Toronto, ON. David spent Monday in Toronto for a business meeting. Having never been to Canada he was impressed with the cleanliness of the city and all the Fall colour. At least this flight made it back on the same day it was supposed to. Even though we still didn't get home until 12:30 a.m. Wednesday morning with me picking him up from DIA.

My African basket. I just love this basket. We bought it at one of the Farmer's Markets in town. It has really come in handy with shopping at the markets and for my knitting.

Snnnnoooooowing......


Just a video of a great Colorado Springs sunrise...
Can you guess what this is going to be?

Kaitlyn confirmed with the flu. So she's home for the next 6 days. Didn't confirm "PIG" flu, just some type of flu. So when she saw this she immediately asked if she could have it. Let me think......................Don't think so!

Lazy week and weekend...

My life, of late, has revolved around getting this done. Does it look like I've accomplished more than the last pictures I took? I hope so! My original completion time frame was two weeks. Which would have been yesterday. Though close I did not finish this project. I'm working on the edging. I have been for two days now. This is tedious, time consuming and hot work. But today is going to be the day, I hope.

My next project is already ready and waiting for me to get started. Cashmere! I can't wait. I've never worked with Cashmere before, don't even own anything made of Cashmere. The yarn feels simply divine in your hands and wonderfully soft against your skin. Ooooo...mmmm....

Craig came into town for a weekend visit. We all enjoyed having him here and the kids were thrilled to have someone other than their big sisters to play checkers with.

Jolie and Parker barely able to contain themselves with Kristina's latest creation which she promptly took to school and shared with everyone up there, but not any of us! Oh well, the last thing we need is another round of cavities or more weight on the scales. Apparently this creation was a hit and everyone was waiting in line for Kristina's Brownie before anything else was served. Does look sinfully good!

David and Craig came back from shopping yesterday with a surprise for me, a clip on IPod! Anyone who knows anything about me, knows I'm not up on the latest gagetry and really don't care. But ... I have to admit to this being pretty cool. Last year David bought me a refurbished IPod shuffle for about $20 on EBay to use while riding. We ended up purchasing a lot more and selling them to riding friends. So that just about everyone we rode with had their own music. Anyway, at some point mine was broken and I didn't have my riding music to keep me company on long rides. This is the replacement for that IPod. Its about 1.5" long and .5 oz's. Pretty cool!

First Snow!!!

Yesterday was a cold day, but one where the kiddo's still wanted to go out and play. So grabbing a rake Olivia started raking the leaves for a jumping pile, but was quickly distracted by sister climbing the Aspen tree and soon the games began. The boys were screaming about the girls, the girls were screaming (from the tree) about the boys. Boys running in the house screaming for me to grab the camera and come see the girls. What fun!

Jolie and Olivia were WAY up in the tree.

One of our huge bucks was visiting right across the street.


All the kids woke up this morning to our first snow of the season. Everyone is so excited and already the questions of "Can we go play in the snow after school?" have started. Unfortunately by that time there won't be any snow left. But that's o.k. We've started the morning off right with great bowls of flavored oatmeal to warm them up and good conversations about the snow.

Idea's are flying around the table about what to do on "Snow Days" and that they need to start doing the "Snow Day Dance". (This dance is to ensure that you'll have a snow day from school. Basically they dance around the outside of the house going backwards! Thank you, Kaitlyn and Kristina)

I've started on the sock again. I know your probably sick of hearing about the sock by now and if so just skip this paragraph. Anyway... I had to wait until everyone was in bed last night before attempting the re-start. I wanted all of my concentration to be devoted to this sock as it is the LAST time I'm going to attempt this pattern. I look at the yarn I've picked and just melt. It is beautiful and I want a pair of socks out of it. The yarn speaks "SOCKS". So I pick up my needles and start the cast on. 60 stitches cast on and all is going well. I divide the yarn onto 3 needles instead of 4 for the ribbing and proceed for 3 rounds. No mistakes! No interruptions! I think this time, maybe, I'll have a sock that fits when I'm done.

This is the sock that stays in my car waiting to be worked on twice a day while I wait to pick up the kiddo's from school. The matching sock is already completed and waiting in my "bag" for this one to be done.

Did you really think you'd get away without a sock picture? HAHA!

Today is my day to volunteer for about 45 min's in the a.m. in Hunter's kindergarten class. I wish I was allowed to take pictures of the kids. They're all so cute and excited about a parent being in the classroom. They all try so hard to impress you with their knowledge or good behavior. Just to cute! I think I'll take the camera and see if the Mrs. Bullock will let me take a couple of pictures.

Well as you can see I did get to take a picture of Hunter's 1/2 day Kindergarten class! Aren't they cute?!

Wednesday - ahhhhh

This week has seemed very long to me. How about you? I've been running non-stop.

The new medication that I'm on for my hbp is making me uncontrollably sleepy at about 1 p.m. and I'm taking naps! Frankly this is about to drive me nuts. I keep thinking that I'll adjust to it. We'll see.

Starting to get ready to pack tomorrow. Washing almost all done. New jeans especially had to be done. Don't want any colors running while I'm outta town.

I can hear the questions. What are the pictures of? Well the top one is pretty self explanatory. Its the string bag that I spoke about a couple of posts back. Very easy to make and fun to! While making it I came up with lots of alternative uses. The kids are all very excited to use it this summer for the pool! The girls can use bags like these for over night visits! This particular bag is only big enough for an over night bag at best and for the store to be used with others. The other picture is of the giant bag that I'm making. This one will take time to complete since I'm taking all these naps!

Happy Birthday to my "little" girls!

Shhhh...
Started project...

Today was set aside to celebrate 2 birthdays.
Olivia turned 9 this last Friday and Jolie turns 8 next Friday. Unfortunately I'll be traveling on Jolie's birthday so we celebrated 2 birthdays at once. My girls seem to enjoy sharing birthdays at the moment and Olivia doesn't mind dividing the difference between the two.

The girls finally got their Webkinz!

Love the birthday cake!

We took everyone out for Sushi! At a new little sushi place David happened to find. Not crowded, great service, reasonably priced and the food is good. Mobo Sushi.

Finished project.

New Projects! AND New Yarn!

Oh I'm so excited! I rode over to my hair appt. today. The weather is just wonderful and there were so many bikes out on the rode. Everyone riding with huge smiles and waving casually. Its days like this that I just love to be out on the road.

Got my hair done. Lovely color, no cut. I'm letting it grow out (Carolyn just laughed and said, "You'll be back for the hair cut!" She knows me so well.) My hair is really getting scary. Every time its time for coloring I see more and more gray. Carolyn tells me that I'm about 75% gray on top and about 50% in the back until you get half way down my head and then there is no gray at all. I'm debating going "a la natural". What do you think?
Anyway... On my way home I went by Hobby Lobby to see if they had any wonderful yarn. OH MY GOSH! They have gone green there also. There were yarns with the Bamboo mix and everything in between. I decided on a beautiful 100% cotton by Bernat. The color is a natural or off white. These little blankets are going to be just precious. I already know how I'm going to wrap them for the display to the new mom. (Though I'm going to need some help after they are shipped. More about that in another post)

When am I going to learn that I can't go in a yarn store without getting more than I went in for. Another lady and I were just having way to much fun. She complained, I complained....back and forth we went about never leaving with just what we came for. So in my search for a comfortable, lush yarn for these new blankets I happened across another wonderful cotton yarn with free patterns on the side for a string bag. Like you use to go shopping, instead of using paper or plastic. I just about had a fit right there in the store. I've been wanting to get some of these bags, but all the stores want $8 - $10 a piece of these. So I found the yarn for $1.69 a skein and the pattern calls for 3 skeins. So I get the fun of making them and for a little less money.

Lastly this is the sweater I have started for myself about 3 days ago. I'm actually going to make 2 of them just in different colors. The other yarn is on order right now and I expect it towards the middle to end of October. A beautiful dark brown.

Sweater finished and more news....

Here I sit working on Parker's sweater - desperately trying to get it finished tonight! As you know I've been "working" on this sweater for almost a year now. I am determined that he is getting this sweater before I leave town next week for Texas. My friend, Devonia, is having surgery on the 1st of October and she's allowing me to come and play nurse for her. I'll be leaving here on the 26th and staying with my parents for a couple of days before heading over to Devonia's to stay for the remainder of my time in Texas.

Parker had to try on the partial sweater so I could make sure all was well with size before I set off to put all the pieces together. He's one happy little guy.

Here's a picture that Devonia sent me today of (l-r) Amy (Jeremy's girlfriend), Kay (a friend of Devonia's), Devonia and Shelva (another friend). This picture was taken in Iowa at one of the many covered bridges. By the looks of it the weather was wonderful for her trip up there.

Here is the finished sweater. I'm so glad to have this done, especially after having to tear it out again after the last picture that I posted on it. This sweater has been long in coming and I'm sure that tomorrow morning Parker will want to wear it. Unfortunately our weather is warm and he will have to put it away until cooler temps arrive.

Karen made it in town for business on Wednesday after spending 3 weeks in Japan and China for the Paralympics. She was able to sneak away for a dinner Thursday evening at Mirch Masala (our favorite Indian restaurant). I forgot to take my camera so I have no recent picture to post. Karen also has a blog, http://www.fithippietravels.blogspot.com/, that you would find interesting. So make sure to check it out.

Karen and I met through "Riders Edge". This is the class that we took to learn how to ride our bikes, safely. Through this class I made a dear friend and a great riding partner. This is a old picture (6/2006)

As always we're sad to have her head home, but we always look forward to her next trip back to Colorado and another wonderful visit.

The finished product with my satisfied customer.

Ravelry? KAL?

Where have I been all these years? I can't believe I have just now discovered these! I have stumbled onto a wealth of information and people, all interested in knitting! I have applied for membership, to Ravelry, as of today. Which has only been in existance for about 1.5 years now. This group has over 135,000 members from around the world and is growing daily. I'm waiting for an invitation that should arrive in about 4 days! This is what the website tells me if I check to see where my invitation is in the waiting line.


"ravelry > antsy
patiently awaiting your invite?
If you've added your name to the invite request list on our front page then you can use this form to check your place in line.
Email address look me up!
Found you!
You signed up on Today
You are #226584 on the list.
3136 people are ahead of you in line.
76 people are behind you in line.
97% of the list has been invited so far "

Ravelry - http://www.ravelry.com/about
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravelry

The KAL is a "Knitalong". Again what a wonderful idea! Just what Jessica, Bonnie and I have tried to do ourselves. Never in all the years that I've been knitting and crocheting have I ever heard of a KAL.

http://knitalong.net/?page_id=28

I can't wait to get started! Jen, Bonnie and Jessica - you need to check these sites out! What fun lies in store for all of us. I'm almost giddy with anticipation. (Yes, I know that sounded corny! ummm)

p.s. I have started on a black sweater for Parker. I brought this yarn home from China last November.

All Done...

Knitting seems to be catching on..... Taos, NM?

Jen has asked to learn more about knitting and another friend, Michelle, is working on a baby blanket of her own. I'm thrilled to have someone to talk knitting or crochet with. My baby blanket is coming along and I'm about done with the 2nd skein. Yesterday I measured the length and came up with about 7". I think I have enough yarn to finish the blanket. If not! Then I have to do a trip to Taos and the

"Taos Sunflower" http://stores.taossunflower.com/StoreFront.bok or

"LaLana Wools" http://www.lalanawools.com/

to get some more yarn. :-) I just love those stores. Not to mention getting to make an overnight trip out of it. I guess I'll go ahead and mention my favorite B&B in Taos -

"Casa Benavides" http://www.taos-casabenavides.com/

and a few of my favorite restaurants -

"Apple Tree" http://www.appletreerestaurant.com/

"Graham's Grille" http://www.grahamsgrille.com/

"Joseph's Table" http://www.josephstable.com/ is supposed to be just wonderful, but we haven't tried it as yet. Next trip it is a definite must for us.

Our last trip we tried a new place called the "Hongry Gator". WOW! The food was great. Loved it so much that we ate there twice in 3 days. They've been open for a few months now and are gaining a loyal clientele.

I ran over to another of my favorite knitting shops here in Colorado Springs this morning. Knitter's Kove - http://www.knitters-kove.com/

Found a few new books that would be nice to have, along with a great selection of yarn. I'm trying to find a holder for all of my knitting needles and crochet hooks. The holder needs to be large enough to hold the longest needles and hooks along with the shortest and keep everything organized. I have a feeling that I'm going to need to make it myself. Most organizers that I find don't hold enough and are to pricey. Oh well, another thing on the list of "To Do's".

With the change of weather...

Now is the time of year that I really enjoy pulling out the knitting needles or crochet hook. In my mind there is nothing better than curling up on the couch at night or during a cold day and working on some form of handwork (or reading a good book if I'm taking a break from handwork). This is a baby blanket that I started on August 21st. I'm anxious to see how long it takes me to get it finished. I've been working on it for 4 days and have about 3" done. I'm a terribly slow knitter.

My older daughters and I, all do hand work and we love to e-mail completed project pictures back and forth. Last year Olivia and Jolie started learning about crochet and both completed a small project. Olivia, more than Jolie at this point, enjoyed sitting on the couch next to me and working on her project. Kaitlyn also started a couple of projects, but I don't think she completed them. Maybe this year! I'm a self taught knitter and crocheter. My preference is for knitting. I know Jessica and Bonnie both prefer crochet. I love watching them crochet as they move so fast!