Pictures from CO

Josh wearing his birthday hat. It is the "Knotty but Nice" hat from Knitty.

The view from Josh's room.

My first (and probably last time) snowshoeing.

My vacation knitting.

Tubing... far superior to skiing.

My goodies from a shop in Breckenridge.

Josh's socks... finally DONE!

Josh's friend Tim... my favorite.

The flowers that were awaiting my return. My husband is amazing.

To Quote a Movie....

"I never realize how much I like being home unless I've been somewhere really different for a while." -Juno


I'm back home from CO. I love home. I had a good time, but I am very glad to be home. I will post pictures later, but here is a short list of CO things....
* It was warm (25-30*) but everyone thought it was cold.
* There wasn't a lot of snow... it was like fake winter
* For some reason 90% of the bars and restaurants didn't have bathrooms in the actual restaurant. You had to go into a hallway or mall... for some reason this REALLY annoyed me. 
* I should definitely never have cable... I got super sucked into terrible MTV shows like "Teen Mom"
* Driving in Denver is CRAZY and I am glad I don't live there


Josh has some nice friends. One of them will probably be staying with us for a bit if he works in Denali this summer. I'm already looking forward to that... he was a super dancer. One time, he did a somersault on the floor... amazing.


But, I love being home. Today I didn't do much, just hung out with the dogs. I ran a few errands... mostly recovered from flying. I hate flying. HATE it. It never makes me feel good. The flight home had a lot of turbulence at the beginning, which made my stomach hurt and was scary. The pups were pretty excited to see me, which was fun. It was also very nice to sleep in my own bed. I'm just happy to be home, safe, and back to my normal routine. I'm off to go see 2012 at Bear's Tooth now... I'm sure it is the perfect Bear's Tooth movie... terrible. :)

I Love Winter

In case I haven't mentioned it lately, I love winter. LOVE. It is actually my favorite season. For a lot of reasons...

*I love snow

*I look great in layers

*I love scarves (which I actually wear year-around, but they feel more in place in the winter)

*I love to take my dogs out skiing

*It is fun to throw snowballs at the dogs... they love to catch them in the air.

*It is pretty

I'm sure there are more, but that is good for the moment. I feel like people who don't like the winter are kind of whiners. A lot of people complain about the lack of light here in AK, but I often feel like that is partly their fault as well. If you never go outside, it is no wonder you miss the sun.  I walk my dogs at least once a day, but even if you don't have a dog, it isn't hard to bundle up and go for a 20 min walk. That would get you out in the light (and some exercise!) and it probably wouldn't be as big of a deal. Another thing people complain about all the time in the winter is the cold. Which baffles my mind. You know where you live, DRESS for it. No kidding it is cold when you are wearing jeans, barley a coat, and nothing else. When I know I'm going to be outside for more than a walk to the car, I bundle up! When I go walking I wear snowpants, my coat, good boots, wool socks, mittens, hat, and a scarf. Sometimes if it is super cold, I wear two coats. LAYERS, they do a body good. I'm all about being warm (I wear down booties in my house almost constantly) and if I can survive outside in the winter, anyone can.  So, to wrap this up, I love winter. Give it a shot... you may find you like it too...

And now I am off to vacation in another winter wonderland, Copper Mountain, Colorado. Sure, most people leave AK to go somewhere warm, but that is just not my style. Like I said, I love winter....

FO and a trip

I finished my Sweet Georgia beret a few days ago and took some makeshift pictures last night. I am very happy with the way it turned out, and now I am dying to knit myself another beret. I spun the yarn for this hat from batts I bought from Corgi Hill Farm. They are sparkly and amazing. Also, I obviously like the color because my bathroom is painted almost the same! That was cracking me up as I was taking the pictures.... I am trying to finish J's socks before I see him though.... which leads me to the second half of the blog post, I'm going on a trip!! W and I are going to CO to see J for his birthday. I am SUPER excited. I haven't seen J since before Halloween and I have been missing him pretty badly lately. So I took a whole week off of work and decided to go see him. It is going to be a super fun time. Skiing, tubing, eating, drinking, hanging out.... fun times. So I may be quiet for a while. I'm not sure when I am getting back, but I am leaving tomorrow night after I get off of work.  I am flying standby, so it's up to me when I come back... I have to work on the 30th, so it will be before then. So here are some goofy pictures of me in my hat...

Wordless Wednesday

Quick Check in

Just a quick note to say hi and I added some new blogs to my blog roll on the side.  One is the blog that I linked to the other day with the shoe patterns, the other is Tot Toppers, which is probably my FAVORITE little kid hat pattern company.  She just started designing hats for adults and her first one is definitely on my "to knit" list. So go check them out. And enjoy your Sunday!

Wordless Wednesday

YIP

So I probably will keep up with this for about a week... but what the heck. I joined the flickr group "YIP, the knitterly and crafty types" where the goal (don't know why my font has gone weird...) is to take a picture every day of the year. Well, I'm already 5 days behind, but we're going to ignore that! So, if you are on flickr, my username is MooseInSocks.  I will probably post a few of the pictures here (ohhh... actually, maybe Wordless Wednesday will return!) and on twitter, so if you are on there you can check them out. 

And because I love to enable other fiber addicts, here is what I have been coveting lately. 

This fiber from Fiber Fancy called conversation hearts. I would love to ply it with a semi-solid pink or yellow... yum. 

And I actually did buy this... a very cute orifice hook for my spinning wheel.  There are more available and she is SUPER fast! I wanted a white sheep, but it was already sold. I convo'ed her and it was done by the end of the day! WOW!

And, these batts from Desert Garden Farms. LOVE. I actually will probably wind up with these by the end of the week if they are still available. They just look so soft....

Now I am off to go spin... 

Un-Resolutions

I don't like to make new year's resolutions. I'm not sure that I've ever been successful with any... and I feel like if it's something I really want to do, I should start then, not wait until the new year. I do sometimes set goals for myself for the new year, such as to knit with more of my own handspun... but I feel like that is because a calendar year is an easy way to measure time, and because it is something that is pretty flexible (I only used my handspun for one project this past year, so if I knit TWO things, done!) and attainable. Maybe they are the same thing, and I just like the word goal more... who knows. ANYWAY. My goals for the year are (drumroll please):

*Knit with more of my handspun yarn
*Be more budget-wise
*Knit a shawl
*Get my sewing room under control (which has been a goal for a while, but I recently have come up with some concrete ideas that I think will help.)
*Finish one of the two sweaters I have started for myself
*Spin more often (I have gotten out of the 10 mins a day habit...)
*Learn to weave!

I think that is really a good start. I have been dreaming of knitting a Sweet Georgia (rav link) with my handspun yarn for a while now, and I want to get it done before Jan. In fact, I might go look in my closet and try to find an appropriate yarn for it tonight...

I have also joined some Spin-A-Longs lately that I think will help keep me on track with my spinning goals. They are all from the wonderful etsy shop Desert Garden Farms and have amazing themes.  The one for this month is Shel Silverstein poems, and I am also in the Create-A-Pirate SAL.  I will probably be joining the Murder Mystery SAL because that just sounds like TOO much fun! I've even put some thought into how I'm going to spin my poem batts and I think they will be awesome!!

I had some other things to blog about, but the dogs whining has distracted me, and I have now forgotten them. I better take them out walking before they drive me insane.

Quick Crazy Dog Post

Just popping in to tell you about my crazy dogs. Last night, at 2 am, I awoke to strange crunching noises. I asked W what was going on, and he said Frito had a rawhide. Knowing we don't have any rawhide in the house, I asked where he got it.  Upon further investigation, we found out that Frito had somehow evolved, was able to open the dog cabinet (where we keep treats, leashes, nail clippers, etc) and steal one of the bully sticks I had in there for a special occasion.  He hadn't evolved enough to take the plastic off, which is why the noises were so odd that woke me up. He is such a fat-minded dog...

One day when we were driving to go skiing, Snickers learned how to open the window of the car. I was not amused.

I think I may have to stop getting my dogs "smart" toys... it is looking like if I don't they may take over the house.... more than they already have... alright, off to work!!

Also, go take a look at this shoe tutorial! I am definitely going to be trying my hand at these in a few weeks.