Finally back online!

Isn't it amazing how addictive the online community is? I was without a modem from Thursday till Tuesday and it made me nuts! How was I supposed to check up on the progress on Kristy's Hat Quest on Ravelry? Who posted a comment on my blog to enter the drawing? What was the Yarn Harlot up to? I am pretty sure I used to have a life once upon a time. When did I find time to watch TV? read books? clean house? (well, I never was much good at that one) I do still find time to talk to my daughter but that is mostly on the computer since she is in New Jersey. Who would ever have thought that we could communicate so easily with people all over the world who come together to discuss a common interest and help out friends in need? It is truly amazing!

I have slowed down somewhat on my hat knitting. Number 7 is just about in the bag and I am taking a short break to work on my true love, lace! Finally finished Clue 1 of the Slow Bee Mystery Shawl. I have no idea why it is called Slow Bee since the clues come out once a week and there is no hope in h--- that I can keep up but it is oh, so gorgeous. Don't yet have any pictures as I don't have a long enough cable on my circular needles to be able to spread it out but if you go take a look at the Ravelry group Slow Bee Mystery you can see some of the projects being shared there. I am doing mine in Lane Borgosesia Cashwool in a pale grey with silver lined beads. It is going to be stunning! I am just going to have to figure out somewhere posh to show it off. LOL

Have some other fun stuff I was doing yesterday but I hope to be able to get a picture or two to go with it so I will leave that for a later post. In the meantime, here are some of the hats I have done for Kristy's Hat Quest so far.


A simple 3 x 2 rib done on size 10 1/2 needles. I think the yarn is Teseo by di Ve. (I am so bad about keeping track of basic stuff like that.)



This purple and white yarn was part of a stash inherited by a friend of mine. She offered it to me and I decided to make a basketweave hat out of it. Just made the pattern up as I went along. If I remember correctly, it started out as k6,p6 for 6 rows and then reversed. Isn't it funny how the whole look of the striping changes when there are less stitches in the round?



I cheated on this one. This is a hat I knitted up last year just to try out the stitch. Once again, my memory isn't so good but I am pretty sure it is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Watch Cap in the Prime Rib or Brioche stitch. Amazingly(if I followed the directions) there are only 36 stitches cast on for this hat!



Last picture for now. I have no idea where I got this yarn or why since it is certainly not my normal cup of tea. However, it makes for a pretty cute hat! Colorful, at least.

Happy knitting all and don't forget to enter the drawing for the Mountain Colors Bearfoot or Muskat cotton by leaving a comment before May 30. I will draw on May 31, hopefully before I head off to an afternoon wedding. Talk to you soon.

The Quest is On!!

Wow, where does the time go? I cannot believe how much has happened since my last post just two short weeks ago. Remember me mentioning Kristy's plan to take hats to a Ukrainian orphanage? Well,things are spreading like wildfire. The quest is officially now called Kristy's Hat Quest on Ravelry and we are getting new members all the time. The group has only been up a few days and already we have members from all over the world. Most of these people have never heard of Kristy (or me for that matter) and yet they are stepping up to the plate and helping out with this great cause. There is a yarn shop in Maine that has a group of knitters gathering hats, a knitter in Norway who is sending a boxful and a loom knitter in England who is planning on sending some hats. Hooks & Needles Yarn Shop in Oakdale is the official yarn store of the quest and Kaylee is offering discounts on yarn or shipping depending on whether or not you are local to the shop. Kristy's friend RC is sponsoring a contest which will give you one entry for each hat you donate and that drawing will be in September some time. In the meantime, I figured I should get in on the action so ... for all of you who are knitting for the Hat Quest, leave a comment here on the blog letting me know you are doing so and I will have a random drawing on May 31 to determine a winner. The winner will have their choice of either a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot

or 550 yds of Muskat,

a mercerized cotton in fingering weight. I realize neither of these yarns is a hat yarn but I am using all my hat yarn up at the moment. I hope this small token of my appreciation will make someone happy.

For those of you who might be wondering: the Marvellous Mitt had a chat with Stephanie's travelling sock while we were at the Maker Faire.


It decided that maybe flying isn't so bad after all. Last week, it winged its way to New Jersey for Jen to try on. We don't want a repeat of the sock debacle! Everything is copasetic so the Mitt will hopefully be on its way home soon. I will knit up a mate for it and, before they travel back to New Jersey, they are going to be my very first ever fair entry! I have already entered them in the Stanislaus County Fair Home Arts division so now I have to get them done! Nothing like a deadline to give you incentive. It will be fun to see how they are received.

Lots to report!

Well, I have no pictures for this blog entry but so many things have happened since I last posted I figured I better not wait any longer or I would forget all of it. The most important thing is my friend Kristy is back! Not only in blogland but actually in person. She came to Girls Night Out on Wednesday for the first time in a long time and brought with her an important project. She is going to blog about it in more detail but unfortunately her internet is screwing up at the moment so here are the highlights.

She needs 300 hats by Sept 20!! Yep, that is 300, you saw correctly. She is going to the Ukraine to work at an orphanage for special needs kids who have absolutely nothing of their own. When she first took on the hat challenge, she needed about 160 hats from size infant to big enough to fit a 15 yr old. Since then, she found out that another orphanage is closing and will be consolidated in to the one she is visiting so there will be about 300 kids in all. Can you help? I have already given her two and am working on a third. Hats don't take long and it is for a great cause. Her blog is OK What Next Check it out and help if you can, okay?

Yesterday, Kristy and I went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo for the express purpose of seeing the Yarn Harlot She, as usual, did an amazing job of amusing several hundred knitters while also giving us scientific data on how knitting is good for you, not only emotionally but mentally building your brain. How cool is that! We were lucky enough to be seated in the first row and were then the first ones in line for her book signing. I took along the Marvellous Mitt to meet the travelling sock. Kristy has the picture, I will have to get it from her so I can post it on here soon. Afterwards, we wandered about the faire and saw some weird and wonderful things. Wonderful would be the demonstration on chocolate making from Scharffen Berger Chocolate followed by free samples. Weird .... well there were too many things to list. Let's start with a mention of people in little ... I don't know what they were but it was a parade of little cupcakes in a variety of flavors including one with giant size prozacs all over the top. There was a huge version of the old Mousetrap game, a robotic giraffe, some of the most off the wall attire you have ever seen and we didn't even get in to most of the buildings to see what else was there. However we did find an independent yarn dyer, Kelly from Ceallach Dyes, who uses solar power to set her dyes. We also found Allison from Imagiknits, the folks from Noe Knits and a couple of other places that had lovely yarn and roving to pet and fondle. I refrained from buying all but some Malabrigo that I bought and gave to Kristy for her hat project.

Last weekend was a totally non-knitting weekend but I had a ball! I went down to Ram Tap in Madera where I volunteered at my first ever CDE. A CDE is a combined driving event (with horses, not cars) that is based on three day eventing which you may have run across if you watch the Summer Olympics. On the first day they do dressage, meaning they have to perform a prescribed set of moves that is judged on accuracy, obedience of the horses, quality of gaits,etc. On Saturday, which is the first day I got there, they do marathon. They had a 14 minute trot section which covered several kilometres, followed by a walk section and a 10 minute halt which included a vet check to make sure the horses weren't overstressed. Then it was on to the hazards section. That was the most fun of all for the spectators. They had to go up hill and down dale, through lettered gates in prescribed patterns, splash through water hazards, weave through poles with balloons flying through them and make sure they didn't go off course during the process. I was lucky enough to pull a job as a score runner which meant I got to see all the hazards and goings on. On the final day, since they can't jump like in regular 3 day events, they do a cones course, which means driving through an obstacle course of cones with balls set on top of them. If the balls got knocked down they received penalty points. The width of the path between the cones varied for each entry depending on how wide the wheelbase of their cart was. My job on that day was cone setter. It was pretty amazing to watch the drivers maneuver their teams through the cones as there was only about 10 cms clearance on each side of the carriage. I got to see such a wide variety of horses that weekend, from tiny minis to a four in hand of Welsh ponies, to Friesians, Arabs, Morgans, and some breeds I had never even heard of. All in all, I had a great time and I am sure I will volunteer again.

Check these out!

I am so excited about these Marvelous Mitts! They are just gorgeous and so much fun to knit. I knitted them on size 1 and 2 needles even though the pattern calls for size 0 and I think they are still a little too snug. Sooooo, before I start on the second one, this little fella is going to take a trip to New Jersey so Jen can decide whether or not I should make them a tad bigger. She wants them snug and believe me, they feel wonderful on but they are a little too hard to get on and off for my liking. I know they will stretch a little bit but ... A friend of mine asked what I would do if they are too small, rip them out? She was being sarcastic and was totally shocked when I replied "Absolutely!" I guess that is the difference between being a process knitter and a project knitter. I love knitting these mitts and it will not bother me a bit to tear them out if that is what I need to do in order for them to be right. The thought absolutely horrifies her, she wants to get the project done and move on to something else. Oh well, different strokes for different folks.

I have also finished this fair isle hat since the picture was taken. You might remember from the last post that I said I was making 4 of them for Penwick Stable so here is number 1.

What else is on the needles? Well, I started a Beaufort hat designed by Angela Hahn. It will be for the charity project for my MJC knitting class. There is a new cancer center in Turlock and they say that their patients would really appreciate some hats. The yarn is nice and soft and the pattern makes it an interesting knit for me. Will post some pictures as soon as I get a chance.

I also started, would you believe it, another pair of socks! These ones, however, will definitely not be knee socks. Hopefully, they will not take the four months that Jen's did! I received some lovely yarn from the Loopy Ewe in a package called Don't Be Blue. It was kind of a consolation package for not being able to get into the Loopy Ewe sock club. I won't post pictures of it yet since it was a surprise package and I don't know if everyone has received theirs yet. I will say that the yarn is just wonderful and I can't wait to get my tootsies into the socks that I will make from it.

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.

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?

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).
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.
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.

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.

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.
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?


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.

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! Am 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.

And then there is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the color Sunburst. Definitely out of my normal color selection but absolutely gorgeous!


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.

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!