Mother's Day Hike

This park is just a few minutes by car from my house. Believe it or not, when we first moved to Colorado... this was the dump... now the heaps of trash have been covered and reclaimed.


I think this might me my favorite photo of the day!

CLICK ON EACH PHOTO FOR A BETTER LOOK.

We celebrated Mother's Day today since I have to work tomorrow. Talked my son into going for a hike with me, as a friend (Tracy) had shown me some flowering cacti the other day and I really wished I would have had my camera then. Snapped photos along the way today. Just before we found the cacti I had seen with my friend, Ginger noticed a vulture in a tree. He was eating a snake. Ginger remarked it was sort of like the Mexican flag. We snapped photos of the bird and then he flew off.

You can see town in the distance. Pikes Peak is just out of view.

The pale shale rocks are a nice backdrop for this yellow bouquet of wild flowers.

These cacti are resilient... growing out of a crevice in a steep wall of rock.

In the 18 years we've lived here, I have never seen flowering cacti like this! I feel fortunate to live in such a beautiful area.

GAAA - Suzanne Atkinson's block in progress

I am really enjoying this block. It looks complicated but it's fast and simple. Again, with this pattern, I am exclusively following the pattern from the chart. The interesting texture is made from alternating purl and knit through the back loop stitches on the right side and then knitting all stitches on the back side. On the left hand side, you can see the outline of a little house emerging... yep, that's a door knob on the door! Very cute! On the right, you can see the trunk of the tree of life emerging. In there sky, there will be a cute sun and birds. I am thinking up a way to add a chimney and a puff of smoke to the house's roof top! I like this pattern because it reminds me of a happy scene I used to draw when I was a kid. I recall my sister and I both drawing the same sort of scene actually... she's older so I must have copied her! It was a simple house, a sun with a happy face in the sky, a tree with red apples in the green foliage. Sometimes the house was on a hill and sometimes there was a stream flowing away from the house toward the bottom of the page.

GAAA - Jay Campbell's block is complete!

I finished my first official block from the Great American Aran Afghan book for my GAAA. I enjoyed this block but it was quite a lot of work. It was easier and easier to memorize this pattern as I went and I exclusively used the great chart, as opposed to using the written out instructions. I am finding I enjoy the charts more and more... it's getting easier to read them. I made a few boo-boos along the way but was able to correct them with some duplicate stitch! There were two instances where I accidentally did the wrong cable stitch. This pattern has quite a few different cable stitches as you can tell. I fixed one boo-boo so well I have a hard time finding it! Such a relief. I discovered the error several rows late and I just did not have the heart to go back and fix it... so as I kept getting father and farther toward the center (the end) of the block, my eye kept gravitating toward the mistake! Dang it! But... like I said... I can hardly find the mistake now. Here's a photo of the boo-boo... my finger is pointing to the messed up cable...

disguised pretty well, don't ya think?! Wishing I would have taken a "before shot" of the boo-boo!

GAAA - Jay Campbell's block in progress

This block is shaping up. This is my second block for my Great American Aran Afghan. The other block I completed is just a stockinette background for three trees, and you know what stockinette looks like so I did not bore you with that. This is Jay Campbell's block (he's from Colorado like me!) It's knit from the outside border to the middle... which you can see here.

I like this method of making a block.

Mimi's Bed Socks complete!

I finally have the Kitchner stitch memorized thanks to a great. Click here to see it.

I thought I would be destined to watch the video each and every time I finished a sock, but this time I really watched and LISTENED. What she says as she goes MAKES SENSE and makes this process easy to memorize. "Knit off Purl... Purl off Knit!" Piece of cake!

Mimi's Bed Socks... almost complete!

I really need to memorize the Kitchner stitch.... I also need to learn how to spell it correctly. Another preview of my socks... almost done. Son was busy typing a school project so I could not gain access to my favorite YouTube Video where Susan B. Anderson demonstrates how to finish the toe of a sock using the Kitchner stitch. Notice how the cables on the left and right socks are mirror images instead of identical? I like that detail. I made these socks using one ball of Cascade 220 Superwash (worsted weight) yarn in a medium heathery purple (220 yards). I barely had any yarn left! Thank goodness I did not follow the pattern to the letter (I shortened the socks) otherwise I definitely would have run out of yarn! This is all I had left!

Let the Great American Aran Afghan begin!

I am ready to start my next BIG project... the Great American ARAN Afghan! I selected this yarn because I wanted something that reminded me of OATMEAL. The off white colored "oatmeal" yarn will the background for each block I plan to complete. I selected some sagey green, a heathery blue, and a medium brown for just a little contrast. Before I start... I must finish the Kitchener stitch to close the toes on Mimi's Bed Socks... but after that, I am ready to dig into this project.