Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Making the Rounds

I've been making the rounds doing this, that and the other thing and precious little of it has been knitting, although I do have something to show.  Here's what I have been up to:

Hiking Pinnacles National Park outside of Hollister, Ca.  What a wonderful spot, perfect weather, not too hot, although lots of people and I would not suggest going there Easter weekend as we did.


                                                                               


                                                                         




The caves are really interesting to walk through although on this trip there were so many people it was hard to stop and enjoy it all and take pictures, so here is one from the park web site:

                                                                           


 Next morning, it was on to Monterey Bay and the historic Cannery Row.  This is Monterey Bay Aquarium:


                                                                           

                                                                         

                                                                                 



                                                                                   

                                                                         
Next stop was Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz to watch the surfers and enjoy a walk along the path with the Ice Plants.  The waves were pretty rough and there weren't too many surfers around:


                                                                         
                                                             

Here's a friend of ours getting too close to the edge:


                                                                           


And, oh yes, the knitting.  It was hard to drag my Little Wave along - the sleeves are attached and it is just too big and complicated to bring along on trips, so I switched to an easy top down sweater by Elizabeth Smith of The Brown Stitch.  This is called Concetta:

                                                                                 

 
I'm using Knit Picks  Wool of the Andes Tweed and have a nice big colorful button in mind for this:

                                                                                 
   

That's it for now - I hope you are all having a great week!


Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Red Rocks

Not too much knitting going on lately as I have been out and about visiting some of our beautiful natural wonders.  First, a short trip to Red Rocks in Colorado:


                                                                             




These pictures won't do this area justice, it is really spectacular and also home to a red rock amphitheater that has been hosting big name musical groups for years.  The Beatles were here in 1964 and I wonder what they thought of this place:


                                                                            




When there are no performances scheduled, the amphitheater is open to the public and becomes a giant 
gym with people running up and down the seating area, kickboxing and jump roping on the stage amongst other things.  So much fun!  Our grandchildren loved it and the two older ones ran up and down the seats twice!  It's a kick to be on the stage imagining the performers there and the crowds looking down on you/them.

There are some nice easy hikes around here and I could have taken pictures all afternoon:

                                                                                 


Well, you can see it's worth a visit, and since they say it is only 10 miles from Denver (it took us about half an hour) it's an easy trip if you find yourself visiting Denver.

More about my other adventures in my next post, for now here is my progress on my Little Wave sweater:


                                                                   


The sleeves get joined as you start the yoke shaping.  Here's a picture of the finished sweater on the Little Wave Ravelry page:


                                                                                      





                                                                                


More about my travels later!  Check out Tami's blog for more interesting knitting projects.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Shabbat Shalom

My grandson goes to a JCC preschool program in Denver and today is Grandparent's Day.  Here's grandpa hanging out with Forest, on his left,  and a good buddy of his in their classroom:


                                                                                 


We listened to a few books read to us by his teacher:

                                                                         

    
 We learned about making Matzah Ball soup:


                                                                 



We ate Challah bread and toasted with a glass of grape juice: Shabbat Shalom!


                                                                               


A nice time spent only with Forest.


On the knitting front; still working on my Little Wave.  Here are a few pictures:


                                                                           


The first sleeve and when I went to get my camera to take the picture, here is what I found:


                                                                             

Naughty kitty!  Not sure why the color is so off, it is more like the above picture.   Kitty and I had a talk about how to handle my knitting and here is the second picture of my sleeve:

                                                                                 


Good Kitty!

                                                                             

Have a great weekend and check out Tami's blog if you want to see what other's are knitting.

Shabbat Shalom!





                                                                   
                                                 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Tudor Roses

I recently bought a copy of Alice Starmore's Tudor Roses,  a revised and expanded edition of the original published in 1998.  What a beautiful book to browse through, and although I imagine most of these copies will take their place as coffee table books, there are some very interesting (and challenging) knitted designs in here.  My favorite is Anne of Cleves.  This retails for 40 dollars but you can get it for alot less on Amazon.


                   
                                                                             






                                                                 

 

Here is my work in progress, the Little Wave; I have about 12 inches done and since it is knit in one piece, it is slow going for me.  Thank goodness for Audible books.  I'm listening to Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen  Oyeyemi which is an interesting story that incorporates elements of a fair tale (the stepdaughter is named Snow) into modern day events.



                                                                             



    
Have a great week and stay warm and dry!

                                                                    

Friday, March 21, 2014

A Simple Newborn Hat

One more finished baby hat for the new baby girl that is expected any day now.  This is Ginny Sheller's Simple Newborn Hat and I saw a version of this on the always interesting  chrisknits blog:


                                                                                                     


Here is Ginny's version:


                                                                                  



Fringe Association is a blog by Karen in Berkeley and I have been following it lately because it is so well done; the content is always interesting and she does a great job with her photos.  She recently posted from Vogue Live in Seattle and this picture of  Jared Flood's Channel Cardigan has me joining her in adding it to my must do list.

     
                                                                                 



Wow! Is that gorgeous or what!  All those details - will I really hang in there and do all that?  I would like to try.

Have a great weekend and check out what others are knitting on Tamis blog.






Wednesday, March 19, 2014

My Little Wave

Spring is here, well at least in California.  Here are a few photos of the flowers starting to bloom out
our back door.   First are lilacs which I love and you rarely see them in Northern California:

                                                                                               


A lovely flowering bush of Camellias, I think:




Hoping for this kind of nice weather to come soon to the rest of the country.  We have relatives around the country and we sympathize with what you are all going through.  Here is a picture my son sent from DC where he lives.  I think this was taken last week when they had 9 inches of snow.  Enough already!

                   
                                                                               



I have been spending some time working on my latest project, the Little Wave, by Gudrun Johnston.

                                                                                 

                                         
 This is knit in one piece so it is slow going, but I am enjoying it:

                                                                         



There are two pockets that will be added in on the front later.  I guess I don't need those stitch markers to mark the side garter panels anymore,  but I wanted to show them off because I made them!
     

I hope everyone is having a good week and check out what others are knitting over at Tami's blog.                                                                               

Friday, March 14, 2014

Something for the Beach

Contrary to what is going on across the country, the weather here in California is getting warmer and we are expecting temperatures in the 80's this weekend.  Sorry!  Don't hate us!  I finished a sweater for my daughter which we are calling her beach sweater since it is a Drops pattern with no name, except for the design number, 127-33.  Cute and comfy.


                                                                                 

 
   The yarn is Drops' Verdi in a pale pink and smokey grey/brown  color. 


                                                                             
                                                                                                                                         

A big fluffy ball consisting of wool, mohair and acrylic  that has served as a toddler's toy, a pillow and something we all like to pet from time to time.  Goodbye little furry friend!

My latest project is Gundrun Johnston's Little Wave.  I am fascinated with the construction of this sweater.  Here is the back from the Ravelry project page:


                                                                       



I'm going to use Quince and Co.'s  Owl in Berent's Sea:

                 
                                                                           


Have a great weekend and Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

                                                                          

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Alpine Topper Hat

And it's still snowing across the country.  They are expecting a foot of snow in parts of New England and the morning news showed Chicago being hit with another fierce storm.  We even have some snow in the Lake Tahoe area - here's me out for a walk up at Glacier Point overlooking the mountains:


                                                                           


There's still time to knit hats, scarves and gloves!  Here is my Alpine Topper that I made in one day; I  bought this pattern and the yarn at Halcyon Yarns in Maine when I was there last year.


                                                                                 


                                                                         


This was made with Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride Bulky as the main color and the very soft Schulana Cortina  for the contrasting color which also makes a nice soft lining inside:


                                                                         


That's it for now - head over to Tami's blog to see what other folks are up to.




Friday, March 7, 2014

Babies on Board

There are several babies who are due to arrive in the next few months (indeed one has arrived)  and their mothers are special to me and so the baby knitting has commenced!   Here is what I have been up to:

                                                               

Buying baby/children's patterns at Stitches West a few weeks ago.  This is Saffron Baby from
Elena Nodel and is sized from Newborn to 12 months.  I'm shooting for the 6 month size for one little girl in particular.   I also bought Hannah Fettig's mini Water's Edge which is sized from 6 months to 14 years:

                                                                         


I have also been knitting baby hats and this one has been sent off to the little girl born in Philadelphia where they are setting all kinds of records for cold weather.

                                                                           


For those wondering why  I knit a blue hat for a baby girl, this is actually a pale lilac my camera stubbornly refused to duplicate.  This is a free pattern from Knitting on the Net called Mock Cable Baby Hat and  is so easy to do.  The slipped stitches make the cables and eliminate the need for a cable needle.

This is also a fast knit called Tegan, designed by Julie Taylor and is a free pattern on Ravelry.  Just knit in the round, decrease as you reach the top and add about 12 rows of stockinette to make a top knot.  


                                                                          


This last hat is called Everyone's Hat by Monica Sirna because it's sized for infants to adults.

    
                                                                           



Have a great weekend everybody and check out what other's are knitting over at Tami's blog

.