Weekend Knitting

My little sister got married this past Saturday (Congrats, sis!)

I got to spend a lot of quality time with family that lives far away from me.

And I got to spend hours and hours sitting and knitting--in the airport, in the plane, in the car. I finished up a garter-stitch scarf in handspun and started a new pair of socks.

I'm also working on the Mystery Beret (Ravelry link) in some bubblegum pink handspun.

Maryland

Just like what felt like MILLIONS of other people, I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this past weekend. It was my first time, and I think I did pretty well. I stayed within my budget, and got most of the things I wanted. And that's fine with me--I can't get it all or I wouldn't have anything else to look forward to!

I went to the Ravelry meetup on Saturday, and got a button, but my name was on the missing page of M's, so I didn't get a cool Ravatar Sticker to put on the button.

I got a picture with Mary-Heather, and I posed with Jess and Casey, too, but that picture seems to have never actually happened. Oh well...

I'm lucky enough to have an aunt and uncle who live ten miles away from the Howard County Fairgrounds, so I got to stay in a lovely home with a very gracious host and hostess and eat home-cooked meals instead of a big impersonal hotel. I carpooled with someone who got into one of the pre-festival workshops, so while she went to class, I got to hang out with my aunt and uncle. My aunt and I went shopping, did some quilting, I started teaching her how to knit, and I just basically relaxed.

Here's what followed me home from Saturday:

A Spinners Control Card and an Inch Gauge/Diz from Carolina Homespun (no pictures, sorry).

I finally caved and signed up for a subscription to Interweave Knits. I've been meaning to for quite a while--especially because I always seem to end up buying the issues individually, anyway!)

Some GORGEOUS laceweight yarn from Tess' Designer Yarns

Some souvenir sock yarn (purchased at a great little yarn store during the week, not at the festival itself): Colinette Jitterbug and Araucania Ranco Multi. Both of these are much brighter than my photos show (especially the Jitterbug--it's quite loud, actually).


And what I really came for--lots of great fiber! (It doesn't look like a lot in these photos, but I think it's more than double what I had before.)

I started spinning up the Louet fiber. It's practically spinning itself! Most of the time, I tend to spin sockweight or laceweight yarn, so I'm really trying hard to do something a little bigger; I think this one might turn out more like a sport weight. It's so soft! I think I'll have to order some more.

SOCKAPAL-WOOOOOO-HOOOOOO-ZA!

Sign ups started today for Sockapalooza 4. Yippee! I've been at my computer all evening stalking the Blue Blog watching a movie and knitting and I signed up as soon as I could. I've read as people posted about Sockapalooza before and I always thought it sounded like fun. I'm really excited to take part now.

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted for so long. I've been tinkering with the blog format quite a bit over the past couple of weeks, so I didn't really notice that I hadn't actually SAID anything. I've added a stat counter (I always wondered how people knew what Google searches had led to hits on their blogs!) and have been playing with buttons and so forth. I'm also trying to figure out to make those progress bars that show graphically how much you've got left of this project or that. The new blogger made it a bit easier to organize my sidebar, but it's not sophisticated enough to do what I want it to. I don't understand html code very well, but it looks like I'm going to have to learn it to get my blog to look the way I want it.

I went to the Spinning Guild meeting on Friday night. I didn't bring my wheel with me as I was coming pretty much straight from work, so I worked on my current purse socks: Elongated Corded Rib socks from the Sensational Knitted Socks book in cotton candy pink Cascade Fixation.
I'm about two inches farther than this picture shows. I've finished the gusset decreases and now it's just straight knitting in the pattern until I get to the toe decreases. I found the second ball of yarn (one of the cats had batted it under the couch and I hadn't seen it in days). I'm a little concerned that I won't have enough to finish the sock. I only bought two balls and I've got six inches or so left to go and only 15 grams of yarn. I'd rather not have to try to track down another ball in this same dye lot.

I came home from the guild meeting on Friday with this:

Over 100 grams of Alpaca roving in a fabulous colorway: Mostly lavender/lilac colored, but with occasional bright sections of a limey-green-yellow. Lovely! It's fun to spin up. The Romney I've been working on is currently on hold while I play with the softer stuff.

Like the rest of the country, we had a cold Easter weekend. It snowed here on Friday, although we only got about an inch. I'm glad that my plants are in containers that can be moved inside from the patio!

Under Construction

You may not have noticed if you haven't looked at my blog in the past few days, but I'm working on updating things around here. I switched over to the new Blogger, and so I've been working on getting my template back to the way I like it (I LOVE my berry background, but it took me about three days to remember how to get it working!) I need to add some buttons, and I read a LOT more blogs than the list shows. I also want to make a link of things I'm working on and things I've completed, so that will take some doing.


In the meantime, I've been spinning a lot more than I've been knitting. I finished my mom's socks and immediately cast on for a new pair of socks. I've started keeping a sock-in-progress in my purse, and I don't know why I never did this before. For a year now I've been saying to myself, "I need to start bringing a lunch with me to work rather than drive home" and it's a lot easier to do when I have a sock in my purse. I have an hour for lunch, and it only takes me fifteen minutes to eat, so now I can knit.

This is the new sock, made out of Cascade Fixation. I don't have the ball band nearby, so I can't say what color it is, but I like it. I'm using the Elongated Corded Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. It's easy to memorize but still rather interesting (at least so far--I've only done about a repeat and a half of the pattern). Somday I want to be like Wendy had have drawers full of handknitted socks.


I've plied up all the singles that I had spun up. The big red skein is two-ply and so is some of the smaller red skein. When I ran out of one bobbin on the second red skein, I started Navajo plying it. I like that method MUCH better. I like that it produces a rounder, more evenly plied yarn, and it's easier for me to get into a rhythm with the Navajo plying than the two plying. Don't ask me why, that's just the way I spin.

So the colors really aren't this bright; I'm still learning how to use the camera settings.

I haven't touched the Bristow cardigan for a couple of days.

All gone!

My money, that is!

There was indeed a lady in the knitting and spinning guild who had a wheel she didn't need anymore. I picked it up on Wednesday at one of our LYS's here in town (she's one of the owners). It's an Ashford Traditional double drive. It came with extra bobbins, a lazy kate, and an high-speed flyer kit, for $250.


Now I need to buy some more roving (I've spun up just about all that she gave me) and a niddy noddy.

In other news, I've also found some living room furniture (the red sofa and loveseat). The futon and coffee and end tables will be moving out in May. Until then I'm really pleased with how my living room looks! It's starting to look like a real home, instead of a student apartment. Now all I need are people to come over and visit and sit on the couches and just talk!

I've slipped!!

I went to the Knitting & Spinning guild meeting tonight, and had a great time! I worked on Eris and finished attaching the hem to the front. All I have left of the hem is the back.

Then the lady who hosts the meetings brought out an Ashford Traditional wheel and I started down the slippery slope. I spun nearly a whole bobbin and really enjoyed it. I want a wheel! But I have a lot of other things that I probably ought to buy first. My roommate is getting married in May, and the livingroom furniture will be moving out when she does. So I'm saving up for a couch and a coffee table and probably a loveseat. I told that to the ladies at the Guild tonight, and they laughingly said, "Why save up for all that furniture? All you need for a wheel is a chair!"

I'm tempted. Very tempted. But a wheel costs so much money! I might ask if anyone at the guild has a used one they want to sell. In the meantime, I would like to make sure that this isn't just a whim.

Here's the fruits of my first foray into wheel spinning. Sorry about the shoddy photos...all I had with me was the camera phone.

I'm pretty proud of myself. Spinning just clicked with me. I very quickly figured out how to put the movement of my foot pretty much on autopilot, and was able to focus on drafting. Of course, I still have thick and thin spots, but that's normal. Linda, the hostess, told me that it was not regular "beginner yarn".

Next month I'll go back and see if I can learn about plying and see if I can make a little skein of yarn to keep. I wonder how much I'll have to spin in order to make a hat...