Monday, June 15, 2009

Musings on a Monday

Boy, it's pretty outside. A beautiful, almost summer morning. Can you believe it's almost the first day of summer? I for one, am tired of all the thunderstorms we have been having. Very unusual. I just went out and examined the garden for hail damage and of course, the big, beautiful Hosta is shredded. And there is some damage to the leaves of the vegetables. Oh well, it could be worse. I think though, whenever I'm thinking the Hosta is looking great this year, that's a cue for hail.

The boys have been off from school for a week, and we have started our summer exploration. There are 42 state parks in the state of Colorado, and we are trying to see how many we can visit during their vacation. Last week we started with Eldorado Canyon, which the boys really loved. We saw Prairie Falcons and mountain lion tracks. The boys waved to the rock climbers as we hiked along a trail. The next park we explored was Golden Gate Canyon after we went to Lookout Mountain and visited Buffalo Bill's grave. We had a great view of the Continental Divide from Panoramic Point and enjoyed hiking until rain chased as off the trail. The last park we explored last week was Chatfield Lake. The boys had fun in the lake until another thunderstorm came up and we raced for the truck. We have more exploring planned for this week.

We went to the Estes Park Wool Festival on Sunday. The oldest fell in love with the Jacob sheep and the youngest wanted a Vicuna. I bought some mohair from Neota Designs in the colorway Purple Mountain Majesty for a shawl, and bought some beautiful grey alpaca from Paradise Valley Alpaca Ranch for a scarf for DH. I'm thinking the shawl will knit up fast. We ran in to Joanne at the festival - Hi Joanne!

Well, time to figure out what we are doing today. Have a great week everyone.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Happy June 1

Okay, where did May go? I know I for one thought I was going to get SO many things done in May, including finishing many knitted items. So where did it go, because, I'm looking around and I'm not seeing ANY FOs!

Well, I do know that I did not spend as much time knitting as I thought I would. I am still trying to get into some sort of routine. I have gone on school field trips with the boys. I am trying to work out more. I have spent a lot of time out in the yard. The bush beans have come up and are now about 2 to 3 inches high. I have yellow flowers on the tomatoes. The squash and zuccini have new leaves. The cucumber is very slow growing. I have not seen anything yet of the sun flowers or the corn. Hmm, I wonder why? And, the new rose bush is in, all the rose bushes have been fed, and all but the new one have rose buds. So, we have progress outside.

The knitting, well, that is another story. I have knit on my Sasha skirt. The inner lining is a stockinette tube, which is I think, 190 stitches around, and goes forever since I am making the 30 inch skirt. So, I knit on the lining for a while until I want to poke my eyes out. I have knit on some lace. I have knit on a couple of sweaters. And, I worked on some toe-up Monkey socks.

Okay people, WHY AM I SO PICKY ABOUT SOCKS? They are just socks for goodness sake! I hate the heel on these. I've turned the heel and thrown the sock down. Disgusted. I haven't decided if I will rip the whole thing out or just put another heel in and just rip this heel out. Right now the heel has me IRRITATED!

I am going to organize the yarn room this week. I need more room. I'm also drooling over an Elna 7300 sewing machine. Guess why I need more room?