Knitting Royalty ~

There are people in our knitting and fiber world that are considered celebrities. Given all of them that I am aware of, my favorite is still the Yarn Harlot. She continues to delight me and thousands of other fiber enthusiasts through her adventures shared by blog and book. We have been lucky to see her several times during book tours, and at both Sock Summits.

We saw her on this book tour and were delighted by her stories, of course. So talented in so many ways, and oh so funny..... There is still a mystery about what she is doing with all the little wash cloths that are knit for her - she mentioned she was doing something with them in a blog post before the tour, but I've not heard any update on that project....

Dreams of Glass ~

I may not have told you of my minor obsession with the Ernst glass knitting needles. I first saw them at the first Sock Summit and knit a little swatch with them. They are lovely and light and bright, and oh so delightfully happy. Although I thought they were pricey at the time, I also knew they were a timeless treasure that would bring joy and function to any knitting project lucky enough to be knit with such happy glass. I knew we had a future together.  Each time I saw them at a fiber show, and I have been to a fair number these past years, I would lovingly knit a bit of a swatch with whatever needles were out to sample. I would chat with the owners and love their stories of "no questions" returns if one breaks, they don't really want to know what happened, just send it back and they melt it back to health. They are great people. At my first Fort Worden weekend, there was a pair of these needles as part of the prize choices, and I knew they would be mine before the end of the night. Whoops, lost them by such a close call, I knew they must not be THE ones in my future.....the next year at Fort Worden there was a pair of these needles hidden in a Mary Poppins tote, who knew?  I lost those too, to someone that didn't even love them. Where is the fairness? All the wonderful fun of Fort Worden with that slight shadow of losing those needles both years....but Fort Worden would play into our future.....

Jitteryknitter had been the banker of our acrylic "yuk" yarn sales from Fort Worden last year. You may recall that we bought a coffee maker with our first year's haul, and weren't sure what we really needed this year. As I sat in the gathering area of Madrona, she came out of the vendors area with a sassy smile on her face and I knew I was about to have an adventure. She placed a small box in my hands and it could only be one thing - the glass knitting needles. As Jitteryknitter went through box after box of needles, she finally found which ones spoke to her. These were not just any needles chosen for a prize giveaway, these were mine, these were made for me and waiting for me. They are pure sunshine yellow mixed with daffodil yellow and they sparkle and shine like Florida's afternoon sun on the ocean. I cannot say how excited, thrilled and delighted it was to finally FINALLY be united with my needles, finally able to cast on and start our future together. Ahhh, another magical time on our Madrona weekend!

Madness of the worst kind ~

Oh, the PAIN of messing up when a deadline is looming! Major bummer, as I had knit a good six inches of scarf and then a big mess up....I was distracted and BAM!

 *heavy sigh* and a few choice words and cast on fewer stitches, to make it a less wide scarf (for summer, right?), so that should knit up faster, right? As you can see from the picture above, all that yarn wrapped around the "other way" shows how much I ripped out. Just to make the picture not totally sad, I added our first homegrown strawberry of the season! Hurrah!

I have finally caught up to the place where I messed up...NOW FOCUS!!!  We have a deadline approaching!  P.S.  This is lovely sock yarn by Artsygal. I purchased this at the first sock summit.

Dalliance with moonbeams ~

I was serious about The Banshee. I was looking forward to some serious color spinning in a retina searing way, with hot pink, orange and some wild green for good measure....really, I was serious...we had a date....Then the moonlight moved into my skylight last night, and I remembered a very sweet little braid that I received at Christmas....

She called to me...polka-dots and moonbeams (yes, that is the name) and I wondered how I could have left her as "not spun yet" fiber for this long.....This fiber is from Fiber Optic - the first booth at the first Sock Summit where I tried spinning on a drop spindle from Kimber - the amazing dyer...and oh, how she does colors!  I loved all of her colors, and this fiber is stunning.

So, I am going to dally a little with this sweet and soft bit of moonbeams...yes, this is "the stuff moonbeams are made of" and I am loving this little detour with my sweet pastels.....look at that yellow and the mint green, and the pinks and blues just melt.....and violet too......I will return for my date with The Banshee, once the moonlight begins to fade....:)

Choose Zebra ~

I think I mentioned "the deal" that I have with my daughters, that I have a pair of socks for each of them on my needles at any given time. The youngest daughter has been lucky as I started a pair of beloved Jitterbugs for her before the holidays, and then she gave me the Pot 'O Gold sock yarn for Christmas, so I cast that on too... for her..... so she now has two pair of socks going on my needles....My oldest daughter's socks were finished for one of her Christmas gifts, so I told her she needed to check out my sock yarn stash and pick out her next socks. In order for her to choose, I laid out many skeins of my sock yarn on our bed (I should have taken a picture ~ the choices were glorious!) as there were choices from both Sock Summits, plus some beloved Jitterbug, and a few scores from eBay....She chose the Claudia Hand Painted, colorway Zebra, from the 2011 Sock Summit. Lovely purple and lime green against a dark background. I'm borrowing Jitteryknitters' KA bamboo knitting needles, and these are pointy and slick...I am very impressed with them!!

Moebius first ~

I may be the only knitter on earth that has not done the famous Cat Bordhi moebius cast on. I checked out the beginning of the youtube video (only the beginning as I was interrupted several times by a multitude of teenagers...perhaps there were only two teenagers, but they are busy busy busy and it seemed like more than two....). I did the cast on Sunday night, and waited until Monday afternoon to knit that first row.The cast on and first row are a bit awkward, but I do hope that I've done both correctly... stay tuned...P.S. Love this yarn, as it is another from the $10 bin at Sock Summit 2009 - Rio de la Plata sock yarn

Tosh Madness ~

I keep hearing about Madelinetosh yarn. Some people say there is no better yarn, some even say they must have more Tosh as it calls to them. It says, "Bring me home to be with my other Tosh colors"....
I have a skein of Tosh, truly vintage or classic (or, some would say "old") that I bought for $10 in a sale bin at the 2009 Sock Summit... so I thought I should start knitting with it so I could see, for myself, what all this craziness was about.... so I cast on Forest Canopy, a pattern I purchased on Ravelry.Well, there is a bit of madness in the air... no doubt about it....

A new spin ~

Now that I have my original yellow merino off my "sock summit" drop spindle, it is time for me to try out my very new "Cascade Mt. Si" drop spindle that I just bought at the spinning class. I had a gift certificate from my wonderful sister, and decided to use it for this lighter weight spindle.


After much thought, I decided to use the beautiful roving that I received for my birthday from Jitteryknitter. Turns out, this lovely roving is hand dyed by a local crafter, Kate Sitzman, and she's very talented and a delightful person! (Check out her website!) It seemed that the combination of lovely drop spindle and amazingly beautiful roving could only make magic occur.....right?



So, here I go....a new spindle, new roving....time for more improvement and adventure!

Loopy Ewe Sock Club Search ~

I was gifted a beautiful skein of Claudia Hand Paints with the tag saying:

Color: Loopy Ewe Sock Club
Lot: 001

I have no idea what year it is from, as the sweetie that gave it to me bought it at a stash busting sale at Sock Summit 2009. I'm looking on Ravelry to see if someone has another skein like this they would sell me....as there is only 180 yards on my skein, not enough to make socks, or a shawl...but it is is so beautiful!
If you have a skein like this to sell me, please let me know!! :)

Birthday Socks Done ~

P.S. I've been corrected that Rockstar's knitted vest was fair isle....I must have needed more coffee during that posting!!!

Another great day of finishing this weekend! I cast off my 2009 birthday socks using Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off, and it works so well.

I love this yarn, Claudia Hand Paints, purchased at the magical sock summit....

I'm already itching to cast on another pair with this yarn....

My daughter loves being the model for these photos....

I think she's a bit too comfortable in these great socks!!!

Buckles and Valentino ~

I fell in love at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival a few weeks back. I've not been the same since. It was serendipity that we attended the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, as the weekend in Portland was intended to take the place of the Sock Summit which was so fabulous last year. We had a blast, and it was pure luck and good karma that our weekend was the same as Flock and Fiber.

Meet Buckles and Valentino. Have you ever seen two cuter little alpacas? I wished I'd taken a video of them scampering around their pen, playing and dancing and getting lots of love from all of us....*sigh* I wish I could have brought them home to meet my chickens....

Brandywine ~

After seeing Ms M's Brandywine, it seemed like a good idea to cast one on, as it seems to be a magical shawl, full of beauty and grace. The Yarn Yoga gals helped me pick out the perfect yarn from my Sock Summit stash (which may be discontinued now, as I can't find it online), and so I decided that the 4th of July weekend was the perfect time to cast on.

It may not look like much, yet, but I'm already on row 11..... :)


Isn't it beautiful!!!

Tea with Claudia ~

The yarn I'm using for my Birthday socks is Tropicana, by Claudia Hand Painted Yarns that I bought at Sock Summit. I love the colors and the yarn is soft with a great twist. When Webs had a sale on this yarn, I couldn't help myself.


I bought two colorways.


Cotton Candy (above) in pinks, peaches, yellows and greens.... oh so lovely...



Circus Dancer (above) in oranges, blues, greens and all bright happy colors... oh so fun.... not sure which one I'll cast on first....they are both so beautiful!~~

Fine time for heels ~

I have been waiting to find time to turn the heels on my lovely alpaca-silk socks. I cast on this socks during the Sock Summit, although I'd purchased the yarn the year before. The yarn is lovely, and I've wanted to turn the heels for weeks, but couldn't find the time to sit with my Queen Kahuna book to knit the no-fail heel.


Today I did - once the car wash preparations were complete (and successful) I had the afternoon of Father's Day to finish turning the heels.


It feels so good to be on the next step of these socks!
~~

Back to Birthday Socks ~

I am glad to be working on my Birthday Socks (2009) again, as I need to turn the heel on my alpaca socks...so that will take some concentration and checking with my Queen Kahuna instructions...so I have my Birthday Socks in the car as my "mindless knitting" project while waiting in line, or car trips... the yarn is the amazing Tropicana Claudia Handpaints that I scored at the Sock Summit. Also, this yarn is currently on sale at Webs....SCORE!!!


Even if JitteryKnitter does not LOVE this color, I think it is such a happy and wonderful color, plus the yarn is so soft and the twist is great. Double thumbs up for Claudia Handpaints!



Hurrah!
~~~~

Wavy part ~

The Multnomah Shawl is coming along, and I learned how to do the 'wavy part' while knitting with The JitteryKnitter after the Local Yarn Store tour. We are both knitting this shawl, and if I would have had my camera with me during the tour, I would be able to show you how beautiful her shawl is on size 3 needles with yarn from Miss Babs that she bought at Sock Summit ~ very beautiful, indeed.


Here is the wavy part of mine... it is coming along now....
~~~~

Spinning merino/silk blend ~

I tried spinning my new fiber from Webs, the merino/tussah blend. I'm also using a different drop spindle that we won at the Sock Summit.


So far so good, and yet I can feel that the silk fibers are shorter and softer than the 100% merino I was spinning before.


I have so much to learn....
~~~

Spinning again ~

I have been thinking about my drop spindle and beautiful roving from our Whidbey vacation for several days now, and have committed to go to a local spinning guild meeting this weekend to learn more about better techniques for drop spinning. Tonight I tried spinning again, on my wonderful spindle from the Sock Summit.

You can see that I'm spinning thinner than my spinning (the ball on the left) I did on our Whidbey vacation...

Hurrah! I'm improving!!!!

Sock Hop Score ~

My lucky day! I have scored two skeins of.... (can you tell from the pictures?)



Oh, they are so beautiful...... you could say they are "Pretty"




...as in "Pretty Woman" by Crown Mountain Farms, Sock Hop sock yarn... that I first saw at the Sock Summit.... I do love those sales on Ravelry!

Help for Sock Summit ~

I mentioned that I've been looking at lots of patterns. On my vacation I found a pattern set that I've heard about through many sources, the first time through one of my favorite podcasts The Knitmore Girls where Gigi knits through almost the entire Little Box of Socks. Since the Box is individual patterns that are "lose" meaning not bound in a book, I couldn't find it at a library to review, or open at a bookstore... it was always sealed....



Imagine my delight when the yarn shop on our vacation had an open copy to review.... and review it, I did.....



and then I bought it.... so now I have lots of pattern help for my remaining Sock Summit yarn... P.S. Not all the yarn pictured is from the Sock Summit....just the majority!