Finally some FO's!

I've been knitting, but haven't felt the satisfaction of completed projects. That changed yesterday. I was able to get the Simple Yet Effective Shawl that I was knitting up using the Schaefer Yarns, Anne colorway Toni Morrison that I won in a contest on Judy Becker's blog around Christmas last year. It had I think languished in her stash and she opted to find it a new home. I tried it out in the Woodland Shawl pattern but the short color changes were causing the actual pattern to be lost. So the search was on for a pattern that the short color sequences wouldn't overwhelm the pattern, so the Simple Yet Effective Shawl. It's going into the Christmas gift pile destined for a new home in the Bay Area with the step-mother-in-law.

It blocked out to a nice 32x62 inches and covers the back and comes to the front nicely. It can also be wrapped and worn more around the neck. I think it will keep anyone nice and warm with the mohair content.

I also finished up the scarf store sample for Knit-Purl. It's the Transverse Scarf by Miriam Felton. The yarn is Habu Textiles N-6B Konnyaku Sizing Silk in color #2 (khaki). One of the four skeins didn't take the dye as well and I had to figure out a way not to have it glaringly obvious. The pattern is fairly simple to do, but I found that I could only do two or three chart repeats before my brain started to wander and I made mistakes. Otherwise this would have been done much sooner! It blocks nicely and I think the soak helped round the silk a bit.

 

Tonight it all about getting all the paraphernalia all gathered together so that its not too difficult to get to the site tomorrow bright and early. Chair, wheel, 20 bags of Goodies, back pillow, catalogs, and anything else I think of between now and bedtime. I'd also like to see if I can finish up one of the bobbins of Cormo/Silk that I've been working on. Just a bit more to go to finish off 3.5 ounces of fiber. (Still have another 3.5 ounces to spin up, not sure if I'll get it done before OFFF though!)

We have Cedi and Nickel for the weekend again. Greta is off to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho for another Flyball Tournament.  

Knitting, spinning, and canning

Last week was spent working on both the Transverse Scarf (finished one skein) and the Simple Yet Effective Shawl. I also pulled out my Borscht Greenjeans cardigan and added a few rows to it. I had brought it along to Judy's dr. appt that resulted in a three hour wait in the lobby for me. I went through all three of them entertaining myself, besides the people watching. ;-)

I've tried a couple of approaches with a skein of the raw silk that didn't take the dye as well as the other three (I didn't pick out the four, or I wouldn't have taken this particular skein). I wanted to see how obvious the change in skeins is so did a chart repeat and saw this:

Pretty freaking obvious! So I frogged that and pulled out a second skein and have been doing two rows of each and alternating them so that its less "LOOK AT ME!"
You can still see the end of the first skein, but less glaring.

I finished up the Gotland by plying it and finished spinning the Norwegian and also plying it. Wrapping up the Tactile Ancient Breeds Sample Pack. Still love the Finn, the Shetland, Icelandic and Gotland were all itchy for me. The Norwegian was less itchy but felt softer after working with it. Here's the collage of them all:


William went with Luke and his father on the trip to Moscow, ID to deliver Luke to his college apartment. He had a great time and now is contemplating going to Washington State University for his nursing program (Pullman is only six miles from Moscow). We'll see. When he got home Luke's parents brought him home with some vine ripened tomatoes from their garden (ours haven't turned out as well because someone sprayed some lawn fertilizer or something on them and now they're a strange yellow/orange).

Since I had some peppers (jalapeno, banana and chili) just waiting to be used, I opted to make the first batch of salsa for the season. Canning the results so that we can enjoy it longer. I did use smaller jars so that I can share too.



I fell off the no adding to the stash wagon a couple weeks ago in Susan Pandorff's Destash Sale. My thought was that I could use them for Christmas gifts so I was saving money. I got both for less than the price of one. They're the Mountain Colors 4/8's Wool in Mountain Twilight and Sweet Lavendar:


I had thought to do a shawlette with them but I've also found a mobius cowl that would be cool too.

OFFF Vendor Booth organization continues. We're getting all the payments in so that a group payment for the booth can be sent in before the end of the week. Still need to get out into the garage for one of the projects I have in mind. I'll have to see if I can afford an order for some supplies for other projects. We'll see. ;-)

This week's plans involve more knitting on the Transverse Scarf, hopefully finish it too. More work on the Simple Yet Effective Shawl, really would like to finish it also. Put the tabs on Stained Glass Window Quilt so it can be hung. Start spinning either the wensleydale or cream alpaca. I'd like to get some peaches and either marionberries or blackberries for more canning fun. Jams of course. Need to save money too so that I can enter in the Walk for the Cure Knitters for Knockers team - just $25.

Forgot to mention that I tried out Smitten Kitchen's Blueberry Boy Bait Cake from a cup of blueberries picked from my late season bushes. The boys are enjoying it. Next time though I'm splitting the batter between pans. I'm currently constrained from using a 9x13 and so used an 8x8 - took forever to cook! Tempted to try out The Pioneer Woman's Coffee Cake, but don't have any heavy cream on hand and trying to wait for groceries until later in the week. Very tempting!! I might be able to do it if I liquefy the espresso in the frosting.....oh no. There might be another cake before the end of the week.

Long quiet week

Still trying to recover from Sock Summit. Getting to spend all that time with all those knitters! All those fiber fumes from the marketplace. Can anyone truly recover from that experience?

Monday night we headed over to the airport to pick up Judy, Brandon's mom from her trip visiting back east. I didn't have to drive so made sure to grab yarn, needles and a pattern. Someone forgot to check on flight status so we had 2 hours to entertain ourselves at the airport. Saw a few shops, checked with Trtlgrl to find out if she wanted a cute turtle packback we saw in one store. The little turtle actually detached from the backpack and was the softest chenille. Then wandered through Powell's for a bit. Decided that the wait deserved a Jamba Juice so crossed the concourse for those and found a table. I was fully prepared to entertain myself with knitting but suggested that Brandon go get one of the travel Cribbage games I had seen in Powell's. Off he went for it and we played for the next hour and a half. We now have it in the car for future trips.

I got a couple of inches knitted and then realized after getting home that I had gotten my right side and wrong sides mixed up so had to frog that work and start over. Sigh. I blame it on the yarn. Simple Yet Effective Shawl, even an idiot can mess it up. ;-)

The correct view!

Since someone hadn't gotten the broken part on his car fixed while he was driving his mom's car, that meant that my car for was used for the week. Sigh. So no Wednesday spinning, but did get to go to Haggen's. We are a happy noisy bunch, especially when getting to ogle others Sock Summit purchases. Some really nice yarns found their way into new stashes.

I finished up my second Hydrangea sock to find that Sock Summit knitting and lack of sleep impacted my socks. I have two different heel flaps. I could have sworn I was reading the pattern while knitting them but clearly two different flaps. Then again if anyone is that close and says anything, I'm doing what Lucy says - kick them in the face. That Lucy she is a riot! Judy assures me that if I were to knit them at the same time this wouldn't be a problem - she's right of course. LOL


With these socks done, I have hopes of casting on the Orion socks soon.

Saturday I picked up Angela and we headed downtown to go the monthly Portland Spinnerati meeting. Luckily I must have planned for bad traffic because at one point I was thinking we were going to be 20 minutes early and we ended up arriving just a few minutes late. Tammy made mention of reading about the closure of one of the lanes and redirecting of traffic but didn't remember about it until in the middle of the backed up traffic. ;-)

Michele was lured into the darkside as Sandy Kay (Knit/Purl) called it, by Leila's Turkish drop spindle, she saw it at the Ravelry Meetup and the next day went and bought one of her own. It was the magic of creating a center pull ball that got her and then after feeling and seeing yarn appear under her fingers I think we have her well and truly hooked. ;-)
Depending upon how much spinning happens we may have to get her setup with a shoebox lazy kate for the plying step before the next meeting or at OFFF.

We had a larger group than normal with several new people there. I'm terrible about names so don't have any to share. A few photos though:




After Spinnerati, Angela and I put the wheels back in the car and made the trek the few blocks over to Knit/Purl. I needed to get the pattern from Sandy Kay that I'm going to do a store sample out of the Habu Raw Silk she gave me at Sock Summit. She also let us take home a sample of Happiest Girl Dyeworks that they had been giving out in the booth. I brought home a pretty red one called Gypsy Petticoats:
I think a little wrist warmer should use it up nicely.

One lady in Knit/Purl asked about Sock Summit. She didn't come because she doesn't knit socks. After a stunned moment I mentioned the 150 booths in the marketplace but couldn't possibly depress her by the demos she also missed out. I just left her with hopefully there would be another one here in two years. She still seemed surprised by that thought. Why?