Knitting Yarns

Fuschia mentioned that I havn't actually said I arrived back safely, but thinking on that, those that needed to know, knew, and those that did not know have not been asking so thinking there are not that many of them :-).

So on to knitting - whilst in AZ I knitted two little jackets for little locals, well on the other side of the country locals. Found a pattern on the Lion Brand site, - http://www.lionbrand.com-
and managed to get the correct yarn in same colour, the lovely dusty pink, as the pattern, so rarely happens to me, had to use a different yarn for the blue. Because I only had the circular needles I had fun experimenting. Knitted bottoms all in one piece to armhole, then did fronts and back separately, grafted shoulders, picked up sleeve stitched around the armhole and knitted down to the cuffs. Picked up and knitted hood stitches and grafted the top, so there were no seams at all, going to try that on a big item one day.

Do not know if they fitted or were in any way useful but enjoyed doing them.









When I got home had another try with the two socks on one circular needle, the first ones were munched by puppies. The second try ended up in a mad tangle however third time lucky and I have done this much.




Then I got side tracked, as I do.

While sorting yarn stash found quite a bit of acrylic and thought of a project that have been thinking of doing for a few years but always too late, that is knitting a rug for Wrapped With Love. Usually only think of it when the local ABC radio start calling for sqares and people to stitch them together.

http://www.artsandcraftsnsw.com.au/Wrap.htm

So in February I rang and spoke to a lovely lady at the organisation , acrylic yarn preferred in bright colours. One can knit a whole rug or as many squares as you like, I decided to try and finish a whole rug. Originally I was going to do the mitred square design in blocks on one colour but when I went along to our local craft morning several ladies were doing the 'magic square' in stripes and that does look colourful so decided to do that.

Again on my no seam crusade I knit to the last stitch then pick up stitches along top of square and then along the side of the adjacent square, lots of ends to darn in, but no seams. I have to do four rows of seven squares, 28 in all, and want to finish before end of June, so that is now my main project.



Cross stitch next.

Tuesday Nov 11


Had first snowfall Sunday night, was not that heavy but been so cold that there is still some in sheltered spaces.

The snow starts Sunday night, Eldon Mountain hidden by snow clouds

Real little Xmas tree-so pretty, Mon morning

View from office window, Mon morning

Still have not been to the Grand Canyon, we were hoping to be able to go altogether but with Coz working weekends hard to have them both off at the same time so decided on Saturday to go somewhere Rob hasn't been and Coz and I will do the Canyon one day, during one week, not this week tho' cause she at Bullhead City and won't be back until Thurs night.

So on Saturday off we went accompanied by the three dogs, Darwin doesn't like the leash much but was very well behaved, Roo has only been on a leash once before and handled it perfectly, the one time had Tassie on lead he sat down, howled if being beaten and would not move at all, he is only a baby, however this time he didn't make a sound, ran along quite well but had to be carried alot, people kept stopping to remark on Roo's blue eyes, the cutness of Tassie, the behaviour of Darwin, didn't get to take many photo's!

Montezuma Castle National Monument, located near Camp Verde, Arizona, in the Southwestern United States, features well-preserved cliff dwellings. They were built and used by the Pre-Columbian Sinagua people around 1400 AD. Several Hopi clans trace their roots to immigrants from the Montezuma Castle/Beaver Creek area. Clan members periodically return to their former homes for religious ceremonies. When European Americans discovered them in the 1860s, they named them for the Aztec emperor of Mexico Montezuma II, due to mistaken beliefs that the emperor had been connected to their construction.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montezuma_Castle_National_Monument)

Montezuma Castle National Monument

Gaze through the windows of the past into one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America. This 20 room high-rise apartment, nestled into a towering limestone cliff, tells a 1,000 year-old story of ingenuity and survival in an unforgiving desert landscape.

Marveling at this enduring legacy of the Sinagua culture reveals a people surprisingly similar to ourselves.

Spend a few hours and discover the incredible legacy of an ancient people. Montezuma Castle National Monument.

A self-guided, 1/3-mile loop trail leads you past an incredible 5-story cliff dwelling, through a beautiful sycamore grove and along spring-fed Beaver Creek, one of only a few perennial streams in Arizona.

Dogs, on leashes no longer than 6 feet) are welcome on the park's trails. Pet owners must clean up after their animals.

(http://www.nps.gov/moca/)

Then onto Jerome an old copper mining town, now very Leura-ish, perched along mountain top,

Modern Jerome: tourism and art

Today Jerome is a tourist destination, with many abandoned and refurbished buildings from its boom town days. Jerome has a large mining museum, presenting the town history, labor-management disputes, geological structure models, mineral samples, and equipment used in both underground and open-pit mining. The National Historic Landmark designation has assured architectural preservation in this town, a mile high on the side of Mingus Mountain.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome,_Arizona)

Didn't take any pics at all-oops

Came home up the canyon creek road, stopped to have a look at the creek, not a lot of water but very tranquil.

This morning the puppies chewed the power cord to Rob's speakers and munched on his headphones, BAD PUPPIES. I was going to post about latest knitting project, knitting two socks on one circular needle, all was going well until the puppies of doom intervened on Sunday, chewed right thru cable between needles and munched on some wool, so here is the sad result, have put it away for a bit, need to get more needles,

Still the concept is great, bought 2-at-a-time SOCKS, by Melissa Morgan-Oakes, ISBN 987-1-58017-691-0. Sets out the process very clearly and very well illustrated. I have been pratising knitting one sock at time on the circulars and but this book would also suit a total beginner.

oh so innocent puppies, yeah right!!

>

I have decided I am in awe of regular bloggers, I am hopeless however blame it a bit on dial-up. Everything seems geared to broadband with pages taking longer and longer to load. So by the time I have checked my various emails, scanned newspapers, peeked at auction sites, blog sites and craft sites, beaten up monsters and solved puzzles on KOL-kingdomofloathing.com, (a very dial-up friendly site), and made cups of coffee while updates download, well my eyes are fuzzy and I just sign out. Next year will seriously consider getting broadband however it is not the fastest thing anyway out here in the ‘wilderness’.

Finished the shawl for Fuschia, must remember the s, have received a stern reminder about that, spellchecker in Word doesn’t like it tho’, nor blog for that matter. Anyway Fuschia says I am now an online resource and although I have to chuckle I must admit I have found so much information on the web from the generosity of others that if I can do my little bit that is a fine thing, rather hard to live up to!

Four of us went to Stitches and Craft in Sydney last week, very enjoyable day. Many inspirational ideas and bought home some goodies, not as many as I could have.

Some more details on Folk Shawls, it was published in 2000 by Interweave Press in Colorado, (I will be in a neighbouring state next month, ooooh, getting excited.)

ISBN 13: 978-1-883010-59-1

ISBN 10 1-883010-59-4

My next project from that book will be the Feather and Fan Shawl from Iceland because very taken with the pattern and I love the accompanying story from folklore that says that fairy women could travel between Earth and Fairyland on their shawls.

The shawl is knitted using unspun Icelandic yarn, would love to try that and have a ball of cheese roving that might practice on one day, but for now will use a lovely, local hand dyed alpaca yarn, photo when I get past the cast on stage.