Tinker Toys and Yarn Swifts

Life at campchaos has been spinning quickly and the last few weekends have been full of cool nights in the tent, duck tours with Elvis,  puppy adventures, a weekend upta camp and the parking lot that is I-95 Southbound on a summer Sunday. We've managed to stay in place for a weekend and I was finally able to tackle some yarn that's needed to be wound. Dave helped me out on Friday night and held the skein and suffered through 400 yards of sock yarn. He was a good sport but I could tell that he'd rather be petting the pups instead of watching yarn slowly spin.

The next night I searched for alternatives to aid in the project and found this site, which used old school Tinker Toys to make a DIY Yarn Swift. I hadn't been a huge tinker toy fan as a kid but my sister loves them. It just so happened that Dave had a box of tinker toys from 1983 laying around so he blew off decades of attic dust and quickly went into construction mode.

We referenced the how to but also modified the design here and there. Dave even had a little Tinker Toy Guy that became the center piece of the swift.

We started out with a small base and tested a good size skein of yarn.

The moment of truth... would I end up with a ball or a tangled mess?

Between my hand crank ball winder and the tinker toy swift we made short work and I was quickly able to wind a half dozen cakes of yarn before taking the swift apart and stashing it in my knitting bag... for you non-knitters out there- a normal knitting swift is a really cool umbrella like contraption that retails at least $65. That's a lot of yarn back in this knitter's budget, plus the tinker toys break down for easy storage. Now I can get back to my knitting...

Here's the swift in action after a couple of design modifications.

hiking with Chaos and Mayhem

chaos and mayhem make great hiking buddies, after phish left town dave had to work on a Saturday so I hit the trail with the monsters. Hope Lake is above Trout Lake and around 5 miles round trip.

so we loaded up into the 4runner

and let the wind rip through our fur.

Chaos knows that as soon as we hit a dirt road that's there is fun to be had....

Mayhem knows enough to be excited if Chaos is...

now if only mayhem can teach chaos how to drink from a camelback too...

but they both look adorable in their backpacks. Chaos carries the light treats and toys while Mayhem carries the puppy water to help tire him out... as if 5 miles wasn't enough...

Chaos and Mayhem enjoying the views

Chaos loved the swim in Hope Lake while Mayhem would rather cruise the shoreline.

And the wet pups hike back to the car after a fun few hours...

Chaos is such a poser... mayhem needs a bit more work... otherwise this would have been a great shot.

Mayhem went to play with his friends for the rest of the weekend while Chaos, Dave and I had a mellow Sunday. We're once again having a very busy August and trying to get a lot of things done with the dogs, work and upcoming trip to Sugarloaf. We did manage to get a good night out with our friends and watch one of my favorite Colorado finds, singer Rob Drabkin.

We first saw him when he opened for Tim Reynolds in 2007 at the Sheridan Opera House and I've love his music ever since. If you like Jack or DMB then I suggest you check him out.

Phish in Telluride

Dave's favorite band of all time came to Telluride and in early April he camped outside of the Sheridan Opera House overnight in a snowstorm to get tickets for us and he wasn't the first in line, the local judge was.

Sam and Big Dave also hit town for the phistoric show and the boys made a big weekend out of it and had some good times at Alta Lakes, on the golf course and just puttering around town. Chaos and Mayhem even got to bring their friend Stella with them to the lake on Saturday and I enjoyed a walk around it with the three amigos.

The shows were on Monday and Tuesday nights and town began filling up during the weekend and some Phish folks even came early enough to partake in Telluride Jazz Festival.  The area was well prepared and the influx of 8,000 people wasn't too disruptive.
Phish Weekend Photos

My first Phish shows were filled with good people watching. I've been to a lot of shows in town park and most of the festivals have a very social aspect but Phish had the whole park moving and a huge light show that bounced off the canyon walls. The canyon provides great acoustics and Phish provided monster speakers. The gates opened in the late afternoon and the show started after 7:30pm as the sun began to creep out of the box canyon. I knew a couple of songs each night but really enjoyed the people watching. There were hippies, yuppies, babies and everything in between. KOTO did a beer booth but sadly New Belgium still doesn't have a gluten-free brew so it was off limits for me.
The first night was just Sam, Dave, Dave and myself while the second night had a whole crew. We lucked out and the weather held both nights from the rain that's been pounding us lately. It was a big week and I think we all could have used a weekend to recover from Monday and Tuesday... except for Chaos and Mayhem who had a few quiet nights at home while we hit town park. This weekend our couches are empty and we're looking forward to a quiet weekend at the Telluride Festival of the Arts and enjoying some gluten free beer at the Grand Tasting.

bouldering after work

chaos wishing he had fingers....

me working past my fear of falling while jess shows no weakness

even in a place like telluride work can sometimes be stressful... so we head out bouldering after work with Jared and Jess. Their dog Stella and Chaos run around while we play on the rocks and get out some frustrations and have fun.

jared working the rock

We hit a nice spot not far outside of town. I prefer climbing on a rope to bouldering... I like the security the rope offers. On my little problem I found that my fear of falling (even just a few feet onto a thick bouldering pad) made me crimp my paw (hand) in fear. I wasn't able to move it at all or communicate my conundrum. After glancing through the viewfinder dave realized the my face was an unnatural shade of red and something was really wrong. I did manage to tackle the problem by the end of the night.... just not for a few more tries. I definitely earned my gluten free beer after that experience! It helped to take the edge of my aching arm muscles.

Dave's earned the name spider-pig due to his ability to latch onto the rock in an unnatural way... Jess and Jared have only been climbing this year and have really taken to it. It's fun to be able to go play with our friends while letting stress go.

good times and campfires

Kendra came to Telluride and we hit the festival of the arts. There were some amazing artists there including Audrey Heller who did the poster for the festival. I love the perspective that she captured and the people climbing a martini class!

The Festival also included a free concert with Taj Mahal who did a lot of tunes on the soundtrack for Scrapple which is a must see for anyone who has ever considered themselves or wanted to be a ski bum or live in a ski town in the 70's.

We toured Telluride and drove up Imogene Pass which is a bit crazy and my knuckles went white more then once as I navigated up the one lane sketchy dirt road. I'm less afraid of my driving then the others that almost ran me off the road!

Kendra and I camped out near Gunnison on Monday then met up with her friend Tisha in Gunnison on Tuesday. We made smores and I made my first fire in 2 years. I'm happy to say I still have my camp chaos fire making skills!

This weekend I camped with Chaos and Team Dave for a fun night out in the woods. More Smore's and a late night game of glow in the dark Frisbee... which the camera captured pretty well. The trip was in honor of Dave's 30th birthday which hits tomorrow. He proved that despite being old he can still hang out by a campfire until 4am!

Chaos's swim in Trout Lake

As you know chaos loves to swim and I captured these shots last weekend as the monster swam his heart out for his tennis ball. He'll swim until he's freezing and won't stop until I drag him away from the lake!

a busy summer...

my apologies for the lack of postings... we've had a very busy August!

I'll see if I can sum up the adventures of camp chaos...

Gary came visit and we hiked, rode the gondola and hit the four corners and durango...

Team Frisco came to Telluride (or tellyride as some may call it)...

we took a mini vacation for dave's birthday...

We had a great August and are happy to have had some great visitors!