I can barely believe I’ve actually managed to blog everyday for the past 20 days (counting today of course). I might even make it to the end of the month, though no guarantees.
One thing that makes all the writing and computer work I do go easier is my nifty ergonomic split keyboard and ergonomic mouse. The keyboard slope and overall shape helps keep my hands relaxed as I type. Which is why I can type approximately 120 wpm. If you are spending hours on the keyboard and finding you are experiencing pain a keyboard like this might be the solution.
Of course, no matter what keyboard and desk set-up you have, you still need to take regular breaks every 20-30 minutes to just move in a different way from the seated posture with hands on the keyboard.
As you likely can guess, the Part 2 of our adventure was the drive back to Colorado.
We planned very well for our departure and managed to be packed up, checked out and on the road by 8 a.m. We were just going to make a quick stop off the highway to visit a Whole Foods to re-provision some of the food we had eaten during our stay in Reno.
Of course, it wasn’t to be that simple. When we exited the highway I managed to take us in the wrong direction (I’m great at Geometry, total rubbish at Geography), fortunately we figured out that we were traveling in the wrong direction fairly quickly and got turned around.
Driving across Nevada was as boring the 2nd time around as it had been on the first. Added to the monotone of the scenery was that a haze seemed to be hanging over everything. But we had our music and lots of adventures at the show to talk about. We reached SLC at a decent hour (the sun was still up) and we had organized well for what we needed to bring to the room with us.
We each ate something for supper then had some fun snacking on chocolate. Had a bit of a “tasting” with the different flavors I had packed for us. Jan made me watch Football. Eek!
Next morning we were up and off quickly. Driving out of SLC we finally got to see the gorgeous scenery we had missed in the dark on the trip out to Reno. The hills were actually quite lush with lots of greenery as well as dramatic rockscapes. Many of the trees were sporting their autumn colors too. Jan was really enjoying the scenery, but since I was driving I could only give it a bit of attention.
The highways going out of SLC are very twisty and pretty busy, which I found entertaining. I think Jan was relieved when the traffic got lighter though.
We were having some difficulties with my I-pod player at this point so we decided to sing. A road-trip song I know well from way back is “99 Bottles of Beer”, but it didn’t really fit for us. So we decided upon a yarn related version. We used up an hour of our travel time playing with variations of words and singing them to see how well they worked. Jan finally came up with the version that we liked best:
99 Balls of Bamboo on the Wall,
99 Balls of Bamboo,
Take one down it needs to be wound,
98 Balls of Bamboo on the wall.
Of course, I had a terrible time getting it right. I kept messing up and singing the old lyrics. It was definitely entertaining though.
We were then getting to where the terrain was opening up, and we were enjoying all the rocky scenery. We stopped when there was a really long cargo train and took some photos. The gorgeous stone buttes were hard to do justice to. I fixed the I-pod issue and we had our tunes back to sing with, instead of our improvised counting song.
Wyoming was adventure free until we reached Cheyenne. Once again a combination of road-work and my geographically challenged mind created a bit of interest for us. We were still on I-80 coming into Cheyenne. We knew we needed gas soon and both of us were wanting a bathroom stop as well. So we pulled off at the first likely exit. Could not find the gas station that was advertised on the highway signage, only spotted it as we missed the turn to get to it.
Back we went on the next highway entrance. I’m not even sure what highway this was, though I spotted signs that said we were headed toward I-25 (our route we would need for going south into Colorado). We pulled off again and found a gas station, filled the tank and emptied ours. Then I decided it was time to invoke the Smart Phone.
I pulled up a Navigation Ap and we discovered we were actually very close to I-25, we just needed to get back on the highway we had been on and we would reach the I-25 South exit in just a mile. Yay! Back onto the highway we went.
Hmmmm….shouldn’t we have gotten to I-25 already? Look there it’s the “Sierra Trading Post” storefront. The scenery is becoming far less urban and more rural. Okay we are definitely going the wrong direction again. Pull off at next exit. Pull out Smart Phone. Yup, I-25 is back that-a-way. And back we go.
I was never so happy to see signs for I-25 South. Interestingly enough, once we were on I-25 the rest of the drive sort of flew by. The traffic was heavier than I am generally used to on Colorado Highways, I think we had managed to hit it just right for when many commuters are heading home. We made it to our exit with no more misadventures.
We took a slightly different route home from the one I had taken Janet down the mountain. She wasn’t going to get to see very much more of my beautiful Colorado (until I get her out here for another visit) so we took a “long-cut” to get to my house. It was getting on toward evening, but this route would only add 10 minutes to our drive. Fortunately my geographically challenged issues don’t apply in my familiar stomping grounds, which meant we were in no danger of getting lost again.
We drove thru the little town of Lyons, which Jan made me promise we would investigate further on her next visit, and then took the St Vrain Canyon to Peak-to-Peak Highway. The look of delight on Jan’s face as we drove the rocky winding road let me know taking a “long-cut” had definitely been a good choice.
We stopped and took some photos at one point, and realized that there was a climber on one of the rock faces.
Red circle is where the climber is.
Looking at this larger photo you can get a feel for how big it is because the climber is just a speck.
Finally we were back home. We were tired but happy as we trekked up to the house from my garage. My family was all very excited to see us. Finally put the boys to bed and Jan and I sat on the sofa having our last face to face visit before her departure in the morning.
Morning I faced the hardest part of these visits with my dear Jan. Telling her good-bye until we will see each other again. Of course the best part is, I have a wonderful friend who makes me laugh and loves yarn and crochet hooks as much as I. It will be phone calls and emails until we get another chance to meet.
Yes, I know it is early to be thinking about Christmas. But if you are a crafter making your holiday gifts, it is really moving into the last stretches for getting those projects done. So maybe you need something quick to fill a few spots on your list.
A Bear for All Seasons Photo courtesy of Annie’s/Crochet World
How about these cuddly little bears? You can find the pattern for them in the December 2012 issue of Crochet World. The brown bear is 3-dimensional and the white bear is flat, the pattern has instructions for both.
I really loved designing these little guys. They are just big enough to add some fun to your tree, packages or as a simple gift. You can change the size of your bears by using smaller or larger gauge yarns (or even thread), just remember to adjust the size of your hook accordingly.
Make the flat bear to embellish store-bought mittens, gloves, hat, scarves or even a sweatshirt or sweater. Suddenly you have a special gift that took just a few hours to make.
The 3-D bear is perfect for a fun ornament for the Christmas tree. You could even use some sparkly yarns to make him a real stand-out. Or add some holly to his bow-tie. And if you want him to be a keepsake ornament, you could embroider the year on his tummy or back.
Well, today is my birthday. I’m not sure how it came around again so quickly, I would have sworn I had one of these just 6 months ago.
I’ve been very good to myself leading up to this birthday. Indulged in some yarn purchases, as well as some fun goodies for jewelry making that may or may not be used in my design work. Plus there was the whole “Trip to Reno” that was a kind of gift from my family.
Anyway, I think I have my birthday celebration covered, so I am giving a gift to one of my readers that commented on my Mountain Ruana post. And the lucky winner is: Julie! I’ll be in touch by email very soon to get your address to mail you the copy of “Warm & Cozy Crochet” that you won. Thanks for commenting on my blog.
Meanwhile, since I officially turn 49 today, I shall be contemplating the 50th year of my life. I think I need to take better care of myself. Which sort of encompasses all manner of sins: Like getting more and regular sleep, eating a healthy hearty breakfast every morning (which means this is the last morning I am having GF brownies for breakfast), and getting some form of cardio exercise everyday. I know from all my work as a health and wellness writer that it’s all a matter of “Move it or Lose it” if I don’t want the years to bring me to a grinding halt.
Of course, no matter what, I will always celebrate my birthday. As a very wise friend told me years ago upon his 50th birthday, “Getting older is far preferable over the alternative.”
Whether you wield the Hook or the Needles (or some combination of the two) attending a Knit and Crochet Show is a great place for meeting up with friends and making new friends. In fact, for me it is the very best reason to come to the shows.
The first Knit & Crochet show I ever attended was the September 2008 show in Portland, OR. I came by myself because there were classes that I really wanted to take and I didn’t know anyone else that loved to play with yarn like me.
I left the show having met many wonderful friends, whom I am still in touch with. Most notably my dear Jan, Bonnie Pierce and Pam Shore. I also had the opportunity to meet friends I had beforehand only known online: Vashti Braha, Jenny Dowde, Laurie Wheeler, Sarah B, to name a few.
I am usually terrible about getting photos of folks at the shows, but this recent show I attempted to do better.
Linda & Doris
Linda Dean is a wonderful new designer whose enthusiasm and contagious laugh are a joy to be around. And of course, the lovely Doris Chan is truly an encouraging and inspiring force to be reckoned with.
Some of the International FreeForm Guild group
It’s always great fun to spend time with this inspiring bunch, I first learned about the International Free Form Guild at the Portland 2008 show. But, this was the first show I actually got to visit with Prudence Mapstone and she was an absolute blast. I wish I’d realized that the folks in the back row of this picture were a bit out of focus. In the front row from left to right: Me, Mirtooli, Jorel; back row, Barbara H, Melba, Prudence.
Margaret Fisher
I was very charmed by the lovely Margaret Fisher, who surprised me by knowing what a geek I am. We had a very fun conversation about crocheting a moebius and our other odd geometric leanings.
Amy Shelton wearing her tiarra
Amy, one of the founders of Crochetville and current President of the CGOA, had a few of us worrying about her sanity when she was running about with a tiara on her head. But she is very fond of the sparkly. Don’t know if you tell from this photo, but the dress she is wearing is super sparkly too. Of course, those of you that know me well are aware I have a thing about sparkly as well.
Vashti and Ellen
The lovely Ellen Gormley and Vashti Braha. Ellen is a talented designer with some great books out, if you love interesting motif afghans you need to get her book ” Go Crochet: Afghan Design Workbook” and if lace is more your style check out her latest book from Annie’s “Learn Bruges Lace”. Vashti is always an inspiration with her take on designing and crochet, she also helped keep us all in order and sane during the CGOA banquet Fashion Show.
These are just the photos I got, but there were loads of other friends there.
Come join us for all the fun and camaraderie in 2013. The Knit & Crochet Shows next year will be in Indianapolis, IN (July 17-21) and Charlotte, NC (October 2 -6).
I don’t know if all my lovely readers have noticed, but I’ve been blogging every day for the past 10 days.
Initially this run of posting was powered by my excitement about all the fun stuff from the Reno Knit & Crochet Show. Then it became a quiet little goal, I began to challenge myself to blog each day and see if I could manage to make it to 10 days. Now that I’ve reached 10 days we will see how much further I can go.
I’m thinking I’ll take it an additional 5 days at a time. So if I can blog everyday thru October 14th that will be 15. Will see what happens after that.
Feel free to cheer me on, encouragement is always welcome. And if you have ideas for crochet or hand health subjects you would like to see please let me know.
Even after 42+ years of crocheting, I am always amazed and thrilled at all the new things there are for me to learn. I have tried over the years to get the hang of Hairpin Lace, but I always ended up with a tangled mess.
Unfortunately the timing never seemed to work out for me to take one of her classes at the Knit & Crochet Shows, or they were sold out. When I registered for the Reno Show I decided I would fit in her Saturday classes on Hairpin Lace.
The morning class started at 9 a.m. and was all about learning how to make the strips of lace on the loom. I told Jennifer right from the start that this could be tricky for me, but would be no reflection on her teaching abilities. I was astonished by the end of the 3 hour class to actually feel very competent working the strips. Jennifer has awesome tips for success with the techniques and a lively humorous teaching style that kept me from tossing the loom across the room.
The afternoon class was the “Hairpin Lace Joining Workshop”. The idea was all the students would arrive with 6 strips of lace ready to join. The class project was a sweet little evening bag. We would get to practice all the various joins Jennifer was teaching us while making the bag.
Yeah, don’t think that I’m getting a bag out of these shorties.
Unfortunately, though I had got the hang of making the strips in the morning class, my strips were a little short to make the bag.
Still I felt very happy with my progress and that I’d gained the information needed to work with the techniques independently. I even went so far to purchase one of the beautiful hairpin lace looms crafted by Ed Jenkins that Jennifer had available for sell. Now I just need to find time in my busy schedule to practice this technique more.
Who knows, I might start designing a few things in hairpin lace myself.
Yesterday was a bit like Christmas or maybe an early birthday celebration as I got a box in the mail.
It was these beautiful hooks.
I’ve been wanting to get my hands on some of them since I saw this ad in the Vogue Knitting Crochet Issue. First of all, because my Clover Soft Touch hooks were my very favorites until I discovered the Tulip Etimos. The finish and shape of the hook is ideal for tight crochet work for sculptural pieces like amigurumis and crazy yarn like the vinyl “Jelly Yarn”. Unfortunately I’d never found the handle to be as comfortable as the Etimos.
Well, my Etimos could be facing some serious competition now. These new hooks have the same wonderful finish and hook shape as the Clover Soft Touch, along with a gorgeous silver-colored hook. And the handles, ah the handles are soooo pretty! Not only are they pretty, they have a wonderful softness to the elastomer type material that is easy to hold and effortless to crochet with.
I’ll be giving them a good work out the next month as I stitch up swatches for proposals and finish some projects I’ve already sold. But I am pretty sure these hooks will be finding their way into my hands regularly.
My only whinge is that I love to use a Size J hook (6mm) in much of my crochet with worsted weight yarns (CYCA #4). All the beautiful colors they made the handles and the J hook has a boring brown handle. Of course it is a sort of Chocolate brown, so I’ll just have to forgive them that color choice. I bet you can guess which is my favorite color handle.
Hot Pink! Oooo Baby Baby!
I may have to do more projects that need an F hook (3.75mm) in the future.
I’ll have a more in-depth product review once I’ve spent some time working with them. So watch for that.
Just a quick photo of all the fun stuff I came home from the Reno Knit & Crochet Show with. Funny, I thought I hadn’t found time to do much shopping. Clearly I was wrong. This is a happy thing though. Soon, I’ll tell you more about some of the individual purchases.
I’m off to town today for my first ever local CGOA chapter meeting. I’m so excited. I’m hoping we can get a chapter going well in my area so I can meet more nearby crocheters.
As many of you know I just returned from the Reno Knit and Crochet Show. Since this was the closest that a show has been to my home in Colorado I thought it would be fun to drive to it. So my friend Janet (aka Jan), who lives in New Jersey, said she would fly to Denver and drive with me.
This was the first time in ages that I would be driving a long distance road-trip without my family, I was really looking forward to it because Jan and I tend to make each other laugh a lot.
We figured we would need 2 days to drive one way, so 4 days total for traveling. She came out a few days early with the plan being we would have a bit of time for me to show her some of Colorado before we headed off on our journey. First we needed to get Jan to Colorado, she decided to fly out the Friday evening before we were to drive, giving us the weekend to play.
Unfortunately weather in another part of the country messed with schedules and her flight that was supposed to arrive in Denver at just after 9 p.m. ended up arriving more around the neighborhood of 11 p.m. By the time we collected Jan’s luggage and drove back to my house it was close to 1 a.m. when we went to bed.
The next day Jan and I were to have the house to ourselves as we visited, decided on food for the journey and enjoyed the mountain air. My husband and sons were supposed to be gone on a school camping trip. But the all the campgrounds were very busy and no one had reserved any spaces. After many phone calls between parents and teachers the school camp-out was canceled. Because my boys were very dissapointed, I made a flurry of further phone calls to arrange a mini-camp-out with a neighbor friend.
Finally we had the house to ourselves. It was time to block the shawl that Jan had brought with her. She had wanted to learn about using blocking wires (I’ll have a future blog post about that later). Then we ate some dinner and watched a movie while I organized my projects for the trip.
I wanted Jan to see more of the beauty in my mountains, other than just my yard. So the next morning we made a quick drive to Nederland. It’s a very beautiful drive along the Peak-to-Peak highway and Nederland is a fun little mountain town with interesting shops and sites.
We visited the Alpaca Store which was full of beautiful garments, where we each purchased a treat for ourselves. Though we managed to resist the yarn they had. Then we visited the Carousel of Happiness, a wonderful piece of functional art that is one of my favorite places to take visitors to in the area.
After a quick stop at the grocery we were back on our way to my house, with a few stops for photos.
When we got back to the house I started working on packing the car, but then got a phone call. My foster dog that had been adopted Friday was coming back. So there was a mad scramble to make arrangements for him while I was gone. That ate up another couple of hours and we decided it was better to get some rest and finish packing the car in the morning.
The next morning, with all the packing and loading of the car, it was nearly 11:30 a.m. by the time we hit the road. But we were off. Yay! We made a stop off I-25 for a lunch break.
We were east of Cheyenne, Wyoming a few hours later. Though I take any photos until we stopped for an early supper close to 5 p.m. There was a sign at the rest stop that got our attention, “Caution, Rattlesnakes may be present”.
Maybe that was why I wasn’t paying close enough attention to the gas gauge. After that stop we realized we only had about 150 miles worth of gas in the tank. So we decided we needed to watch for a gas-station. Unfortunately we weren’t seeing any. The mileage indicator dropped to 50, then about the time it said 20 miles left in the tank I saw a sign for Rock Springs, WY that said 35 miles to go. I snuck a peek at my phone and was relieved that I had full bars for my Cel signal.
Jan and I discussed that we had a good option if we ran out of gas. I carry AAA and help wasn’t far away. Though, since it was getting late in the evening, neither of us was too thrilled with the idea of being stuck on the side of the highway waiting for help in the dark. The indicator was now just 3 little lines and the tank gauge was reading empty, as well as the fuel light was blinking on the dash. Suddenly we saw a Conoco sign and immediately there was an exit.
We pulled up to the pump with immense relief. I happily filled the tank. I put in 14.89 gallons in my 15 gallon tank. Jan and I looked at each other, “Let’s not do that again.”
After that excitement the rest of the day’s drive was a bit of a blur. We finally got to Salt Lake City around 10 p.m. and happily checked into our hotel for the night. We were very quickly asleep. The next morning we packed up to get on the road, but were a bit slow because Jan let me sleep later. She felt I needed to sleep if her alarm clock didn’t even make me twitch.
We couldn’t really see the Great Salt Lake as we drove away, but there were these interesting canals with salty patches all along the highway. We got out to take pictures and were surprised at how stinky the air was.
Further out from SLC we saw huge mountains of salt with trains and semi-trailers around to haul it to destinations unknown. Jan shot a quick picture out the car window as we drove by.
This Gas-station name was too funny.
This was to be the shorter leg of the journey, but road construction slowed us down enough that it took about the same length of time. We stopped regularly to fill the tank and for meals.
We discovered that rest-stops in western Utah and most of Nevada were not as nice as the ones in Colorado and Wyoming. We took this picture at one of the few rest-stops that had a nice little park-like area around it.
After what had begun to feel like a very long drive we made it to Reno and our hotel, the Grand Sierra Resort. The place was massive and we stood in line for quite a bit waiting to check in.
We were thrilled with the size of our room, though the decor made us chuckle. Personally, if I had a bigger living room, I would love to have a chair like that.
The view from our window was pretty good, especially at sunset.
A couple of friends that were arriving that evening and afternoon called us. We went back downstairs for a while and explored, but soon called it a night as we had to be up early the next day for PDD (Professional Development Day).
Mamas2Hands 