Fiber: Indlugence

I keep imposing a yarn diet on myself, but like any other "diet" it just goes out the window when there's these great festivals or markets around.

Back in May I attended the Great Lakes Fiber Fest up in Wooster. It was a great time and not nearly as hot as it was last year. Don't get me wrong, it was quite warm, but last year, it was nearly unbearable. We had a nice time, I bought some great roving and... yarn. I hadn't planned to buy yarn, but the lady that I bought Handmaiden Casbah from last year was there again with the Casbah, so I indulged... times 3! I LOVE that yarn and this past winter made fantastic gloves with it.



So this year, armed with the new Casbah... I shall make another pair of gloves, maybe socks and maybe a shawl, or more gloves....



Somewhere in the May time frame I also decided to order some Bugga, too. I've been hearing about this yarn FOREVER but never tried. Way back in the Sock Summit days, you couldn't even get into the booth! And when you did, it was all gone! Seriously people grabbed armfuls of it, not even paying attention to color, I think, just taking whatever they could get their hands on. Anyway, I was like meh?! What did I know....

Well it's all over the ravelry sock boards all the time, so I'm like, ok.. what is the fuss. Turns out, it's quite similar to my Casbah love. It has some cashmere in it blended with Merino and nylon for a nice sock yarn. It comes in 2 sizes, Skinny Bugga and Bugga. I opted for bugga as I'm tending to the thicker sock yarns these days. I bought three colors, a silvery-grey (gorgeous), dark green and a blue-green (suprise?!).



Although I basically have taken the month of June off from knitting socks, I'm ready to jump back into socks. Still have to pick a pattern and yarn though. I did order the 2nd book from Wendy Johnson, Toe Up Socks for Every Body. That should be in this week, so I might wait. Also... I received sock club shipments this month from Blue Moon (May's came late) and then Hazelknits came. I can't even describe the delicious blue color of hazelknits. It's like a blue/purpley/periwinkle monochrome variagated color. It's so wow! I was in love... and funny thing, the other skein was green (my fave color) and I couldn't even be bothered with it, that's how gorgeous this blue is! Seriously!

And to cap off the last of they buying... knitter's connection was here in Columbus this weekend past. I hadn't planned to buy yarn, just more roving and a spindle. I was successfull, I bought a little simple Shacht spindle. I hit up the Fiber Optic booth before I even BOUGHT the spindle. I picked up all this great pencil roving! OH my!!! I picked up several colors, one for my sister for christmas (I don't think she reads this blog), got one for Liz for her birthday and then I saw her on Saturday, so I gave it to her then. I know she'll make something great with it as she does such an amazing job on everything she makes.

And I kept stopping by the Briar Rose booth. I wasn't going to buy anything... but they have this really cute vest/tank pattern that I've been wanting... and well, I found a really pretty color of yarn to make it with... so... I did it. Bought the pattern and the yarn and on Sunday I cast on! So far, I just love it. I finally remember the repeat and it's easy peasy. I plan to try it on in another few rounds, just to make sure it's going to work. I think it will. I "tried" it on after the first 2 rows and I think it'll be ok, but I just want to be sure. I made need to do some extra short rows in the boobage area, but we'll see when I get there. In the meantime, here it is.

Also, please note the yarn is actually prettier than it appears in this photo. It's hard to get the plum/purple color to show up right and then next to the Olive green. Very difficult.

Knitting: BOM #3/4/5

So we all know, I can be a bit of a lazy daisy! I haven't blocked about my blocks of the months, nor have I been very good at finishing them! It's true.

So back here I posted about BOM #3 - Bobbles. I won't go into my intense dislike of bobbles again here, but suffice it to say, BOM #3 is yet unfinished. Part of the reason is I have misplaced the pattern, so it's just hanging out in a bag on a spare LONG needele.

Moving on... BOM #4 or the May block. I missed the class because of another something on the same day (not sure). And so I picked up the pattern a week or 2 later, or maybe that same week, who knows. And... I didn't start knitting it until 2 days before the next class (June 7th). Silly me, I know. I did get about halfway through it on that first day. It's a quick and easy knit. Easy pattern repeat, etc. I still have yet to photo it though.

So then BOM #5 - June rolls around. And while this one is a fairly easy 8 row repeat to remember. I swear it's taking me forever. I've been working it here and there for the last week, but I'm still not done! I think I have 1-2 repeats to go and then the border and then done! I do like the look of this one, it reminds me of a leaf or fern or wheat pattern sort of. It might end up being one of the blocks I do a duplicate of. So I better get my act together. I am almost to the half way point and when finished with #5, I will only have 3 completed blocks. Eek!

I'm not going to stress about it though... my mind has been in other areas as of late, aka SPINNING. I'm out of bobbins though and I def need a couple more, so I hope to purchase those on Friday. I could mail order them, but I found a place locally that carries them, so I'm opting to support my local area. Problem is they have sucky hours - only open until 4:30 M-F. Lucky for me I am off at 11 on Fridays.

And just yesterday I happened to look at some very pretty yarn I purchased from a wonderful lady at the Wool Gathering (yellow springs) last fall. This gorgeous yarn is intended for a weaving project that I've yet to begin and so... the weaving bug bit me and I'm really desiring to get another project going on the loom! I thought this would be a great time to do it, because I have more room on my deck than in my cluttered house. So I could take my parts outside and do the warp there. And then I'm thinking how much nicer it would be to have a warping board, so maybe I'll wait and ask B to build it for me.

But wait, there's more! I took a mini break from my sock knitting. I needed a break from charts and intense things and now I'm feeling ready to jump back in. I still have 2 pair to finish up. I had wanted to this past weekend, but got distracted. So perhaps this coming weekend those will be on the plate. As soon as that darn block #5 is finished, I will sit down and untangle the sock mess. Yes, due to carelessness on my part, I have 2 different sock projects that have merged and become one goofy mess.

I love to knit!

Knitting: For the love of garter stitch

I've been meaning to blog several things over the last few weeks, but I've failed miserably due to extremem laziness or interests in other areas.

But let me start with the garter stitch fascination. First and foremost, I don't know that I've ever really done a garter stitch project. I mean, maybe I have in their somewhere before (who knows), but when I learned to knit, it was a hat and then I made a bunch of hats. I think they were stockinette though, so I learned to knit and purl at the same time. I know there are many out there that only learned the KNIT stitch first.

Anyway, a friend is due with twins in December. I thought I'd get started early since she will find out the sex of the babies, but it's still too soon. I want to make little sweaters, am planning on BSJs or Kimonos or something along those lines. But to hold me over until knowing if boys or girls are coming, I've opted for the EASY Mason-Dixon Baby Bib o'Love. This was a great small, quick fun project. I've made 2 already and have plans to do a few more.

These are straight up garter stitch for 40ish stitches and roughly 6-7 inches. Piece of cake. I still need to get some buttons for them, but for mindless, simple knitting - which has a time and place these are the perfect project. So not only my desire to make baby things, but a few upheavels and stressful things in my life warranted garter stitch.

This need led me into discloths as well. Sitting in a hospital room for a few days worrying about family will bring on a strong desire for garter stitch and sweet cotton in bright and cheery colors. It was great to be able to just grab a ball and some needles and knit away in the slightly uncomfortable hospital chairs. I've finished up 4 or was it 5 dishcloths so far?! These are the easy knit on the bias, cloths that nearly everyone makes at least one point in their knitting lives. Again, easy and mindless and just what I needed for those stressful days.

I do want to mention also that while I didn't care for the tightness of cotton and how unslippery it is on the needle, I felt extreme pleasure from the softness of it. I'm just knitting away thinking how soft and springy this garter stitch is. Felt nice to knit with and my fingers weren't sore or dry from a lot of the wools I use.

This garter stitch/cotton extravaganze has been a nice change from all the intensely patterned socks I've been making. Sometimes its nice to just sit and knit and not have to worry about a pattern. I'm continuing the cotton parade with a market bag (slow going but good so far) and I'll keep making discloths and a few more bibs. I went on a little cotton spree over the weekend, so I have new colors to use as well!

I've been lax in the photo dept as well, but here is a sample of ONE!
And the colors are my fave!