State Fair Results

I picked up my five entries from the Oregon State Fair this afternoon. I had entered in my Lilia Hyrna Shawl from handspun yarn, the Burnside Winter Twilight Mitts, the Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf and the Sunflower Tam. Those were all my knit items. I also had the Recycle Bunny.

They all won a ribbon! The Fair doesn't give 'premiums' for the Textiles category, so no money, but that's okay.

First Place - Lilia Hyrna Shawl and the Burnside Winter Twilight Mitts

Second Place - Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf and Recycled Bunny

Third Place - Sunflower Tam

Definitely going to enter things again next year!

Ravelympics Results - Two out of Three Finished!

Well I was kind of waiting to get my official 'finished' icons, but I'm getting impatient. ;-)

This weekend consisted of lots of late night knitting - 11:30 and midnight for example. May not have been the best idea with lace knitting as there was also tinking involved. LOL There wasn't a lot of eating going on and a burned knitting finger due to trying to think ahead and make a pot of chili and cornbread for the weekend. I burned my finger from pulling out a 20 second warmed plastic bottle of honey from the microwave. I missed the dripped honey on the backside of the bottle and my left middle finger found it and after pulling it out of the micro, dropped it on the kitchen floor. There was also some hot honey splashing on the calves, but minor compared to the finger. It did get me out of washing dishes that night. Made it difficult to knit the rest of the evening with the band-aid on that finger.

Saturday I was up bright and early (for me) and knitting away again. By 5pm I was feeling over-optimistic that it would be after 9pm that night I would be ready to be casting off. Then came the hook check. I needed a size F and found my D and G (and several other sizes) but no F. I thought for sure I had one of these! Oh well, shower and clothes and with Brandon along went over to JoAnn's for a size F. Took along my current flier for 40% off and after checking out the aisle, the only size F - really there was only 1! Turned out to be a white plastic one. Not my first choice, but beggars and choosers are left with what they get. It was only .77 so not a lot of complaining.

Sunday again up bright and early and knitting. My late night reality adjustment said that I should be able to get done in time. By 5pm again I was getting down to the last row or two and realizing that I was close to binding off! Yippee! I was gong to get done way before midnight. I was starting the crocheted bind off around 6pm and was done by 8:30pm. Off to the bedroom to put it on the bed to do a pre-blocking photo:

From there it was off to the kitchen sink to do a nice soak in hot water and some grapefruit scented SOAK. Huge sigh of relief!  One down, one more to go.
While blocking:

 Doing the butterfly wings imitation:

ETA: I was just about to click on 'publish post' did a last check of the Podium and found this waiting for me!

I had one sock left to do. Wait! You didn't know about the sock incident because I've been tied up with sticks and strings and not at the computer. I had gotten past the short row heel, tested that the socks did indeed fit and was working the leg. I was almost done with the legs when I realized that somehow on one of the socks I had gotten one of the lattice charts off:

Just a little too obvious that things aren't going well here. So I popped the sock off of the two circulars and on to a holder (that was a trick in itself!) and finished up the one sock. So now with the shawl complete it was time to deal with my problem sock.

Turns out that one of the advantages of cotton sock yarn is that its a little stiff and the stitches don't want to just fall down on themselves. So it was a pretty simple feat to get the circulars back on the live stitches, redo that bad row and go on. I was only going to do three pattern repeats and then the ribbing - easypeasy. I was done with the second sock and all ends woven in by 10:30pm. More celebrations!

 

I've been advised to check the color fastness of the yarn, so I'll wash them and see how they come out. I'm sure Jennifer will be happy with them as a Christmas gift. You may have also noticed I have leftovers. I have enough that I can knit her another pair of socks for her birthday. She did express delight at getting them at Christmas so definitely on the list of sock-worthy people. ;-)

(Waiting for the one for the shawl still, Bobicus is on overload I'm sure, so still trying for that patience thing - have any to share?)

I also added both of these into the Yarn Harlot's Olympics competition. Last I saw alphabetically I was there.

Still here? The third entry? Well that was the spinning. I only got an hour of spinning the first Wednesday, a good part of the day last Saturday and four hours this last Wednesday. What does that all mean? I was able to get two ounces of the yak-merino spun up on one bobbin:

Since I was done with the sock at 10:30, I had a bit of time to do some more spinning. Pulled up the wheel and while watching the Closing Ceremonies (thankfully recorded, so fast forward could happen) I was able to add to a started bobbin to finish up with this:

 

I have 1.4 ounces left to spin up. I have sore shoulders and wrists, I might have been a bit tense trying to get things finished. ;-) So I'm spending the next few days relaxing and spinning the rest of the yak-merino.

How did you do?

Ravelympics progress thus far

I didn't start exactly at 6pm, the official Ravelry start time for PST, dinner interfered with that goal. Then it was a matter of at least getting the socks started before going off to Revel with Brandon. Casting on socks was pretty easy after watching Cat's YouTube video (check previous post for a link if you want to watch for yourself - scan a few minutes into the video for the actual start), but took a second time where I didn't have so much tails dangling. So only a few rows the first night were accomplished on this project. Saturday I was able to finish the toe increases and get a pattern repeat done. Sunday night it was just one and a half pattern repeats. I feel like with one sock I would be further along than I currently am, but then I have to remember that I'm getting both done at the same time! ;-) The yarn I also have been finding is harder on my hands, but I've noticed that with heavy cottons. I like the colors too.  Here's the collage progress thus far:

 

I took the yarn and pattern for the shawl with me to Revel. I was a good twenty rows in when I found that I had missed a yarn over on an edge fairly early. At that point it was just easier to frog the whole thing and start over. I tried to think of it as the 'practice'. Nice easy knitting early on with just doing the four stitch increases on the right side and purling the wrong sides, except where the pattern calls for garter stitch. Found an error on the 'eyelet row' which is repeated a few times so getting it right is essential. I have the corrections on my project page and will post with the pattern, or check with Shelia. At this point, I have strong thoughts on over-dyeing the finished project. Not sure what color, but I just have this feel that it will be something I'll want to do. Yarn feels soft and I think once its been blocked it will be much nicer still. Here's the collage progress thus far:

Sunday was the monthly Spinning Bee at the Knitting Bee. I was finally able to start my yak/merino for the spinning event. I had to remember how to spin this stuff. It's incredibly soft, the shorter yak fibers sometimes caused a restart issue. I'm trying to be consistent in my single width. Can't wait to see this as a yarn though!

 

Sorry for the blurry!

I pick up Tanya this afternoon, there's some wandering around for a bit before meeting up with the boys for dinner. Tomorrow is taking grandma up to Willamette and then more shopping/looking around/etc. Both mom and Tanya head home on Wednesday so fitting in knitting and spinning will be a challenge!

Chocolate Fest & Ravelympics Prep

Since returning from the lovely beach trip I have been dealing with a migraine in some form or another. I won't go into details. Except, really? Four freaking days?!

Tonight was the Chocolate Fest at Whole Foods. The $5 donation goes to ChristieCare. This year it seemed as if the samples were lighter. The tasting menu included:

1. Lobster Bisque ( yummy, I ate Brandon's sample since he doesn't like lobster) 
2. Chicken Mole (I really liked this and wish they had the recipe card for this one, good with the rice - anyone have a good recipe they want to share?)
3. Chocolate Beef Curry with Saffron Rice (Brandon liked this one but wasn't impressed by the rice, I found it just a bit spicier than I would normally eat. Maybe less curry, since it wasn't a top note, definitely tasted the orange juice.)
4. Dry Jack Cheese & Barely Buzzed Cheeses (the Dry was a hard cheese and not a lot of flavor; the BB cheese had lavender and coffee and had more flavor; both needed something than the hard little toast rounds to clear the palate or eat with.) There was also a chocolate cake/pie/truffle slice here that was really good that I'm not sure where it fits in on the list.
5. Lake Champlain and Green & Blacks Chocolates (yummy! Chocolate bar bits and truffles)
6. Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (interesting chocolate sauce, not sure that I'd want it again though)
7. Themed Wines (They had an Australian Port Wine with the cheeses. Most wines taste like vinegar to me but both Brandon and I liked it. Will have to go back for a bottle.)
8. Numi Chocolate Puerh Tea (This was also by the cheeses. Surprisingly good.)

Missed the salad and the shrimp they had last year as well as the Rogue Chocolate Beer Floats. Could have used another beverage other than the port along the way too. Oh! Totally missed the chocolate fountain!  You can compare visits from last year's post.

This morning I spent time with the swift and ball winder as well as the printer. Printed out the two patterns I'll need for casting on tomorrow night at 6pm. Ideally the projects that are attempted during Ravelympics have some level of challenge to them. Otherwise what's the point in competing?

I have the Leyburn Socks using the Sock Candy yarn I picked up from Tammy's destash. I'll be participating in Sock Hockey with Team BMFA (Blue Moon Fiber Arts). I'm going to finally teach myself Judy's Magic Cast On (the visual version that I can follow along with, I think), without Judy close by to turn to for help. I think I may try this out beforehand just to be sure I don't have to switch out patterns, but I'm confident I will be successful in getting things started. I may go wild and see if I can do two socks at once! Gasp! Lots of challenges with this project!

 

I also made into a yarn cake the Cormo/Silk I recently spun up to do the Lillia Hyrna Shawl from the Book of Wool by Clara Parkes.This is my Short Track Shawl entry with Team Spin-Knit. Team Spin-Knit is all about using your own handspun yarn to knit a project. A nice large lace shawl should be nicely challenging as well, getting it done in the two week time period.

 

Then there was digging out the Yak/Merino that Tammy brought back for me from Madrona last year. Since its a year later, I thought it appropriate that I spin this next. I thought I'd enter this in the Flying Camel Spin competition without a particular team to compete with. The challenge is to see how much yardage you can accomplish.

I have just around a foot of the Portland Punch fiber to finish spinning up. I may try to get it done tonight, since I'm pretty sure that the other three items I was hoping to get done before Ravelympics aren't going to get done! LOL I'll have those around to give me breaks in between the event projects. Then I can try to ply it tomorrow afternoon so its all done. It's been good preparation for me to see if I can spin four ounces of lace weight in two weeks. That right there is my own personal challenge!

Are you competing?