Contests, Festing

In which I finally reach the Estes Park Wool Market

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Guess how many days it will rain at Nikki’s home in the UK during the Tour de France and you could win yarn, chocolate, or a copy of EZ’s Knitter’s Almanac. Submit your guesses by 11 pm GMT, July 7.

Sallee’s having a contest to celebrate three years of her Nana Sadie Rose handcrafted bag business and making her 500th bag! Send her an email before midnight EDT on Friday, July 6, guessing which of the pictured bags was #500 and you could win some fun prizes.

Really, you’re all so very patient with my meandering vacation tales! When last we visited this narrative, I was waiting for the rest of the cabin folk to arrive. Although the cabin we stayed in had some definite shortcomings (such as the touchiest toilet ever), it did have a fabulous view of Estes Park.

When the Ewetah Grrls (Margene, Blog Free Val the Hummingbird Whisperer, Karen, Cheryl) and Laura from Kansas arrived, we headed into Estes Park and got some dinner. Back at the cabin later, we knitted and chatted and laughed, but made an early night of it so we would be ready to face the festival in the morning. I shared a room and bed with Cheryl, who I must say is much more considerate than Chaos or Mayhem – she didn’t walk across me once during the night, nor did she drop furry mice on me and want to play fetch. Thanks, Cheryl! 😉 (Plus Cheryl got some great pictures of the cabin crew, which I apparently didn’t manage.)

On Saturday, we all headed to the festival, arriving when it opened. Some booths, such as Brooks Fiber Farm, were quickly packed.

Really, there is yarn in that booth. See?

Knitbloggers were everywhere! Imbrium, Mim, and Laura were kind enough to stop shopping and pose for me, although Imbrium and Laura might just have been scoping out their next purchases…

While I was in the Interlacements booth, I found myself behind this backpack and introduced myself to Jane.

Jane and I headed out to the blogger meetup at 11 am. Here are many knitbloggers listening to Margene as she invites us to join her for lunch.

Margene and Jane from the front – see those cute little sheep buttons they’re both wearing?

Kristi the Fiber Fool brought them for all of us! Thank you, Kristi! Here’s Kristi with her famous Queen of Diamond Socks:

The Knitty Professor herself, with the back of Black Sheep Lisa to the right.

Alas, I wish I had taken many more pictures of this event! I didn’t get a picture of Knittymama – how funny was it to meet up with someone who only lives a few miles away from me here in Minneapolis?

Anyway, after lunch Jane and I wandered around some of the animal barns. You’ve already seen some of those pictures, but here are a few more. I learned that alpacas are very stretchy.

This poor guy’s bandana read “I’m for sale!”

Whew! That sure seems like plenty for today. More on the rest of vacation later. 🙂

“I still haven’t forgiven you for that vacation business. You’d better not do that again.” -Chaos

Those Cats

May catches a pigeon!

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It’s all the Knitty Professor’s fault. Have you seen the cute pictures (and videos) of her kitties watching tv? Michaele bought Chaos and Mayhem their very own copy of the same kitty dvd so beloved by Perry and Emily. (Many thanks to Michaele – it simply never would’ve occured to me to pick up a dvd for my kitties – d’oh! Also, many thanks to Deb for allowing me to use her pictures today. I might’ve been laughing too hard to go get my camera…)

“Can’t… quite… reach…” -Mayhem

Problem solved.

“Ok, May, you take the one on the right and I’ll take the one on the left.” -Chaos

“Got it, big kitty!” -Mayhem

“Strangely, catching a bird isn’t quite as satisfying as I thought it would be…” -Mayhem

Festing, Randonymity

Mimsical: An Estes tangent

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Ok, because I threatened to do it and because I got such fun pictures and quotes – allow me to present the unfettered Mim! (She requested in advance that no one tell her mom.)

“I bought a whole fucking fleece!”

“I love gin.”

Can you identify the other bloggers in the pictures below? (Edit: Curious what Mim’s doing? She’s spinning! And you can even see me in that video…)

“My ass wears pretty well, thank you very much!”

“My goodness. I wouldn’t have believed it if it wasn’t for the pictorial proof!” -Chaos

Contests, Randonymity, Reading

Feline groovy

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Rachael’s cat Digit returned after being long given up for dead! However, he requires surgery and a lot of other medical care, and Rachael and Lala don’t have that kind of money right now. So Rachael decided to have a raffle – donors to be entered in a drawing for one of three sweaters that Rachael knitted – one of which is from a Philosopher’s Wool kit. However, since enough money to cover Digit’s care was donated in the first 24 hours (knitbloggers really do rock), Rachael’s going to donate extra monies to the Milo Foundation and the Best Friends Animal Society. So if you’d still like to participate in the raffle, you can – the drawing will be July 7.

Reading Update
Three Junes by Julia Glass. My 6th TBR Challenge book, finished on the last possible day of June. Whew! I highly recommend this National Book Award winner.
Knockout Mouse: A Bill Damen Silicone Valley Mystery by James Calder. Bill Damen is a documentary filmmaker in Silicone Valley working on a publicity film for a biotechnology firm after the dot.com bust. This is the first book out of three (so far?) and I have the other two on reserve at the library.
All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris. The latest Sookie Stackhouse book continues is a speedy and enjoyable read. I definitely like Sookie better than Anita Blake these days…

A Few More Things…
I’m a bit shocked at the blogging backlog I’ve developed – I need to post lots of thank yous for some wonderful gifts I’ve received, plus I haven’t even made it to the Estes Wool Market in my vacation narrative! So of course, I shall do neither of these things today. Instead, a few more things I purchased on vacation…

“Mom, you’re really sure that Vanna’s retiring and I’m in the running?” -Mayhem

“Because I’m not sure how I’d look in an evening dress…” -Mayhem

“One black kitty, two black kitties, three black kitties… Why are there so many more white kitties than black kitties on your new PJs, Mom?!” -Mayhem

“Hmm, you have a point there, Mayhem. Mom?!” -Chaos

“Mom? I’m waiting.” -Chaos

Contests, Randonymity

And I thought I bruised my credit card before…

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Check out the Summer Stash Swap (but hurry – you have to leave a sign-up comment by June 30!) – besides the swap and the blog, there will be prizes.

Julie’s having a blogiversary contest – leave her a comment with a name suggestion for her new bag pattern before midnight 6/30 and you could win some sock-related goodies!

Deb has some bonus pictures of Chaos and May!

Ok, due to overwhelming pressure (*cough*Marina*cough*), I shall not continue with my tale of reaching Estes (stay tuned for that next week). Instead, I present… the purchases.

From Estes, clockwise from May’s nose, a big ol’ hank of Interlacements rayon-linen in some very unChrislike colors (should be enough for a tank top – they print you a customized pattern right in the booth), a skein of variegated wool from Plain & Fancy Wool, a ball of amazingly soft black 5% cashmere/95% merino laceweight, two skeins of cormo/alpaca that I’m going to dye sometime when I am feeling very brave, two skeins of Brooks Farm Four Play (50% silk/50% wool) (they may become a contest prize someday!), two skeins of the Brooks Farm Acero sock yarn, and a pair of cute sheep socks. Whew!

“Is it safe?! That hank of yarn is bigger than me!” -Mayhem

Chaos was quite taken with the cormo/alpaca.

“Mmmm… smells sheepy and alpaca-y!” -Chaos

Some yarns from my yarn crawling with Kristi (who has great pictures of some of our adventures) – black Berroco Suede (half off!), Panda cotton, and Panda wool. (The Panda yarns make really yummy socks – stretchy, but nowhere near as thick as Fixation.)

“Hmm, where to start, where to start…” -Mayhem

A bit more yarn – top row (Opal) from My Sister Knits in Ft. Collins (Opal without a label is half off) and the bottom two skeins are Jojoland Melody Superwash from Colorful Yarns in Centennial.

“I think the pink suits me best, don’t you? Plus it looks especially tasty.” -Mayhem

I also stopped at the Brown Sheep outlet near Scottsbluff, Nebraska, during my travels. I bought a few pounds of Cotton Fleece and Serendipity Tweed, a few skeins of Wildfoote, and a bit of Lamb’s Pride.

“Yowza! The other stuff must’ve been the appetizers – this sure looks like a main course.” -Mayhem

I also have a small weakness for bags and picked up a few of those along the way… Hmm, just realized that the laptop sleeve I purchased at the Sierra Trading Post outlet in Wyoming isn’t in that picture – well, it’s brown with black trim and light purple corduroy lining. (Edit: The bag on the far left is a Kavu Reversible Bag in black/lilac, now on clearance!)

No cats were interested in the bags.

You might have noticed that I’m a bit of a reader – here are the books that I purchased over vacation at various locations, including the Boulder Bookstore, High Crimes Mystery Bookshop, and Anthology Book Company.

“Good grief! Aren’t there already enough books stacked up around this place?!” -Chaos

“No kidding, big kitty. Pretty soon, between the books and the yarn, there won’t be room for us.” -Mayhem

“Hmph.” -Chaos and Mayhem

Randonymity

Redrum random!

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I left blog writing until too late last night, alas, and so didn’t get photos organized for my continuing vacation adventures (and purchases). This work thing – I am not quite used to it yet after vacation! So, let’s see what I found lurking in my photo folder, shall we? A-ha, here’s an Estes picture – anyone recognize it? 😉

 

Oh, and a few pictures of Chaos – shhhhhh… he looks sort of sleepy.

 

 

 

See the Sights

In which I report on several more days of vacation

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After a promising start to taking a lot of vacation pictures, my picture taking became quite a bit more erratic. I’ll muddle along as best I can. After all, if you were desperately into cohesive narrative, you probably wouldn’t be here in the first place, right? 😉

Some views from Michaele’s place – see the really large REI in the second picture? I got a pair of Keens there…

 

 

The day after the party (Wednesday, June 13), I rambled around downtown Denver in the morning. You’ve already seen my best pictures from that day in the Things to do in Denver when you’re alive post. Then Michaele and I stopped at Fancy Tiger (where the horndribbles are plentiful), Colorful Yarns, and A Knitted Peace on our way to Buca to celebrate Stacey’s birthday in the Pope Room.

 

I cannot sufficiently emphasize the freakiness of the Pope Room! You might remember my picture of the Pope under glass on a spinner… The womens’ room at Buca was massively entertaining, but I restrained myself from spending the entire evening in there taking pictures.

 

After Buca, we went back to Colorful Yarns and knit for a while with some of the folks from Stacey’s party. (Yes, yes, of course I made purchases at our various stops, but you’ll have to wait for the purchases post, since everything’s been so muddled together now!)

Thursday the 14th, Michaele and I headed up to Boulder for a bit of morning hiking along the Flatirons. Then we wandered along Pearl Street, dining and exploring shops. You’ll have to completely imagine this part, since I apparently didn’t take a single picture of our idyllic day. We camped at a table outside the Bookend Cafe, next to the Boulder Bookstore, enjoying excellent people watching, conversation, and a bit of knitting. In the evening, Anne joined us for knitting and conversation before we headed back to Denver.

Friday the 15th, I wandered up to Estes Park, checked into our cabin, and headed across the street to a thrift shop while I waited for everyone else to arrive. I think I was meant to go to that shop. What do you think?

 

The chenille black cat, black cat coasters, knitting pattern and booklet, and eight vintage Estes Park postcards (not pictured, because they were ready to be mailed) set me back a whopping $2.15.

Ok, more on Estes later – this has gone on long enough!

 

“Look, Mom, no cavities (or paper)!” -Mayhem

Alongs, Contests, Knitting

Vacation knitting

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Have a special knitting friend who could really use some gorgeous sock blockers? Nominate her/him in the comments over at Leggy Creations before noon EDT, June 30, and he/she might receive a set of special friendship sock blockers.

Kristi’s got a new etsy store, where she’ll be selling handcrafted personal care products. Leave her a comment about your favorite scent before midnight EDT on July 4 and you could be randomly selected to win some of her concoctions.

You can join the Tour de France KAL anytime before the Tour officially starts on July 7 – and you don’t need to be a bicycling fiend to participate. 🙂

Knitting
Oh, I had grand plans for all the knitting I would get done over vacation! I took all sorts of things along toward that end. Ha! I did about 2″ on my first July Sockamania sock (left, below) and I started the Meilenweit Colortweed sock (right, below) at Michaele’s Stumbling Over Chris party. That’s it.

“Knitting needles! Oh, how I missed our special time together while you were gone, Mom.” -Mayhem

“See? See how much I missed you? I am hugging your foot!” -Mayhem

“Whatever, May. You’re such a goof.” -Chaos

“You take that back, big kitty! I am not a goof!” -Mayhem

Contests, Festing, Reading

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming

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I’m glad y’all enjoyed my quirky vacation pictures! I have to admit, I had such a wonderful time and met so many great people and took so many pictures that I’m a bit overwhelmed at the thought of trying to document it all here… Baby steps, right?

Missed out on the Estes goodies? Imbrium is giving away a skein of Brooks Farm sock yarn that she bought at Estes – simply leave her a comment with your favorite joke before midnight MDT, June 28, and that sock yarn might be yours!

The Crazy Haberdasher is having a contest – leave her a comment about what you collect and you could win a lovely purple-blue piebird.

A few more tummy pictures appeared while I was on vacation…

Reading Update
Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (audiobooks). If you haven’t had the chance to listen to any of the audiobooks, you should! Jim Dale does an absolutely amazing job. In fact, I haven’t actually read any of the books – just listened to them all.
Knit Fast, Die Young by Mary Kruger. The second book in this series about yarn store owner Ariadne Evans features a murder at a small fiber festival. I’m glad Estes wasn’t that dramatic!
In a Dark House by Deborah Crombie. A Kincaid and James mystery – I fear I’m nearly caught up to present with this series!
Charmed and Ready by Candace Havens. The second book in the Bronwyn the Witch series – silly, but I do have the third one in my library queue…
Tall, Dark, and Dead by Tate Hallaway. Another witchy tale, this time set in Madison, WI, and featuring sexy vampire guys and evil Vatican witch hunters.

Stumbling Over Chris: The Party

After driving through rain for most of the day, I arrived at Michaele’s place in Denver mid-afternoon Tuesday, June 12. I had just enough time to hop in the shower before Ruth came over. Ruth is a skilled massage therapist and what better way to start vacation than with a massage?! Plus Ruth brought me some new gluten-free baking mixes I hadn’t tried. Thank you, Ruth – you definitely worked out those kinks from two days of driving, and I’m looking forward to doing some baking now that I’m home.

Michaele threw a “Stumbling Over Chris” party so I could meet and chat with some of the area knitbloggers. She made lots of tasty food and sangria (well documented by Ruth). Thank you so much, Michaele – it was a wonderfully relaxing atmosphere in which to match faces to the names and words.

Wanda and Michaele (with some of that tasty food in the background!)

Michaele, the back of Wanda’s head, and Ruth

Imbrium!!!

Anne (I’m pretty sure only one of those glasses is hers…)

Kim, Stacey, and Michelle

Jenifer and Cathi (Isn’t everyone great at not looking at the camera?!)

Michaele sent me home with gifts for Chaos and Mayhem – a kitty dvd that we haven’t tried yet (I will definitely be set up to take pictures when we do!), a funky square mouse (May’s already added it to her fetch toy rotation), and a catnip toy beloved by both Mayhem (hugging it below) and Chaos (who spends a lot of time licking the toy…).

“I will hug it and cuddle it and be its best friend forever! No, big kitty, that is not just the ‘nip talking.” -Mayhem

Art journaling, reading, knitting, and cat parenting. It's a wild life.