Out of Hibernation

I had a couple of minutes to myself so I figured I'd talk a bit about the wool in my life.

I actually hadn't spun anything in a while but all it takes is one fiber friend that started a case of the "me too"s. I bumped into my ace Sahara one fine day in Harlem and she just happened to be toting along her wheel. I sat for a while a while with her in a local park shooting the breeze and all I could think in my head is "I wanna spin something too!"

When I got home I decided to just grab something from the stash and start spinning without worrying about its purpose. You guys may not remember but a while ago I mentioned something about a project I was working on. Something like a sheep to shawl for lack of better words. Last year I bought like 6 pounds of raw Cheviot fleece from ebay. I had this notion that I would process the whole thing and knit me a sweater (yeah right). Socks are more my thing so I tried a little experiment. I washed about 4 ounces and immediately dyed them using my favorite Wiltons. The colors surprisingly came out in a sorta pinkish peach, muted grape and puke green. I carded them seperately and added bits of the other colors throughout to add sort of a tweed effect.The batts sat for a while until recently. I took a thin strip from each batt and spun them together in this order: pink/green, green/purple, purple/pink....and so on. I then plyed it back on itself and this is what I came out with. I don't have yardage or twist per inch but I would guess that its about 200 yard of sport weightish yarn. I'm very pleased with the results and I'm thinking fingerless gloves, got any other ideas?

My hands were still itching to spin so I grabbed 2 ounces of superwash merino that I handyed. I actually had this in my etsy shop but it didn't sell, oh well, more fiber for ME! I named this one inkpad and I really like how dark the blue got in this one.
I split the top down the middle and spun them up separately on my little hitchhiker. By the way, I spun the other one on my hitchiker also, I'm trying to bond with the wheel by spending some QT. I then plied them together for another two ply (my favorite)
Again, I don't have the stats on this but I would guess 150 yards and sock weightish. This skeins got no plans yet but right now its my pet skein which means I leave it on the coffee table just to look at and pet every once in a while.

My jones has yet to be satisfied so right now I'm spinning a grafton fibers batt that I recvieved in a swap a while ago. I'm trying to make this a bit thicker just to spice things up a bit. I'll let you know how it goes but here's some beauty shots.
Well thats about it. I'm planning on updating my shop very soon with some new stitch markers so be on the lookout. Have a wonderful Memorial day people, gas up those grills!

Neglected

I've been writing posts in my head for the longest but I think the title explains the state of this here blog to the T. I've also neglected other recreational items in my life such as picture taking and commenting on blogs. I think thats about all I'll spend on that subject so lets move things along and I'm going to try my best not to make this into a marathon post.

In the meantime & in between time I've been dippin and dabbin in a bit of quilting, knitting and spinning. You ever have a project that gets you so frustrated that you just want to scream but you refuse to give up? Thats how I feel about The Quilt. It currently sits in a corner, fully pin basted waiting for further instruction. I'll try and keep it brief but what had happened was I intended to finish said quilt in time to gift to my Nana for mothers day. Next thing I know, mothers day is right around the corner and I haven't done a thing on it since having basted it. So I try and hand quilt one of the squares and it took my like 2 hours (no lie). I figured that wouldn't work but I'm too cheap right now to buy a quilting (even feed) foot so my regular presser foot should work right? NO! I'm getting upset all over again just thinking about it so I'll just say, I'm not planning on picking that project back up anytime soon.

Knittings been a bit slow go. Rather I've been crocheting up some baby things for some impromptu baby showers which you can view in my ravelry. Other than that, I started seeming up The Sweater. If you don't know which sweater I'm talking about then check the archives like back to January 2007 (yeah 2007!). I have the shoulders and one sleeve connected and I'm halfway through the second belt. Hopefully I'll be able to wear it to Rhinebeck this year. I started another sweater but its not doing it for me as much right now. I finished the back, and both fronts in three days. I'm doing both sleeves at the same time and I kinda lost steam. eh. Other than that I knit a some socks.

Oh yes, the socks. because I hate to feel like I'm missing something, I once again joined the sock swap for my Sit n Knit group (again, I'll try and keep it brief). My partner stated that she liked Argyle so I was oh so happy to oblige. only problem is that I don't have that much experience with fair isle/intarsia but what the hey. I knew from the start that I would do fair isle rather then the traditional argyle technique. I tried to write a pattern myself but I spent like 2 weeks just wasting time cause I ended up not liking any of them. I then bumped into my blogger bingo buddy Glenna at the Yarn Harlots book signing. I go to her ravelry page to make her a friend and I see that she designed a pair of fair isle knee highs. I harass her for the pattern and she was gracious enough to send the info my way. I tried it with Glennas chart but it was too puckery because I'm such a neophyte (one of my words of the day and I actually got to use it!) at fair isle. So I ended up using the chart from Eunny's site. Glennas pattern was so easy to follow but there is bit of number crunching to do. I flew through the pattern but I still was only able to knit just one sock :-(. I ended up giving my partner (Lyni) the yarn so she could finish the second one if she wished.

I felt so bad about not handing her a finished pair that I ended up making her a pair of anklets out of koigu. The pattern is the Feet First knitalong pattern from the Spring Simply Knitting Magazine. I also made her a simple drawstring bag but of course I forgot to take a picture of it.

My current commuter knitting is the Vinnland sock pattern in some mystery sock yarn I received in a swap. Sure is pretty though.

I've talked enough for one post so I'll show off the spinning next time. As far as my prize winners, I'll try an get those things out to you guys this weekend. I've been kinda lazy but I'm trying to nip that in the bud. Later kiddies.

TCB

This post will be very short because I don't have any project updates or pictures for you guys. Just like the title says, just trying to take care of some business.

First order of business, I held a little blogiversary contest in my last post so its time to pick a winner. Actually I'm going to do that as we speak (er........or as I type). I just asked my Sweetie for any number between 1 & 15 because I currently have 15 comments on the last post. He can't see the screen right now cause he's at his DJ setup messing around with some music......Now I'm yelling at him because the music is so loud.......OK he picked one and the winner is........Number 15 YAY.....wait,let me go check to make sure she used the letter Q........yup she did, Congratulations Stickyfingers! Write me an email (my addy's in the sidebar) with your 2 favorite colors and your address. I'll let you know once I've sewn the bag and its on the way to you.

Because I'm a big softee at heart and I wish everyone was a winner, I'm going to pick a second place winner from a random number generator and this person will receive a set of 6 stitch markers hand made by me in their favorite color. So the winner for that is .........number 10, Hopie Knits! So Hope, send me an email with your address and favorite color when you get a chance. Thanks everybody for playing.

Second and last order of business concerns a pattern. A while ago I crocheted a little hat for my Sweetie seen here. A couple of people asked for the pattern and here it is. If anyone tries it, please let me know how it went, I would love to see pictures.

OK, that it for now, I'll have an update across all craft fronts next time. See ya.

R&B INSPIRED KUFI by Harlem Purls

This hat was inspired by the one Eddie Murphy wore in the movie Dreamgirls. This hat is also similar to the crocheted hats Marvin Gaye wore during his career. Here’s my interpretation of the pattern. For this pattern you will need 4 different colors of heavy worsted weight yarn. I used acrylic scraps that I had in my stash. For this pattern I have labeled the different colors 1 thru 4. Here’s an example of how I identified my colors but you can use whatever order suits you:

Color 1 – Light Color

Color 2 – Medium Light Color

Color 3 – Medium Dark Color

Color 4 – Dark Color

Please also note that the beginning chains of a row do not count as a stitch. This pattern has not been tested so please let me know if you have any questions or find anything wonky. Enjoy.

Abbreviations:

Beg beginning

Ch chain

Dc double crochet

Rep Repeat

Rnd Round

Sl st slip stitch

St(s) stitch(es)

Trc triple crochet

Gauge:

12 dc = 4 inches

Hook – Size I – 5.5mm

Pattern:

Starting with Color 3, form a ring , chain (ch) 3 and make 12 triple crochet (trc) into ring. Slip stitch (sl st) to top of beginning (beg) ch to join.

Row 1: Ch 3. 2 trc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join – (24 sts)

Row 2: Ch 3. *Skip 2 sts, 5 trc in next st, ch 1, rep from * 7 more times omitting the ch 1 on last cluster, change to Color 1, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 3: Ch 3. Skip 2 sts, *4 trc in 3^rd trc of cluster below, ch 3, rep from * 7 more times omitting last 2 chains, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 4: Ch 2. Dc in each st and ch across, change to Color 4, sl st in beg ch to join – (54 sts)

Row 5: Ch 3. *Skip 2 sts, 3 trc in next st, ch 1, rep from * across 17 more times, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 6: Ch 2. Dc in each st and ch across. Change to Color 2, sl st in beg ch to join – (55 sts)

Row 7: Ch 3. Trc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 8: Ch 2. Dc in each st across. Change to Color 4, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 9: Ch 1. Sc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 10: Ch 1. Sc in each st across. Change to Color 3, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 11: Ch 1. Sc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 12: Ch 1. Sc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 13: Ch 1. Sc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 14: Ch 1. Sc in each st across. Change to Color 2, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 15: Ch 1. Sc in each st across. Fasten off.

Starts with Q, ends with -ing

Howdy knitting neighborinos! Whats new & exciting? Let's just pretend as if I haven't been a way that long, okay. I'll try not to keep this post too long because you know how I can get when I return from an extended absence. Why don't we start with whats new and exciting for me right now....Quilting.

Yup I'm totally hooked, even though I have yet to actually finish one. I don't know where the urge came from but I can remember looking for a shoe under my bed and noticing my overflowing fabric stash and thinking that I've got to do something about this. Since I couldn't bear to part with any of the fabric for the simple fact that....well....for no other rational reason other than its mine, I figured I could use it up if I did some patchwork. I quickly googled the subject to find all there is to know, purchased a couple of books and thought that I knew what I was doing. I jumped head first into my scraps and thought "Shoo, I could wing this, who needs to draw out a pattern". All was going well until I held up my little 15 inch piece that I had been working on for a while to my SO and he's like "Uh, you know what that looks like right" I took a second look and sure enough one out of my four blocks resembled a certain racially charged hate symbol and thats all I'm going to say about that.

Needless to say, I have thoroughly planned the quilt I am working on now. I saw the pattern on my new favorite show Simply Quilts and I knew I just had to have it. I picked out the fat quarters from my newest pusher The City Quilter. This picture doesn't reflect true color but more or less I'm pretty pleased with my progress. The only thing I'm on the fence about is the hot pink. It doesn't really mesh well with the other colors, but at this point I'm not changing it. Lets just call it a character element. that draws your eyes to the center.

If you can't tell already I've fell back in love with my sewing machine. I made a couple of bags but they were gifts so of course I don't have any pictures. I have a crappy cell phone pic of the bag I made my boss from this book.
I also made the scrap pincushion from said book. You don't know how badly I needed one. I had been using an old rolled up crochet swatch as a makeshift one for the longest. It didn't hit my until I stuck myself so hard that my finger was bleeding.


For some strange reason it seems as if all knitting mojo goes on hiatus around this time of year. I don't know, is it just me? I lost my knitting mojo around the end of February and its slowly starting to return. I've been busy lately cranking out the baby gifts and my ravelry can vouch for that. I just have one more shower in April which I think I may do a baby quilt/knitted sweater combo. I did fall head over heels in love with one of the new patterns in Knitty. Any reason to use handspun yarn is swell in my book.

The pattern is Spirogyra and I spun the yarn from one of Abby's Luxury Batts. I believe its a mix of merino/silk/nylon/sparkly stuff. I spun it as a 3 ply and its roughly 12-14 wpi. I spun it a while ago so I can't remember if I blocked the yarn or not. I'm thinking that it'll bloom either way once I soak these babies.

OK, I said I wouldn't keep this post that long (yeah right) so I'll wrap it up. If you read through all of that, then congrats, I may have a prize for you. I missed my blogiversary (yeah, 2 years, I know!) last week so I'm gonna have a little contest. I'll pick one winner randomly from the comments. Oh and you also have to put the letter Q (for quilting, tee hee) somewhere in your comment to to be eligible. It can be in a word or just by itself. Just want to make sure you're paying attention. Almost forgot, the prize will be a hand sewn (by moi) sock knitting drawstring bag in the 2 colors of your choosing (lining/outside fabric). Contest ends on Monday the 24th and I'll pick a winner on Tuesday although I may not announce it for a while, ya'll know how I am. Thats all kiddies, take care, comb your hair.

Quickie

I'm still alive..........knitting mojo done up and left (think it went to cozy's place).......got bit by the quilting bug from outta nowhere.........no pics cause I can't find the stupid battery charger plug.............fell back in luv with my sewing machine & craftster............see ya on Ravelry.

I Had A Dream...

Of finishing my first sweater. It all started last year when Necia proposed an I have a Dream Knit-along in honor of Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday. Since I have tackled many a baby sweater, I figured it was high time I made something wearable for myself. In fact 2007 turned into the year of knitting for me. Well the project started off great but I quickly lost steam after finishing most of the back piece.
Oh, in case I forgot to mention, the pattern is from the Vogue Knitting Unltimate knitting book. They have a bunch of patterns created by some well known designers way in the back of the book. I chose a wrap cardigan designed by Oscar De La Renta. Moving right along, the sweater sat in limbo for a good 6 months before I picked it back up. I'm still surprised I remembered the pattern and all. Well it took me most of the fall to complete the two front pieces and the sleeves. Actually it went more like, sleeve, left front, sleeve, right front. I was so ecstatic to finally have my dream sweater almost complete but then I don't know what happened.
I don't know if its the daunting task of seaming the gargantuan pile of fabric or if I just lost interest but this has been the sweaters state for a while.
By the way, none of these pictures actually show the true color. The pattern includes knitting two belts 30" and 40" to use as ties but I just don't like knitting them. I've contemplated just crocheting the darn things but I don't think I'll get the same effect. I'm thinking about just scrapping the belts and use a big 'ol shawl pin as a closure. Hopefully talking about it here will help get me motivated to just seam the thing. Well a girl can dream...

Speaking of sweaters, I have recently fallen head over heels in love with a sweater pattern. It's the cover cardigan in my favorite British knitting magazine, Simply Knitting. Once I saw it, I knew I had to have it. The only discouraging factor was that the sweater used about 8 balls of Rowan Big Wool which aint cheap, let me tell ya. Thanks to WEBS, I have my yarn (at like half the price) and I'm itching to cast on. I've read on Ravelry that a bunch of people have finished it in a weekend which is just my kind of pattern. I'll keep you posted.

Well thats about it for my sweater post. See you next time.

P.S. You can see me on camera for like a second bugging Kat for a picture at Rhinebeck over on her videocast. Thanks Glenna for giving me the heads up about it.

Yes, I'm still alive thanks for asking :-)

Well no one really asked but yes I am still alive, just been extremely busy. Happy New Year and all that jazz. You won't see any resolutions posted here just because... I just don't wanna. My holiday season was pretty low key just spent at home chilling with the family.Not a lot of knitting or spinning going on. I'm not going to recap my knits for 2007 either for the same reason stated previously. With all of that said, why did I start this post? Oh yeah, I just want to bring my blog up to date for '08 (I like the way that sounds).

I'm currently working on a secret project which will be revealed once it's finished. All I can say is that its super cute and way out of my comfort zone. I don't know what was in the water this summer but the preggers people are coming out in full force. I made my first Baby surprise jacket and I am now officially in love with the pattern. I made it for one of my coworkers that attends our purls of hope knitting sessions there. She is so incredibly sweet so I knew I had to make something extra special for her impending bundle of joy.
The yarn is Red Heart baby soft and I can honestly say that I enjoyed knitting with it. I mean its acrylic thats soft, doesn't squeak or hurt your hands, what more could you ask for? It took me about a week to make and I used the pattern from EZ's Opinionated Knitter book. I tried to make the bonnet that has sort of the same mitered lines as the sweater but it looked rather odd to me. I ended up seaming of the side of it and turning it into a hat. I'm planning on knitting another one but with some handspun yarn with a lot of color. Speaking of, have you seen the one in the new Spin Off magazine? Yeah, I know!

As far as my wip's from my previous project, I ditched the sock (just wasn't feeling it) and I lost the chart I made for the vest. Once I get the energy to try and remember what patterns I used and where I left off then I'll resume knitting it. Hopefully I'll have it done before winter is over.

I know I keep making reference to a spinning project that I'm working on but I haven't actually given any details. That's because I don't feel as though I have enough content to show as of yet. Plus I don't really know where I'm headed with it so I want to wait until I have it a little more planned out. But I will take you through my steps so far.

I took some White scoured New Zealand Romney wool that I purchased from RH Lindsay and dyed the locs in shades of purple, green and salmon. I then carded the colors separately into nice fluffy batts. I then added specs of the other colors into each main color (i.e specs of green & salmon in the purple batt etc).

I feel stumped right now because I'm not sure of how I want to spin it and what I want the end product to be. I think I may want to make a fair isle hat being that I only have a little over an ounce and a half of each color or I may make fair isle mittens. So once I know what I want to make, then I can spin and the whole process will be posted here for you all to see.

I think I'm done for now so I'll try not to make myself so much of a stranger. Later.

In Progress

I had a couple of minutes to myself so I figured I'd put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard depending on how you look at it ) and write a little sumthin sumthin.

Well I've been suffering hard from Knitters ADD. I've been having serious gauge issues lately which seems to fuel my project polygamy. I think its true when they say that your knitting is directly related to your mood. I've been wanting to blog for the longest just to get some thought out of my head but my mind feels like its being pulled off in fifty million directions. I just don't feel centered on one thing and I'm thinking its the holidays that have me feeling like an erratic mad woman. So I apologize if this post seems like I'm off somewhere else (because I am). Anyway, on with the show.

UGhhhh

Here are the mishaps that have had my knickers in a bunch (dontcha just love that expression).

First off is the bog jacket I planned for Little Boy Blue. I love Elizabeth Zimmermans patterns but being the impatient person that I am I didn't read the whole unpattern through properly before writing up my notes. I was OK with the sweater until I got the shoulders. I had planned to put all the bells and whistles on this jacket including the longer sleeves, shoulder shaping and back neck shaping. My downfall came from placing the shoulder shaping in the wrong spot. You can clearly see in this photo that there is no way to correct this without ripping out the whole top of the sweater and frankly thats not going to happen (please pay no attention to my mess in the background) I'm not a big fan of garter stitch so I can't see myself starting this pattern all over right now. I just have to take an L on this one and wash my hands of it.

Next up in the Ugh category is a project that was more than a year in the making. In August of 2006 I made a feeble attempt to make a fair isle mitten. All I managed to knit since then was about an inch of ribbing. Fair isle still seems to intrigue me but I have yet to finish one project that I've started using stranded knitting (case in point). So I decided to suck it up and try and bring this thing back into my knitting rotation. I already had about an inch of ribbing done on size 000 dpns so it took me about an hour to finish up the rest of the ribbing for the cuff. After that I got into the fair isle pattern and I was a giddy little knitter watching the pattern form. Then something told me that this looked kind of small. SO I tried it on and lo & behold, it was too small. Again, I do not wish to start ALL over again so this will sit in the corner until I know what the heck I want to do with it.

Instant Gratification Knitting

In between those mishaps, I've done a little knitting to get my mind off of the failures. The first one was out of necessity. Little boy blue needed some mittens so of course his mama had to make some for him.
These are the Target Mittens from the Knitting Nature book but I used the pattern in last years winter interweave knits. I used Plymouth Encour DK and you can find all the stats here on Ravelry.

DJ (my significant other) has been bugging me for a while now to make him a hat like the Marvin Gaye reminiscent one Eddie Murphy wore in Dreamgirls. I practically sat with picture in my lap while I crocheted the hat using odd balls of acrylic yarn. He loved it even though I took so long to make it. I even made him another one the very next day. I think they go great with his locs.

In Progress

Right now I'm working on some socks as travel knitting. I'm using the sock hop blogged about here on size 1's. I'm not really happy with this project but it gets me through the commute. The pattern is one of the rib ones from the More Sensational Knitted Socks book.

Next up is a vest that I started while at Rosi's post Thanksgiving get together. I scored this chunky yarn at Rhinebeck this year and I knew I wanted to make a nice V neck vest to go over a button down shirt. My inspiration is from my Traditional Fair Isle Knitting book and I'm using my Handy Dandy Notebook for the vest part. I'm using 2 three row patterns alternating with a 9 row and 13 row pattern in between. I may be about half way done and I'm hoping that the wonkiness will subside with some aggressive blocking.

Lastly I just started a new winter set starting with a hat. Right now I'm using my hat, scarf and mittens from last year and it just won't due. What kind of knitter would I be if I can't supply myself with a coordinating hat and scarf. Come on. Anyway, the yarn is some Caron brushed acrylic that I scored at Smileys a while ago. Of course I'm using my Handy Dandy Notebook for the pattern. I'm planning on alternating rows of stockinette, reverse stockinette and seed stitch for this hat. Once the hat is done I'm planning on knitting a Bainbridge scarf to match.

Thats about it. I am working on a detailed sheep to shawl project right now but I'll save that for another post. I also joined the WOW sock club. I'm using that in conjunction with Margene's earlier idea of wrapping them up to make it more of a surprise. Well until next time and if I don't have the chance to tell you hope you all have a wonderful Holiday.

Have your heard about the fiber?

Hey fiber peeps. How’s it spinning? I’ve been a feeling a bit blah when it comes to the crafty stuff. Not much knitting or spinning but the urge just suddenly hit me to have one of my one sided blogversation. So let’s talk fiber.

The first thing I spun on my hitchhiker was the May offering from the Spunky club. I have since had to end my subscription:-( I was backlogged 5 months so I figure I’ll join again once I’m up to date. I do miss the little surprises in the mail every month.

Of course this fiber comes with a story, I’ll try to keep it brief. May’s offering was 4 ounces of Coopworth dyed in a color fittingly called Nightshade. Spunky noted that her inspiration for these colors were the deep rich colors of the vegetables in her garden. The original roving was dyed an intense eggplant, indigo, black, and emerald. I decided to try and spin something thicker than my usual sock weight yarn. I spun the singles on one bobbin then plyed it onto itself using a center pull ball. Sidenote: Here’s some interesting information regarding spinning from a center pull ball.

So anyways, as I’m spinning, I’m noticing that my hands are turning a bit black. This was my first time experiencing that so I didn’t pay it too much mind. I was just getting a kick out of spinning on something so cute & petite that I really wasn’t paying too much attention to the wool. After I finished plying, something told me to take a picture of it but I had no daylight and I so wanted to finish off my purty new skein that I skipped that part. I went to give my yarn a good soak and you can imagine my horror to see the water turn blue. And not just light blue but navy blue. Uggghhhhh, Oh woe is ME! I immediately pulled the skein out of the sink, drained the water and soaked it again. I had to soak that bugger six times to get the water clear and by then my pretty skein had morphed into something totally different. The pictures you see here is what I ended up with. I don’t loath this skein but the other was 100 times better than this one, I just wish someone besides myself could’ve seen it. Oh well, at least I have 4 more months worth of wool to play with.

Fiber: Coopworth Wool

10WPI, 3.875 Ounces, 158Yds, 652YYP

My last spinning project was the second half of the flower roving I showed you guys a while back. It hasn’t gone for its formal bath yet but I’m positive that it will have almost the same stats as the first one. I’m planning on making some gloves out of this. I want a simple lace pattern for the cuff and just plain stockinette on the glove/fingers portion. I’ll be using my handy dandy notebook for the glove pattern. Speaking of gloves, is it just me of did Jack Frost decide to come for a little visit. I don’t know, it might be his nippy cousin or something but it is chilly. I need to get cracking on the hats, scarves & mittens for the family. What kind of mother would I be if I let the child go to school in the same hand knits he wore last year?

So that’s about it. Oh, almost forgot. A couple of posts ago I teased you guys with a little hobby I may have picked up. Well I started full force then slowly lost steam. I plan on finishing my project but for now it’s on hold. What is it? Oh, just doing a little hooking. Rug hooking that is. Since the repeats of Knitty Gritty are boring me I’ve started taping the show Uncommon Threads that comes on the same network. A girl has to have her fiber fix. They did a whole show on rug hooking in which they made this hot pink wall hanging depicting a half faced winged skeleton. I fell in love with that winged skeleton so while in my local craft store I picked up a kit for just 4 bucks. I let the little one pick it out and of course he picked out the train. He wanted to play with the box as soon as we bought it home (can ya tell he like trains) but I promised him that he could play with it as soon as I’m done. In my opinion, I think it’s just as relaxing as knitting. You practically don’t have to think about anything. The yarns come precut in all the colors you need and all the little spaces are color coded also, easy peasy.

Next time I’ll let you guys know how the never ending sweater is doing. I’m getting a little nervous seeing as I started it in January of this year. I refuse to drag it out to 2008 but these weeks are flying by too quickly. See ya.

I Went To Rhinebeck & All I Got Was This Wheel

Of course I got my Hitchiker. I headed up there with my buddy Kim and as soon as we hit the gates my goal was building A - Merlin Tree. This post will mainly consist of all my fiber goodies and I'll post pics of the people I met and a recap of the event next time. Now on to the goods.
About a pound of alpaca fiber from the Sheep Shed. You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you how much I paid for it.
2 ounces of Yak from Black Fen Farm
4 ounces of soy silk also from Black Fen Farm
2 ounces of handpainted tencel from A Touch of Twist
An assorted felters fiber pack from Misty Mountain Farm (I am so gonna card this up into a fantastic batt)
4 ounces of BFL from Little Barn.

4 skeins of millspun heavy worsted weight yarn from Cranberry Moon Farms.
2 skeins of Aussie Sock yarn from Seaport Yarns
2 ounces of wool from A Touch of twist.

Now that my goodies have been thoroughly documented, I can start spinning/blending/knitting some of this stuff up. Catch you on the knit side.