Summertime and the Living is Smokey

I have never been a fan of summer. I think it started when I was a kid on the farm in southeastern South Dakota. Summers meant working outside in the heat and humidity. We would get up early to do the chores. I did the chickens, feed and water them, and gather the eggs. Then my brothers and I would head for the soybean fields to cut the weeds, usually cockleburrs and stray cornstalks. We would stay in the fields until mid-morning when it got too hot. There was no air-conditioning, but we did spend some time at the river. School meant we didn't have to do the fields, so I loved school.

When I moved to Colorado, I was thrilled with the cooler and drier summers. It was rare to get temperatures in the 90's and the 100's were almost unheard of. However, in the past several years, 90-degree days are commonplace, and we even get a handful of days in the 100's. With the heat, we now have more fires.

The Black Forest Fire is about 20 miles southeast of our home. It has already destroyed 360 homes and killed two people. We get the smoke when the wind blows in our direction. We are also eyeing the side of the mountain to the west of our home covered with scrub oak and pines. It is truly beautiful, but this time of years, it is also frightening. We live in one of those subdivisions that could easily be wiped out by fire. Ken has removed most of the scrub oaks and underbrush bordering our home but it might not be enough. We have our pictures and home videos packed up from previous evacuations along with our cat carrier for Neko. We have good insurance and we would be okay. But every summer, we watch the ridge along the west for whiffs of smoke after lightning storms and cringe when we hear fireworks in our area (yes, they are illegal here). We get nervous when we see our deer herd getting nervous and when the birds stop singing. We hope it is because of a mountain lion or black bear in the area instead of a fire.

I am ready for the snows of winters that Colorado is famous for.

My Next Project - The February Sweater

February Lady Sweater

I know it is called the February Lady Sweater and it is May, but I am still having a wonderful time knitting it. I like built-in raglan sleeves because I never seem to get set-in sleeves quite right. They fit okay, but I can tell them are not exact. I also love doing lace

If you are on Ravelry, you are familiar with this sweater. It has been one of the most popular projects on the site. It is kind to all body shapes which is critical to me and all ages (since I just turned 60), and it has been on my bucket list for years. Be sure to check out the pattern yourself. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/february-lady-sweater

The yarn has a story of its own. I purchased it at the Estes Park Wool Festival but I don't remember which year. It has been at least a couple of years because I know I didn't buy it last year. I figured I better knit it up since the Wool Festival is in two weeks and I will have to buy some more yarn. It's 100% merino wool in bright red and I think the reason it took me so long to pull the yarn out of my stash is because one of my sons told me the color reminded him of Elmo. For a long time, Elmo was all I saw when I looked at it. But it's okay now. I'm over it. Besides, I like Elmo -- I just don't want to look like him.

Almost Done with my Carmel Jacket

This working for a living sure cuts into not only my knitting time, but my blogging time as well! But ...

Ta-Da! All the knitting is done so now it is just the finishings. I blocked it and loved how it came out. It is light, but still had some body. It will be perfect for both warm and cold weather depending on the skirt I wear underneath. I still have to sew up under the sleeves, weave in the ends, make button loops, and add the buttons. I am thinking that the buttons I bought will be too heavy for this material. I need to go to the store and see what else I can find. I'll post a picture when I am completely done, but don't expect me to model it. I avoid pictures of myself as much as possible.

While I was blocking it, Neko decided to make it into a temporary bed. I wouldn't mind that so much, because all my clothes are covered with black cat hair, but it's when he thinks he can sharpen his nails on the sweater that he gets into trouble. The thing about Neko's hair is that it comes out gray instead of black. Could his blackness just be an illusion?

Meanwhile, I am onto the next knitting project.  Back to the needles ...

Baby Sweater in Blue and Orange

My friend Tara's baby is due next month. This is her first and she is so excited. Since they are big Denver Bronco fans, I had to make a sweater in the traditional orange and blue, but the colors are actually pastel orange and blue.

The sweater turned out really cute but the hat was a disaster. I tried to adapt a pattern for worsted wool to a baby yarn and it got weird and floppy -- and not in a cute way. So I will have to use another pattern. Tara's baby shower was yesterday, so she already has the sweater. I'll get the hat to her before her little boy comes in June.

Back to the needles.

It's May, or Spring -- or Winter

April 30

You have to love Colorado. On Monday, it was 80 degrees. On Tuesday, it rained. On Wednesday, it snowed. (I stole these pictures from a friend of mine to show the contrast.)

It was fun taking the train into work this morning because I could see all the cars stopped on the road dealing with the snow. This is one of those wet snows so
it isn't sticking much yet, but it may be a treat getting home.

May 1

The View from my Office at Work

I just completed my first week of work at my new job (yes, it's still an awesome job). My office faces east which is usually not as desirable in the Denver area because the mountains are to the west.

However, this is what I see outside my window. The Trinity United Methodist Church is across the street just along 18th Street. This stone church is over a century old and a pleasure to look at. So far, I have seen it in rain, snow, and sunshine -- that is probably also unique to the Denver area. I haven't heard the bells yet. I understand they are played during the holidays.

So I have the weekends now to knit, but I am going to finish my Carmel Jacket this weekend if it kills me.

Back to the needles.

Basket

It's a basket. I must sit in it.

Knitting on the Train

I have been at my job for a week now, and just in case you are wondering, it is going very, very well. I could tell you all about my job, but that would not be a good idea. I could also tell you that my work is very secretive and involves national security, but that wouldn't be true. I could tell you that I am working with highly sensitive materials that could cause world-wide destruction, but that also wouldn't be true. The truth is that my job is very routine, working in a small law office. Unless I tell you something really, really exciting about my job, just assume that it is rather boring to write about.

One of the pleasures of my new job is that I am riding the Light Rail into downtown Denver. For a city in the middle of the country, Denver has a wonderful transit system, especially if you work downtown. I am able to get on a train and less than 35 minutes later, I get off the train, walk two blocks and I am at work. I get to spend that time reading, listening to the radio, and knitting whizzing by the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the street next to me. 

In the short week I have been riding, I have discovered if you want people to talk to you on the train, knit. On nearly every ride to and from, the person sitting across from me has mentioned my knitting. 

• If the passenger is a woman, she first tells me she likes the colors (I am still working on my yellow, orange and pink shawl shawl) or asks what I am making. If she is knitter, she tells me what she is working on, or that she wants to get back into knitting, or where do I buy my yarn. If she is not a knitter, she always says she wishes she knew how or is intended to learn soon. 
• If the passenger is a man, he says his wife, his mother, or his grandmother is a knitter.  They go on to describe the hat, the afghan, the scarf, or the sweater she made for him. You can tell by his face that his memory of his mom or grandma is especially sweet. Maybe that's part of the gift of knitting.

I have always encouraged knitters to KIP (Knit in Public), not just to bring more visibility of knitting, but also to enhance the magic of knitting. I see a lot of people watching me as I knit. It's the same view out the windows every day, changed only the rain, snow or sunshine of the seasons, so I find eyes resting on my hands as I run the changing colors of my self-striping yarn through my fingers and looping around my needles. 

I have also learned that if I don't want to talk to anyone, read a book.

Carmel Jacket - progress

Carmel Jacket by Caron
(Pattern link at bottom
of post)

I am working on this jacket and am really loving how it is turning out. However, I changed the pattern. One of these days, I will actually follow the patterns word for word. I have this wonderful yarn from MadelineTosh in a luscious dark blue. Since it is a lace yarn, I altered the pattern to add more stitches and I also used a large needle so it would be lighter. I am never cold, so the light yarn and construction should be perfect for me.

http://www.naturallycaron.com/projects/carmel/carmel.pdf

I just joined the sleeves to the body of the sweater, so I am at the underarms. Now that I am a couple of days from finished it, I am fired up to proceed!

The body of the sweater is done.
Just about to add the sleeves.
The color is much darker than this picture.

This color is closer to true.

Back to the needles, blazing away!

More Changes ...

Things seem to go so slowly and then change and change and change.

Working on my cowl

I started a new job last week and then I was offered another job. I must have sent out over 200 resumes and didn't hear anything for weeks. I have a total of five interviews and was then offered a seasonal job with a 38-mile commute. No benefits, no holiday, sick or vacation. So I took it. I was beginning to think that nothing would happen and this was better than nothing. 

I hated the commute. Even with CD books, all I could think of was how much wear and tear this job was causing my precious Prius (I really love my Prius). I traveled on three different interstates, fighting the traffic and sunshine slow down. The job was actually kind of fun and if was closer, I would have been happier.

So when I was offered a job at a law firm downtown (I have 22 years of experience as a paralegal), I had to take it. It is twice as much money, shorter commute, benefits -- and it's downtown Denver! I have worked downtown before and always enjoyed it. But now, I can also take Light Rail. The train stop is only one block from the office and the time on the train is my own. I can knit, or read, or knit, or listen to music, or knit, and when nothing else is going on, I can knit! It will actually take me longer to drive to the train station than it will to ride the train downtown. And downtown Denver in the summertime is magical -- the street performers, sidewalk art shows, great lunch places, people watching.

I felt bad about leaving a job I was only at for one week until my friend pointed that it was a temp job and they wouldn't hesitate to lay me off. That made me feel better. So I have a couple of days to knit at home before packing my knitting bag to step on the train. I am working on my Carmel Jacket, so I will post some work-in-progress photos in the next day or so.

Back to the needles.