Pictures

The palm:



The back:

Teaser

I'm up to the palm on my first mitt. Tomorrow when the light is better (HA! When there IS light!) I'll take a picture to share with y'all.

My Marvelous Mitts

I kept seeing these lovely mitts showing up in blogs I read. I even found a Ravelry group for them. It was the same pattern but they're all so different. All so lovely.

I loved them. I coveted them in ways that knitters understand (well, any crafter really). I had to have them and make them my own. However, I didn't know how to do color work. Stranded? Floats? Holding my yarn in TWO HANDS!?! It seemed a little out there. But then I remembered Catie talking about how easy her tam was. How much she enjoyed knitting it.

I broke down and followed the link and bought the pattern. They're Marvelous Mitts by Karendipity.

It took me a while to decide on yarn. I mean a long while. I browsed a lot. Finally, I found the yarns. Quite accidently. Dream in Color Smooshy Giant Peach (and don't you just LOVE that name?!) and some unnamed most lovely shades of Green Koigu I had.

Took me three tries to get the cast on right. Since then, I've been on a big roll. I love the mitts. I love the colors together. I love that I taught myself how to knit with my left hand (and have gotten advice from Ms Karendipity herself as to where to go to learn how to purl with my left hand so I can knit both continental AND english!). I want to finish these mitts so I can find two more colors to make more!



And while I'm spouting all the love... I really love that a lot of designers use Ravelry and make themselves available even more readily to help you with their patterns. So far, knock on wood, I haven't needed help. But I've gotten some great encouragement from the KAL group on Ravelry, the moderators and Karen. I love that. I love that instead of going "what the heck does she/he mean by THAT" that you can just ask the designer. Easily. Because I know a lot of places you can find ways to contact the designer but if it's not easy I'm not going to do it. I'll figure it out on my own or with my friends...

So, if any designers are out there reading this and are accessible on ravelry, THANK YOU!!!

Monday, Again?

Well, It's Monday, I last posted Saturday so I'm posting again.

Nothing fiber related today. I'm still knitting away on my bag and socks. I did finally lengthen my first sweater. Much happier with it now. Truthfully, Mom helped me rip it out. It wasn't the actual ripping I needed help with, it was the mental aspect of ripping the ribbing out of my sweater. We had a drink after it was all ripped out and the stitches picked back up. I was the one who needed it, Mom just was being supportive.

Speaking of Mom, as a few of you may know, Mom is a vegetarian. So being a good daughter, I bought her a tofurkey roast. We roasted it with onions, carrots and potatoes as recommended. We basted it. We made vegetarian gravy. Luke really enjoyed the tofurkey. Mom and I thought the onions, carrots and potatoes turned out well. But the gravy wasn't all bad. So all was not lost.

We also baked bread. One in the bread machine (sourdough... mmmmm) and one from a mix it was wheat beer bread. Both were most yummy.

I have a new feature on my sidebar. It's a wish list. It's not the kind of wish list where I really expect y'all to buy me things from it but it's a fun place to list things I want for my memory as much as anything else. Plus I was having probably too much fun naming everything. But ya know, if you win the lotto or something and feel like you want to buy me presents, then, please, feel free to purchase anything on the list for me.

Spindle and Wheel Contest

You may remember a while back I won the Spindle and Wheel blog contest. Well, here's what I got:



2.5oz of Merino and Soysilk. It's very soft. I'd attach a piece to the blog for you to feel but technology isn't there yet...

I got some "grab bag" wool blend that is also quite soft.



I got a very pretty handmade spindle:



Sadly, I haven't tried it yet. Or the wrist distaff that came with it:



When I do finally try them, I'll give a review.

Allena also sent me a orifice hook (which I'll still need with my new wheel) / plying tool:



and some very pretty stitch markers:



Even the one I managed to cut out of the picture is pretty.

I know there's that whole "post every day" thing going on that has more letters in it that I'm capable of remembering right now, but I think I'm not quite up to posting every day. HOWEVER, I am aiming to post every OTHER day. I enjoy blogging. I kind of miss it but much like when I first started, it's a little hard find things to talk about right now so please just bear with me if you get a short silly post about something now and again instead of a deep meaningful post.

Thankful Thursday

Yup. I'm a follower. Plus I'm trying to post more and well, I am thankful! (A WHOLE week early at that!)

I'm thankful for my knitting groups. One is really an offset of the other but I'm thankful for both of them. I love the large group of people I don't always know working on everything under the sun and sitting beside someone new.

I'm thankful for our little offset group because I'm getting to know these girls much better and making good friends. And I get to drink tea and eat snacks from the B&N cafe. And browse books (which I'm thankful to my family that I love them) and knitting magazines. What's NOT to be thankful for here?

I'm thankful for my two fuzzy beasts. They keep me amused and as the weather turns, warm. Someone almost always wants to snuggle and not much is warmer than a cat in your lap.


(an old picture but it is one of my favs)

I'm thankful that it's getting colder. I know, that sounds crazy but I like having four seasons and damn it it was way past time for fall.

I'm thankful for knitting. For more reasons that I could list here.

And of course, I'm thankful for my friend and family, but that's a whole 'nother post...

SAFF Classes

Laura and I each took two classes at SAFF. She took a weaving class that had a lot of good information in it. And a Shepherd's Rug class.



The rugs the ladies who wrote the book had made were gorgeous! The chair pad/cat bed Laura was working on was also gorgeous!!

I took a multi-color one pot dye class on Friday. It was WAY too easy and not messy enough. I see dyeing in my future (I had typed dying in my future and well, I figure that is in the future but not what this post is about!).

We dyed three pots as a class. Some fleece that was fun but looks - well not pretty.


We dyed some wool:



Pepper liked the wool a lot!



We also dyed a mohair blend:



This one took color much better than the wool. Our instructor said that mohair likes dye and will soak it all up. Hmm, I may have to buy some to try that out!


The other class I took was a Creative Cast on Class with Margaret Heatherman. She taught us a handful of basic cast ons and what they're best used for and a couple really pretty "decorative" cast ons. Then gave us cardstock and double sided tape with all the cast on names so we could tape our swatches on them to remember which was which! This class, while as educational as I thought it would be, was way more fun than I thought it'd be! YEAH!



Next post will be my prize winnings from Spindle and Wheel.

Knitting update

Here's the few projects I'm working on:

My Marigold socks (do try not to remember that my Socktoberfest goal was to finish these OK? thanks!)



Dad's socks (the second one! In this pic it's almost done but they're really finished!)



A Mistake Rib scarf I'm making for a Christmas present:



Next post: Classes at SAFF!

(Well. I have a bandaid on the whole picture thing. I may or may not keep using the bandaid, but for now we have pictures!

grrrrr

OK. I know I said I was going to blog more often. And I've tried several times this week but blogger and I aren't seeing eye to eye on which pictures I should post. Mostly because blogger doesn't think I should post ANY pictures.

I've gotten two posts written up. As soon as I come up with another way to post pictures I will post more.

I do have several ideas forming but at this point in time, I must get ready to take Pepper to the vet for a check up.

beware...

Forgive me dear readers, it's been a long time since I posted. I have no real excuses. October was just very busy and I just didn't post much. I did an awful lot though. And I did an awful lot of fiber stuff...

October 13th the part of my family who lives in North Carolina and Virginia went to the NASCAR race at Charlotte. We had a lot of fun even if Mom won't go to Arizona to buy Car-osaurus for me (Barrett-Jackson). And no, I don't know what I'd do with it but does it REALLY matter?





I mean, come on... it breaths FIRE!

The next weekend some of us went to Sinkland Farms for a spinning demonstration. It was chilly and very windy but it was great company.



And I got the cutest little white pumpkin.



Then, Laura and I headed off to SAFF! Oh my did we have fun!! I had one basic rule: no buying yarn I could buy at home. Well, and to stay within my budget. And no bunnies. OK, so maybe I had a few rules.

Laura tried her hardest to talk me into bringing a bunny home. There was one I was quite fond of. This isn't him but he's close in color. "My" bunny had gray ears (and I met his new Momma and he's going to be a shop bunny!):



I did bring some some alpaca and a silk brick:





I got some sock yarn:





And some general wool for a felted back pack (a pattern that I also bought)





How/why this wool is "From Down Under" is beyond me. It's a product of Turkey and the shop is in Alabama:



But that's OK. I think it's pretty and will make a great bag.

The coolest thing either of us brought home was Laura's antique circular sock machine:



We're going today for a class on the finer art of making socks with it. And various other things.

The second coolest thing either of us brought home was my lucet:



My all time favorite thing:

My new wheel! OK. So, technically, she's not mine YET. And she didn't come HOME with me from SAFF and I'm going to a semi-local place to buy her but I fell in love with her at SAFF. And furthermore, have already sold my Ashford Traditional so I'll have both more room and more money to buy her.

The Ashford has gone off to live with Amy. I posted the wheel for sale on my spinning group on Ravelry and within an hour I'd say, Amy had contacted me about her and we made the deal. In fact, I've already shipped her off to her new life in Michigan. Be well my first wheel. And bring Amy all the wonder and joy you brought me!

I've got oodles of llama pictures and various "crowd shots" of SAFF that I'll get up on flickr or use them sporadically here.

OH, I almost forgot another great thing at SAFF. I finally met Mary! We've both been at the same fiber festivals all year but never realized we were seeing the other one or crossed paths or something but after my cast on class (which I'll blog about later) I went to get lunch and there she was! The three of us sat and ate a little lunch and visited and had a great time! I'm SO glad I finally got to meet her in person. She's the one who got me in touch with Robin who gave me all the information about my knit/spin group and ended up with me spinning and having a knit/spin group and all kinds of great friends! Thanks, Mary!! It was great to meet you! And wow, it's been a smidge over a year since that all happened... how time flies!

Laura and I both took two classes but I'll blog about those later. And I'll update you on all my knitting progress. I figure I've rambled on enough for now. Plus it'll give me more things to blog about so it won't be 2 weeks between posts! (and hopefully blogger will be willing to upload my pictures then too!)

And I can't believe I almost forgot my favorite October happening of all!! My sweet adorable little nephew was born at the beginning of the month: