Knitting

The first clue for Mystic Meadows came out today…and I’m mostly convinced that the lace pattern is going to be much too busy for the variegated yarn I’ve selected. And I’m *way* more than OK with that, because ever since I got the yarn in the mail it’s been whispering “soft little baby sweater…hat…baby socks…big sister socks…” to me, trying to convince me that it doesn’t want to be that stole. So now I just have to find a different yarn (there’s a whole shop to choose from. we must have *something* I can use.) for the stole and see if there’s a perfect pattern to knit this lovely yarn into a tiny little baby sweater.

I joined yet another knit-along (because a girl can’t have too many lace stoles, you know, I do wear them everywhere…well, OK, not really, but they’re fun to knit) and wound up spending an unbelievable amount of time trying to find just the right yarn for it.

This is from No Two Snowflake’s Etsy shop. (Never shopped on Etsy? Don’t blame me if your paypal account starts getting a workout. You’ve been warned.) Here’s a very accurate (and gorgeous) shot of the colors in this yarn:

And here’s my swatch – it’s not quite as big as the dimensions I was supposed to get, but I like the drape as-is, so I’ll just have a slightly smaller stole.

I hope it’s not too variegated to show the lace pattern, because it’s darn pretty. Some of my inspirations:

And yes, I’m aware those aren’t all meadow flowers (and that dandelions are weeds), but they all mean spring. Oh, and this picture of wild columbine is just about a perfect match! I wonder if I can put some of these in my garden?

(Besides, if the yarn doesn’t work out for the stole, squishy-soft fingering weight yarn is perfect for baby sweaters!)

Do you remember the autumn-colored merino I bought at the Hemlock fiber festival? Well, first I turned it into this:

And then, I knit it into this:

This is the Peace Shawl, and it was almost the perfect size for the amount of yarn I had spun. I had to work 6 fewer rows before the edging, and I literally hat a foot of yarn leftover. (That bind-off was a bit scary, because I was sure I’d run out of yarn to bind off with 10 stitches before the end!)

This is the first yarn I’ve spun that I’ve felt was worth knitting into something, and I’m very, very happy with how it came out!

I always go to festivals with a dollar amount firmly fixed in my mind that I will not go over. And then, of course, there’s one or two things I can’t leave without and that number goes *way* out the window. (Luckily, I know this, so I set my dollar amount much lower than it should be!)

At least I didn’t come home with the Kromski Symphony I tried. It was close though, because that wheel was really, really nice. But I have my Minstrel and I’m going to research and try out other portable wheels before I commit to anything new.

So what did I come home with?

Part one:

Clockwise from the upper left: wool from Spinner’s Hill, Carrie’s pink & purple wool from (I can’t remember where), a green cabled sock kit (for St. Patty’s day, of course), and two ounces each of bamboo and ingeo to try spinning.

Part two:

Clockwise starting from the big green-ish ball: some green merino (I think Ashland Bay?) that I was talked into buying by my enabling aunt (it’s 1 lb, 3 oz, enough for a big shawl or a vest?), an ounce of sinfully soft camel down, a felted ball (Carrie picked that out), a color of Trekking XXL I don’t have in my stash yet, and some girly bamboo/cotton sock yarn like the gray I bought for Denis at Hemlock. (No I haven’t started the gray socks yet.)

Um, I think that’s it. Oh, wait, I bought a pair of needles too, but they’re already buried in a project.

For more pictures of what Carrie & I did at Rhinebeck (I inexplicably didn’t end up with any pictures of my Mom, my aunt, or Van…) here’s an album. (Kodak EasyShare Gallery, requires sign-in.)

Carrie and I are going to Rhinebeck this Sunday, and I really want to have her cabled jacket done. I have all but half of one sleeve knit and then just assembly and the collar. I could manage all that in the car, right?

Knitting Daily had a poll about the number of UFOs we each had. I had to try to do a physical count, and I came up with 18. That counts everything from things I know I’ll never finish to socks without mates.

Don’t ask me about sewing, quilting, spinning or anything else. That was just knitting UFOs.

This year for the fiber festival, I didn’t just buy stuff – although I did do plenty of that! – I also sold stuff. That was a really wild experience! On Saturday our booth was packed full of knitters. The line was never less than six people deep, even with three of us writing up receipts and making change. The weather was cold and rainy, but it didn’t seem to stop people from coming to the festival. Here are a couple of pictures of our booth before the fairgrounds opened:

Sunday was much less busy, so I actually got to walk around for a bit and enjoy the sights myself. Sunday was much worse for my wallet! But the weather was beautiful, so Denis and Carrie drove down and met me there for a couple of hours and we had a really good time.

Carrie especially loved the maple flavored cotton candy – her first cotton candy ever – and wouldn’t let go of the bag even for a picture.

I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of my loot before it got dark today, so I’ll have to post about that another time.