the fiber fetishist

Mom feeding kids at MD sheep+wool 2007

Thanks for everything, Mom!

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Whew!

Maryland this year was a bit different for me. My first year (2005) I spent so much money on fiber and yarn — and I picked out a wheel! I still have some things from that year in stash. Last year (2007) was my second year, and I was a bit more subdued, but I actually have EVERYTHING in stash from last year still (groan!).

brooks farm

This year I wasn’t looking for much. I wanted to take some photos, look around, meet some people, and spend time with my mom and aunt.

green mountain spinnery

I accomplished what I wanted, though I stopped taking pictures when my knee really started to bug me. I also only had my 50mm lens with me because it’s the lightest lens I have. My 18-70mm is heavy and my 105mm is even heavier, and that limited me some.

I ran into Kelly (Kelp! Knits) in the Tess booth — just like last year! (I deleted that wonky picture, btw, Kelly!)

a goat from the pygora goat booth

I finally watched the sheepdog demonstrations this year. They are so awesome. The sheep were being ornery and defiant and one of the younger dogs seemed to be too “nice” and let the sheep pretty much have their way. The older dog came out and made the sheep obey. It was very cool! I love to watch dogs work (and nap and prance and eat — I might just love dogs).

sheepdogs

I saw some great handknits both in the booths and on people. My mom and aunt sat at the entrance to wait for me before going in, and Mom said she really loved the handknit-people-watch. She said she saw a gorgeous handknit skirt on someone who was also wearing a handknit shawl, and lots and lots of gorgeous stranded sweaters.

great sweaters

I love the number of handknit shawls I saw, worn in so many different ways. I saw a gorgeous, shimmery short sleeved lacy top on someone when I was looking at the plants, and wish I had asked her what the yarn/pattern was (or taken a photo). It was fantastic!

more sweaters, I really like that yoked pattern

I also noticed that maybe 75% of the people there were in Ravelry shirts or wore a Ravelry pin. It was amazing! I was wearing my beta shirt and I met a number of fellow ravelers in lines. I completely missed the meetup on Saturday, though I hear it was complete madness and sadly they ran out of buttons. I think perhaps Ravelry-at-MD was a bit larger than anyone anticipated. Amazing! It was very cool to meet other Ravelers!

As for what I bought — not too much!

the enhancement

The first purchase of the day was a Sheep Incognito print. My mom and aunt also bought prints there.

just one hank of sock yarn

I bought a single hank of sock yarn — The Flock Bransonas handpainted sock yarn in Hallmark. I love the colors. They had some of the most gorgeous colorways of sock yarn — I displayed my restraint by only buying one hank.

Gale’s Art BFL in Proud Peacock

I am a sucker for vibrant handpainted fiber. I love to spin it — it keeps me entertained. I finally picked “Proud Peacock” out of all of the Gale’s Art colorways. This is 4oz of BFL.

wild meadow angora batts

In the main hall, I always stop at Wild Meadow Angora and never buy anything. They are the one by one of the side doors of the main hall with the electric spinners. My mom and aunt asked a lot of questions while Jerry spun on the electric spinner and I finally picked out two 1oz batts of mostly blue with green. I love to spin from a batt and I haven’t spun angora yet, so we’ll see how this goes. Mom is allergic to angora, so sadly she couldn’t pet the batts.

brooks farm primero

My second to last purchase was made on my second visit to Brooks Farm. Every year I find myself fondling the Primero and every year I step away from it and spend the whole year thinking about it. This year my mom said, “you know, if you pet it every year, look at it, and think about it all year, you may as well buy it.” So I did. I bought one hank of the Primero, planning to make something like their Circular Scarf in Old Shale Pattern. I am completely in love with this yarn and want to knit it up posthaste!

more brooks farm

The final items I bought were two pepper plants — a serrano and a thai chili. I didn’t start any peppers this year and I had room in the raised bed for a couple more plants. Hooray! We love serranos and thai chiles.

My mom and aunt picked up a few items, but not much. We had a grand ol’ time, even if I did not find a Lendrum bag or yarn for the husband’s Fugl.

Hope to see everyone again next year!

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I think I am ready for Sheep + Wool.

I’ve bought bottled water. I’ve made meetup plans with my mom and aunt. I’ve set a budget.

I’ve made a list (it was shorter — it grew twice):

• yarn for Fugl for DH — not Lopi, but something comparable and special.
  
• a bag for my Lendrum (this is questionable)
  
• some Tess Silk&Ivory OR Brooks Farm for a wrap or something for me

If you see me, give me a shout! This photo is almost a year old, but it’s pretty accurate (hair is a little longer right now).

I think I am going to wear my Ravelry beta shirt and a lime green cardigan — and I will have my purple Tom Bihn bag. I should also make it to the Ravelry meetup (not the party) on Saturday to get my Hello! pin.

Have fun!

MD S+W 2007.
MD S+W 2005.

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On Monday, I had a conversation with my husband that went a little something like this:

me: Hey, I am going to the sheep festival this weekend.
DH: awesome!
DH: Ha, you are going to come home with SO MUCH MORE wool.
me: no, no, I already have plenty.
DH: oh, it’s O.K. — you made me my sweater, get as much wool as you want.

Ha! Well, I may have added something else to the festival shopping list for him — yarn for Fugl (I’m going to be looking for a festival yarn comparable to Lopi, not Lopi itself).

Currer is coming along:

currer back & left front

A bit of rowing out there, but it’ll even out with a wash. Next up is the right front, then the peplum. I’m leaving the sleeves for last. Love the yarn, enjoying the pattern!

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On Saturday afternoon, I cast off the second front of my Patons cabled (perhaps not so) hoodie [ravelry].

pieces blocking on the guest bed

Mere seconds later I cast on the back of Norah Gaughan’s Currer [ravelry]:

the back of currer, take two

I’ve already ripped out and restarted the back of Currer due to a gauge/size issue. I think I am set now. It’s a fun pattern though I’m not sure the style of the pattern is good for my body type. If not, someone will get a cool sweater!

In other news, I think that my knee has healed enough and I have been infected with the excitement of my mom and one of my sisters about MD Sheep + Wool this weekend, so I am now planning to go.

I am a little bummed since I don’t think I touched anything I bought last year. The only thing on my list this year is possibly a bag for my Lendrum. I’m going to focus on photos (must clean my camera this week!) and hanging out and not buying five tons of fiber and yarn. Say hi if you see me!

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There has been knitting, yarn purchasing, a tiny bit of spinning (my knee can’t hold up to it for long), physical therapy, playoff hockey, photos taken, programming, yardwork, birthday celebrations, anniversary celebrations …

Basically everything except blogging.

sweater pieces

I have been fairly project monogamous — my goal is to finish this sweater (Patons Cabled Hoodie from Street Smart) so I can move onto a certain summery sweater project.

I’ve completed the back, sleeves, and 75% of one front. I have the other front to knit and then I need to make a decision: hood or no hood? I love hoodies and wear them ALL the time, but I am tempted to do a tall ribbed collar on this one for some reason.

It’s not very exciting — but I am very much enjoying knitting it! — and the yarn is so neutral that it simply doesn’t seem like much fun to take photos of.

Luckily I have plenty other non-neutral-colored things to take photos of.

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What’s this?

elijah and friends

It’s Elijah!

Quick Stats [ravelry project notes]

Pattern:

Elijah, by ysolda. Pattern can be purchased at her shop or on ravelry. [ravelry pattern]

Yarn:

Mission Falls 1824 Wool in teal, 2 skeins. Small bits of Knit Picks Merino Style and Dale Baby Ull for details/seaming.

Needles:

US3 Knit Picks Harmony dpns

Started-Finished:

17 Mar 2008 - 4 April 2008

Elijah on the floor

I love the way he turned out. I ran out of yarn before I could knit him a tail, so he is going without for now.

I cannot say enough about how well-written the pattern is and how well-designed the PDF layout is. Ysolda obviously spend a lot of time on it. It is fantastic — highly recommended!

My only deviation from the pattern was the ears. I simply could not get the stitches picked up properly/evenly/easily from the head, so I knit the ears separately and seamed them. I also ran out of yarn on one of the ears, omitted one row from the second ear, making them not symmetrical.

When N saw that I was knitting an elephant, he said, “Is that for me? Did you know elephants are my favorite animal?” Uh… OK. He relented later on and told me to give it to our niece (the original recipient) and suggested that maybe I could make another one for him later on. He was sad about the lack of tusks, however.

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Today my wee tiny sock arrived, all the way from Germany!

wee tiny sock from Kris!

Kris of Bockstark Knits and knitters uncensored fame knit a very wee tiny cute sock in Hello Yarn Tough Sock (the Lonesome Water colorway — gorgeous, like everything Adrian dyes). Kris also included a postcard with a sweet note, the wee tiny sock blocker, and knitters uncensored stickers.

Thanks, Kris! I love it — and now I have a new keychain!

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I swore off swaps last year not because I’d had any bad experiences, but because I was worn out from participating in and organizing swaps. During that time, there was one swap that I very much wished I had relented and joined.

Emily (Yarn Miracle) organized the Wee Tiny Sock Swap last year as a low-stress but fun and quick sock swap (here’s the 2007 flickr group). I spent quite a bit of time looking at little tiny socks and thinking how neat it was to see mini socks and so many different types of sock yarn.

When Emily posted about this year’s Wee Tiny Sock Swap, I joined!

On Friday evening, I received my swap partner’s name (and an email from the person making my wee tiny sock — it was nice to hear that someone received my information - hi!) and I knit a sock:

the first

I wasn’t happy with it. I liked the picot cast on and I liked the colors and the toe, but I hated the stripes and the heel. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. So I knit a second wee tiny sock.

wee tiny sock the second

I was happier with this one — though not 100% happy — and decided this was the one I would send to my swap partner. I picked patterns from my Latvian mittens book and put them together. It was knit over 20 stitches on US1 needles. The yarn is Dale Baby Ull in 0020 (natural), 9436 (green), 4516 (fuchsia), and 5726 (blue). I love Baby Ull. Knitting over a small number of stitches really made putting the patterns together difficult.

I hope my swap partner likes it! I dropped it into the mail at work today with an extra stamp just in case the envelope was too thick. The proof of concept sock will become decoration for my office.

If you are curious about what others have knit for the swap, here’s the 2008 flickr group and here’s the Ravelry group.

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I have been following Jan’s (be*mused) absolutely gorgeous mitten knitting (also this one). Each mitten is gorgeous — the patterns, the colors, the shape. Oh, mittens!

I had a couple of talks with E (Poking My Eyes Out) about not wanting to knit two mittens. I just want to knit singles. But possibly many, many singles. I had some crazy idea about wanting to hang them as decoration, like from a decorative clotheline. E suggested frames/shadowboxes and assured me that I wasn’t (too too) crazy to think of colorful mittens as art/decoration!

I pulled Latvian Mittens (Upitis) and Knitting Marvelous Mittens (Schurch) out of the bookcase and spent some time flipping through them, thinking about color combinations. I picked out colors (just three: sky blue, plain ol’ blue, and ORANGE). I picked out a few patterns (Latvian only). I cast on using the 2-color cast on. I worked the Latvian 2-color braid. I knit.

I got to this point and decided that the uppermost cuff band was not working for me. It was too large relative to the size of the mitten.

drats

I thought about it. Should I rip? Should I leave it? I like the pattern, just not at this scale.

Eventually I decided that if I were going to knit these as decoration, I should have no question about the pattern. I frogged.

mitten cuff

I am back where I started. I’ve picked a new band that I think I will be happier with. I can’t wait to finish this mitten and move on to the next one!

[also, here’s a bunch of free Latvian mitten/glove charts. Oh! Mittens! ]

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