Typing “Albuquerque” is turning into a real finger twister on the keyboard.  Albuquerque.  Albuquerque.  Albuquerque.  Gah.  Takes too long for my pinky to reach that “q” and then the rest of my fingers get all befuddled and start drifting off the home row.  But that’s not what you want to read about, is it?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have dedicated this month to some rambling around.  It has almost been a year since I’ve hung out with my knitting buddy, Holly.  The last time we hung out together was at Rhinebeck and I embarrassed myself thoroughly by spilling coffee and wine all over myself and my yarn.  Yet, she still saw something in me and continued to talk to me.  Why?  Maybe she thinks I’m one of those cool dorks, which… I totally am.

I decided that it had been far too long since we got our knit on together, so I headed down to Albukirky (so much easier to type!) to remedy that situation.

Ever a gracious host, she took me to the Sandias, where we went on a small trail walk up to the Kiwanis Rock Cabin, a product of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), and got an amazing view of the city below.  The CCC was a work relief program put together under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  It’s main objective was to provide unskilled labor work and jobs during the Great Depression.  Their work went a long way to conserving our natural resources across America.  It’s pretty cool to come across the CCC cabins and see their work still standing strong.

Although I prefer snow-capped mountains and alpine lakes, there’s a certain beauty to the desert landscape, and the Sandias delivered nothing short of that.  I could not stop staring at the clouds; they are incredible!

The next day, we took a quick trip over to Santa Fe to check out the farmer’s market at the railyard.  Even though we showed up a little before noon, the market was already getting ready to close up for the day.  Kind of unfortunate, but we did score a few free baked goods and got a quick afternoon wine tasting in.

After venturing through Santa Fe’s old town and touring a few yarn stores, it was time to do some serious stuff: Beer tasting and swatch knitting.

My beer tour in Albukirky took me to Marble Brewery, La Cumbre Brewing, and Il Vicino Brewery Canteen.

At one point, we both got super excited by the fact that our knitting matched our brews perfectly.

I tasted many a fine beer while I happily knitted away on my swatch.  My favorite beers were La Cumbre’s Hefeweizen and Il Vicino’s Brown.  If you want to know more about the beers though, Holly does a great Pints and Purls section on her blog.  Even if you’re not a knitter, check it out; she knows how to pick some tasty beers.

I’m pretty excited about my swatch too (surprise, surprise, it’s more Madelinetosh).  It felt so good to knit my little heart out and experiment with different stitch patterns.  I’ve got something pretty specific in mind for this project, so it’s going to take some work to achieve that.  But I’m ready for the challenge.  My trip out to Albukirky was just what my knitting soul needed: spending quality time with a fellow knitter, drinking beers and doing all things knitting related.