Roanoke's NoSo Knit

Today was Roanoke's 10th Annual NoSo Knit. I heard about it too late last year (or way early this year?) and didn't go but this year I was going. I even talked Mom into going. I have very few pictures because my camera battery was on the verge of death. I however did get a picture of our table.

We have Laura (who I'm going to SAFF with):



Christy:



Nancy:



and from left to right Knit Nana and Pam:



Oh, and me and my Mom:



Mom won some lovely blue yarn who's brand I've promptly forgotten:



I won some Berroco Tutu which must be hiding in Mom's car because I don't have it with me now and I know it made it TO the car so click the link to what it looks like. It's the black one.

Other prizes at our table included 2 pattern books, a handmade cosmetic case, a legwarmer kit and some other wool. Yes, I did pay attention but that was a long time ago. We did a lot of talking and laughing and window shopping and some not window shopping and I just don't remember who all got exactly what, ok?

Speaking of shopping, I did very well. I only bought 3 things:

Orchid lace weight Malabrigo:



This WILL be knit into a scarf or some such for me but oh, my. It's so lovely I could just pet it all day long. (BTW, this purchase is all Christy's fault. She was looking at the Malabrigo and said that I should definitely knit some lace...)

A green skein of Cotton Classic for a baby bib (for my nephew who will be born ANY day now!):



and a Fiber Trends Raindrop Lace sock pattern.

That's it. Mom got some sock yarn of unknown origin. Well, SHE knows what brands they are but as I said before, we did a lot and all I know is one was a blue tweedy color and the other what looks like will be a nice blend of browns/grays.

Oh and I almost forgot, amongst our goodie bags (needles, patterns, coupons, various knitterly goodies) was this:



Sportweight Claudia Handpaint... mmmm...

All in all, we had a really good day.

A long trip home

I went to visit my sister this weekend (we had a lovely time) and spent a little over an hour in this on the way home:



So, except when we were at a very very slow roll, I did this:



Does sitting in your truck all alone in the middle of a traffic jam (standstill?) still count as Knitting in Public?

Dad's 3rd Hat

Hmm, OK, just this year alone, I've knit Dad 3 hats. In all fairness the first one didn't fit (hey, it was my second hat and mine didn't fit me either!) and this one is out of (drum roll please) my own handspun.

Catie gave me some fleece named Brother when I got my wheel. I preservered and spun enough of Brother to knit a hat (plus some. I could probably get another hat out of what's left). I think Brother is a beautiful gray. Catie kept fussing at me to throw it away.

I finally knit some of my own handspun. I think this is my most favoritist hat I've ever knit. Ever. It's certainly the most beautiful hat I've knit. And yes, I realized I'm biased. But if I didn't make this specifically for Dad (cuz he asked for it) I don't think I'd give it away. I love it.

Now, after all that hype:





I showed it to Catie... she was glad I didn't throw it away and was inspired to maybe even spin some of Brother herself.

(See, I finished this last week or so and have been holding out on you so I could give you some more blogging...)

A funny story

I was at work today and at lunch was sitting there quietly knitting on Dad's sock. One of the managers came up and sat down with me. After she got her lunch all ready and was eating she looked at me and said, "you're really knitting socks!" In that tone that maybe she heard I'd knit them but thought they were being silly.

me: Yup

Bosslady: Are they slippers or like sock socks?

me: sock socks

Bosslady: huh...

me: Next time I wear a pair I'll try to remember to show them to you.

Bosslady: OK (in a more enthusiastic tone than I'm really able to convey here)

It was really just kind of funny.

And just so you don't think I'm completely evil bringing home a pink litter box, I did bring Bartholamew home his favorite toy: a cat nip pillow!



We lurves the 'nip...

ooo, pink...

Well, it's been an exciting week around here.

Bartholamew finally got out voted and a PINK litter box was brought into His Home (hey, it's our home, too, B!)



Don't worry too much, there's still the big gray box for him but he doesn't seem to mind the pink (he was the first one in there...)

They've got a bigger one that involves a little ramp for them to get in and out of the box and supposedly cleans the litter out of their toes but it's HUGE and we don't have the kind of room around here. Plus I'm not sure his Highness would use it. Pepper I'm not so worried about.

I've been plugging away at Dad's socks:



I'm an inch away from the ribbing and then I'll cast on for sock #2.

I started my own socks:



I know, there's not much there but I just started them. They're going to be Marigold Socks. I'm looking forward to working on them some more.

My sweater went out this morning on it's "inagural" wearing and I do think I'm going to have to rip out the bind off and add a couple more rows to the bottom. It's just not quite long enough. It's not bad but it's not perfect and why knit sweaters if they're not going to be perfect, ya know?

Hopefully, I'll have more to say than just another update next Sunday.

Finally!

Well, it took me more than a weekend (even a 3 day weekend) but I finally finished my Weekend Pullover:



I did get everything done but the sleeves last weekend which is why I didn't post about it, I wanted to see how much I could actually get done and there just wasn't a lot of knitting time at home this past week. The yarn is what I got last weekend - Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky. The pattern is Knitting Pure and Simple's Weekend Pullover. If you scroll down it's in the middle. It's knit on size 17 needles. The cicular the body's done on isn't too bad but the dpn's are a bit of a pain to get used to.

Looking at the picture I should clarify, I do need to weave in the ends. I need a little help on that because I tried to weave two in and because the stitches are so big and the yarn so lofty I feel you can see where it is. I'm waiting for Mom the Knitting Guru's help (not like I need a sweater in this weather yet).

That would make it my first finished sweater. Well, the first finished sweater that will fit a person. I also made this last weekend:



I've also been knitting on Dad's sock:



I got lots of help. Bartholamew supervised the finished sweater photo shoot:



Pepper supervised all the knitting:



Well, most of the knitting. Yesterday I went to the Big Lick Blues Festival with some friends of mine. Yes, I took my knitting. However, I didn't take anything that couldn't stand to get dirty since it was outdoors. So I took some dishrag cotton:





Sometimes, it's nice just making plain ol' garter stitch squares.

Fiber-licious Saturday!

Today was a fiber-licious!! It started out my friend Laura and I braved the traffic and went to Blacksburg to hit Mosaic's sale. I mean all the good stuff goes early right? Never mind that it's Virginia Tech's first home game of the season and that ESPN's Game Day is going to be there and they're playing ECU so those folks are driving up too... (and really, we went early enough that for all but the last 2 miles of the journey it wasn't bad at all and even those 2 miles were a rolling stop not a dead stop).



Then I came home and found the mailman had left me some delightful presents in my mailbox. Some of these are for presents so you're just going to have to look and enjoy, not ask too many questions. I'll tell you the STR is in colorways Metamorphic and In The Navy. And I'll tell you that the roving consists of one of each of these fibers: Blue Faced Lancaster, Alpaca and Silk. yummmmm





Y'all know where Socks that Rock comes from (if you don't, just leave a comment I'll be happy to point you in their direction), and the roving came from Sakina Needles. Catie ordered from her before and recommended her so I ordered from her, too. The first order admittedly had some snafu's but they were resolved and there was a legitimate issue not something horrible and the roving and resulting yarn was so wonderful, I ordered from her again and am here recommending her to you.



Pepper thought today was fiber-licious, too!