SAFF (boy am I behind)

Hello Friends,

I know it has been a while since I've posted, but those of you who know me irl probably already know the reason for my blog silence recently. I think the worst of the work will be over Tuesday when the external advisory board comes in for the annual review. Let's just hope things settle down after that. I really wanted to get this post up today before I go into work because one of my readers (who checks the blog obsessively) is celebrating her 14th birthday. Happy Birthday, Li'l Bit! I'm so sorry I can't be there.

Now, let's get into fibery goodness! A few weeks ago I attended SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival) with Melinda (thanks for driving!), Karen, and Gena. All 3 were sporting gorgeous new handknit sweaters. I, however, did not have the blogger instinct to photograph said sweaters. I actually did want to, but when we met up it was still pretty dark outside so I figured we'd wait until later in the day. But once we got to SAFF we were all so overwhelmed that I completely forgot. Trust me, they were lovely. And, it was perfect sweater weather.

It was totally Tocktober in the llama barns. Check out these fluffiest of 'tocks! Llamas are not terribly friendly. One of them even snarled at me - he/she had this great Elvis lip action going on.

The vendor area was completely overwhelming for all of us as this was our first fiber festival. There were so many beautiful sights like this one. We were kinda in yarn overload.

I was so overwhelmed by all the yarn that I forgot my shopping list: FIBER, Shawl pin, Estonian Garden Shawl pattern. I did find a lovely shawl pin from Knitting Notions. I chose African Padauk because the wood matched my swallowtail shawl so well. The ladies working the booth were incredibly nice and they had the most gorgeous shawl samples on display. It inspired Melinda to make the Icarus shawl (here is a lovely example) from a previous issue of Interweave Knits.

I also found the Estonian Garden Shawl pattern at the Kid Hollow Farm booth. I've been wanting to make this shawl for months after seeing Firefly's (ravelry link). I'm so glad to have finally found the pattern - I already have the perfect yarn for it:

Now, recall how the first thing on my list was fiber? There were just so many fibers to chose from that the fiber-picking part of my brain went on vacation. I came home with none. I'm going to practice my spinning a bit more and brace myself for next year. Instead of fiber I came home with a skein of yarn. I'd show you a picture of the hank, but I'd already wound it in the car on the way home. Instead, some knitted up pictures:

The yarn was dyed by the incredibly talented (and friendly) Miss Babs. This colorway is Raspberry Cane - I really wish I'd bought Saturn as well!

After we got our shop on, the four of us migrated to the Ravelry meetup and met lots of knitters we know from blogland. It's been a few weeks so I'm sure I'll forget some people, but here goes! Aimee, TurtleGirl, ZKnits, Mean Girl, and Trillian. Aimee recently participated in a walk to raise money for Lupus research and asked the knitting community to aide her in raising funds. She raised a total of 4.6k! To help raise the money, she had a number of prizes available that would be distributed to donors. Much to my surprise (and delight) I won one of those prizes. Namely, the prize pack from the Zen Yarn Garden. It consisted of a cute lined drawstring project bag (currently housing the Miss Babs socks) and some ultra-squishy sport-weight sock yarn. The yarn is a merino/seacell blend so it has a lovely shimmer to it. The colorway is named Lilacs, and the hank had a whopping 375 yards! Dood, those socks are gonna be a mile tall!

What a day! I can't wait for next year.

Mileage May Vary

I've been working slowly on the Tangled Yolk Cardigan from Fall 'o7 Interweave Knits. I hadn't blogged about the project yet because the project isn't visually exciting in the beginning. Instead, my joy has been purely tactile. The Silky Wool (by Elsebeth Lavold) I'm using is incredibly soft, and in a DK weight the resulting fabric has a very nice drape without adding bulk. I already anticipate this being a favorite sweater in the coming autumn months. I tend to stop every few rows just to pet this sweater. I've found my progress slowed by the need to stop and remove little snarls of grass from the yarn as I work (nope, I'm not a perfectionist at all!). I have worked with this yarn before so I anticipated the problem. However, you'll notice that I did not find this to be enough of an issue to select a different yarn for the project. One thing I will say for this yarn - it does hold up to my incessant nit picking very well!

Here is the sweater at the end of 2 balls (roughly 400m). It is a mere 2 inches from the underarms. I was absolutely shocked to discover that this yarn went so far. I will probably have a fair amount left over despite lengthening the body.

The astute readers out there will say - "Wait up! The tangled yolk cardigan is a cardigan. What you have there is knit in the round all pulloveresque." Those readers would be correct. I really do try to learn something new with every project. Sometimes just learning the limitations of the yarn is enough for me, but I'd used the Silky Wool before. So this time I'm going to learn the crochet'ed steek. I chose this method because it will retain the stretchiness of the knitted fabric - unlike machine stitching to reinforce the line of cutting. Plus, it leaves tidy edges which appeal to the perfectionist in me. We will see if I'm still so keen on the idea when I am sitting poised with scissors in hand.

Swallowtail Shawl - a picture diary

I spent my morning with Karen, Gena, and (blogless?) Melinda. We went to an apple festival at Bethabara park. It was tons of fun - complete with colonial costumes and a horse-drawn wagon. There were demonstrations on spinning, weaving, bobbin lace, and a smithy who let kids pump the bellows. I brought the recently completed swallowtail shawl with me for some photographs.

On seeing Minty's finished swallowtail, I decided to perform 5 extra repeats of the budding lace chart. I was using laceweight and I'd heard other knitters complain that it was a rather small shawl so I really wanted to increase the size. The finished wingspan is 64 inches, and it is 31 inches from the center top to the tip. I'm very pleased with the size.

The thing that appealed to me most about this shawl was the nupps in the Lily of the Valley border. Fortunately, I am such a loose knitter that the p5tog stitches didn't even phase me. I know most people slip 2, purl 3 tog, then pass the 2 slipped stitches over. Honestly I found this far more fiddly than just purling the stitches all at once.

I love the drape of the Jaggerspun Zephyr Wool-Silk (purchased from Sarah's Yarns - this shawl only cost $6.00). It was so shocking when I bound off the last stitch and picked up the shawl to flop it out and admire my (sad and puckered) work. It weighed nothing! The weight of the needles had me thinking I had created this substantial thing, but it really does weigh less than 50 grams (less than 1.7 ounces for all you non-scientists out there).

May I just say - this is my favorite project yet. It was my first lace, but I found it really intuitive. I am already thinking about what my next lace project will be. I'm a huge fan of Evelyn A. Clark's patterns, so I'm preferentially eyeing hers. Until then, I will be working on Eunny Jang's Tangled Yolk Cardigan from the latest issue of Interweave knits. I'd show you a progress shot, but 2 inches of ribbing isn't exactly exciting.

Happy Saturday!

Separated at Birth

I see the likeness - do you?

Sneak Peek

Knitting lace is plenty exciting if you're the one doing it (especially if you sneeze and drop 8 stitches!), but it's not exactly fascinating to read about. It's all puckered and sad. Actually, it vaguely resembles a manta ray - it even has a little tail! So here's a little preview of what the swallowtail shawl will look like. I'm nearing the end of the budding lace charts. I will easily finish that this weekend, and begin on the border section. I anticipate that this will be blocking next weekend.

Reflections

Here are the socks that took me ridiculously long to complete. I've been through so much while knitting these that I was almost reluctant to finish them. They were started June 10 (the day after World-wide Knit in Public Day). In the time since casting on I have written and defended my project proposal, come to an understanding with my advisor (and I think he "gets" me now, too), and eaten way more fast food than I'd like to admit. I've changed. I wonder if I'll ever be able to wear these without thinking of the stress I was under when I made them.

Project Details:

Pattern: Waving Lace Socks (Evelyn A. Clark)

Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in Pixie (Purchased at The Loopy Ewe)

Needle: 2mm (US 0)

I cannot convey how much I love Fleece Artist. The yarn has sheen and character. It knits up so evenly that I think it's perfect for socks with textured patterns. The gentle color gradations kept things interesting without making the end result cluttered. I will definately be using this yarn again.

Because I know she's watching. . .

Hi Hannah!!

I had a dream that you guys visited me last night. I was sad to wake up and realize we weren't actually taking silly photos in the arts district. =(

I don't know if Mom told you about it - but I had that presentation last week. I didn't feel particularly good or bad about my performance but the boss was really pleased with it. It was the second time he's given me praise to my face - so I know it must've been a big deal. See, the boss never compliments someone directly. He will tell the whole world how much butt you kick - the whole world except you. If he actually tells you in person it means you really exceeded his expectations.

A 3-month long experiment flopped and I'm working hard to figure out what went wrong with the virus. I'm having to be a "virologist" and that means coming in at all kinds of crazy hours! It's left me rather sleepy and uninspired, so there hasn't been much knitting. I am getting close to finishing the pair of waving lace socks - probably only 3 hours worth of knitting left on those.

My class has started back up and today will be the first formal meeting. I'm still trying to finish the reading for today. The course director picked a really bad paper for the first meeting - it's complex, poorly written, and the figures are hard to decipher. I feel sorry for all the students who are in their first year of the class. They're going to be so overwhelmed. =( Kay, I really need to get back to that paper before people start coming in and try to talk to me!

Talk to you soon, Li'l Bit!