Peggy Stuart's Blog (266)

Bwaaaaa-haaaa-haaa! We're going to get you!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Here are DH and I in our costumes...the scariest thing we could think of:

We won a prize for best costumes at the Halloween party: a bottle of Vampire Blood wine. Yum! We'll probably pull the cork tonight, while the little kiddos are trick-or-treating! Not shown in the photo are the chains of painkillers and cold medicines around our necks. On our backs are signs reading "Ban Tamiflu!… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on October 31, 2009 at 11:15am — 9 Comments

Knitting, Quilting, Spinning, Injuries and Snow!

The spinning group is up again after a summer hiatus. We met yesterday. Here's Rita, one of the participants. I met her at the Alpaca Days a few weeks back:

Recognize Rita's bag? She did the alternate variation in the same colorway as mine, and she did the strap as written. She also spins and weaves. We had our spinning meeting yesterday at Linda's Blue Moon Ranch. Most of us brought our wheels. I got to meet Kathleen, who has suri… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on October 30, 2009 at 7:30am — 14 Comments

New Knitters!!!

There's almost nothing better than meeting people who are just learning to knit! Well, except for maybe a KP order filled with yarn, books and new needles! I was invited to a neighbor's house for a "Stitch and Bitch" session Sunday night.

Here I am with one of the knitters. (I'm the older one!) I took my spinning wheel. DH went along to watch football with the other husbands and the father of the hostess, Mary, who was there for a… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on October 21, 2009 at 8:30am — 9 Comments

Spinning, Spiders and Other Things

I'm making progress on DH's Fair Isle sleeveless cardi! My needles are smoking...well sort of. I just have to finish the current motif, and I'll be able to start the neck and armholes. Here's what it looks like:

The steek will go where the funny vertical stripes are. I am not afraid of steeks anymore after my Classic Lines Cardigan. I'm hoping to finish in time for my second (and final!) thumb surgery. If not, he'll get the sweater in… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on October 15, 2009 at 8:55pm — 10 Comments

Happy Birthday, Joanie!

This is an extra blog to share Joanie's birthday with all of you, especially everyone who has a birthday on October 8th!

This was my present to Joanie: enough of my hand-spun Coopworth to make a Landscape Shawl like mine, so she won't steal it! I also gave her one of those needle gauges that looks like a cross section of a snail. A lot of LYSs have them but you can see what I mean… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on October 8, 2009 at 5:30pm — 7 Comments

Sweater Time!

Good thing I'm making progress on DH's Fair Isle Sleeveless Cardi:

It's the Fridarey Sleeveless Cardigan from The Art of Fair Isle Knitting by Ann Feitelson. The yarn is Jamieson and Smith's Shetland yarn in a fingering weight. Here's a close up:

Winter is paying it's usual short autumn visit in Park City. It always warms up again after this, but it's a reminder:… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on October 6, 2009 at 4:00pm — 18 Comments

Alpacas and Charlotte's Babies...

If you were watching the Alpaca Cam yesterday, you may have seen the alpacas greeting me as I arrived at the ranch.

I got my spinning set up and started work on the orange-rust hand-dyed alpaca I was working on the day before. The alpacas had visitors of all ages during the day.

As I was spinning, I would occasionally have a tiny spider drop from the tent that was providing… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on September 28, 2009 at 3:21pm — 9 Comments

See Peggy Spin! Live!

Tomorrow I will be spinning again at the Blue Moon Ranch. They're having their annual Alpaca Days open house.

Here I am spinning today. Tomorrow they are going to set up the "alpaca cam," which shows live feed of the alpacas in the pasture or in the barn, so it will show me spinning. You can link to the live feed here.

The open house will run from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on September 26, 2009 at 5:26pm — 9 Comments

Sipalu Bag Wins First Prize at Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair

I couldn't believe my Sipalu Bag took first prize!

September 12 and 13 were the dates for the Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair in South Jordan, Utah. I went to see my friend Linda's exhibit. (She's the one of the friends who raises alpacas.) I gave a ride to my friend Joanie and her daughter Kristi, who are both avid knitters. My Kromski Sonata rode in the back. My plan was to sit and spin for a while with Linda. I also took along the skein of yarn I… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on September 24, 2009 at 4:30pm — 17 Comments

Finished Landscape Shawl! Extra Blog Post!

I had to show it off!

I couldn't wait until next week's blog to show off my Landscape Shawl! I'm so excited that it's done.

In case you didn't see what I started with, here's a review:

The fiber, Coopworth that had been hand dyed, with all kinds of colorful second cuts and stuff in it.

The singles on my wheel.…

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Added by Peggy Stuart on September 17, 2009 at 4:06pm — 12 Comments

More Fiber Fun!

Saturday I went to the Great Basin Fiber Arts Festival in South Jordan, Utah. I didn't take any photos! I can't believe it! I was too busy.

I spent some time in Linda's booth, spinning. Here's the fiber I was working on. It's pumpkin-colored merino and silk that I bought at Three Wishes.

Here's what I'm getting with it for singles:

It's a little harder to spin evenly than the straight merino… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on September 16, 2009 at 1:00pm — 8 Comments

Fiber, Fiber, Fiber...My Head is Spinning!

This is my first multi-colored spinning project.

As you may know, I was camping last week and along with the hiking, I got some knitting and spinning done. If you look at my last blog, you'll see photos of my camping experience. I have finished the spinning project that I was working on during the time in the mountains. This is the fiber I started with. It's hand-dyed merino from Greenwood Fiber Works.…

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Added by Peggy Stuart on September 9, 2009 at 7:00am — 12 Comments

Washington Lake Camping, Spinning and Knitting!

We're back, the dogs are pooped and the trailer is back in its storage space. We had a wonderful time, a perfect end to a wonderful summer. While we were camping, my SIL, Eileen, showed me her Aran cardi, which is on her needles right now. Here it is. She is using HW City Tweed in Romance.

HW City Tweed

Eileen is a wonderful knitter. She knits "English style," but is as fast as I am, even on ribbing. She puts the long, straight… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on September 5, 2009 at 6:30am — 7 Comments

Fantastic Fiber Fun!

As you read this, I am in the high Uinta Mountains of Utah, hiking my little feet off, knitting at high altitude (pant, pant) and enjoying time with friends, one of whom is a knitter. I hope to post photos next week. In the meantime, let me show you what I've been up to since finishing the Moebius classes:

Remember the pile of Coopworth fiber I had?

This stuff was fun to… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on September 2, 2009 at 7:30am — 6 Comments

A Long Post for a Fantastic Class!

I can't believe what a weekend it was! Knitting teacher and musician Lucille Reilly came in Thursday, driving all the way from the Denver area. I awaited her arrival at the home of my friend Barbara (one of several Barbaras, actually, who are my friends). Barbara has a nice guest room with a queen-size bed, and she had agreed to let Lucille stay with her, which gave Barb some extra live-in help on her scarf if she needed it. She was the star pupil, though, so didn't need it, although she had a… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on August 26, 2009 at 7:30am — 12 Comments

Confessions of a Frantic Knitter

I have been really busy. Lucille Reilly, a knitting teacher from Colorado, is coming to teach a class in the Moebius Scarf, based on Cat Bordhi's designs. She will be staying at the home of one of my knitting buddies. Friday we have the class. I had to get people to sign up, then I had to order the books and the needles for everyone and make sure they got here on time. They did. I got the books in time to take advantage of KP's 40% off sale. Here's Lucille's photo of the scarf:…

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Added by Peggy Stuart on August 19, 2009 at 6:16pm — 12 Comments

Gnomes and Fairies!

Here's my current now-active project (once a UFO), the Oregon Socks:

My little friend has been with me for years, and he wanted to help me display my Oregon socks. He became faded a few years ago, so I used paint to touch him up. You can see how grateful he is! These socks are based on Ariel Barton's Cable net socks from Knitty, which you can view… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on August 11, 2009 at 7:34pm — 20 Comments

Homeward Bound

As you read this, we are on the road somewhere between Kimball, Nebraska, and Kimball Junction, where I-80 meets Hwy 224, which leads to Park City. In other words, we'll be home soon!

What have we been doing since my last blog post? We left the KOA near Mishawaka, IN, and our DS the elder and DIL, but not before Rocky learned to play tetherball:

We stopped twice in Iowa, once in the area near Amana, to see the Amana villages,… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on August 4, 2009 at 2:00pm — 6 Comments

Boomerang

It has been a great trip, and soon we will be starting on the return trip, which won't take as long. The trip from Utah to Indiana by way of Montana, South Dakota and Wisconsin was like going from A to B by way of C. Our trip home beginning Friday morning will be from B back to A, so we shouldn't take as long. It has been a great trip. The best part was the engagement of our DD (Karen) to one of the greatest guys we know (David). Seeing them happy together is a delight. Here's what they look… Continue

Added by Peggy Stuart on July 29, 2009 at 8:56pm — 5 Comments

Knitting Adventurer Visits Mt. Rushmore!

This is our second night in South Dakota, but we are now at the eastern side of the state. Our morning was spent at Mt. Rushmore, as you can see from this photo: