Tesuque

Today's blog road trip highlights the beauty of Tesuque, NM which is a few miles north of Santa Fe. We were there last week and it was incredibly green.

The first 3 photos were taken at Shidoni Sculpture Gallery. Way back when I started the mitten booklet I had the idea to use Shidoni as the backdrop for some mitten photos but life intervened.










Shidoni has a foundry where you can watch metal being cast. All the sculptures are for sale if you happen to have an extra $20K or so in your pocket.









We ended up in a national forest area (Upper Pacheco Canyon??) and although I was too far to get a great photo, you could see the Santa Fe Opera house in the distance.








Someone was growing a garden at the bottom of this valley.






I have a new Christmas project (It is never too early to start!) to show you next.

Albuquerque

I rarely get to downtown Albuquerque so when I went last weekend I took a few quick shots to show you.






This is San Felipe de Neri church in Old Town Albuquerque.





The world needs more bright blue doors, don't you think?



Old Town is quite popular with tourists and has lots of fun shops.

In the comments yesterday Nancy commented that what I was doing in the rainbow hat was knitted in I-Cord and PatB said her wonderful clock socks in Socks, Socks, Socks used a method of intarsia in the round. Check it out if you have that book or look her up as patknitter on Ravelry for more info. I'm almost to the heel on the first piggy toe sock and I decided to do duplicate stitch since I thought that would be the fastest. We'll see how long all that duplicate stitch takes me.

Jemez Springs

I have so many photos from our road trip yesterday I'm going to divide them into 2 blog posts. We wanted to get out and about and I brought some mittens from the mitten booklet along to photograph.

We first went to my favorite place in New Mexico, Jemez Springs. My photos never seem to do justice to all the beautiful colors of the landscape. Jemez Springs is right past the Jemez Indian Pueblo and there are signs up that you're not allowed to take photographs at the pueblo. Actually on the sign it also said "No Sketching" which I thought was amusing.



This is Soda Dam just north of Jemez Springs.



Here is a fingerless mitten knit in 2 colors of Palette photographed in front of Fenton Lake.




I'm so glad we checked out Fenton Lake before hauling our canoe there because while pretty it really isn't large enough for canoeing. Plus I can only imagine how crowded it gets during warmer weather - there is only access on one side and even on a cloudy snowy day there were many fishermen out.




Lately everywhere I go in New Mexico has landscapes altered by wildfire. Amazingly there were 2 houses right in the middle of all the burnt trees and they did not look affected.

madrid, new mexico

One of the prettiest drives in New Mexico is the Turquoise Trail connecting the East Mountains of Albuquerque with Santa Fe. Along the trail you'll see small mining towns, whimsical hills dotted with pinons, and the funky arts town of Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid).




Some outdoor art in Madrid.




Entering town from the south.



Some of the little shops.



Some fiber related outdoor art.



If you stroll down the alley next to the Mineshaft Tavern, you'll find the Tapestry Gallery which sells some hand-dyed roving and yarns along with handwoven items.

Santa Fe

The braided fingerless glove pattern (shown in my last blog post) is now available at my Lulu store HERE. I decided to stick with just one size, women's large, because I've already moved on. I'm hard at work on the Algonquin socks from Folk Style and I think I'm going to make the flower hat as well.

For your eye candy today here are some recent photos from the City Different (Santa Fe). There were still flowers blooming in November.


Some pretty adobe buildings


A very old church


The Lensic theater


St. Francis church

I never get sick of looking at New Mexico architecture.

Sandia Crest

I am hoping to have the glove cuff to show you some time this week. I hope to get some serious knitting done during the Red Sox/Yankees series.

DH and I were complaining about how hot it was this morning and suddenly we realized there was somewhere we could go for a walk where it was much, much cooler.




This is the crest of the Sandia Mountains which overlook Albuquerque. The crest is around 10,700 feet and it is quite amazing what an extra 3000 feet will do to lower the temperature. It was a bit dark and rainy and unfortunately too slippery to walk over to the tram.

You can see most of Albuquerque in the distance.



This is called the steel forest and the lights on these radio towers are visible from my house and pretty much everywhere on both sides of the mountains for many miles.



The gift shop offers everything you might need, including oxygen.

Sandia Hike

I should finish the second Peace glove tonight during the Red Sox/Tigers game. Then I have two more glove designs I want to start along with some socks in purple and lime green.

Here are some photos from a walk we took this weekend on a horse trail in the Sandias.



Solar-powered outhouses.



Words of Wisdom



Detail of alligator juniper



Cholla cactus - these have gorgeous hot pink blooms.

Santa Fe Decorated for the Holidays

Knitting??? What's that??? I haven't accomplished much in the fiber department in the last week but I do have another tutorial to show you soon.

The plaza in Santa Fe



An art gallery on Canyon Road




More Canyon Road



A hotel all decked out

Chimayo

We drove up to Taos this weekend for the Wool Festival. I bought three skeins of Cormo yarn to make socks for DH but didn't spend much time there. I've showed zillions of pictures of the festival in the past so this year I thought you might like to see some different pictures of northern NM.

The high road to Taos from Santa Fe is absolutely gorgeous and a must if you visit. There are many weavers along the way but I didn't get to stop as we were running late. We did manage to see the star attraction of the route, El Santuario de Chimayo, also called "The Lourdes of America."

In 1810 a Penitente was performing his penances and saw a light coming from a hill. He went over and started digging and found the cross of Our Lord of Esquipulas. Reports of miraculous healings took place there and between 1814 and 1816 the Santuario was built featuring the cross Don Bernardo Abeyta found. There's a sandpit in the sacristy with healing dirt and many crutches and canes that were left behind. Every year at Lent many pilgrims walk to the Santuario (some from very far away) and the grounds outside are full of rock crosses, shrines, and handmade twig crosses everywhere.







The Santuario is quite small and primitive inside but well loved. There are a few grave sites in the front courtyard for previous caretakers of the little church over the last 200 years.

Santa Fe

UNEXPECTED KNITTING by Debbie New

My best knitting Christmas present was one I gave myself - I ordered Debbie New's Unexpected Knitting a while back but kept it until Christmas to open. It is an amazing book and one I can't recommend highly enough. With the current emphasis on non-challenging knitting this book goes a million miles in the opposite direction and challenges knitters to think about knitting and knitted fabrics in a much different way. In fact there is one chapter, Virtual Knitting, that isn't actually knitting but replicates knitted fabric. I often don't think of my knitting as terribly creative but this is the best book I've seen on creativity and the design process in knitting. Some of her knitted works of art are truly things the knitting world has never seen before.

I plan to start something using the freeform knitting technique this weekend. Thank God for Debbie New's remarkable intelligence and for Schoolhouse Press for publishing this book - there's no way other knitting book publishers would even consider attempting such a book. I read through this book today and had some incredible thoughts and ideas - there is not a single technique in here that doesn't excite me and start me imagining whole new ways of looking at knitting. Wow - this is easily the most exciting knitting book I've seen in a decade or two.

Back to our Santa Fe Tour. Santa Fe is easily one of the most important art marketplaces in the country. Canyon Road, billed America's Arts and Crafts Road, is littered with galleries. I thought I'd take some photos of some of the outdoor art on display. First we have DH with a large metal rabbit.



And perhaps an errant reindeer.



The cougar on the roof of the Canyon Road florist is sporting a Santa hat.



And my favorite piece of Canyon Road art - a massive rabbit done in some sort of concrete mixture.

Taos Wool Festival

I'm going to try again to show some of the photos from the Taos Wool Festival. Here we have a spinning demo, some cute pygora goats, a table full of handpainted yarns and a triangle loom.

Taos Wool Festival

All of my photos of the Taos Wool Festival turned out well so I hope you'll bear with me as I show them this week.

Here's a photo of some of the tents (and the mud).



Here is where I spent most of my money - Elsa Sheep & Wool. She raises Cormo sheep in Bayfield, Colorado (where I used to live). The booth has some terrific softer than soft knitted items and this year had some adorable Aran baby garments.




But the main reason I like the booth is the gorgeous Cormo yarn sold spun either worsted or woollen in two weights located behind the smiling woman tending the booth. In front of her are some neat crocheted flowers. I may try to come up with some knitted flowers one day. I have decided on two projects with the Cormo yarn - the Aran Sandal Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks and the Aran Island mittens from Folk Mittens. I can't wait to get started.



Debbi at TrixieChick also has some Taos photos. And Mary is starting some Sanquhar gloves - check out her gauge swatch photos HERE.