The month of September has flown by!
We began the month with a Labor Day trip to St Louis to see DD and her fiance. Good times! DD knows I love Snoopy...
This was an early birthday gift.
This photo was taken in a macro photo studio that DH and I made with materials on hand + less than $3. We found the instructions to make it here. I wish I had done this sooner. It's been fun playing with the camera and lighting.... indulge me, and you'll see more pics like this below! : )
Next stop: Aspen, Colorado. What a beautiful place to spend my actual birthday.
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| Pyramid Peak - approach road to Maroon Bells, early morning 9/12/11 |
The leaves were just starting to turn while we were there.
This was our biking trip and Aspen did not disappoint. We were very fortunate that the rain throughout the week was so patchy that it never interfered with our plans. We rode many, many miles on the Rio Grande Trail, part of the national Rails to Trails initiative.
Didn't we all read the Boxcar Children book series when we were kids? These rail cars are actual residences - with plumbing and outdoor decks. Not quite a boxcar, but interesting!
As always, I like the wildflowers.
We also rode the open sections of Glenwood Canyon along the Colorado River which parallels I-70 (part of the trail was washed out in the spring floods and is under repair).
We stopped to watch an eagle soaring along the high rock faces of the canyon. I think that was the one ride when I didn't have the camera - darn!
Our big achievement was riding to Maroon Bells - 11 miles of steady uphill riding from Aspen, ending at about 9600 ft above sea level. That's mighty thin air!
We stopped a couple of times along the way for 'photo ops'. Translated, that means we stopped to let some oxygen back into our lungs and muscles - we are 'flat-landers', after all! The ride down was scary fast!! This ride was much more difficult than the Rio Grande or Glenwood Canyon Trails, but what a sense of accomplishment when you get to the top!
Vacation always means shopping for yarn souvenirs.
I bought this yummy Manos at the Aspen Yarn Gallery, a fun little shop in the heart of town. If you go there, look up. The shop is on the second floor. The owner, Jan, stocks her shop with some really fun and funky stuff. This colorway is #798, Pansy. I took it to my hometown LYS last week and matched it up to another yarn. This will be a great accent to a design that is still spinning in my head.
I also bought 4 feet (yes, it is sold by the foot) of "dreadlock yarn" in shades of purple. The wool is from the curly hair of Surry sheep. The flock is from Fort Collins, CO, but the spinning and dyeing is done in Taos, NM. You can find it here or here. This will be a fun accent to something... not quite sure what, but it won't sit around for too long. Notice there is a purple theme going here? This yarn reminds of Ozark Handspun, if you're familiar with that.
Finally, on the way back out of the mountains, we stopped for lunch in Frisco, CO, and, as luck would have it, there was an LYS on the main street of town. Inside, I found a happy group of knitters (who recommended a great lunch spot) and some Mountain Colors Crazyfeet - hand painted yarn in the Red Willow colorway. This is definitely destined to be a pair of socks.
In between there has been a lot of tech editing. A new issue of Petite Purls went live a few days ago, and I am hard at work on lots of other projects.
I was pleasantly surprised that Knit Picks featured my Pop Top Mittens in their current catalog - I can never complain about free advertising!
A few sts get knit here and there. DD#2's college soccer conference games begin this weekend, so there will definitely be some short road trip knitting!
Three cheers for fall weather! ~~ 'til next time, Joan
