Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful, peaceful holiday today.  Mine was quiet as usual.  I don't know why, but, I don't feel like eating after I do all the food prep and cooking.  My dear husband, Pat, helped with it all today so it much easier.  Plus, I made less items and smaller quantities of some things.  There still was plenty of left overs from 3 people and an 11.5 pound turkey.

In my knitting progress, I've managed to finish my second  Breaking Hearts sock, and am currently working on my languishing, woefully deserted Ditto sweater. I've made so many modifications to this pattern, it's very loosely based on the original pattern now.

In my spinning progress, I've finished the FatCatKnits Dead of Night fiber. 

A couple weeks ago found me at Eneri Knits Friday knit group.  I came home with 2 braids of Frabjous Fibers in Chromatophia Red.  This fiber is so far from my usual color choices but it spoke to me.  I plan to spin it using the fractal method.

I've managed to spin about 3 of 4 ounces of some lovely Polwarth fiber from Cloudlover.  It's for the Knit Girllls SAL/KAL.  Originally, I wanted a fingering weight single, but, the yarn told me otherwise.  It chose to be a lace weight single which means I will be Navajo plying it to maintain the colors.  Here's a picture of the fiber.  I had already pulled a piece off before I remembered to take the picture.  It's called "Haunted Vineyard" and the colors are perfect for that name.

I'm going to spin a bit when I finish writing this. I hope to ply it this weekend. Knitting starts December 1.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Busy, Busy, Busy; Visiting the Fiber Festival of New England

It's been a busy month of knitting, spinning, and other stuff.  My needles have been clicking away.  My "Mystic Midsummer Wreath Shawl" was finished at the beginning of October.  Here it is blocking.










One of the podcasts I enjoy watching is Knitabulls.  Diane had a KAL for the "Dancing Batty Shawl" for October.










I've also been knitting on a pair of "Breaking Hearts" socks.  The first sock is finished and the second is ready for it's heel flap. 


My Minstrel wheel has been busy with the CJ Kopec "Lily Pond" fiber.  I finished all 8 ounces the other night as a Navajo ply.  I didn't figure out the yardage yet.  Last night found me starting some FatCatKnits in a lovely Mohair/Wool/Nylon in the "Dead of Night" color.  


Last Saturday and Sunday was spent with some of my favorite fiber pals at the Second Annual Fiber Festival of New England.  I missed the first one last year due to medical issues so I was really looking forward to this one.  There was a stop at WEBS and their bead store on the way. 

We chose to make it into a girl's weekend and stayed at the Sheraton in Springfield, MA Saturday night. 

Here's a picture of all my fiber goodies except for the two fleece I brought to Fibers4Ewe booth for processing. 




Tuesday found me dropping off 24 pounds of mostly washed fleece/fiber at Fibers4Ewe for processing.  I was going to wait and bring half of it up when my other two fleece were ready for pick up, but decided to just get it up there now instead.