Cladonia, BFL and Pendulum

I started the Cladonia shawl from the kit I purchased at the Knitter's Fair last month. It is knitting up very quickly.

I only have 4 more rows before I start the lace. I've only used one of each skein thus far. The lace edging should be done with the darker yarn but I'm going to work out the math to see if I can do it with the remaining lighter coloured skein. It's a semicircircular shawl radiating from the centre of the neck.

The increases are along the same line every 4 rows. Alternating colours this way makes it very easy to know on what row to work the increases. It's been great knitting while watching TV.

Last night at spinning, I finished spinning and started and finished plying the blue roving from the BFL bundle.

From the one ounce of roving I got 120 yards of 2ply - a light fingering weight.

 It looks fairly evenly spun and plied it you don't look too closely. LOL.

I have NO idea what I will knit with it but it will have to be something pretty special. Any suggestions?

I'm finally remembering to post pics of the kit I won in the draw at the pre-festival show at Rhinebeck.

Aside from the Bijou Basin Ranch Allure fine fiber & fabric wash, were these two lovely 100g/400yd skeins of Dirty Water Dye Works 'Lillian' 100% Superwash merino yarn in Moon Shadow and Wheat colourways and the pattern for the Pendulum shawl.

Amy Miller's 'Pendulum' is an "easy to knit shawlette ... the short rows and stripes keep it interesting while the garter stitch keeps it simple and fast".

I like kits because they (generally) guarantee there is adequate yarn yardage for the given pattern.

I am preparing for an exciting event that is coming up - the final step in being selected to teach knitting on a luxury cruise liner. I hope to have good news after the weekend.

Remember to 'fall back' with your clocks on Saturday night!

Bags and Mitts

I made another grab bag the other day. The pattern makes a bag 12.5" wide and 17" tall

The fabric had a knitting theme - balls of yarn and knitting needles.

I lined it with stripey fabric in the same colours.

This was a 'deluxe' one with low-loft batting.

I also unearthed a kit for a tote bag that I bought 2 - 3 years ago. This fabric also had a knitting theme.

Knitting sheep and knitting terms in the lining. I included some interior pockets.

The sewing instructions were somewhat incomplete and lacked a photo. I felt like I was sewing blindly. But it turned out OK.

This evening I finished knitting the Evenstar fingerless gloves I had abandoned sometime ago.

I used Knitpicks City Tweed DK which was very nice to work with. I modified the pattern by adding a 'turtleneck' which can be folded back...

 or extended for extra warmth on the ends of the fingers.

I'm trying to think of what else I can knit with this yarn as the tweedy flecks do add a little visual distraction from the pattern.

Rhinebeck 2014

Mo and I made our pilgrimage to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival at Rhinebeck, NY once again this year.

It is a beautiful time of year to visit the Hudson Valley.

I spent Saturday in a knitting workshop while Mo shopped, met up with friends, and scoped out the good stuff for me.

This is what Into The Whirled looked like before the doors opened yesterday. Their specialty is hand-painted yarns and rovings.














And this is what it looked like at noon today.

Here are more outdoor shots. Each of those buildings contains either livestock or vendors.

These buildings (A,B,C and D from left to right) are at the south end of the fairgrounds. My class was in building D. Also in these buildings are many vendors, the fleece sale, and author's book-signing area.

This is the garden outside the Horticultural Building.

...and the view down the hill toward the food area from the Horticultural Building.

Sadly, this year the 4-H kids didn't sell lamb chili; only refreshments.

I didn't take a lot of photos inside buildings this year but this gives you an idea of how items were displayed.

I bought this gradient yarn set in these colours from Miss Babs

to knit this shawl - Brush Creek

It was very handy being able to take photos of the sample with the tags naming the pattern and yarn used. In most cases, the patterns are available for purchase and download online.

The most popular vendors had lots of samples that were properly labeled.

As I've recently been enjoying spinning hand-painted Polwarth roving, I happened to find a few (ahem) braids of the stuff.

This Blue-Faced Leicester bundle is for spinning separately, then knitting as a gradient.

Now I will agonize (in a good way) over what pattern to knit the yarn with.

It was an excellent festival this year and I look forward to a return visit in the future.

Freia-esque Yarn Cake

The progression from roving to ready-to-knit yarn always amazes me.

The fibre started out like this:

Then it spun to this:

Last night I wound it into a yarn cake:

It really resembles Freia Ombré yarn.

and have started knitting a Travelling Woman shawl with it.

It's a fast knit, especially with this sport weight yarn. I'm not sure I like this pattern for this yarn. Maybe something more textured would work better.