Summer...Part 1

Where the heck did it go?!?

Seriously, I have to be at work Monday.  I am not sure where my summer went but we had a good time.  Last time I posted, I was in the thick of the Tour do Fleece and about ready to go camping with my folks so here's a rundown of what has happened since.

Canon City, CO.  We went down, met my parents and their motor-home, and a good time was had by all, even though the kids had spotty wi-fi and had to participate in all the activities.  The we got there, my brother and his girls were still there so we took the time to check out the Royal Gorge Bridge.  The area around the bridge was devastated by fire last year most of the buildings were destroyed. 
This locomotive sits at the entrance and the fire rolled right over it and you can kind of see the burn scar behind it.  We were able to go over the bridge on the bus they were running and it was interesting but heights are not my thing.

We were on a mission to find Bishop's Castle, but we did not have a map so we ended up in Pueblo for lunch and a ride on a boat down the Riverwalk. It has been a really long time since we have been in Pueblo so I was impressed with how much they have expanded this area.  The boat ride was fun.

We drove around Pueblo and found this cool  building which covers some electrical stuff near the train yard, it is made out of an old box car and the hubby thought it was fantastic.

This is Lake Isabel in the San Isabel National Forest.  We were on the road, closing in on Bishop's Castle and discovered this along the way.  On one side of the road is this beautiful lake and on the other is a valley with quite a drop.  Gorgeous.

 And we were finally successful in finding Bishop's Castle.  The kids climbed around a little bit while the rest of us stayed on the ground.  It is crazy and amazing.  After we headed back to Canon City, we had one more stop.  We went to the Abby Winery and had a tasting.  It was delicious after our long day

This is the view from the RV park.













Day two put us in the ground.  We went up to Cripple Creek and visited their Cultural Center and then spent most of the afternoon at the Mollie Kathleen Mine.  While we waited for out tour we enjoyed lunch.  The mine tour took us down to one thousand feet under ground.

Here we are before donning hardhats and squeezing into a very tiny elevator for our tour.  The very tiny elevator took two minutes to reach the bottom, it was dark.

I think we had the best tour guide as our tour was longer than the hour it was predicted to be.  We all enjoyed it, the kids never complained once about it taking too long, they never even wondered how much longer it was going to take.

We walked around downtown Cripple Creek a little after the tour and enjoyed some ice-cream.






All in all it was a fabulous trip.  We drove home the next day up 285 which we had never done before.  It was a good trip and I only freaked out a little bit (my hubby will probably disagree with that assessment as I was practically in tears for part of it, but in my defense it was really, really high and it was raining, I was sure we were going to die.  Have I mentioned that heights aren't really my thing?).

The day we left for Canon City I had washed, whacked and hung to dry the yarns I had finished already.  I have 810 yards of two-ply fingering weight, I am calling it Abstract Sage.  I have 462 yards of a fingering weight single-ply, I am calling it Not a Headache, because it was an amazing spin and it looks great.
 

Abstract Sage

Not a Headache

  

I have to break this up, I will talk about the rest of the summer tomorrow!

Busy Week

Well, It's been another busy week here.  My sister and her two girls came into town late Monday and left late afternoon on Thursday and we packed a lot of fun into those few days. Yesterday was spent recovering and grocery shopping.

Tuesday we got up and left the house for a day at Elitch's.  Of course, all of those pictures are on my phone and I am not sure how to get them to here, I'll ask one of the kids later.  Elitch's was fun until the kids went on their last ride, the Teacups.  Everyone was done after that, kids were all a little nauseous.

Our brother came down with his girls for dinner and a good time was had by all.  His twins, O. and E., are about the same age as my sister's youngest, M.M. and they played together well.  My daughter K.T. is a year older than my sister's oldest and they got to hang out.  Which left C.J. hanging for the most part, but he did have fun with all of his younger cousins, they even got him to play a couple of rounds of musical chairs.

Wednesday was spent looking at back-splash tile for her kitchen and looking at nature.  None of the kids was pleased about the tile store, but K. and I were really impressed.  We went to Floor and Decor and it so many choices that I don't think my sister was even able to narrow down what she wanted.  The only thing we decided was that we like really opposite finishes for kitchens.

After the tile store, we fortified ourselves at Starbucks and C.J. finally found a frappucino flavor he likes, a caramel cup of yumminess.  We headed up to Red Rocks and let the kids climb up down and up the steps while K. and I enjoyed the view, what little view we got as it was really hazy that day. 

We went to Matthews Winters State Park which is just a little ways north of Red Rocks, but a lot less crowded, and went for a little hike. 

The kids found a creek and would have been content to stay here all afternoon if I hadn't mentioned the old graveyard on this hike.  My sister can't resist an old graveyard (I think they're pretty cool, too).

We made them get their picture taken so we could prove that we were in the mountains, even though they weren't really big mountains, just the foothills.

We found the graveyard, which was cool.  The kids were fascinated with the wooden markers.

This is the four of them running back down the trail when we told them the next stop would be ice cream.

Ice cream, then floating in the lazy river at Pirate's Cove (until they made us get out because of lightning) before a dinner of White Fence Farm capped off a long, hot day. 

Thursday morning my sister and I went to IKEA with just M.E. (her oldest) and K.T. leaving C.J. at home in charge of the six year old.  We enjoyed ourselves and nothing was destroyed when we got home so all was good in the world.  We got my sister loaded up and on her way after lunch at Steak and Shake. 

Yesterday all I did was go grocery shopping, think about doing laundry without actually doing it, and spin.  I finished a third of the Headache and I only have .5 oz to go on the first half of Abstract.  Today I will be doing laundry, prepping the next third of Headache, prepping the first 2oz of Sage and, hopefully, finishing that last .5oz of Abstract.  Maybe I'll get it all done.  A girl can dream, right?  Well dream about the fun stuff, not the laundry.

My Turn

Okay, we have been slacking on the posting lately.  We went on vacation and immediately when we returned we bought a new car, as the van decided to let us know she was dying.  Gas mileage sucked and that darn van decided to throw her serpentine belt during a rather nasty thunderstorm the night that C. had departed to go back home.  My sister (who is handy like that) had to fix it the next day.  Of course, both my parents and C. were concerned about me driving back to Colorado with just the kids, but we made it without any mishaps.  Even thought it was raining when we left and when we arrived into Denver, it was a sunny trip with no opportunities for that van to toss the serpentine belt again. 

The next few days were a flurry of car stuff, looking for a car, talking to the credit union, telling the dealership we did not want to get a loan through them, and 2 trips to Arvada (right at rush hour, of course).  Good times.  Good times. 

Now, I am am the happy owner of a zippy, little car: a Mazda 5.  We love it.

As for my spinning and knitting and quilting... The only thing I finished before our trip was K.T.'s bag and it turned out great.  It's almost as big as she is.

K.T.'s Bag

 

 

I have set everything aside that I was working on , except for the spinning project, but more on that in a minute.  While I was in Omaha, my mom suggested we go check out the new yarn store she heard about and when I looked it up, I got a surprise.  When we were living in the Town That Shall Not Be Named we used to drive 90 miles to get to a Target store and a good mall, there was also a great yarn store there.  That store has moved to Omaha and it was great to be able to go there again.  The owner's a very helpful, totally enabling my yarn addiction and I walked out of there with a project I love and hope to  finish soon.  My mom even found something she wanted.

The spinning is moving along but it is almost time for the Tour de Fleece which runs concurrently with the Tour de France bike race which starts this Saturday.  The point of the Tour de Fleece is to spin along with the race, challenging yourself with whatever would be a challenge for you.  I am hoping to finish the 8 oz I am working on right now.

Sage

Abstract

 

 

  

I am hoping to get some other spinning done during the Tour.  I would like to spin as much as I can everyday, sometimes that will be several hours, other days will be just a few minutes.  I want to work on 8oz of a Merino/Tencel blend called Psychedelic Mushrooms and 4oz of Wensleydale which, I'll be honest, scares me a little bit as I have never spun that before.  The Wensleydale is called Headache. 

Headache

 

Psychedelic Mushrooms

Vacation to Illinois and Nebraska

I had a great time on the trip. We went to the berger barg. I would post a pic or 2 but I can't figeriger it out

Washington D.C. Was Fun

D.C. was great I got to go to the top of Washington monument. I also went to williums burg. During the time that I was gone I went to busch gardens with the grout . one of my friends got me a giant banana doing a 3 point shot.

Getting  ready forour trip to Illinois!! I can believe we are going to Illinois! We get to see my dad's side of the FAM! My mom just finished my rainbow loom bag yesterday! I have to pack really soon!

Knitting and Quilting and Spinning, Oh My...

So I have enjoyed the last week, my first week of summer vacation.  We cleaned a little bit and got C.J. ready and off on his grand adventure (a school trip to Williamsburg and D.C.) and now I have gotten myself a little organized.  I have knitting and quilting and spinning projects all going at once, this way I can work on whatever I want to, whenever I want to.

I have four active knitting projects right now.  I say active because I have at least twice that on the needles hiding somewhere.  I am working on a cowl and fingerless mitts to go with the teal jacket I got last year.  I am working on a shawl as a gift for Christmas out of my hand-spun, I can't tell who it's for because it's a surprise.  I am trying to finish up my Color Affection shawl so I can actually use it this fall. Last but not least,  I am working on a Shrug This for my self out of my hand-spun.  I am trying to finish these up before our trip out of town, which is next week, but a girl can hope.

Cowl and Mitts

Surprise Shawl

Color Affection

Shrug This

The quilting project I am working on is a bag for K.T. to take on our road trip. I am also going to try to make one for myself, but I haven't started it yet. K.T's is taking a long time because she wanted pretty stitching for the bag, now that the main quilting part is done, I just need to work on the pockets and the straps, put the lining in and be finished.

K.T.'s bag

Close up of stitching

I have also started a new spinning project which I will not finish before we leave.  My goal for this summer is to spin enough of my stash to end up with several projects worth of yarn.  I have a new pattern book on it's way to me and I want to make at least three of the sweaters in it.  Instead of buying the yarn for them, I am going to spin it.  I will hopefully make a lot of progress toward this goal next month during the Tour de Fleece, which is just a bunch of people on Ravelry spinning along with the Tour de France.  Lots of spinning for me in July.

Abstract

Abstract and Sage

My first sweater quantity spin of the summer will be Abstract on Corriedale and Sage on Wool Blend from Spunky Eclectic.  When I received Abstract as part of my fiber club a couple of years ago, I loved it so much that I ordered 8 more ounces.  I had been planning to spin it for a traditional three-ply but the I think this darker 4oz bump will go great with the 4oz of Sage I have.  I am hoping to spin them together for a lace-weight, two-ply yarn and get enough yardage to make a fantastic sweater.