Good Year at the County Fair

Handspun Crab: 1 ounce, 2 ply

Sand Dollar Hat

Westley's a 1st place cat!

Chiton Pullover

Hand spun Coopworth/Alpaca/Bunny: 2 ounces 2 ply

Handspun Merino/Bombyx Silk/Bamboo/Angelina: 4 ounces 2 ply

Shawl Collared Cowl in Handspun

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.

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.

Leap Year Wierdness

So apparently nature doesn't know what to do with the leap day, so it decided to send snow.













And deer. Those are in the backyard of the cats I am taking care of this week, since I don't really have a back yard, and if I did the deer wouldn't venture that far into town just to sit in some snow.

Luckily, I have a snugly new cowl to help keep me warm during this bizzar weather. I call it the Tubey Cowl, as it is a möbius tube. Pattern is forthcoming, just as soon as I can string two moments together.





That is all I have time for right now, but I promise to post a huge finished projects update in the near future.

Working on Something New

Tomorrow I'm teaching my first professional class at Stash, using my Sand Dollar Hat pattern. It'd been a while since I knit it, and not only did I need a refresher but also my old one is starting to lo a little, well, used.

So last night I procured some Abstract Fibers Super Sock in Snapdragon, which I am double stranding into the wildest hat I've ever knit (or even seen).







It's coming along nicely, I'm more than half way up the side, but the lighting in here isn't good for a picture.

I'll make sure to take pictures tomorrow at the class of all the hats being knit.

I'm also working on a seminar about dying fiber in your own kitchen. It started with an open topic for presentations in one of my classes, and is slowly morphing into something really fun. For one thing, I had a whole family of colorful mason jars in my kitchen,




and some lovely results.





All this color in my home and knitting has been a real boon during this grey February. And on that note, I'll leave you with this lovely painting by the Dread Pirate Roberts himself (via the iPad app Paint for Cats).

Yarn U - A Review

I recently got the opportunity to do my first iPad app review for Yarn U. After spending about a week playing around with it, I'm finally ready to share with you, my bloggy friends.

Yarn U is a new app for knitters, crocheters, weavers, or any yarn enthusiast. It is compatible with iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone, and will work offline with only a little decreased functionality.

Yarn U is a database of yarns, with useful information about each yarn, a map feature showing where the yarn may be purchased, photos of the yarns and/or patterns, links to patterns for the yarns, average price, and a place for users to post questions and comments about the yarns.





There are multiple ways to sort the list to focus on what you're looking for. I like sorting by manufacturer, as shown above. That way I can easily look for specific yarns or browse through my favorite yarn providers.





Once I've found a yarn I want to know more about, I just select it and voila!





Pictures, fiber content, put-up, approximate gauge, and other useful information. Want to see more pictures? Simply select the picture and you'll move to a screen with more pictures.






Sometimes you get pictures of more color ways, sometimes you get more pictures of patterns...





And sometimes it's a mix of both. This feature is available for most yarns I the database. You can also mark yarns as favorites, and then sort the master list by that criteria.





The only feature I found a bit weak was the map feature. Each yarn oily has one map reference, and there seems to be a small pool that each was chosen from. I'm hoping that as the app progresses, more yarn stores will be added, and it would be nice to be able to sort by region, for if I'm traveling and want to know what the local yarn shops carry.

So, if you want to have a yarn database at your fingertips, this is the app for you. I know it will come in handy for planning my future yarn purchasing trips...

New Project

I started a new project last night, as part of the Stash Knit Along. So far, I'm really liking it.

Pattern: Hado Slouch by Olga-Buraya-Kefelian

Mods: Using only one color with decently long repeats.

Yarn: Dicentra Designs 60% Wool/40% Tussah Silk fingering in Eowyn, purchased in 2008 at Black Sheep Gathering.

Fantastic Jewel Tones

My Kind of WIP

Interestingly, Hado is japanese for "wave surge," which is neat when you consider that I'm working at the Wave Lab. I'll have a neat hat to wear in just a short amount of time.