Friday, August 8, 2008

Well, summer here in Colorado has been brutal to say the least. We set a heat record out here of 23 consecutive days over 90 degrees. It has been one very dry and dangerous summer thus far, but we all seem to be moving through it without too much difficulty. As for my friends and family on the East Coast, well, they are just about ready to float away with all the rain that they are getting, I hope it slows down soon so they get some kind of relief before the snow flies.



Anyway, I just wanted to post a few pictures of the projects that have recently come off of my needles, and some that are still on........










The sweater is a project that I started, literally, years ago. It is a project that I kind of took on too early in my knitting and it got pushed off to the side and sort of forgotten about for a long time. It has many errors in it, but it seems to appear alright. I really am proud of it considering the time period that I took the project on, and now that it is done, I will most likely make one more just to compare and see if my skills have really improved over time. :)

And, the socks, Alberta Clipper Socks, are some that I have had on the needles WAY too long, especially for socks. This pattern is great, and if you know anyone in your family who has big feet, these are the socks to make them for Christmas this year. The patterns is nice and stretchy and it makes a beautiful sock for the men in your family. I will defenately make more of these in the future. The gusset on the pattern was a little confusing, but I have a great resource for assistance in Boulder, Colorado at Spindles, Shuttles and Spools, a great little knitting/spinning boutique. The ladies there are great and always willing to help a novice like myself out with a problem on the needles.
Now, the last little project that I have to share is just a fun little thing that I found and thought would be fun to try. It will eventually be an alligator once it is stitched up and stuffed. It is made out of 100% Pima cotton and I just love how soft it is. Some little one will end up with this project. I am having a blast working it and can't wait to post a picture of the finished project! I hope you will all enjoy looking at it as much as I did making it.


















So, that is what is happening with the knitting projects so far....I have many other things that I want to get working on, one is a sweater that is amazing, but that will have to wait for a bit.

We haven't been doing much four wheeling this summer due to the ungodly cost of gas this summer...but I think the rest of the country is the same way. I have some pictures of the last time that we all went out and it was an amazing day. There is a trail out near Breckenridge, CO that we really enjoy running called Caribou. It is kind of muddy in the early spring due to the run off from the mountain, but once you can get up to the top, the view is breathtaking. The wind blows all the time up here, so all the trees grow at a lean, it is sort of interesting to see.













There are just no pictures that do this place justice. Everywhere you look there is something beautiful to see. We are going to try and go to Steamboat Springs tomorrow to a BBQ festival. It should be fun! A few trails will probably be run during the day, but you can be sure that eating BBQ will be the order of business for the entire afternoon....hahaha! Gotta luv the BBQ.



Just one more quick little project to share before I stop boring you all to tears.....



These are some cool little gauntlets that I found on-line. They were done in black and purple on the pattern, which I love, but I just thought it would be fun to change things up a little so I made them with burgundy and cream acrylic with KnitPicks Sparkles in Impatient held with all the cream parts. I think they came out quite well. The picot edging tends to roll a little, hence the clothes pins, but it adds a unique touch to them that I just loved. Hope you enjoy my projects and if you would like to have patterns for any of them let me know. I got a few of them off the net, so that are free, just the way I like to "buy" patterns.



Best to you all and Happy Knitting!!!