intense at the end, but we did get to see some neat things along the way! Like this yarn bombed stop sign in Castle Rock.

 At each shop you got a stamp in your passport. 

 Many of the shops also had little pins to put on a souvenir bag they had on sale. Of course I got the bag because it kind of acts as a conversation starter and lets me brag a bit!

 Here is my completed passport. I love that many of the shop owner had stamps made that were their logo and or shop name.

 Here I am turning it in! 

 Stephanie was my amazing travel partner the second day. She also did quite a bit of navigating. She and the iPhone make a great team!

All in all it was a GREAT weekend and I got to see a lot of shops in Colorado I might not have otherwise gotten to! I also got some great yarn! You'll be seeing more on those projects in a bit!

Doing Denver

Last Thursday I was so lucky to be able to hop up to Denver to visit Aunt Audrie (technically my moms Aunt) Chris and Nancy.(Chris is my mom's cousin.)
Their house is straight out of a magazine and pinterest! So many fabulous reading nooks and classic craftsman style woodwork! There was attention to little details everywhere I looked! It didn't help that I've been re-listening to the Anne of Green Gables books and have re adopted many of her exclamations. Chris, who had never heard of her or at least not saved her to his memory seemed befuddled or amused. This led to our conversation about Anne. Chris, who is a culinary expert, connected her to Prince Edward Island muscles. Which I will now be obligated to serve at my next Anne party. Random tidbit but key to understanding the rest of the day.
Here Aunt Audrie and I are enjoying their lovely, and recently re-done back yard.



Look at these amazing garden beds! At the perfectly convenient height for not bending over.



And they're pretty too!



Even the lowered window boxes are done on such a pretty way. When you look out the windows you feel as if you are in a calm oasis not the middle of a city!



Then we walked over to the yarn store called LambShoppe. If you don't just love the name please love the fact that they have a library ladder to get to all the yarn.







Then across the street to a garden boutique. Their wall had a fabulous incomplete (to add to the effect) paint by numbers.



And in connection to knitting, isn't this the greatest way to give dishcloths?



A little quilt inspiration?



Then it was onward to Fancy Tiger. I have been itching to go there since a man told me about it when I bought a shirt last summer in Denver while on a field trip with Luke.



Such yarn! Such fabric! So much trendiness and youth!



Then we tried for the art museum which was in its last week of a famous clothing designer exhibit. There was a wait. We had shorter term parking. So we went to the newly relocated history museum. Boy am I glad things worked out that way! It was so cool!! Alas I get ahead of myself. Here is the library peeking out from behind the art museum. The building itself looks like a city skyline. Now that's a library that can take you places.



I also had to check and see if this statue was metal or plastic as I mused at how often they might have to paint it to keep it such a vibrant blue.



The history museum was so interactive! The lobby floor was a giant map with a "time machine" you could move around and it would play different videos from different time periods about the different areas.



There were many different interactive exhibits to help grown ups and younguns better understand "the way things were."



Kids could "drive" this old car simulation. They had to crank the engine to start the car and the video took them along the dusty road.



This bison had doors all over it and you could look inside to see what different parts of the animal were use for.



Thanks for modeling for my Nancy!
On the second floor the had a room called Lego-rado.



Here's a Lego model of the State Capitol Building.



See the building with the curvy roof?



Here it is in Legos.



A Lego Dino dig.



The had the minifig series guys hidden all over! I kept pointing them out to Nancy. See the lizard man in the horse stable?



I kept telling Nancy how fun a scavenger hunt would be for students. How funny. They had scavenger hunts all ready to go!




Back in a more official museum area they even reconstructed part of a Japanese internment camp from Colorado with laminated news articles on the table and everything. They didn't shy away from tough issues at all.



In the recreation area they had a ski jump simulator. The wind blew in your hair and everything. I thought everyone crashed at the end, but I landed!!!!











Check out that form.
Skirt and all!
Then Aunt Audrie treated us to a delicious late lunch!
The restaurant was fabulously decorated on the outside in bright colors!











Great timing for this piece as Luke has been watching the Tour de France every day.



Guess what we ordered to eat?! Prince Edward Island muscles!



Chris and Nancy showed me how to eat them and they were sooooo good!



Aunt Audrie even tried two!
It was a most wonderful day! As I drove back to Colorado Springs I put my yarn on the dash so I could enjoy it all the way home.



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