Mass Sheep & Wool!

So, E & I decided to head up today with my Mother in Law who wanted to get some roving for needlefelting Santa Heads. It’s always good to have a purpose for visiting. My goal was to visit Spunky Eclectic and Foxfire Fibers as well as every other vendor there. I haven’t taken pictures of my purchases, but I took a few while we were there.

Within 10 minutes of arrival E was holding a baby angora:

And asking if we could take it home.

We saw plenty of sheep:

E was quite partial to the shetland lambs:

Again I was asked if we could bring one home. They were incredibly cute:

The answer was still no. Fortunately the breeder of these particular lambs was not interested in selling.

E also tried her hand at spinning. She waited very patiently to try it out. She listened and learned about staple length:

And tried it out:

I picked up a couple more bobbins for my wheel, so she could work on that and she got a drop spindle of her own.

All in all a fun day!

Fiber Festivals

So, I’m a bit late to the posting. I’ve been knitting on my slinky rib sweater, but haven’t taken a good progress shot. In the meantime a few weeks ago, I decided on the spur of the moment to go down to the Hudson Valley Fiber Farm Shearing Day. An hour and a half ride on the spur of the moment.

I’m really glad I did. There have been plenty of pictures and stories written, and I don’t have much to add. I was excited to see my friend from work, Joan, there. The neat thing about Joan is where there’s fiber I usually see her. She had introduced me to the Fiber Farm a while ago. I didn’t buy a share this time around, but I’m not ruling it out in the future.

I also got to meet a couple of people whose blogs I read. I have to admit to being somewhat shy about speaking up, but I’m glad I did. I spent a lovely time with Jessica (of Summer of Socks and so much more) watching the adorable angora kids playing. I also said hi to Deb and her Mom, but didn’t get to meet Chappy this time around.

The kids were adorable. Here’s one shot I liked:

I loved the little guy who figured out where the center of the action was:

I did find something to bring home that wouldn’t eat much (although Calvin wanted to make sure himself):

I am going to go the The Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair this weekend. What I may bring home, I don’t know.

A baby surprise – jacket

So, a while ago I found out that a friend of mine at work was expecting her second child. They were going to wait to find out whether the baby was a boy or girl – making it a surprise. I’d wanted to do an Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket for a while, but hadn’t had the right opportunity. This seemed like the perfect opportunity! I thought purples and bright colors would work well for a boy or girl – Eliza had a multi colored sweater that was mostly purple that I thought looked good on her, and would have worked for a boy as well, so I dipped into my stash and used some Cherry Tree Hill Superwash Merino.

Somehow I managed to lose all the pictures I’m sure I took. I think I dumped them off the memory card as I thought I’d uploaded them to the computer. But I hadn’t. Fortunately, Amber was willing to share some pictures.

I love the different buttons.

I also made a little hat to go with it:

At the beginning March, this lovely little boy joined the world. I’m so pleased that the sweater fits – I have to admit when I finished it I couldn’t beleive anyone could be that tiny.

Isn’t he the cutest little guy?

Progress on the Pieman and a new project

I finished the front of Pieman. I seriously hope this sweater isn’t too big. Now I’m reading others have done much smaller sizes for kids about E’s age.

I’m still happy with how this is turning out.

I’ve gotten yarn for my next project, even though I haven’t finished this one. Today I wound some of the yarn into balls:

Custom Knits Collage by scoutj

This is for Wendy Bernard’s “Slinky Ribs” from Custom Knits.
Below is a collage that Scoutj made. The sweater is the one in the upper right. I got enough yarn to make long sleeves, so that’s my plan right now.

I think this will be a fun one to knit!

Pie Man & Spinning!

I’ve been plowing through E’s new sweater. The back is complete:

Here’s a close up of the cable detail:

Once I got the pattern memorized, it really started to fly. I do need to pay attention, as I’ve had to tink back a few cables to correct the direction on occassion. Other than that I’m happy with the pattern. I did stop the back about an inch shorter than the pattern called for, because it seemed a little long for E. I think the arms may need some modification.

In other news, I finally cleaned my wheel up and started spinning again! Last year I got some alpaca roving at Rhinebeck, and I figured I’d give it a whirl. I’m very new at this, so it’s not very consistent, but I’m having fun, and I think it will be knittable. Here’s the single all spun up:

I found my Ramboulet roving in the barn, and am planning to spin that up to ply with this. Once I’m done, I’ll measure it and see what I may be able to knit. I think it may be enough for a cowl.

Catching up

Huh, last time I posted, it was November. Go figure.

Since then, I’ve been busy, but do I have lots of pictures to share? Oh no. For some reason I can’t find any of the pictures I’m sure I took over the past three and a half months. I did finish my November sweater, Grape Tang:

I’m really happy with it. I think I could have gone a size smaller for less ease, but I’ve worn it quite a bit. For the sake of posting, I’m not going to put details on here. I’ve updated my ravelry project.

Another thing I’ve been busy with are socks. I knit E a pair of Southwestern toe up socks:

I’ve gotten quite a few other projects off the needles, and will take some pictures to catch up now that it’s light later.

Now I’m working on Pie Man by Kim Hargreaves for E. She asked for a cabled sweater to go with the West Side I made for her last month.

So for now I’m off to knit!

Sweater in November?

So, I’ve often followed the NaKniSweMo progress the past 2 years and thought about it. Somehow I never got it together to knit along. Well this year, the stars aligned and I seem to be well on my way to knitting a sweater this November. I have yet to calculate if it’s 50,000 stitches, but I’m knitting it anyway.

I started this on November 1st and have found it a lot of fun to knit. It’s Tang, from Wendy Bernard’s Custom Knits. I picked the book up at Rhinebeck. The yarn is Cascade’s Rustic, a wool and linen blend that I’m finding a really nice knit.

I’m a little farther than this photo:

It’s a fun little knit. I don’t know if Wendy named it after the Astronaut drink, but I have to admit it was what I first thought of when I saw the pattern name. Therefore, when I found the perfect purple yarn, all I can think of is Grape Tang. I’ll have to check to see if that was ever a flavor option.

Planning for fall, and beyond

The knitting continues. After finishing the first Cleopatra sock, I decided I needed a simpler sock to work on in the car and traveling. I cast on a nanner sock!

I’ve finished one, and have gone back to the cleopatra socks. No photos, the second looks a lot like the first.

Today I picked up a book I’ve been eyeing, Simply Shetland 4. I’ve been interested in Eunny Jang’s Autumn Rose Pullover for a while now. The reason I was interested in it was that I have a lot of shetland yarn in my stash that I’ve been itching to use since I gave up on a project years ago. Of course there’s a story.

About 10 years ago or so I was lucky enough to take a class with Karen Allen on color knitting. The class was focused on designing your own pattern and executing it. I was a little ambitious. I got pretty far on the sweater, but found it a little frustrating as each row took me an hour to knit:

I finally realized that this sweater wasn’t meant to be, and put it to one side. I love the colors, and didn’t want the yarn or what I learned to go to waste, so I designed and knit a sweater for E:

It looked really cute till she outgrew it. My only frustration was the buttons, that kept breaking.

So, now I have this:

And I think it would work for the Autumn Rose Sweater. So, I’ll sit and figure out if I have enough yarn and in the right contrasting colors to make it work. This should be fun!

Tag! I’ve never done this before!

Imagine my surprise when I discovered a comment from Torchsinger, tagging me! I’ve never done this before, but I’m game.

The Rules: Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their names. Then the player goes to each of the “named” people’s blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. If you’ve been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. They, in turn, answer the following questions. Here we go!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago I was in the middle of my next to last class for my MBA and looking forward to completing it. I was working as a marketing manager for a global manufacturing company and not knitting very much due to my busy work and school schedule.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today? (Well, I have more than five, but I’ll stop there.)

Prepare spreadsheets for information distribution
Share lead information with sales
Check on daughter’s camps
RSVP for a birthday party
Prepare for upcoming meetings

3. Snacks I enjoy:
nachos, popcorn, salty crunchy things, baby carrots m&m’s (not necessarily in that order)

4. Places I’ve lived:
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Tennessee, Iowa, New York

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Pay off the house and pay for the rest of the work to be done. Buy a new car. Maybe even two. Sock a lot away for my daughter’s education, invest, probably wouldn’t quit my job, but would sure stress a lot less about it, help everyone who’s ever helped us out in any way I can.

Now I’m supposed to tag 5 more people. However, I’ve never been good at numbers So, here I go: Kim, Mandella UK, Mitchypoo, Amber, and YeaIKnit.

I do have knitting to share, but will save it for another post.

One Cleopatra Sock

I finished the first sock today. It’s a little hard to take pictures of your own foot, so here’s my best effort:

Here’s the snake:

The sock seems a little small, but I like it so far. My daughter wants me to make a pair for her after I finish these. so I’ll need to do some math to make a pair for littler feet.

I still need to do the beading, but I’ll be casting on sock number two tonight.