Breast Cancer Awareness Scarf

This was a group project for The Knitters Guild of Denver. I only signed up for one since I have other knitting scheduled before the October meeting. The pattern is available online.

The guild elected to use Swish in Petal as the yarn. I choose to cast on both tails and work them at the same time. This way I could maximize the yarn usage. The pattern expects the tails to be 18.5 inches for 37 inches total. I ended up with about 52 inches total.

It did get blocked. Since, the yarn is machine washable, I ran it through with some sheets. Be warned it attracts lint. It took a few minutes to remove the lint. Running it through the wash definitely helped slow down the edge rolling and bring the lace out.

Now, all I have to do is make it to the October meeting and turn it in.

Knitting Update

Sorry, no pictures but I want to announce my big knitting news. The lavender Oregon shawl is off the needles. The border has been grafted together. The ends are woven in. It is waiting to be blocked. It is nice to have it done.

Figure, I need an hour to block it. It might take longer. It needs to soak for a half hour in lukewarm water not hot because the yarn is part silk. I have been informed, Never, Ever put silk in hot water. It takes the shine off and mess up the plant proteins. After soaking, I get to spend time on my hands and knees pinning it to the carpet in the craft room. Crawling around always takes longer than I expect.

I plan to put a picture up after blocking.

Other than that, the Idella shawl is getting closer to done.

Redstone, Colorado

We choose Redstone, Colorado for our 25th anniversary because it was easy to get to, in an interesting looking area of Colorado, and we hadn't stayed there before. To be honest the trip to Hawaii at the beginning of the year was in honor of our 25th. But spoiled brat that I can be, I still wanted to do something on our anniversary. I am really not planning on another 25th.

Since our anniversary was on a Wednesday this year, something nearby was called. This way we could drive over Wednesday evening for a couple of days.
Little did we know that Redstone had some interesting history. Turns out it was a social experiment. The coal mine owner thought it would be best if his workers had decent places to live, some medical attention, and a school for their children. He built cottages for the workers with families and the Redstone Inn for the bachelors and guests. A church and school were also built. For miners this was pretty upscale for the time. Usually, miners lived in shacks or whatever they could cobble together.

The mine was closed in the mid 1900's. Then it was reopened and caught fire which caused it to close permanently. Sounds like this is pretty common with metallurgic grade coal.

Not everything was wonderful. The coke ovens were across the road from the cottages and the inn. I would imagine snow didn't stay white for long near that. It still sounds very progressive for the early 1900's.

Historians are a bit disappointed because the third wife burned all of the family papers she could lay her hands on. Which leaves us to speculate about why she did that.

Marble, Colorado

Last Month we ended up in Marble, Colorado. There is a marble quarry behind Marble and up the mountain. Who knew? We didn't until we visited the area.

Turns out there is a self guide five dollar walking tour of the quarry. Warning signs abound: stay on the path, danger mining activity, unstable area. The path follows the stream up and then goes through the edge of the woods near where blocks of marble are dumped. As a word of caution the path is steep in spots with an occasional paver and is at a high elevation. There is a very good chance it will leave you breathless if you move fast.


At the very top you can walk across to the top end of the mine and peer in. The signs caution that there are works below. Lots of sounds but you can't see them. It is quite the man-made cavern.

Just looking around gave me the impression that the whole mountain is marble. Every where I looked, the underlying rock seemed to be marble. The stream was cutting through and around a marble. The ceiling of the cavern looked like it was marble.

Turns out this is 'Yule' marble because of it's purity. It is 99% Calcium Carbonate which means it is really white and the purist source of marble know in the world. Amazing what happens to sea creature bones after a few hundred years. Given enough time they become monuments and buildings. The marble has been used in the Lincoln Memorial and the Tomb Of the Unknown Soldier.





Which brings me to a recent news story. Someone bought a block, a big block and wants to donate it for repairing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Some political snafu says the government needs bids and can't just accept it. A marble mine back East wants to bid on the job and their marble probably isn't the closest match. It sounded like since they wanted to bid on it, donations aren't allowed. The Tomb has been cracked for decades and sounds like it will be cracked for a few more.

B&B in Alaska

While we were in Ketchikan we stayed a really nice Bed and Breakfast just 5 miles north of Ketchikan. Just nicely away from the cruise ships and all of the bustle that goes with them. We could watch the ships pass by on their way to the next port.

The local wild life consisted of squirrels and eagles. The little guy in the picture hung out regularly near the patio furniture. Probably looking for crumbs. Up the tree, you can't see the stripe on the back, similar to a chipmunk.

Most evenings, we really couldn't see the sun set because of the clouds. Almost got a sunset picture one evening. The clouds on the horizons put a stop to getting a picture just as the sun went down. So, this is my best attempt at a sunset picture.