Estes Park, a decade later

As  I mentioned in my post yesterday, I visited the Estes Park Wool Market this month with my mom. I think the last time I went was in 1999, though I can't be certain. By that time, I had graduated high school and didn't *have* to go to the show for all the benefits of showing llamas.

Growing up, I remember we would go to the show for mom's birthday. At least, I remember going to it a lot. It was always painfully boring. I usually started the day looking like the llama on the right, yawning as mom talked to all the people she knew.

It seemed like we had to stop at every, single booth in the shop barn. Sometimes we even stopped at them multiple times. They would talk about not only the fiber (or wheels or other tools in the booth) but then they'd do what "old" people do and start talking about *other* things. This would mean would be there for hours and hours. Or at least it would seem that way.

 By the end of the day, my sister and I probably looked like this goat. Sprawling limbs and exaggerated sighs of boredom. Eventually we would get to look at all the animals there but that too would lead to boredom. Especially once the talking started. In those early years, we didn't actually bring animals and would only spend part of a day up there. The best part was that if we "suffered" in mostly silence, we would eventually go into town and get to buy some amazing salt water taffy. 

When I hit middle school, we actually owned llamas and we would attend as exhibitors. This would mean staying in a hotel for the weekend. I think my sister and I nearly got us kicked out of the hotel a couple of years in a row because we were hyper and annoying. Something about getting the "giggles". We would also do silly things like decide we were tired of waiting for mom to finish talking and walk back to our hotel which would only take a "few minutes" to get there. Try closer to an hour. A five minute drive can take much longer by foot though we still beat mom to the hotel. Being an exhibitor was almost worse than just going to visit. First of all, I showed llamas.

Grant and I doing an obstacle course.

Being 13 years old is awkward to begin with and when you add in braces and llamas, well, it was hilarious. At least the animals had some grace to them as I was certainly lacking. The big advantage of showing llamas, even when there are a million other kids doing it (or so it seemed at the shows), was that it made me really unique. I wrote a college entrance essay about having llamas. I was well remembered by one of the Dean's of my college as we talked about llamas when we met her. Everyone knew I was the girl with the llamas when I visited Coe, which is where I ended up going to college. It took getting into theatre and going to London for me to be known as something other than the girl with the llamas. As much as I hated it then, I'm grateful for it now as it got me to do things that were often uncomfortable and potentially humiliating in public and being able to handle it well. It was all about building character and giving me stories.

So years later, I plan a trip to visit my mom for the week, arriving so that we can go to the wool market. There were still the moments where she talked to people she knew for a long time. Of course, they remembered me (or thought I was my sister) and I honestly don't remember them. My brain can only hold so much. The llamas show has dramatically shrunk to a handful of participants where in my day there were hundreds of people and llamas. I had the most fun in the sale barn, where I exhibited some control. I bought some yarn to dye and I could have bought a lot more. The first booth we stopped in, belonging to one of mom's friends, I had already started petting the yarn there. One of the people in the booth decided to help by taking them all out of the basket so I could see them better....

Below are some photos of the really awesome things that I saw and that I managed to not buy.

Mohair "salad bar". Put together any colors you want, all for the same price by wait. Rather clever and very pretty.

The gossip wheel. Two people spinning with one person working the treadle.

Blending fiber to spin.

This is pretty. I wonder who made it...oh, of course Mom did.

Not that I needed to be encouraged...

I didn't buy any but it is amazingly soft. My husband wanted to know if it was made from the down of hummingbird wings since it was so expensive.

Short and quick project update

I meant to write a few weeks ago, while I was in Colorado but I was having too much fun and excitement. Then I was going to write this past week but I set a knitting goal for myself. I had finally reached it just in time for us to lose power. I've been without power at home since Friday evening. I'm currently at the local library working on some lighting design work which I need a mental break from so I've decided to update this blog. It would be even more awesome if I could do the updates that are floating around in my head but the photos for those posts are at home. So here are the highlights until I get better organized.

• I visited the Estes Park Wool Market with my mom for the first time in over a decade. It was much more interesting now than when I was 18.
• I got to spend a lot of time knitting and finished the knitting part of a beaded bag for my youngest step-daughter's birthday present. It's the first time I've ever done bead work while knitting.
• Dying happened at the end of the week. Tie-dying and yarn dying that is. I use to make tie-dyed shirts All of the Time. I probably had about 21 at one point. It was my first time dying yarn. I made some for my mother-in-law for her birthday and then some sock yarn for the Cookie A Sock Club because the Kirk inspired socks needed Captain colors.
• I'm about to turn the heel on the right Pirouette sock. It took me about 3 weeks to reach this point on the left one. I did it in about 1 week this time. I don't know if I've simply spent more time knitting on it or if my brain stopped freaking out but it was certainly easier.
• I learned about World Wide Knitting in Public and did spend some time knitting in public.
• Last night, I cast on plain socks as 2-at-a-time using the Magic Loop method. I think I have actual socks instead of a mess even. I'm very proud of that.
• The baby blanket has been frogged so that I can knit it on larger needles. Mom did it for me because she is awesome.

And now back to cuing work. I'm dreading writing out the cues for one song because there are going to be a lot of them. I hope it looks as magical in real life as it does in my head.

The sock that will never end

Shortly after my last blog post, it was pointed out to me that I apparently can no longer read and process English properly. No one was harsh enough to say it in that manner, but I certainly felt that way. When it came to the heel flap of the pirouette sock, I was reading the instructions for the right sock. I was knitting the left sock. Beyond that, I had read the instructions as knit between 3 and 19 stitches, which confused me to no end. What the instructions really say is knit the 16 stitches in the panel, knit 3 more stitches and you'll have worked 19 stitches.

So once I comprehended English again, I was fine.

Until my brain decided to go on auto-pilot.

As I was working the gusset decrease, I realized 12 rounds in (it takes a while to notice these things) that I had added a decrease where there wasn't suppose to be one. This decrease happened earlier on the leg. My brain or my hands simply decided that since that was the pattern, I should just keep doing it. At least I noticed it before I had finished the gusset. I only had to frog it to where I picked up stitches.

I've successfully finished the gusset and started working on the foot. I somehow lost a stitch on the top of the foot, though I see no dropped stitches anywhere. I have no idea what happened and have decided that it doesn't matter. I simply added an extra yarn over to "fix" it. When I glanced down at the yarn leading to the skein tonight, I noticed this:

 

Yes, that's part of the yarn that hasn't actually been spun and is more fleece than yarn. I could either cut it out or just knit it through. Mom recommends cutting it out and weaving in ends later. Two friends recommend just knitting it. I'm leaning towards the just knitting it camp as I really want to finish this sock because then I have to do the other sock.

I've got a mantra that's helping me get through this silly sock. I keep telling myself that I can skate 25 laps in 5 minutes, so how hard can a sock be. I never dreamed my roller derby would get into my knitting head! At least it makes me a little less whiny to myself. I apparently needed to finish getting the whine out though. I should start offering cheese...

But this sock will get finished! Both of them!