Martini Knitter

Happy May Day

May Day brought some interesting weather and a much awaited addition to the house.  

A perfectly ducky day

Saturday was predicted to be 75, followed by snow on Sunday.  So we decided to take the new camera on an outing that turned out to be a trip up to Evergreen with a hike around the lake. We saw quite a bit of wildlife,  including ducks enjoying the thaw, a family of deer, and a bison herd. We had a nice hike around the lake and  enjoyed watching the ice fishing --I am looking forward to spring.   

Back from Life

After such a fabulous trip east with lots of wonderful knitting and visiting, I came home only to discover no internet!  I tried to fix it unsuccessfully, and then when Keith made it home he also didn't have any luck.  Apparently the modem died while we were gone and it took a little while to get a new one and reconfigure the wireless. So to catch up a bit, during my visit I got  down to the Cape for a long overdue visit with my sister and step mom and their adorable kitty.  Work came back in full force the week I got back, followed by us both being a bit under the weather.  Then last night I was fortunate to receive a last minute invite last week to the Billy Joel concert,  our company has a box at the Pepsi center and their was an extra ticket!!  Boy does he put on a great concert.

Great Game

We headed over to some friend's for the game tonight.  What a great game it was! 

Congratulations to the NY Giants and MVP Eli Manning ! 

Photo Elsa / Getty Images from NFL.com

Change of plans

My first scarf...for me that is

So with winter coming although you wouldn't know it with this gorgeous weather, more on that in a bit, I decided it was high time that I knit myself a scarf.  Christine was working on this pattern during her visit back in September and it seemed the perfect pattern.  It is the Herringbone Rib pattern from Life's A Stitch and it is such a great knit.  I used Manos color 106 and size 7 needles.  In the interest of full disclosure, Keith and I went by Shuttles yesterday to pick up a couple more skeins for a hat and some wrist warmers. We had a bit of cake in honor of a book signing, chatted with the author and picked up this delightful new book, Knitspeak: An A to Z Guide to the Language of Knitting Patterns. 

Since this is the first November we have lived in the greater Boulder area,  I must say we are certainly enjoying this phenomenal weather.  It has been in the 70's most days and brilliantly sunny.  Here are a few pictures from our bagel breakfast, that we enjoyed sitting outside (note Keith's short sleeved shirt).

First Snow

The first snow fell today and I wasn't able to fully enjoy it as I was headed to the airport.  Those early snows always make me want to make a batch of hot chocolate,  some soup and snuggle in by the fire. 

Surprise knitting...

We had another birthday visitor...my mom arrived Thursday morning for the weekend.  I picked her up at the airport and we were off to the outlet shops in Castle Rock for some shopping.  I managed to pick up a few fall items at a big discount.  On our way back we saw a wolf just coming out of a field (of course I didn't have my camera) and then we had a nice dinner out.  Friday morning Mom and I tried out  a local bakery for breakfast,  stopped by the LYS to pick up my gift certificate (my name was drawn during the 15th anniversary celebration) and then we picked up Keith from work and took a lovely drive up to Estes Park and The Stanley Hotel.  My great grandfather worked at the hotel years ago and met my great grandmother there.  We walked the grounds, the lobby area and the music room.      

Mom had mentioned that with moving north earlier this year that she would like a scarf.  Remember this alpaca yarn?  It became my so called scarf for Mom. 

Mom asked if Keith would take her out on the motorcycle,  so they went for a ride Saturday afternoon before the rain started and then celebrated with a toast.

And for the record I did make a carrot cake with cream cheese icing but it disappeared before I thought to take a picture.

Snow returns

In addition to some baking, we took a long drive up into the mountains on Sunday.  Not only are the leaves changing but the snow has returned to the peaks.

Let's take the oven out for a spin...

This weekend I decided to put my new found bread baking knowledge to the test.  I made a batch of Multi Grain bread from my recent class .  Last night I set the grains to soaking and started the pre ferment.   This afternoon I made up the rest of the dough,  I don't think I have ever had that volume of ingredients in my mixer.  The recipe yields three loaves but I decided to make two loaves and some dinner rolls.  One rise,  two rise and an oven picture.  The final product...the loaves are still cooling but the rolls turned out nicely and house smells fantastic to boot.