Knitting News:

Been a while since I managed a post and for that, I apologize. I've been really busy lately. I guess October is the new September, at least her in my world.

So, first, a friend took me to a knitting/quilting store that is quitting the knitting business and taking their quilting business online. So, as they close their bricks and mortar store, all knitting supplies are 60% off and all other goods (including some spinning fibers) are 25% off. I snagged this lovely artyarns yarn. They had more in a colorway that include greens, and I almost went that way but I didn't. I was thinking I could talk someone into liking this blue colorway better than the Needlenook Nosh from Numma Numma that I won. But she's no longer getting either, so it's moot.


These lovely Elann Esprit socks are finally finished after being knit only one and a half times. The first time, a girl said they were too tight to get on her feet - and they pretty much seemed to be. So I ripped them and reknit with bigger needles which had the added benefit of making the pattern more noticeable. They are now finished the second time (and tho the picture doesn't show it the toes are grafted and ends worked in.) She still says they are too small, but since they fit my big feet, I think there's something else that she doesn't like about them. She won't tell me what, so she doesn't get them or any more socks - thus the Needlenook Nosh reverts to me.


I have also cast on for the Grazing Sheep Bag by Kathleen Taylor from I heart Felt. I decided that I wanted to make it bigger, so I recharted it with 60 stitch wide front & back and 30 stitch wide sides - it will be a rectangle instead of a flat bag. Given my current dislike for knitting intarsia, I've also decided to do it in the round and strand the overlaps of the greens. When the bag is knit, I will use duplicate stitch to add the sheep and their feet and faces. I have ordered 5 extra skeins of wool in the various greens (so I'll end up with 3 of each green) so I'll have enough yarn to make it a little more than double the bag's original design.

I actually had knit a little more than what is shown in the picture (about 3 times as much) but had to rip it all out because I had miscounted and was 30 stitches short on the round. It's now reknit back to about where it was before I discovered my error. The needle that this is on is an Addi Natura Bamboo needle that I picked up at the unfortunate yarn shop for 60% off - and I must say that I love them. I'll have to keep an eye out for more addi natura.

Happy Anniversary to me!

This flower, a moonflower, bloomed because it's his favorite flower that I grow - bloomed just for him to say Happy Anniversary. We've been married 19 years today.

This is the schematic for the new Grazing Sheep bag I'm going to start knitting as soon as I dig out needles and stuff. I wanted to make it much bigger than the pattern called for, so I decided to make it a square (well, rectangular) bag instead of flat. I'll have to give it a bottom too, but that doesn't need to be charted. Each of the front and back will have the sheep scene and the sides will be just grassy hills. (The picture only shows the front, a side and the back - the other side is assumed - well it's drawn out too, but behind the back.) I ordered several extra balls of the various greens today, so hopefully they will be here before I run out of the first green. I'm debating how I want to do the sheep. I've already decided that the feet and faces will be duplicate stitch and I'm thinking that the sheep might should be too - because I absolutely hate intarsia. Haven't decided that yet . . . . I'll let you know what I decide.

Progress

Back from the dead are the turquoise socks in the Flame Wave pattern. This time knit on a much larger needle and tho you cannot see much difference between these and the originals, these are much looser. Just about ready to start the heel because she doesn't want them to be too long. I need to back up about 4 rows because there are some loose stitches that look funny to me.

And progress has been made on the Norwegian sweater as well. I'm done with the second pattern repeat. I need to chart out the sleeves and get started on them.

I'm also going to start the Grazing sheep bag today. I put the chart into Stitch & Motif maker last night and extended it so I can make a larger sized bag. I need to print it out and order a bit more yarn so that it can be bigger. I'll cast on for it today because the knit a long technically started yesterday.

And I thought for a minute that I wanted to make Hey Teach from Knitty, but now I'm thinking I might make something from Viking Patterns for Knitting. Either way, it'll be something knit with a fine yarn because I think that looks better.

For the 3 of you who don't come from Ravelry:

Please consider going to this website and voting for the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm so they can win this terrific Tech Makeover. I've been debating buying a share in their Consumer Supported Agriculture for a while. What basically happens is that people buy shares of the crop (which is yarn or goat and sheep fiber) before it's harvested and those shares help pay for bringing the crop to harvest (the shearing). One day I will buy a share and have that yarn. Meanwhile, they'd really love to have this and I'd really like to help. I know there aren't that many viewers of this blog and even fewer of them haven't already seen this on Ravelry, but for those of you who haven't voted yet, please do.

And, if you leave a comment, you help advance their chances of winning the 'most popular', so don't hesitate to leave a comment.

Here's a quote from the owner:
Hey everybody! Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm is a contestant in the intel Tech Makeover Giveaway and we need your vote. We entered because we’d like to install webcams in our lambing and kidding barns in the spring so everyone who wants to can see the new babies being born. Could you take a minute to vote for us? It’s so easy- just follow the link and click the “like it” button. You don’t have to register or anything. You can also leave a comment if you like. Thanks so much for considering voting.

Here's the owner's blog:

http://mvfiberfarm.blogspot.com/

Isn't this backwards?

Sometimes the pictures can tell the story all by themselves. It's not supposed to go like this. Oh well, at least I am a process knitter, not a product knitter.

Strange, very strange . . .

This is a picture of my passiflora pura vida purple blooming from July. It bloomed a lot this summer and that's part of what makes it one of my favorite. The other part is the color - I just love the deep purple of this one and the camera just cannot seem to catch how really deep the purple is on these petals.











This flower is on the same plant, in the same pot, in the same place, under pretty much exactly the same conditions. The petals are still the same lovely, deep purple that the camera doesn't catch right. But look at the filaments in this picture and the other picture. These are black and the others are white. Very strange, indeed. I've checked and checked to make sure that another vine didn't infiltrate the pot and there is only one plant in there and this is not the end of another vine. And, in fact, I don't have a passion flower that's supposed to be this color. I'm not sure which flower I like better, I really like them both.




And this is my staghorn fern. The fern that lives in the pot it's sharing almost died last winter, not because of the cold but because it didn't get enough water. It was so rootbound and had so little dirt (dh planted it and the pot was way more than half empty) that even watering it every day wouldn't have helped. I repotted the dead fern and it's coming back nicely thank you. But when I repotted it, I put the staghorn down in the dirt with it, instead of in the small seperate pot on top of the dirt. It seems to be VERY happy this way and has more than trippled in size this summer.

Flitting, not knitting.

The life and times of passion flower pests. . .

First we have the eggs.
Lots and lots and lots of eggs. Eggs on every tendril and every leaf of every plant I own.

Then the eggs hatch and we have teensy-tinsy, itty-bitty, almost not seeable little caterpillars. Don't you worry about them tho, they'll eat and eat till there are no more leaves and not very many flowers and then they'll be big.










This is the caterpillar from the Zebra Longwing butterfly after it's eaten a plantsworth of leaves.



















Once they've had their fill of leaves, buds, tendrils and flowers, they start to hang upside down. They become a chrysalis and then they hang there for another 10 days to two weeks.
See the pretty gold on the chrysalis? After they eat all my plants, the least they could do is make REAL gold so I can get something out of it!
This is what I get out of it. Lots and lots of lovely zebra longwing butterflies flitting around the yard. Mostly flitting around the vines laying more eggs to eat more of the leaves.









I also get gulf fritillaries - lovely orange butterflies. There are so many of them in the backyard that they land on you when you walk out there.

I love a good sale!

I had been admiring this bag at Michaels since it first appeared there. There is a canvas version and then there is this version that is plastic coated canvas. It's just about the perfect size - not so big I can fill it full of so much stuff I cannot pick it up and not so small that I cannot get a sweater or other decent sized project in it. And it has outside pockets that I can put a cell phone or wallet or whatever in instead of lots of inside pockets for needles and stuff I don't carry with me.


Best of all was the price. Like I said, I've been admiring it for about a year and it's been the same price all that time. Today, everything was 1/2 price. They had these two types of bags and a clear plastic yarn tube with holes at each end, an open top tote, and several types of needle cases. All were half price. So the three little bags were $3.99 each and the big bag was $11.99. Even the Divine Miss M couldn't say no to that price and she is usually very strict about my not buying knitting bags.

The one little one has a pair of socks on two circular needles just to show how big they are - there is plenty of room in there for that and even bigger balls of yarn. The big one has cardboard in it - knitting will go in later. I figure I can put the little one in the car and just leave it there. That way I will always have something to knit when I end up having to wait somewhere.

Cool, hunh?











Here's a link to the Michael's page where they describe the line of bags & accessories:
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/search?searchWords=knitpickers&type=0&search=yes&visibleSearchWords=knitpickers&searchScope=new

Progress and preparation:

Ok, so I'm making progress on some of the things I have on the needles, but not all. The green socks are languishing right now because I'm not at all sure the gauge is correct and I don't feel like ripping that yarn out again. (If you remember, I ripped it out as a shawl 2 or 3 times.) They are in time out in a bag that a lovely lady in Pennsylvania hand painted for me a few years ago. I will bring them out when I'm done being mad at them.
Meanwhile, the turquoise socks for Miss M are coming along nicely. I love the Flame Wave pattern from Favorite Socks. And knit just a little tighter than guage in the small size will give the perfect socks for the girl.




















And the Norwegian Sweater I'm making for me is coming along nicely. I did a huge gauge swatch for it and measured twice and calculated several times and checked it against my favorite sweater. I think it might be a little too small, but I've decided to knit a couple more inches and then put it on yarn and try it on before I decide. Gonna be mad if I do all that work and find out it's too small, but I'll be madder if I decide it's too small now and then redo it and find out it's too big. I am liking the look of it so far. And the material feels ok too.


And in preparation for my next project . . . . .
I've pulled this yarn and book out of the corner. I think I want to make the bag bigger than it is supposed to be because the size quoted in the book will be less useful to me than something bigger. And besides that, I want sheep on both sides and don't I deserve that? I know that you haven't made yours yet, so I've pm'd someone on Ravelry to ask how much yarn they used and which colors I might need extra on. She already said in her notes that the dark green was tight, so I'm guessing more of that. Are you two ordering anything from Knit Picks anytime soon?

And more importantly, would you like to join this knit along since you have bags to make too?

Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair - SAFF

The Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF) is a little more than 3 weeks away. I went last year with a friend but not for long. We drove up Saturday morning and drove all over the southeast on Sunday afternoon. This year I'm going with the same friend, but we're going to be there longer and we are going to take some classes. All the puppets and the bobcat and chipmunk in the last two pictures are needle felted from raw wool. My friend and I are taking a class to learn to make that chipmunk from the lady who made them. She does the most amazing things with the wool off her sheep.

We are also taking some other classes while there. We are both taking an indigo dyeing class together - guess I'll have to find another indigo plant cuz I killed mine years ago. And we are taking a heel workshop from Charlene Schurch of Sensational Knitted Socks and More Sensational Knitted Socks and Little Box of Socks fame. And even tho Mom and I took that spinning class at Spruell and learned to spin (when was that? about 18 years ago?) it's been years since I did anything with any of the wheels. So, I'm taking a beginning spinning class so I can get some practice and some tips.

You can see from the pics of the main floor that there are lots and lots of vendors there selling everything you could possibly want for any fiber arts. There is every possible type of yarn, a lot direct from the farmers. There is every possible type of equipment from swifts and ballwinders to looms and wheels and carders etc. There are fleeces (raw) and roving and angora and alpaca and any other type of fiber in any state you could want.
So if you guys want anything special, let me know!