No Mountains Out My Window

Missouri is pretty darned flat. Not as flat as Kansas, but still. There are no mountains out my window this morning, and that makes me sad. (Although there was no Loopy in Colorado, and it’s nice to be back here with him. It doesn’t quite make up for it, but it helps.) 🙂 What did we find as we drove across Kansas? Wind Generators. There is a stretch of the highway with about 30 or 40 of these, turning in the wind. It’s kind of eery, actually. We saw a semi at a rest area that had one of the blades on the back of it and it was HUGE. They look deceptively small in this photo.

Vacation was wonderful! College Guy arrived on Thursday night and we whisked him off to Colorado early the next morning. (Then we arrived home late Saturday night, and he whisked himself back off to college on Sunday afternoon. Little time at home this time.) There was a lot of snow when we got there. This is out the back door and you can see how high the snow is to the railing on the deck. It only snowed once while we were there (of course the day we were snowmobiling at the top of the mountain in white-out conditions – more on that later.) I love driving around in Colorado and seeing mountains as you go down the road. They’re beautiful in summer or winter. I’ve been vacationing in Colorado for years and years, so it’s no wonder I like it there so much. (It helps immensely that my folks have a condo out there that we can stay in.)

I got lots of things done and had a great time doing it! Want my list?

Items knitted: 3 socks plus 1/3 of my Dream in Color Classy Sweater for the KAL. (And I can’t wait to get back home tonight and knit on it some more. I love it!) Knitting photos on Wednesday’s blog.

Books read: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccout, The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond, and Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together by Larissa Golden Brown and Martin John Brown.

Movies watched: A lot. But the two favorites were Freedom Writers and August Rush. Loved them both. (And of course we had to watch The Holiday for about the fifty-billionth time because it’s a favorite of mine and Knitting Daughter’s.)

Yarn Stores Visited: The Yarn Barn (Lawrence, KS) – a weaver’s and spinners haven, What’s Needling U (Frisco, CO) – very close to where we stay, so I go there every time, A Knitted Peace (Littleton, CO) – bright, airy, open and fun, Lamb Shoppe (Denver, CO) – a coffee bar and a dog with dreds – very interesting place, The The Cottage Yarn (Littleton, CO) – just a year old but a very nice gal working there and she gave us great directions to get back to the highway, Colorful Yarns (Centennial, CO) – little and packed with stuff. This was probably my favorite place because they had red couches (just like Loopy Central) and tons of fun knitting bags (just like Loopy Central!).

So back to the snowmobiles. We don’t ski. I tried it a few times and it’s ok, but I don’t LOVE it, so why do it? I do, however, like snowmobiling a lot! Here’s a photo of us going down the path. Actually, it’s nice and clear in this first photo. There were times when we were going down a very steep part of the path and I couldn’t even see because of the immense amount of snow blowing and falling. Thank goodness that KD was in front of me in a bright red jacket – I just kept my eyes on her and gunned it! (That’s either really stupid or really gutsy, I’m not sure. It’s probably really stupid.) And next time I’m wearing a hat under the helmet. I don’t think my forehead has ever been so cold and ice-pelted in my entire life. You can kind of see the whiteout behind us in the second photo. By the time we got back down off of the mountain, everything had stopped, the sun was coming out, and things were back to normal. Of course.

Now that I’m back to work, I’m sure there is one more list that you’d like to see. What is in this week’s Sneak Up?? Well, I can tell you what has come in while I was gone. About half of this will be up this week, and the rest next week. (WH needs to do the color correcting on all of this. Oh yeah, and he also needs to catch up on his own business and workload from when we were gone. Darn it.) So within the next couple of weeks, you’ll find: Rio de la Plata, Creatively Dyed (new indie dyer!), Mountain Colors (including some of their amazing solids), bellamoden (fingering weight), Perchance to Knit Lace, Spindle City Yarns (new indie dyer!), Tempted Glam Girl (the yarn with the silver in it), Zen String Lotus Toes, Claudia Silk (new to us) and Fingering Weight, Fiesta Boomerang and Baby Boomerang, Farmhouse Fannie’s Fingering, Hand Maiden Sea Silk, Fleece Artist Casbah and Sea Wool, Schaefer Heather, Anne and Lola (and we got such fun colors for you again!), more Red Canvas Sock Totes, Offhand Designs bags, and Go Knit bags in all colors. Whew! And you all know that there is always more on order and arriving daily, so who knows what else will arrive this week that might go up next week, too. Did I tell you they had to buy a bigger dumpster for our office building because of all the cases of yarn that arrive all the time? We kept filling it up …. Hee!

Sheri didlotsofcookingonvacation,too,soIhavesomegreatnewrecipestoshareinthecomingweeks!