Gadabout

I'm happy to report that the Rocky Mountains are still rocky.


Also that the air is decidedly thin for sea-level-adapted creatures like myself. I spent a lot of time pausing to rest while doing things I wouldn't think twice about at home. Like hiking. Walking up stairs. Carrying luggage.

We stayed in Denver, but did a bunch of day trips- in addition to Rocky Mountain National Park, we rode the Georgetown Loop Railroad:

(I should mention here that it's taken me a week or so to get photos downloaded and such, so we were in and out before the place was invaded by Democrats.)

Toured a silver mine (if you go to Georgetown, the silver mine tour is excellent- the interpreters were knowledgeable and interesting):


Visited the Garden of the Gods:


Visited the Cave of the Winds (the Lantern tour):


Went to Seven Falls and climbed the 200+ steps to the top:


Hiked around the canyon rim:


And generally had a good time. With frequent breaks to catch our breath.

And there was a certain amount of knitting around the edges. I finished the feather and fan socks:


Note the lace ribbing, which I swiped from the Fools Rush In sock pattern by Cassiana of Too Much Wool, which I am planning to knit sometime soon. (In typical knitter fashion I totally packed way too much yarn. Enough for another two pairs of socks which I didn't even get to start. Fortunately I confined myself to socks- two extra balls of sock yarn wasn't a huge burden. Note the learning behavior! I was strongly tempted to take yarn to start another sweater, but I have Learned My Lesson since the Hawaii trip last year.)

And, I finished off the New Day socks in the post-trip brain-fog over the weekend! Yay, me!


And I have been reunited with the Optic Waves scarf- when I got back from my trip, I decided that two pattern repeats wasn't enough. So I ripped it all back and started over with the number of repeats that I'd originally cast on! Now I'm back to wondering if I'm going to have enough yarn. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode.

Step by Step

The weekend turned out to be a good time for knitting, and yet, I'm in one of those stages where everything is in the middle and the end is not yet in sight.

The New Day socks are coming along. I want to use up all the Lola, so I put the first sock on stitch holders and cast on the second. Clearly I don't have enough sock needles.


I thought the heel felt a bit thin, even though the yarns are very nearly the same weight. But I figured that working the back in heel stitch couldn't hurt.

Saturday I spent hanging out at the Lowell Folk Festival, eating fabulous ethnic food and listening to music. Prime knitting time. There were a lot of good groups, but I think my favorite was a workshop showcasing various percussive dance traditions. They had Ottawa River Valley step, Irish step, Carolina flatfooting, American tap and Quebec step dancing. They did a couple of tunes where they all got up and danced. The tap guys had the hardest time, being furthest away from the more Celtic traditions, but they were good sports about it. I shot a short video clip- the tap guy is first, then the Irish dancer:

(Blogger didn't like the video link, but I think I've successfully set it up so if click on the picture, you'll see the video.)

And then on Sunday, we hosted a birthday party for a friend. Lots of sitting, chatting and knitting there too. (Which makes it all the more mysterious that things aren't further along...possibly there was more chatting and less knitting than I recall.)

Woats declined to help with the knitting, but was clearly filled with party spirit. (There's a bunch of balloons on the other end of those ribbons.)


Fortunately, certain people with no idea of what constitutes a good time intervened before any ribbon was ingested. It was not for want of trying, however!

Not Red

So, after searching around, the helpful folks at my LYS introduced me to the perfect partner for Lola, a charming Norwegian yarn called Dale. I think they look stunning together:


I needed a plain project for wandering-around knitting, preferably in a light-colored yarn suitable for knitting in dim restaurants. This yarn is good- it's heavy so I didn't want something heavily patterned and lively enough to be interesting to knit. There's only a bit over 200 yards, so I'm using the Dale for toes, heels and cuffs, to bulk it out a bit. Since I like my socks a bit short in the leg, I should have plenty.

This really isn't a colorway I would have bought myself (it was a blog contest prize), and yet clearly I need to become more adventurous in my yarn-buying because I adore it- the soft peach/yellow/pink is so cheerful and sunny I smile whenever I pick it up. (Thanks, Karen!)

And best of all? It's not red.