Sunday, March 30, 2008

Good grief! Where does the time go?

Okay, I knew it had been a while since I posted a blog but three weeks??? What's up with that? The sad thing is I really can't come up with any reason for it to have taken me so long except that I was trying really hard to come up with a finished object to post pictures of and ... Tah Dah!! They are finally done! Oh yeah, guess I better show you a picture to prove it.
Jen's socks
Socks, actual, honest-to-god, finished (except, in the interest of total honesty, the bind off on one sock) knee high socks for Jen. The pattern is Loopy Laces, designed by Wendy Johnson of Wendy Knits fame, and I got it at the Loopy Ewe. That is also where I got the super cute sock blockers. Isn't the cutout of Loopy cute?
close up of Loopy on the sock blockers
I know what you are thinking ... those socks look really cute on sock blockers but ... do they actually fit anybody? Yes, they do! Here they are, modeled by moi(aren't those pulled up jeans the classiest? LOL).100_0734
If the bindoff goes over my big calves, hopefully Jen will have no problem with them. I progressively changed needle sizes to enlarge the calf since I didn't want to mess up the pattern and you can see where I switched to the size 4 needles. The yarnovers really show up there, don't they? Oops, so do the needles on the right hand sock (my right, not yours). Anyway, the pattern was great fun even though it doesn't really show up with this lovely variegated yarn. The main point of it was to keep me from going nuts just knitting round and round and round .... well you get the point. I don't know the name of the actual yarn since I got it in my Coffee Swap package from Gil, my swap partner in England. She got it at a fibre show from an indie dyer. The only things I know for sure are that it is 100% merino and also definitely not superwash! Good thing Jen takes better care of her laundry than I do.

Believe it or not, I have actually been knitting on other projects as well. Here is Brad (Kaylee's son) modeling the finished Fair Isle hat. Fair Isle hat
As you can see, it stretched out some during blocking. I sent it off to Jen for design approval but it is definitely tooooo big. Everyone at Penwick Stables loved the design so she is sending it back and I will be knitting a smaller version in a variety of color combinations involving black, red and white which are the stable colors. It's a fun knit and will be a handy in-between kind of project.

I finished block #2 of the Great American Afghan but I don't seem to have a picture of it yet. Still haven't finished the duplicate stitch and the socks for block #1 and now it is almost time to start #3. Yikes! Will I ever catch up? Also need to get to work on the Marvelous Mitts as well as figuring out what to do with all that sock yarn I bought at Stitches. Oh well, for now I think it is time for bed. I have been out and about all day and I am still sleep deprived from the last couple of days. Talk to you again soon. Hopefully, it won't take 3 weeks the next time.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Celtic Adventures

As some of you may have realised, or having read my blog from the beginning already known, I love all things Celtic and I love Renaissance type fairs. Today, I got to combine those two loves when I attended the 22nd annual Sonora Celtic Festival. It seemed a little strange that it was called the 22nd Annual Sonora Fair since every time I had attended it in the past, it had been held in Angels Camp! However, it turns out that Sonora is where it started and Sonora is apparently where it will continue from this year forward.

The Mother Lode Fairgrounds is considerably smaller than the one in Angels Camp but that was kind of nice. It made for a more compact setup with a lot less walking involved. It will take some time before folks figure out where everything is but from my point of view, that is not all bad. I actually had no problem at all getting a seat at the Black Irish Band and Tempest shows and let me tell you, this is not often the case. I think there were 10 bands performing in all, as well as 3 pipe bands performing on the grounds. There were English Country Dancers (the Merrye Prankstyrs) and I also watched some Irish and Scottish Dancing. I always love wandering around and looking at the handmade items from soap, to pottery, to ironware made by Michael the Blacksmith. There were also kilts, plenty of Celtic inspired jewelry, t-shirts, swords and bucklers (for both grownup kids and littl'uns), and music playing everywhere. Of course, all the bands had their CDs for sale but there was also a fellow playing the hammered dulcimer and another playing an instrument I had never seen before. I should have asked what it was. He used a bow like a violin but it had wooden keys that he pressed to change chords as well. Very strange looking it was but a lovely mournful sound it produced.

And of course, there were plenty of re-enactors. There were several modern clans in attendance but there were also plenty of guilds demonstrating everything from royalty, to ironwork, making of shields, and everything else. The demonstration I always like is done by Alex. I wish I knew his last name and guild affiliation. He puts on a demo where he gets dressed bit by bit in everything a Scot would have worn back in the 16th century. He explains that the kilt (which we all see the warriors wearing in every Scottish melodrama) would never have been worn in war as it was far too valuable. Sheep were not yet in Scotland and wool was very dear. Not only that, it might take your woman a year or two to weave that piece of fabric and woe betide the man who came home with a sword thrust thru it. Alex is one of the few people who can take history and make it interesting without going over the top to dumb it down and make it into "entertainment". Whenever possible, I try to catch his demonstrations at the smaller fairs.

Well, that's all for now. I will try to get some knitting pictures up this week. I finished the Fair Isle hat and also block number two of the Great American Afghan. Both of them need blocking to finish them off and I need to send the hat to New Jersey to have Jen determine any fit problems before I make more in the stable colors. Bye for now.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

As promised, goodies from Stitches

Never let it be said that I don't honor my promises. I might be a little late but it does eventually get done. I had a wonderful time at Stitches. If you have never been and you get the opportunity, you have to jump on it! This was my second time and it was just as good or better than my first. I took 3 classes: Forgotten Meshes with Ruth Lantz, Celtic Cables with Melissa Leapman, and Russian Style Continental Knitting with Galeena Khmerleva (sp?) I would highly recommend any one of these instructors. Ruth has a 3 hr class just on cast ons and another class on various methods of binding off. They are definitely on my agenda as possibles for next year. Melissa was marvelous despite being sick as a dog and I absolutely love homework assignment number 3. As a matter of fact, I think it is going to end up being a square in my Great American Afghan. There are a couple of squares in the pattern that I am not that fond of so this will be a great substitute. I will try to get a picture once I finish it and block it. Galeena was a wonderful surprise. I had heard she was good and she was but I hadn't heard what a sly sense of humor she has. She was wonderful and I would love to take a lace class from her.

Okay, okay! Enough with the typing and on to the pictures. Market preview on Thursday night cost me a lot of money. So what else is new? My first purchase was at Woolstock, the same place where I found my wonderful Noro Kureyon last year. This year I found a bag of 10 balls of Muskat. They tell me it is a cotton but I can't read the label. It is absolutely gorgeous and even though I have no idea what it will become, I simply had to have it. Cotton from Woolstock play pen at Stitches
Don't you agree? It's just luscious!

Then it was on to Blue Moon Fiber Arts. They had a huge line of people buying Socks that Rock and I had to jump on that bandwagon too. After all, everybody who is everybody has knit with Socks that Rock, haven't they? I ended up with a heavyweight skein in a colorway called Rare Gems. Apparently, Rare Gems are colorways that don't meet the approval of the dyer and will, therefore, never be repeated. She may not have liked it but I sure do. What do you think?
Socks that Rock

For someone who claims she is not a sock knitter, I seem to have ended up with a lot of sock yarn. Ergo: this yummy sock yarn from Full Thread Ahead. Actually, that is its name, "Yummy", and it is a special edition colorway available only at Stitches this year.
Yummy FibraNatura
It suits its name, don't you think? It wasn't until Sunday that I decided what to do with it. I recently bought a pattern called Marvelous Mitts by Karendipity who is on Etsy It calls for a solid color yarn knit with a variegated yarn as background to make these gorgeous Fair Isle fingerless mitts. I finally decided that a Royal Blue Koigu would really make them pop! Yummy & Koigu togetherAm I right?

The acquisition of sock yarn continued! I attended the student banquet on Saturday night and came home with two skeins which were donated by the sponsors of Stitches. Here is Wool in the Woods Cherub in the colorway Birches. I saw a sample of it knitted up into a sock and it really does look like birchbark.
Birches
And then there is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the color Sunburst. Definitely out of my normal color selection but absolutely gorgeous!
Mountain Colors

Finally on Sunday I returned one last time to the Beehive. I kept finding myself at this shop all through the show and I knew I had to make a purchase there. After all, the shop is in Victoria BC, the Handmaiden yarn is dyed in Vancouver and the Fleece Artist yarn is dyed in Nova Scotia. Have I mentioned before that I am a Canadian? You see why I absolutely had to have some yarn from this shop. Here is Casbah, an 80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon blend. It is soooooo soft. Once again, I don't know what it is going to be but it feels sooo good it deserves two pictures.
Hand Maiden closeup of Casbah
The second one is probably closest to the actual color.

Incredibly, I didn't buy a single book or pattern this year. I guess that is because I already have so much on my plate already. But watch out next year!