Rox's Blog

Argyle Coffee Sweater

Roxanne — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:33:29 +0000

I want to try to sell these things at the local coffee shop. I need to make a few different patterns, colors, textures, etc. to take down to show them as samples. While brainstorming different ways to make a Coffe Sweater, I came up with the idea of doing one with an argyle pattern. You can switch out the colors, or only use two (a popular way to do argyle). This is basically just a guide to the pattern. Get creative with your own style.

To start – Cast on 32 stitches using size 8 dpns with color A. Knit one row. Follow the chart for the next rows through row 27. Knit the even rows (right side “RS”) and purl the even rows (wrong side “WS”).

Argyle Coffee Sweater Chart

Peach Salsa

Roxanne — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:33:00 +0000

So last year I went on a trip with my neighbors through Colorado’s Grand Mesa, known for it’s fruit orchards. That area produces the bulk of Colorado’s peaches and cherries and they are AMAZING! So while driving outside Palisade, we stopped at a roadside stand to buy produce. I ended up buying a box of peaches and a couple pounds of cherries (for $1.50 a pound ?!? normally $3-4 in Denver). I think it was run by the farm it was next to. Shawn started looking through all the stuff they had and found some flyers with recipes on them. He grabbed one and showed me a recipe for peach salsa and really wanted me to make some. Now all the fruity salsa I have tried has never impressed me so I wasn’t too into it, but Shawn REALLY wanted some. So I brought the peaches home, bought the rest of the ingredients and made a relatively small batch (the recipe called for a peck of peaches and a peck of tomatoes – a peck is 2-gallons so basically 4 plus gallons of salsa!). The recipe didn’t look very complicated so I was kind of iffy that it would turn out. I pull it off the stove and I still don’t think it tastes that great so I stuck it in the fridge. Shawn kept insisting it was good, but I thought he was just trying to be nice, even though that’s totally not his MO. So a week goes by and he’s eating the shit out of it and we took some up to the neighbors and they loved it. I finally bring myself to try it again and it was truly amazing. I don’t know what sitting in the fridge did to it, but whatever it was, it was delicious. We went through about a half gallon of salsa in just a few weeks.

So this year, I wanted to make it again. Since I have learned how to can, I thought it would be good to make a whole bunch of it and can it, so I can either give it to people, or just hold on to it and have extras I don’t have to freeze or refrigerate. August is when the peaches are in season so my mom picked up a flat of them two weeks ago at the farmer’s market. The weekend she bought them I wasn’t really ready to make the salsa, I was actually planning on waiting until the next weekend (last weekend) but I went ahead and started anyways – big mistake!!!

First off, the peaches weren’t totall ripe. So I picked out the 10 ripest ones to start the first batch with. I started cutting up all the 10 million things I needed – peaches, tomatoes, garlic, onions, chilis, etc. My dad suggested I try the food processor. Great idea I thought. No. It completely obliterated the tomatoes and the peaches I threw in. Then I tried the onions and it worked ok, but in the end I resorted to cutting everything by hand. Advice for anyone making salsa – even though cutting everything manually is a lot of work, it’s worth it to get everything the same size but more importantly the size you want. I needed a break from the cutting so I threw what I had in the pot (stupid) and went outside to roast the chilis. I threw the first batch on the grill, basically all the mild hatch chilis I had. As I walked back inside, I thought to myself, I should set the timer. But as soon as I got in the kitchen, I got distracted and forgot about the chilis. 20 minutes later, I remembered them but too late. They were so burned that when I picked them up off the grill, they disintegrated into dust. I told my dad I burned them and he said, “Just spray them with water. That’s what they do at the roadside stands and it flakes off the blackened skin.” Needless to say, that wouldn’t have worked. I dicked around with the chilis so long that while I was outside, the salsa on the stove scorched. But when I went back inside, I kept cutting stuff up and didn’t realize it was burning. I have a horrible sense of smell and it was only after I had added all the rest of the tomatoes and half of the peaches that I realized something was wrong. It was too late. The whole pot smelled and tasted awful. I decided to throw it out and wait until the next weekend. I was just having one of those days where everything you do goes wrong.

So a week goes by

Rails, Dunes, Gators & Hot Springs

Roxanne — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:32:29 +0000

This past weekend, Shawn and I had an awesome vacation. We left at 4:00 am on Saturday morning and headed out to Alamosa. It is getting to be that time of year when the sun starts coming up later and later. It was almost 7:00 in the morning before the sun actually came up all the way. It was beautiful when it got light as we drove west on Highway 160 between Walsenberg and Alamosa. I got a great shot of Mount Blanca.

: Mount Blanca

We got into Alamosa around 7:30 and checked in at the train station. We got our (awesome) beer glasses and bought a sticker at the gift shop. The train didn’t actually leave until 9:00 so we went to Milagro’s coffee shop and had a cup of coffee to warm up before departure. At 8:15 we headed back to the station and waited to board the train. When we ordered the tickets they said they were sold out. We got the last pair from someone who decided not to get a pair of tickets they had on hold. There were a ton of people at the platform. From what the agent told us, I thought it was going to be like a party train. But when we saw who was going to be on the train, I was suprised to see so many old people. Most of them didn’t even look like they drank. Oh well, more for us.

Autumn Fire Scarf

Roxanne — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:31:56 +0000

I saw these amazing Autmn Purple Ashes by my mom and dad’s house last night. When I drive home the sun is in the perfect spot to where everything looks like it’s glowing and all the fall colors look incredible. I love the way the outside of the tree looks like it been toasted or something, with the darker leaves on the edges and the middle lighter yellow. I am so obsessed with these colors I want to make a scarf. I have seen patterns where you hold yarn doubled, tripled or more and you swap out one strand at a time so that it creates a gradient without having the yarn dyed different colors. I want to try that technique with these colors, basically dark deep purple to yellow.

Check out the album of the pix I took.

NYC Wallpaper

Roxanne — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:36:53 +0000

I like to decorate and I want to start keeping ideas in one place. I’m linking pix and sites of cool stuff here so I don’t have to print them out, spill apple juice on the papers, shove them in a box under the TV and then forget they exist and never look at them again.

Fire Hydrant Wallpaper

This picture looked ok until I read the description and realized the wallpaper has fire hydrants, parking meters and rats!

Here is the link to the article I found it in.

Interesting Ideas to Knit

Roxanne — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:09:03 +0000

Check out these slippers are cool
Volcom – bright crocheted

Orange cabled slip on slippers

Black and grey striped ugg slip ons

Check out this rad bag

Patterns to ADD
I also really like to Koko Rectangle top from S. Charles fall Round Midnight collection on Tahki yarns

Bright night, big city
is a s. charles booklet that i like the following patterns from

Sigourney Kimono Cardigan looks AWESOME and airy

Stop the Roses

Roxanne — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 04:34:38 +0000

I took these pictures ay the park by my parents house last night. It was very pretty, the sky was orange and pink and all the snow and ice was blue. Dev didn’t want me to stop and take pictures cause he said I take forever but I explained that it is important to stop every once in a while and appreciate life.

New Year’s Resolutions 2011

Roxanne — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:16:33 +0000

I decided to try to write more blog posts this year. I just downloaded the WordPress app for my phone and I’m testing it out right now!

I’m Not So Big-Boned Anymore Either

Roxanne — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:30:36 +0000

I forgot I wrote that post about gaining weight. Just to follow up, I have since lost over 10 pounds since then. Last week, one of the days I was actually down to 151, almost 15 pounds lighter than 4 months ago. My weight has been fluctuating between about 151 and 155, usually around 153. I think I am about at my limit for losing with weight with diet alone. I would really like to start working out at the gym again. I have had a membership to 24-Hour Fitness since I was in high school and I have always loved to lift weights. Last year, when I weighed about 175, I tried working out again. It was awful. I remember thinking, I used to really enjoy working out and lifting weights and now it just feels like a total struggle. I didn’t get the energy rush like I did before. It took everything in me just to get my ass on the eliptical machine for 20 minutes. I couldn’t push myself or get any of the drive and motivation back that I used to have. I think part of it was that I just didn’t have any engergy because at that time I was very un-motivated. I had a hard time doing pretty much anything that involved me getting off the couch. And I think the other part of it was that I was so out of shape, I was too far gone physically to get back into that zone I used to be in.

Anyways, I think I am going to start hitting the gym that is by my work. There is a 24-Hour fitness about 2 blocks away from my job. So I think I may start going there a few nights a week, the days I don’t go see Dev, and see if I can lose the last 10-15 pounds and get freaking RIPPED! The other day I was telling Devon about how I used to be ripped and he was all, Yeah right mom and my mom cut in and said, She used to be really ripped Dev. When you were little she was ripped! His eyes got all big and he looked and be all funny and he had this look on his face like, your fat ass used to be ripped? Yeah, and I’m freaking sponge bob. He must have been too young to remember!

I Want to Yarn Bomb Too, Please

Roxanne — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:09:14 +0000

So there was a story on 9News the other night about the Ladies Fancywork Society. They are getting legitimate work through the city and are putting up an installation of crocheted floweres on a construction fence downtown. It looks really cool.

Ladies Fancywork Society - Flower Installation

I guess they are having an open night for everyone to come contribute to the work on Saturday, July 24th at 5:00. Here is a link to their blog post with the video of the 9 News story and here is a link to the 9 News site. I can’t wait to go! I’ll post pix if I end up getting down there.