Late summer moment

My DH, Gary Oberle,  is an artist who is  especially adept at capturing the essence of the moment on canvas. I love this one as it really brings me back to that late summer day in the sand hills of Kansas....just wanted to share it with you all.

Past Midsummer

Time is moving on and I've just emailed the info letters to Knitters who are joining us in Taos next month.  Summer is wonderful but fall in Taos is amazing!  Just look at these photos from last year...mmmmm.  Joys to come!

What a Knitaway!

Well it was just as I thought..... There was just too much happening for me to even get a chance to post on the blog.   Here are a few pics..

                                                                          

..

 Hard-working knitters with accoutrements 

(and popcorn!)

Such a lot of talent! 

Let the Knitaway in the Rockies begin!

 A perfectly lovely place to knit, don't you think? 

As I sit here in The Hotel Boulderado on the afternoon before the Knitaway® in the Rockies 2009, I thought I could take the opportunity to post what I hope will become the first in a series to keep you updated during this Knitaway.  With great intentions I'm making this announcement knowing full well after some 15 years of Knitaways that when  the knitting starts around here I may get so wrapped up that I simply come back to the room and fall sweetly to sleep at night. But I'm going to give it a go. I'd really like to share the fun with all of you. 

And hopefully this will be habit forming.   Really...I mean it this time.

 So to begin....this evening, once everyone is checked in we'll have a reception buffet and first meeting.  We have a great room to work in and the  hotel staff are looking forward to seeing what we'll be doing this week. A couple of them have already asked if they can learn to knit,too ;).  Boulder is a very artistic and crafty town and fiber arts of all kinds are regarded with both interest and enthusiasm.  Also I bet that  in the one hundred years that this Hotel has been here, there's been some knitting gone on here before...you can just feel it, you know?

  The winter holidays are coming so quickly!  It seems  it was just the other day that I was basking in the warm October sunshine at the Knitaway in Taos.  

Today  the new information for  the 2009 Knitaways went up on the website. I never seem to tire of spending days in a beautiful place with a group of knitters.   Just planning them makes me smile.

 In the news for the Knitaways......We have a new location for the June Knitaway in the Rockies  in 2009.  The Boulderado is a wonderful historic hotel ( celebrating her 100 birthday in 2009!) and  it's in the heart of one of the most scenic, artistic and "hip" towns in the country.  This should be a good time! Check it out on the website.

And of course early fall will find us  back at our favorite place in Taos, the San Geronimo Lodge, for two more Knitaways.

Sending you all my warmest wishes for your holiday season and for a bright New Year!

Speaking of Alpaca

Just got this shawl finished and wanted to share it with you. I call it the Ruffled Peddlar. It is a variation of the Wool Peddler's Shawl from my first book, Folk Shawls. 

Tehri in Finland (mustaavillaa on Ravelry... see my Favs!) did a gorgeous ruffled variation of the Wool Peddler's Shawl in Rowan Felted Tweed.   The new alpaca yarn I'm exploring has 9 natural shades, and since I, like Tehri, love brown and black, I selected Cocoa and Charcoal. I used yo's for the increases that form the ruffle and made the ruffle a bit deeper.  The deep ruffle gives the shawl some real movement.  The extra width provided by the addition of the subtle ruffle also makes the shawl fit better than a regular triangle..it stays on!  I think it works!  Brilliant ruffled idea, Tehri!  I love the flow of the Ruffled Peddler!  It goes from gentle waves to really ruffled,  depending on the sway of the wearer. 

I so love this alpaca yarn that I will be selling it on my website.  I'll have the information and the colors up on cheryloberle.com in the very near future. I will hurry, I promise,  though I'm 

busy packing as I write....  I do have Knitaway or two (three actually!) to attend in the next month.  Joy!

                 

It's September!

As it often does, the summer has flown so quickly by.  Now it's September!  And in 10 days we'll be at Session II of the Knitaway in the Rockies in Winter Park.

Session I in June was an incredible experience.  A fabulous group of talented knitters from all over the country, perfect weather (the one rain storm produced a magnificent dusk rainbow over the continental divide..quite a sight), and alpacas. And even better than that, baby alpacas.  We were invited take an afternoon jaunt to Lonesome Stone in Granby, Colorado to  meet the new members of the alpaca herd and to tour the mill ... and yarn shop. Ummmm!  Such serene and engaging creatures are the alpacas that I could hardly get the knitters to leave the field to go yarn shopping.  I managed to do so however and stash enhancement happened. 

So now the end of next week the next group of knitters will arrive  and we're going to visit the alpacas again. We'll probably see the aspen starting to turn and the last of the summer wildflowers gracing the sides of the walking paths.  Autumn beginning in the high country has a  particular feeling, a scent, almost a taste.  It is one of my favorite annual experiences and  thank goodness for the Knitaway to make sure that I get up there to enjoy every September.  Oh yes,  and then there's the knitting!