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.

New Year, New Hat

This year we got dumped with a whole bunch of snow on New Years Eve. so our plans sort of dissolved. So while we watched everything on our DVR, I decided that the New Year justified a new hat.

I got the yarn on Yarn Along the Rockies, and the pattern is from the Fall Knit Scene magazine. 

It's called Purslane Beret by Rosemary (Romi) Hill. 

 This hat is a great slouchy hat for a mild day but it is a little too loose for a lot of moving around or wind. Maybe smaller needles or a thicker yarn would have added structure.

Luke humored me and took pictures. These were taken at the course where Luke works a couple days after New Years so you can see the snow that mellowed our evening.

2013 Header and Avatar

American Golfic

Quilt for Faith

So I've been trying to keep up with making quilts for all of our cousins who have had babies since we've been married. Between the two of us we have a whole bunch of cousins so I confess I'm a bit behind. I made this one for sweet baby Faith!

 It's a traditional around the world pattern which I particularly enjoy and this is the second time I have machine quilted this wedding ring-esque pattern. I love the intricacy it adds to the design.

 It's backed in the same floral print that I used on the front!

 One of the highlights of making things for little ones is getting pictures of them with the project! Isn't she darling!!

Halloween

followed several bouts of a variety of illnesses. (Yay for working with children and traveling a lot!) I still found ways to enjoy it though. Its funny, I don't like the scary parts of Halloween one bit, but I enjoy the aspect of Fall, dressing up, making things, food and CANDY!

 These jolly guys were a quick project/addition to the library at school. Thank you pinterest! I had special helpers that would help me turn on the battery operated candles inside.

 We actually got to dress up at school and I was Luna Lovegood! The kids either got it or they didn't. It was okay. The kids who "got it" toooootally made it worth it. I confess, though, I was AMAZED at how many teachers hadn't read the Harry Potter books! Seriously people!?!?!

It's the Yarn

When I went to McCall, Idaho with my in-laws I was so lucky to get to stop in at Keep Me In Stitches and see Lynda! She's a hugely important person in my life because she is the one who taught me how to knit!! She changed my life forever!

While I was exploring her scrumptious shop I discovered a yarn that spoke to me. 

It didn't call out as a specific project. It spoke to me as yarn. It said "I'm beautiful! I feel really good. Your husband wouldn't think it was too weird if you just draped me around your neck, or snuck me into bed." Anyway, I wanted to come up with something that would allow me to see it, and enjoy the feel of it. So I made a basic seed stitch cowl. Its basic and the funniest part is, I have had more compliments and threatens of theft on this set than some of my most intricate projects!

Quilt Camp 2012

On the 20th of September I flew from Colorado Springs to Fresno, California and got to attend a four day Quilt Camp at one of my favorite places, Camp Keola at Huntington Lake!

Here is just about the whole group in attendance! It's great because we're composed of two core groups but now that this is becoming an annual event we get so excited to see each other every year!

Here is our core group that started as the North Fresno Church Quilters, but we're bringing people from all over now!

Our main project for this quilt camp was a wedding quilt for my sister Valerie and her new husband Matt! My mom had started a Mariner's Compass quilt, and completed 6 blocks before she passed away  from Multiple Myeloma. When we were going through her projects Val mentioned that she thought that would be a fantastic wedding quilt for her and Matt. Since they weren't engaged I wasn't in any hurry. Then they got married in Las Vegas and we were too late. SO this quilt is kind of an after the fact wedding quilt.

At quilt camp there were a number of people working on this beast: Aunt Maggie, Tanya (Cousin), Kim (Cousin), Cindy (Matt's Mom), Me (sister), Jennifer (Friend) and even Valerie and Matt!

It is seriously quite the group effort!

The food NEVER fails to impress and this year one of my friends Keila was the cook! She saved me some of my favorite (French Toast) and made some of the most delicious cinnamon rolls ever!

Both Keila's and my parents worked at Camp Keola as young adults and then we both worked as head cooks at the camp as well! Our recipes and cooking styles are very similar so her cooking tasted just like a home cooked meal!

There were many fantastic completed quilt tops!

And even some purses and aprons!

Though they're not pictured, we had some knitting and weaving too!

It was a great time. I cant wait to reserve my spot for next year! 

198 Yards of Heaven

I got this scrumptious grey yarn on Yarn Along the Rockies. Its the kind of yarn the wallet doesn't like to acquire a lot of so I used a pattern for just this kind of yarn. It's called 198 Yards of Heaven. The designer created the pattern to be a shawlette made with luxury yarn so that you can wear it, enjoy it, and not go broke over having anything made with it.

It was the kind of knitting that did not allow for any kind of multi tasking so when I was working on it, the scene usually looked like this. 

 It was originally intended to be a project for my sister but it turned out more shawl like than I had anticipated. 

 Since it wasn't Val's thing, I just couldn't let that 198 Yards of Heaven go to waste! So I kept it. And wear it. All the time. I was shocked because it actually kept me a lot warmer than I expected. Shawls (even shawlettes) are cozier than I thought!

* Snow pictures taken by Luke in January at The Golf Club at Southwind

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!