Saturday, June 23, 2012

Black Sheep!

Have you any wool?

Today I went down to Black Sheep Gathering Fiber Festival (BSG) for a couple of hours and had so much fun.

My main objective was to buy a Jenkins hand made Turkish drop spindle. I got a Delight that weighs 30g/1.05oz. It is very well balanced and spins beautifully. The whorl is pink ivory, and it was the only one of this wood that he had out.





The wood is really, truly, and naturally that color.

I went with a friend, and after I procured my spindle we wandered the festival. We stopped in and saw the lovely women at the Stash Local booth, and kind of wandered aimlessly after that. I came across the same booth where I procured silk mawata last year and found another that I liked.







I haven't weighed it yet, but there should be enough to keep me busy.

We also made sure to go see the animals, because what's BSG without the S? This handsome merino fellow was obliging enough to pose for a photo.


We didn't stay long, for several reasons, but on our way out we stopped by Boho Knitter Chic Spins booth and I fell in love with one of her beautiful smooth batts.









It has merino, bamboo, bombyx silk, and angelina (sparkle).

After I got home I pulled out a small batt I've had for a while and started spinning on my new spindle. So far I've spun 12g of fiber.





It's so easy to spin on this little thing.

So, my evening plans are to tuck in, watch a movie, and work on spinning up the second 12g of this fiber.

Monday, June 18, 2012

The Case of the Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger. I never meant to got three and a half months without posting, but things just got away from me.

Wes and I have been busy, including moving to fancy new digs!





It is a large studio with walk through closet and private patio. Wes loves it. Plenty of room to run, a huge sliding glass door to look out of, and more places for naps.

There has also been knitting, but it's been slow with school and the move.

First I'll show you my Ishbel. I'm using handspun BFL from last year (Navajo plied Dicentra in Twig).




It is wonderfully soft and the colors are striping beautifully.

Next up is a pair of Carousel from the summer Knitty. The yarn is from Cosmic Fibers in Willow from her Buffy the Vampire Slayer line. It's a wool/bamboo/nylon blend.





My on needles sweater is Ashfield from New England Knits. The yarn is Cascade 220 sport.





There is much more knit than this (almost half) but its put away right now.

My purse knitting is a summer wrap/poncho/undecided in Takhi cotton. I got a pair of rosewood needles from Lantern Moon.





Then of course there are the two most important knits I've done in a while: vests for my new twin nephews Jacen and Spencer. They were born early, but came along swimmingly and are now doing fine and growing like weeds.

The yarn is Kollage Riveting, which is made from recycled blue jeans.








This past weekend I took a knitting class with the Brenda Dayne from Cast-On. We learned the Sherman toe and heel for toe up socks. I knit a wee little practice sock:





And then cast on for a me sized pair of socks.





I'm using a stitch pattern that looks like ripples, since the yarn color is "water." it was dyed by Lazy PI Farm, and is 60/30/10 SW Merino/Bamboo/Nylon.

Now I'm off to pirate cuddle. I'll work on being a better blogger.