One Crazy Fiber Lady

It looks like I can just about commit to posting once a week.. and it appears that Sunday is that day.  Kat is in her room chilling before bedtime, Alex is off taking a shower, and I finally have some down time.  Its been a long interesting day but we’ll get to that in a bit.  Here’s the update:

On the needles

1.  Stripe Study Shawl is definitely moving along.  I had some good quality knit time yesterday and finished contrast stripe 11 of 12.  As of  a few minutes ago when I put it down, I was halfway through the last contrast stripe.  Almost done with this project.  Still need to do a load of the dark color garter stitch.  Hopefully this will be done by my next update.  It should be.

Will be nice to see it finished and spread out in all its glory.  I have to admit, I’m liking the Woolmisery and bought another skein off someone on Ravelry.  Nice that the price for the yarn has returned to earth.

2.  I’ll Name Them George Socks – The yarn is the ITW club yarn for February and is just awesome to work with.

It’s my standard recipe plain old vanilla sock over 56st, toe up, short row heel on US0.  The socks have been my purse knitting, being worked on primarily on the train and at work while reading.  I finished my coding project on Tuesday last week and moved to a research project that has me reading tech books.  The socks let me focus on the tedious stuff while making excellent progress.  I should have finished this sock during the week and honestly, can’t remember why I haven’t, but the train has been crowded on the way home and I didn’t get as much knitting done as I’d like.  Oh well.  It will probably get wrapped up tomorrow and then I’ll start its mate.

That’s it for the knitting.  I’ve been pretty darned good about keeping the WIPs under control, though the biggest part of it is resisting the urge to cast on something new.

On the Fiber Front

I haven’t done much spinning this week, though I have done some, on a new wheel at that!  Hold on, the wheeling and dealing hasn’t stopped. As you know, the Sidekick was boxed up and shipped out this past Monday.  Her new owner loves her already  Go figure that after scrounging for a box to ship her in, I found the original Schacht box in the basement this morning.  Ugh.  Anyway, I’ve also gotten a deposit on the CPW and she should be heading to her new home this weekend.  Neither is news…

So, I’ve been eyeing a Matchless, yes I know I have one.  But since the left foot injury to balance out the right ankle injury, I’ve found that my feet don’t really like a single treadle wheel.  But I loved the matchless.  I toyed with shipping her back to Schacht to convert, but decided to buy something else instead.  I saw posted on Ravelry an almost brand new Double Treadle (DT 072111 2) for sale in NYC.  After a bit of back and forth, I sent a deposit via PayPal to indicate my sincerity.  Kat and I drove into Manhattan this morning and picked the wheel up on the Upper West Side.  I got the new wheel home and sat her next to her older ST sister:

You can see the patina that my ST has developed (her bday was 5/2007).

There weren’t two Matchless wheels in this house for very long.  A dear friend, and SnB buddy, who was looking for a wheel to take places (has a S-R 24″) came over to “try it out”.  He he he.  I’ve never tried out a wheel that was for sale and not taken it home.  Didn’t happen this time either.  The ST is no longer her mine.  I’ll miss her, but know that she’s gone to a good home where she’ll get plenty of usage.  Too much competition around here!  I also look forward to seeing how the patina develops on the DT.

So what am I spinning on the new girl?  Well, I was scanning one of my favorite forums on Ravelry when I spotted a leap day sale (10%) for a fiber dyer I hadn’t spotted before.  I surfed over to her Etsy store and had to order a couple of braids.  They were shipped quickly and arrived just in time yesterday, err Friday.  Working from home is making me lose track of the days.

This fiber is the Mountain Mist fiber (60% Superwash Merino / 30% Bamboo / 10% Nylon) in the Strawberries colorway.  The braid is so squoooshy that you just can’t tell from looking at it, but just invites in person.  I broke the 4oz length in half.  I then split each lengthwise into smaller sections..

It is almost spinning itself..

I do love me good fiber on a good wheel..Just about done with the first 2oz.

Yup, happy girl here.  Tired as the day started early with a trip to Manhattan to get the wheel.  Then Tami came over to try the Matchless.. This was followed by a birthday party that Kat went to out in Fairfield.  Alex and I went with another family with one kid at the party to a restaurant.  Didn’t get home from the party until 6pm.  Alex still needed to do the rest of his reading homework, baths, teeth, bed.. you get the picture. So, I’m torn between spinning and maybe, just maybe, finishing contrast stripe 12.  I’ll probably knit and save the spinning for another night.  or…. maybe I can squeeze in 5 min or so before work.  Yeah.  I like that idea.

Reading

Beyond the boring (and inspiring) tech books on SOA and WS-Security, I’ve finally settled on a fictional book to keep my reading interest:  The Lion.  I’ve always been a Nelson DeMille fan and I’ve had this book for ages. Its just that he puts out books so slowly that I tend to hoard a new one. Yay me, just hope I don’t flounder for two weeks when I finish this one!

Garage Sale

I finally got around to photographing the various knitting bags / purses that I don’t use and would love to find a new home.  I posted them on Ravelry here, here and here

Well that’s it for this week.

Craft on!

I was posting at a pretty decent clip there, so I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I fell off the wagon again and went dark.  All things are cyclical with me I guess.  I’ve had a sooper seekrit project in the works that started life as an out of the blue telephone call.  I can’t divulge what it is quite yet, but hopefully very soon.  It’s sooper seekrit you know.

I might be working on this other project, but that hasn’t stopped the knitting thing, just the blogging thing.  Go figure.  Apparently, if I can’t talk about EVERYTHING, I choose to chat about NOTHING.  Not to mention there’s the whole falling behind, amassing lots of stuff to mention and then having sooooo much that I don’t know what to include v. what to exclude.  Someday I’ll get this right.

The most important event in October is the twin’s birthday.  My babies turned 8.  EIGHT!  I could swear that they were tiny babies just yesterday.  This year we had a bowling party at the local alley.  15 kids on 3 lanes is like herding cats.  Everyone had a good time, which is the important thing.

Yup, each kid got to pick their own cake.  Alex went for the ice cream cake and Kat, surprise surprise, picked a Hello Kitty pink masterpiece.  Happy birthday babies!

October is also the annual pilgrimage to Rhinebeck for the gorging of the wool   This year I had the kids with me and we spent the day with Leann and baby.  It looks like turnout was down this year, which from a fairgoer perspective is good as it is less crowded.  I just hope the sellers had a good year.  Would be nice if what was good for us was also good for them.  My haul was remarkably restrained this year.

From left to right:

• Forbidden Woolery Lush in “Charmed” colorway – 3 skeins to knit Featherweight Cardi
• Shawl pattern and lace weight cashmere from Just Our Yarn
• 8oz chocolate alpaca in a sport weight for a cowl like Tami’s
• 2 skeins of sock yarn from Into the Whirled
• 1 alpaca blend from Brooks Farm – originally plucked for a cowl but displaced by the later purchase of the choc stuff – might still be a cowl

No spinning fiber at all this year.  Yeah, can’t remember the last time (if ever) that happened!  There was one year, probably 2005 – which was the last time that the twins went, that the only thing I bought was like a pound of shetland fiber.    Also for a change, everything was purchased with a purpose in mind.

There’s another event in October that I totally missed.  My blogiversary.  My first ever post was on blogger on way way back.  I can’t believe I’ve been at this since 2004.  The twins had just turned 1.  My how things have changed!

That brings us almost up to date.  I have other stuff to show, like a nifty spindle I picked up, as well as some finished objects, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Craft on!

http://www.forbiddenwoolery.com/

It’s that time again.   This weekend was MDSW.  This year I went down on Friday afternoon, with the kids.  We stayed with a family also comprised of twins and a SMC (single mother by-choice) who live in the suburbs of Baltimore.  Saturday the other mom kept all the kids keeping them busy, fed and safe.  This enabled me to hit the festival unencumbered.  Good thing!  It is becoming more and more of a zoo each year.  The 88F temperatures didn’t help.  This is the first year I’ve gotten a sunburn at the festival.

Did this stop the shopping?  Not a chance.  More on that in a bit.

Today, all six of us hit the festival for a few hours before the Phillips clan headed back north at 1pm.  We had a great time.  It was nice to spend the weekend them and a yearly tradition might just have been born.

Okay, so this is what my kids looked like just before I hit the Delaware Memorial Bridge on the way home.

Would you believe how much you can jam into the trunk of a Camry?

We don’t need no stinkin’ minivans to get wheels home! In that trunk are 2 bicycles that my friend’s kids outgrew and passed to my pair, the scooters we went down with and a nice wooden wheel, amongst other hand-me’s.  Boots.  Knee pads.  Elbow pads.  Fiber

My purchases were small in number but not insignificant:

The purchases:

• 4oz Mulberry silk from Little Barn
• 4oz dyed fine wool also from Little Barn
• Alpaca fiber (about 3oz)
• 34g Bosworth Moosie (need to find the tag in the trunk to get the shaft wood but it is dark)
• Frederick Bordua marked 30″ Canadian Production Wheel from The Merlin Tree

Yes i know, this makes 4 years in a row that a wheel came home.  But but but… it’s a tradition ya know!

This does mean that I do have a wheel for sale  This time it is the 27″ CPW that I bought a few weeks ago.  Pictures are here.  Its not that there’s anything wrong with it, I just wanted a 30″.  I know.  Crazy.

I’m off to bond with the new kid.

Craft on!

This was one seriously busy weekend. Yesterday was my day at Rhinebeck for the beloved Sheep and Wool Festival. I have to admit, I wish the fiber hobbies hadn’t gotten quite so popular. The festival gets more and more crowded each year. I blame Ravelry At least it didn’t rain yesterday, but it was pretty wicked cold for the middle of October. Brrrr.

Anyway, it was the year of the spindle for me. I bought no fewer than 3 of them. The first one was actually on my shopping list, the other two sort of followed me home. In an effort to document these things so I don’t lose their details to fuzzy memories like the rest of the spindles around here, I present them now:

• Golding Ring Spindle
• 3″ Cherry Celtic Ring
• Walnut 9 3/4″ shaft
• 1.9 oz

• Bosworth Midi Spindle
• Silverwattle Whorl
• Bloodwood Shaft
• 28g/1oz

• Hatchtown Kaari
• Purpleheart and Walnut
• @1oz (she lost her tag before I bought her)

I did mention it was the spindle festival for me, didn’t I? ¬†As you can tell I have started spinning on the Kaari. ¬†She’s a wonderful little spinner.

The fibery purchases include two lbs of a BL-Romney in grey to spin for another sweater.

Sara had to check out the wool, and well, invade the one spot of natural light in my room.  Shortly after I took this picture, I had to get her slobbery nose out of the wool.  She has a thing for fiber.

After picking up 3 spindles, I had to buy some nice fiber for each of them.  I returned to one of my favorite nice fiber vendors, ITW.  I had picked up an Etsy order from her earlier in the day, but had to add to it.   Other than the grey BL-Romney, my only other fiber purchases were from Cris.

Front Row

• 56′s Falkland in Moody Neopolitan
• 60/40 Merino/Bamboo in Jonathan
• 80/20 Merino/Silk in Sangria

Back Row

• 56′s Falkland in Pumpernickel n Jam (x2)

Its safe to say that I’m a bit of a ITW groupie. ¬†I have more than a few braids and batts from her. ¬†The fiber that I started spinning on the Kaari is the Merino/Silk Sangria.

Other than a Knit Kit and a glass shawl pin, that’s my purchases for this year. ¬†I think I was pretty restrained. ¬† ¬†Oh wait, there was a bit more. ¬†I bought 10 skeins of yarn from Wild Apple Farm, 5 in a denim-y blue and 5 in a dark green. ¬†Still, pretty restrained. ¬†Its not like I’m lacking for hobby materials

Today was the twins’ birthday party. ¬†Yes, I know I scheduled their party for Rhinebeck Sunday. ¬†Yes I was supposed to stay overnight upstate and hit the festival both days. ¬†But thanks to a brain fart and a desire to not move too many weekends from their actual birthday, I jumped on the first Sunday noon party available. ¬†Alas, it coincided with Rhinebeck. ¬†I hope to not make the same mistake next year

We had 12 kids at The Little Gym for an hour of organized activity with the energetic and enthusiastic party directors, followed by 1/2 hour for pizza and cake.

The staff took care of entertaining, setting up, cleaning up and even packing all the gifts into big bags for us.  These types of places are well worth the cost.  We returned with a 1/3 of one cake, a pizza and lots of presents to open.

Now ¬†I think I’ll take a nap. ¬†I’m exhausted!

Craft on!

This is going to be one of those “little bit of this, little bit of that” posts.

Here are the monkeys heading off for their first day of kindergarten..

Aren’t they cute? ¬†Okay, so this picture is almost a month old at this point. ¬†They’ve been doing very well, getting homework every night except Friday and are generally enjoying it. ¬†Last week they had a class field trip to the Museum of Natural History in NYC. ¬†Mom went as a¬†chaperon/helper type.

They are still at the center where they spent the last two years in Pre-K. ¬†My town does not have full day KG so this offered the best option for us. ¬†The program is fully accredited and children usually come out of it way ahead of their public school future classmates. ¬†It also offered the advantage of being able to transition into the KG class for summer camp. ¬†They joined this group right after graduation in June so they were more than ready for a day without a nap. ¬†Sort of. ¬† Once school started, Kat was wiped out and on more than a few nights, she’s punked out way early. ¬†Its all good though.

I took the monkeys to the Garden State Sheep Breeders show a couple of weeks back. ¬†The car is amazing still covered in mud from the field. ¬†The recent rain hasn’t cleaned it. ¬†I’m going to have to suck it up and wash it ¬†Anyway, we had a good time at the festival. ¬†Its the perfect size for bringing the monkeys to before their heads explode. ¬†I forgot to take pictures. ¬†Again. ¬†Yes. ¬†But I did get this one:

Again, how cute are they?  There was some stash enhancement, but needless to say no pictures of it.

In other news, I need to update the herd status.  There have been some transactions with regards to the spinning wheels.

This wheel?

SOLD.

This wheel?

SOLD.

This wheel?

BOUGHT

It was requested that I provide a closer up view of Fair Isle.  You asked for it:

Taken this morning in the car (duh) while waiting for the train

Finally, with 17 days left until Rhinebeck, here is how Rhinebeck started off this morning:

It is approx 6.5″ at this point. ¬†The plain knitting starts at the 13″ mark. ¬†I’m getting there. ¬†I’ve found it is perfect knitting for playing Sims to while watching the ballgame. ¬†Yes I am a multitasker

Craft on!

I think by the time you’ve been knitting for over three decades (there I said it), you should really know what you like to knit. ¬†There has to be some accounting for the ebb and flow of the magical mojo or my sock and lace production wouldn’t change quite so drastically year (month) to year (month). ¬†Years with fewer socks and shawls usually see an increase in sweaters. ¬†Vice versa.

I always seem to hear the siren’s call of the lace shawl and socks regardless of what I’m working on and where the mojo level is. ¬†Doing some soul searching, it is because I like small needles and thin yarn. ¬†It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I jumped all over¬†Knit So Fine: Designs with Skinny Yarn when it came out. ¬†I have yet to make anything from it but while reading blogs today, and the accompanying time on Ravelry, I found something that just called out to me: ¬†Bohus Inspired Yoke Sweater(yes a Ravelry). ¬†

I’ve wanted to make a Bohus sweater for a while now, but the pricetag on the kits are daunting. ¬†That and the leeetle teeeny tiny needles and massive amounts of resulting knitting leads me to believe that “I’d never finish it and yet feel guilty for not because it was so pricey resulting in a less than enjoyable knit”. ¬†Whew. ¬†Soooo, when i saw this one, size 4 needles aren’t bad. ¬†Heck, I have a coupla sweaters on US4′s going now and this would be far less complicated! ¬†

Off to Knitpicks I went.  With the help of the suggestions they had in the project page, my handy-dandy install of Adobe Photoshop and JessaLu, I picked the colors I wanted.  

KnitPicks Yarn - Bohus Inspired Sweater

This is a mix of the Gloss and Shaow laceweights.  The sweater is worked from hem to collar in the round with the colors progressing in the order above from left to right.    The body will be the Sterling (the light grey on the left).  The yoke will run from the:

Aegean –> Blue Bird –> Juniper Heather –>Chipotle–>Mango–>Hot Rod Heather

The whole thing is running under $45. ¬†Which is way way less than the kit. ¬†I haven’t ruled out one of the kits someday, probably as a reward for something. ¬†Maybe my 10th anniversary of quitting smoking or somesuch, but for now, I’m looking forward to this project with tiny needles and thin yarn, even if it is doubled!

Yes, Mr. Not-So-Greenjeans is progressing, but the big needles and heavy yarn are making my hands hurt ¬†I’m about 4″ into the cable/rib thing at the bottom. ¬†I need to either dig up a long knitpicks cable or a second set off tips in the right size (and no I didn’t order more along with my lace yarn!) so I can do the sleeves.

Craft on!

I started the traveling scarf last night. Unfortunately the originator had used a chunky yarn and all I had onhand was worsted. I had two choices for red worsted as well. I even samples both of them. No go. Looked sleezy next to the chunky, especially on the size 11US needles.

So today at lunch I headed over to my office LYS, Seaport Yarn and perused their selection of bulky red yarns.

Do I need to say that I left with more than a skein of yarn for a scarf?

I’m seriously doing my part to stimulate the economy.¬† Between holiday presents for the kids, raw supplies for knitted gifts and stuff for me, lets just say the big brown truck has been at my house alot, along with my friendly letter carrier and Fedex ¬† My new Van Eaton wheel is on its way and should arrive next week.¬† I’m really itching to play with it.¬† I have some new fiber on its way from Crown Mountain (Lady of the Lake, Shala and Mea Culpa) to get to know her with.¬†

I received another one of my recent purchases yesterday.¬† After the kids went to bed, I had to dig into the box.¬† Here’s what was inside.¬†

What's in the bag??

I included my iPhone for scale.  Whatever could it be?? 

Outta the bag

Here’s the picture from the instruction manual to help visualize what this pile of parts will come together to be

Ahhhhhh

Why yes, it is a loom!¬† It’s a DutchMaster 40/16 loom.¬† I bought it used through a posting on the Spin-Sales list.¬† I’ve since gone no-mail on it cause I couldn’t afford to keep stimulating the economy.¬† When the holiday knitting is done and I’m all spun out, I plan on doing a bit of weaving.¬† I was considering parting with my floor loom, a Leclerc 24“, but I’ve decided to hold onto it.¬† I just have to get it out of storage and find a good/safe way to store it in the basement so that it will survive the spring floods.¬† In the meantime, I’ll be using the DutchMaster.¬† It has more flexibility than one of my rigid heddles (will probably sell one of those), but not so much space is required as for the Leclerc.¬† win-win, ya?

It hasn’t been all fiber around here either.¬† I mentioned before that my company wants us developers to get Microsoft Certified.¬† To that end, I’ve been studying for the first exam.¬† I had been toting around one of them big programming books when I spied something very cool in one of those weekend circulars.¬† Enter this:

Acer Aspire One

It’s my new netbook:¬† an Acer Aspire One .¬† iPhone again included for scale.¬† I have¬†not only the PDF version of the programming book I’d been schlepping around, but the self test application AND MS Visual C# development installed on it.¬† Awesome.¬† It’s become my go to meeting note taker platform as my typing is far faster and easier to read than my handwriting.¬† Add in Evernote and you have another win-win.¬† I lurve it!¬† This bad boy is small and light enough to go into my purse.¬† It weighs in at 2.6 lbs.¬† We weighed it on the postal scale here in the office because my boss wouldn’t believe it was under 3lbs.¬† I don’t have any trouble typing on it, which surprised me as I had loads of issues with the keyboard on my smaller Dell Laptop.¬†

Been a while since I posted one of these (yeah yeah, since I posted a real post at all).  Sorry for the lousy photo, but the weather here is less than stellar today.  You get the idea though.

And finally, the newest thing:

 

I guess its time to come clean. ¬†I mentioned recently that I was trying to get on the waiting list for a Wyatt Pegasus. ¬†Well on Friday I saw a sales post on the Spin-Sales group where someone was selling hers. ¬†Fortuitious no? ¬†Naturally I lept and sent an inquiry regarding the wheel. ¬†It was still available, however it was a right flyer and a miner’s head too.

Miner’s head scare me. ¬†That pointy bit of metal sticking out scares this klutzy individual witless. ¬†Additionally I’m also left flyer kind of girl. ¬†Its a gorgeous wheel that I’d still love, but that configuration just wouldn’t work for me. ¬†

However, in the background of one of the pictures she sent, I spotted a beautiful wheel. ¬†I re-read her posting, which had listed some 6 different wheels. ¬†Below the Jensen Tina II (which I usually remember last minute that I have one too) was a Van Eaton 24″ Production wheel in Black Walnut with many extra bobbins. ¬†I requested pictures of that if it was still available. ¬†It was and those pictures I received are the ones I posted as a teaser the other day. ¬†After doing some research into the wheel and getting the sellers opinion as to how it compares to say the Tina or a Schacht, i decided I had to have it. ¬†I sent off a check and when it clears, she’ll be shipping me my new wheel. ¬†I can’t wait.

You know what a new wheel means, right? ¬†One has to go. ¬†This one is a tad bittersweet for me. ¬†I sold my Lendrum folding wheel. ¬†My very first wheel. ¬†I know I can’t use it, it hurts the ankle too much, but she was my first. ¬†I also sold my drum carder. ¬†I don’t use that either. ¬†I have so little craft time that when i do have craft time, I’d much rather spin, then prepare fiber. ¬†That baby went off to her new home in Utah today.

So there you have the rest of the long story

As I don’t have enough going on, remember my sister is with child. ¬†A baby girl. ¬†Remember also that I spun me some yarn to knit the wee one a sweater. ¬†Well, last week after injuring my knee and spending the weekend laid up, I got some serious baby knitting done…

Whatever could this be?

Of course, it’s a Baby Surprise Sweater!
 

Surprise!

¬†Here’s a closeup of the cute little buttons I found in my stash:

Awww widdle bunny

We’re headed out to my sister’s house for the holiday. I’ll finish up the seams and sewing the buttons on before we leave on Wednesday. The baby girl keeps threatening to come early and this weekend provides to be a good time for sweater turnover

And because I don’t have enough going on, I took the kids to buy new coats last week. ¬†Three winters out of a single pair of coats just wasn’t to be ¬†Alex’s arms were finally getting too long for his, though Kat could probably have worn hers for another year. ¬†She just hates to wear a coat and had refused to put it on to day. ¬†I figured that maybe being able to pick a new one would take some of the coat sting away. ¬†So off to Sears and the Land’s End section we went. ¬†Out we walked with 3 new coats. ¬†One each for the monkeys and one for their mama. ¬†Got tired of that hideous raspberry coat I’ve been wearing for 4 winters now. ¬†Problem I generally have is that I wait until late in the season to buy and wind up with one that fits, but the ickiest to me color. ¬†Not this time. ¬†My new baby is a Land’s End Weatherly Parka in Spice Brown. ¬†Not surprisingly, this brown coat has pink and cream accents. ¬†Go figure. ¬†After years of Neapolitan rovings and yarns, my winter coat now matches. ¬†But it does mean that the charcoal and pale pink that I bought to make the Fiddlehead mittens now doesn’t match so well. ¬†I picked up a skein of Cascade 220 Superwash in a perfectly matching brown yesterday at MY. ¬†Last night I got busy:

Neapolitan Fiddlehead Mittens

The mittens will have a cream alpaca lining. MmmmMMmmMMM. Can’t wait!

That’s about it for today. ¬†I’m far behind in just about everything right now. ¬†Sorry

Have a happy Thanksgiving to all!

Craft on!

I hope no one was counting on seeing pretty fall pictures, or shots of whacks of knitters/spinners or even sheep.¬† I had serious a serious case of camnesia even though I made sure to charge the battery Friday night.¬† Oh well.¬† Nothing new from me.¬† I’m trying to remember the last time I actually did take good festival pictures.

Anyway, for the first time in a long while, I actually stayed over for the festival.  When posing the age old question of Saturday vs. Sunday to my father, he suggested both.  Sold.  I drove up early Saturday morning, leaving my house at 8:00 and entered the promised land at 9:30 where I promptly met up with my weekend buddy, JessaLu. 

Saturday was very crowded.¬† Even early in the day.¬† So much so that I don’t think i will be going back next year on Saturday.¬† It is now too crowded.¬† Maryland crowded ¬†¬† I didn’t do much shopping, but mostly socializing, reveling in the chance to see festival friends (Carole, Margene, Kim, Laurie, Cheryl, Kathy, Marcia, Marcy), local friends (Ina, Kim, Deb, Nancy, Chris, Jessica) and meet new friends (Lynne, Scout, etc.) – wow all that linky love was exhausting!¬† I apologize if I did not include you, the weekend is always such a whorlwind that involves blogging buds, festival buds, knitting buds and spinning guild buds all mixed together with the sites and sounds of the festival.

The weekend included sitting in the lobby of the hotel watching the Red Sox with fellow festival goers. 

While there are no pictures of the festival itself (and while I was tempted to take a shot of the folks in the lobby knitting to the game РI spun, my camera never came out), I do have photographic evidence of my much restrained weekend purchases.  Also note that I came home with one LESS spinning wheel then I went with

• From left to right, even worsted weight yarn from Wild Apple Hill Wool in a charcoal color to make another sweater from A Fine Fleece.¬†
• The white stuff is 1.5lbs of SW Merino/Bamboo from Sheep Shed.¬†
• In front of that is a small supported spindle and bowl (which are barely visible).¬† Two braids of BFL from Susan’s Fiber Shop.
• Next up is some interesting fiber that is set up to stripe.¬† It is a 4 color progression with each color being 1oz.¬† I bought 8 oz of it.¬† Not entirely sure how I”m going to spin it, but I’ll figure it out.
• In front of that is a skein of laceweight and a skein of sock weight (both in the grey) from Tongue River.
• The white mass is just about 2.5lbs of a border leceister roving to spin enough to make another sweater from A Fine Fleece.
• Lastly, I picked up two Grafton batts.
• Not shown were two little furry sleeping kittens in basket beds for the twins.

All in all, a rather restrained weekend for me.¬† I could have gotten more but I’ve become a touch more descriminating at festivals now.¬† I look at all items as to what I’m going to do with it rather than how darn pretty it is.¬†

Craft on!