Wordless Romney Handspun Shawl

Road Knitting

I'm finally rebooting after the long string of trips and festivals (I've been on the road a lot since last June). I'm home now until mid-August, when I teach again at the Michigan Fiber Festival. That doesn't mean I won't hit the road anyway, but if I do, it'll be a fun trip, not work (equally tiring, and far more expensive... ho ho).

Anyway, the Black Hills Fiber Arts Fair was wonderful- an inaugural event with no glitches in any of my classes (except one where I forgot how many folks I had listed as the maximum and did not prepare for the full number. But a lovely lady with a copy machine saved the day, and all was well). I'll go back happily.

On the way, I did some road knitting, worsted weight leftover-yarn socks.

 I had already finished the first sock, and was working on the mate when I realized that the first one had a light gray band on the foot that the mate did not (a Noro-like yarn, with surprise color bands). I know that leftover socks cannot match stripes perfectly, and yet I like them to match mostly. What to do?

I know....

And so the feet of the finished socks match as well as possible (Sharpie is Forever). The Christmas stockings were projects in my Fair Isle Nordic Stocking class (which teaches Fair Isle AND afterthought heels). The little hat was my class sample in the Toddler Fair Isle Hat class. All classes went very very well, and I had a smashing time with genius students!

I did not come home empty handed-  I intend to make a sparkly shawl (probably Hitchhiker) for my sister with the Moonlight Sonata.

And grandgirl socks with the Fluormania, which I love love love!

I also met Maria of M1 Designs and bought this pattern, which I hope to knit fairly soon, except that I am working on a Super Secret Something Which Cannot Be Announced Until I Know For Sure That There Is Actually Something To Announce. Stay tuned!

Destash Sale!

I've mentioned, here and there, that I am on a Yarn Moratorium, that I will buy (almost) no new yarn until I use up a significant portion of that which I have on hand. It's been about 3 years and I've stuck to that vow pretty well, and... the yarn levels have barely changed. So I decided to speed things up a bit.

Over the next several weeks, I'll be listing yarn lots for sale on eBay. Most of them will be Buy-it-Now, and most will have free shipping, and most will be listed for US bidders only (though if you see one you really want and you're out of the US, let me know- shipping will be extra).

I listed 17 auctions for discontinued Rowanspun 4 ply yarn yesterday, in 17 different colors, lots varying from 11 skeins, to 1, each can be purchased individually or in lots of whatever number you like. Within an hour, 9 of the colors had sold out. But that means there are still many available, including these (at the time of uploading this post, the auctions were all still up and running):

Multiple skeins of each color are listed. At one time, I thought I would put up kits with my original patterns. That never happened. It's lovely lovely lovely yarn, but I simply will not use it.

Here's a link to one of the auctions, and from there you can see the rest. Or you can search out my username: kmtayloratnvcnet    (if that confuses you, it's an old e-mail address).

Thanks for looking, and I promise not to do this too often.

Bits and pieces

Mostly non-related pictures and comments.

 I finished knitting the socks from the sock blank that I dyed in class at the Fibre Fallout in New Jersey. I love love love how they came out, and I doubt I'll be able to resist wearing them (usually, I save class samples for the next class... as, you know... samples). These are just too cool not to show off next week at SAFF.

I finished the water on the current needlepoint project, and learned to my dismay, that 20 year old DMC floss #415 is not the same shade as new DMC floss #415. I don't know if the floss darkened in storage (in a plastic tub, wrapped around a cardboard bobbin), or if the shades really are different, or (most likely) if I wrote the wrong number down on the bobbin. In any case, I used at least seven different grays in the water, so it doesn't matter a whole lot in the long run. I just have the sky left, which will be slightly darker than the water, and will fade to a purpley gray (all new floss, so I don't have to worry about shade differences).

Our leaves are gone now, but they sure were purty while they lasted. I have a feeling that the Asheville leaves will be gone by the time I get there too. Oh well, there is so much more to see and do than leaf peeping, so I'm not too distressed about it.

Speaking of SAFF, most of my classes still have some openings and it's not too late to sign up. There's a link to the left of this page.

These are the other yarns I dyed in the New Jersey classes. The two at the bottom are the same dye lot (graduated color band), just wound from opposite ends of the skein. The other ball will knit up in spiral stripes. I'm excited to knit them too.

 The corn harvest is in full swing here.

That's a whole lotta corn on the ground (and it's on the ground because the elevators are all full).

I just like the look of this corn fountain.

And finally, there was a moose spotted just outside my town. For the record, moose do not live in South Dakota, at least not in my part of the state. But by cracky, one passed through.

See? Proof.

Mostly Wordless Yarn Day

 Overdyed gray Romney. Self patterning roving.

 5.8 ozs, 204 yds

BFL- 1.8 ozs, 165 yds

...in which there is actual knitting content

Whoa... actual yarn and needles and a completed project... Whoda thunk?

 I finished the Helix Scarf (pattern in the latest issue of Spin-Off). I got plenty of practice in purling back backwards, which was the reason I knitted the scarf in the first place.

 I used handspun yarn (Finn, dyed by Yummy Yarns, under 3 ozs). It's pretty, and it's definitely ruffly. I doubt I'll ever wear it, though, so off to the Big Tub 'O Knitted Things it goes.

 I am almost done with the Opal Dumbledore socks. I still don't see Dumbledore anywhere in this colorway, but it sure is pretty.

I bought this yarn at Great Yarns in Everett. I see mitered squares in the future.

 
 And here's a closeup of the wonderful yarn that Tina (in Snohomish) gave to me. It's her own handspun, and it's absolutely gorgeous. It's BFL, and there might actually be enough for a pair of socks (for me, me me!).

 I've been doing a bit of reading too. I'm still on a Connie Willis Re-read Streak- Passage is unsettling and wonderful, like all of her books.

 Next up, more rereads. This one is unsettling, and wonderful, and also quite funny. It's loosely based on Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), which is also laugh out loud funny, though the Willis book has more time travel.

Oh yeah, and we got more snow last night. sigh.