Oh oh! Our internets died at home! I can not upload pictures, etc right now, which makes me sad. We've found a new service provider, but it will not be up and running for a another week or so. I will be back to normal posting as soon as I can.
Cheers!
Since the last time I updated on the sock knitting I have finished one pair and started two new pairs.
Firstly I have started the Austrian Socks from Favourite Socks. This is a very hard pattern and so I am taking it nice and slow, and keeping it on the back burner whilst I knit other pairs which are more suited to knitting in front of TV or on a train.
I am using the gorgeous Easy Knit Apple Blossom which really makes the cabling stand out.
To give myself a little break to do something different I knitted my next socks out of Knitting on the Road. These are some fairly plain Dalarna socks in plain orange cherry tree hill yarn. I am not so impressed with the cherry tree hill yarn in this instance. The sheen on the yarn makes it look a little odd knitted up and shows up all the slight tension imperfections in the knitted fabric. Maybe they will look better after blocking.
Challenge 96 on the 101 list was to spend a day at the seaside. As a child growing up in the UK holiday were almost always seaside holidays where I would do all the traditional activities of rock pooling, sandcastle building, swimming (although not after dinner), picnic-ing, kite flying etc etc. I haven't done this in a surprisingly long time because I actually enjoy it a great deal. This is why it ended up on my list in the first place.
This weekend we had a long weekend in Cornwall with friends and I finally got to revisit my childhood. The following things have not changed at all:
- People still wear swimming costume and sunbathe in 20 degrees C and on a cloudy day.
- There is a still a complicated process of putting up windbreaks
- The sea is still 14 degrees C
- Sand gets everywhere - even in my pastie.
I picnic'ed and read a book, also swam, built a sandcastle and did lots of poi. It was my first time on a beach with a little doggy companion which was great fun as well.
I had a fantastic time and remembered all the reasons that I love days out at the beach! I am so pleased that I put it on my list so that I could really remember how much I like that sort of thing.
In fact poi was really successful this holiday as I learnt another new trick from R - previously I have only been able to achieved a 2 beat weave and now I can do a 3 beat weave, not especially smoothly but I have got the basics and will make time to practice.
There are so many new Indie dyers springing up all over and especially in the UK at the moment. I am trying out a very new one at the moment called Knot Another Knitting Yarn and my first two purchases have arrived:
This is Bamboozle which is a bamboo, wool, nylon blend. The colour is more peach in person than orange but it looks good and was reasonably priced.
This is the yarn I am most excited about. It is 50% Yak and 50% Wool, again it is very reasonably priced and has generous yardage at over 500m:
However as always I reserve judgment until after the wash and wear test. I am very keen to use the Yak yarn to make the Coriolis Socks by Cat Bordhi, it will show of the colour really well I reckon.
Sheeps and goats! Oh my! Sunday was a day to focus on the fibery friends that have filled my life. There were all sorts of breeds to see. The Scottish Black Face is by far a favorite with the Shetland running a close second.
Ahhh, look at the sheepies!
The Scottish Black face is in the bottom row. How could you not love that face?
mmm...such nice fleece....so tempted to take a scissors to it and run back to my wheel.
After the animal fun, the rest of the day was spent wandering the booths, making final purchases, and spinning. Here's a few things that were added to the stash:
Toots Leblanc BFL/Pygora lace weight blend
Evelyn Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles
4 oz. mohair from Peppermint Pastures
This roving is fantastic!
It goes from bluish colors to greenish to bluish again and it's all one piece!
A Retro Reynolds pattern book.
I may not use any of the patterns, but the pics are great entertainment.
Cotton dishclothes...because I am too lazy to knit them myself
2 skeins of Socks that Rock in Kaw Kaw
And that's it! No really, that's all I got! Well along with the three fleeces and drop spindle and a couple of books and the things from Websters....
Saturday arrived bright and early, but we were ready for it, with the help of a stop at a coffee shop and bakery get the energy going. I had a very yummy strawberry croissant, but can not remember the name of the place it came from. Anyone familiar with downtown Eugene?
After a tour of the show a la Kristine, I headed to a demo with Adrienne to learn how a make a drop spindle by Ken Ledbetter. In about 30 minutes, Ken had a spindle made and that was with talking to us the whole time.
My main goal for the day was to find a new drop spindle. I found the prettiest spindle from Spindlewood. I have to say that Steven and Connie are the sweetest people ever!
Pink Ivory with Ebony whorl with Ebony sharft
1 1/4 ozs
I started spinning on her right away. She's spins like a dream!
I decided that I wanted to experience the wool show sale. I was going to go and look at the fleeces and see how things worked. I thought the made dash to get what you wanted would be fun to watch. Well, I got caught up in the moment...
People in line in front of me
People in line behind me.
I am blaming my indiscretion on Marlowe and Kristine my enablers. Somehow in the rush of things, Marlowe and I came out with 3 bags full of fleece. Um, oops! I only have pictures of the Romney/CVM right now. One Corriedale fleece was sent to be processed (it was 9.55 lbs and placed 1st in its class!) and Marlowe has the Targhee.
Look at that crimp!
This beauty placed 3rd in its class and weighs 6.83 lbs.
We spent the rest of the day wandering about, spinning, and knitting. The day ended with a dinner out and then retiring to Kristine and Adrienne's room for more fibery goodness. Suddenly is was very late and we headed off to bead with visions of sheeps and goats in our head....
Before I cast on for the Merino Lace Socks I tried to make the Austrian Socks. I couldn't get gauge because the yarn was too thin. I didn't have any thicker stuff left and I needed to get it quite thick to hit a gauge of 6 stitches to the inch. I decided that I was in enough yarn credit to make a purchase and I remembered that Easy Knits BFL which I have used twice before is pretty thick. I went to the website looking for something very pale since there is a lot of detail on the Austrian Socks and I didn't want it swamped with a brightly varigated yarn.
I found this beautiful Apple Blossom Yarn
When I placed the order I got a nice email from Jon the dyer asking how I found out about the website. Something I can well understand since I always want to know how people found me on Ravelry. I explained and he sent a lovely email back.
Anyway when he sent my order out he included a little free gift. It was such a lovely surprise and I love it.
One of the things I was hoping for from the 101 in 1001 challenge was an interesting time with perhaps some new experiences and a little adventure on the way. I was not expecting this to be found in the Favourite Socks challenge however.
I have been happily making the padded footlets out of some Wollmeise sock wool I had left over from making the Go With the Flow Socks for my sister. Wollmeise comes in 150g skeins so I felt confident that there would be plenty left to make a pair of footlets. Unfortunately I was wrong about this although I managed about 1 and 3/4 of a sock before it gave out. This left me with a problem. Firstly I didn't want to have to buy another 150g, secondly since the exposure on Lime and Violet Wollmeise has had a bit of a run on it. Like Posh wool it sells out in seconds and is incredibly hard to get hold off. What is a girl to do?
Enter Ravelry. I use the experimental search function to find everyone in Europe who has posted completed projects using Sonne Wollmeise Superwash. There was about 5. I sent them all a message asking to use their leftovers. 3 people replied to me. 2 of them had no leftovers because they used them up in blankets etc but the 3rd lady in Finland did. She sent it to me and refused to take any cash even for posting, although she said that the postage from Finland was less than £1. So I got 80g of Sonne in a shade very slightly darker than my Sonne but the closest match I could get.
How brilliant is this, the kindness of strangers and the ability to find them!
I am so close to completing task 38 of 101 things.
This was to make 3 fabric bags from my fabric stash and I ended up finding this great website called Morsbags. The idea is that there is a simple and free pdf pattern on the website and people are encouraged to sew them up, distribute them to people waiting outside the local supermarket and so encourage people not to use plastic bags.
The pattern is fantastic, simple, quick and strong looking. It is much better than the last version I used which had a lining and a plastic bag as a template pattern.
These are the two bags I have made so far and they are so good for storing knitting and yarn that if I do want to make any to give away (I am thinking my sister could use them in her work as a teacher) then I will have to make more. Luckily I have plenty of fabric so this isn't going to be a problem.
Bag 1
Bag 2 (you may recognise this as the vintage curtain fabric I made my last bag from - I am still upcycling it and will be for some time).
Last weekend was Black Sheep Gathering 2008. Marlowe, her daughter Caitlin, and I road tripped up to Eugene, OR for the event. We left on Friday morning bright and early.
Look! It's a mountain! Okay, I know some you of you get to see mountains on a regular basis, but this Minnesota girl is still highly entertained by them.
We stopped in a town in northern California and found this on a car: Eeeewwww! It's the biggest bug ever!
Our lunch break was in Ashland, OR. I love this place! Marlowe's and my first stop was for Websters, a lovely little knitting, spinning, and weaving shop. I found myself a shawl pin.
Hoot! Hoot!
And some Aloo yarn, made from a nettle plant
Caitlin also found herself a charming hat, though for some reason, she did not want to keep it.
Ashland is the home of the home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We did not have time to take in a show that day, but I did get to drool over some of the costumes.
After the frolic in Ashland was done, we hit the road once again and got ourselves to Eugene. There was an evening of hanging out with friends with spinning, knitting, and laughing involved. We then headed off to bed to prepare for our big day, our first day at Black Sheep and the fleece sale!