Over Confidence Destroys

Well, It's been a week + 2 days since I began "spinning."  Progress has been slow, but steady - when I've had the time to spin.  I think I like it, but since learning to spin is a bucket list activity, I'm not sure that I will master it in the time I have left.
Feeling optimistic last week, after spinning up all the roving that I had in the house, I chose to purchase 8 ounces of Daffodil (think I blogged about that earlier) and on my day three of spinning (feeling what is in retrospect, overly confident) I really made a mess of it.  So after more than a few minutes of frustration, I walked away, leaving this mess!

The title of this should be "Learning Curves are Hell!"

Saturday (which would have been day 4 of spinning) I tried again.  Results were better but thumbs were sore from the work with drafting the yarn.    Here is a pic of the work done on day 4.

You can see some thick and some thinner pieces.  I'm told this is normal for the learning process.  But I'll call it "Fat & Skinny."

I knew the wheel was due back to the store today, so I immediately set about to finish up the remaining daffodil and white roving and then ply them together.  I guess this is day 5 or 6 or something like that.  Anyway,  the results were better today, thumbs sore as well.  My "skeins" are drying from the bath to "set the twist" but here is a pic of today's work.  I think these are more consistent in diameter, which is what is making my thumbs hurt!

Now, once the "skeins are dry, I'm off to knit them into something!  Can't wait to see what will happen with that!

Spin Class

Well, I finally went to a spin class on Saturday.  I'll bet you're thinking - hooray!  Exercise!  - but no it was a fiber spinning class.  I'm so excited to take the class.  I have had a drop spindle in my stash and some fiber in a bag - that I got at the same time - since 2002 - when I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival.  It's been moved now for 3 times and I still hadn't done anything with it.  I was so afraid of the drop spindle and not being able to master it, that I didn't even try.

Hop to 2012 and this month's Yarn Along the Rockies Yarn Crawl.  It was 21 stores and 9 days.  I've never done anything like this before, but decided to use this time with no work to try it.  I loved every minute of it.  I went to all 21 stores, saw parts of Colorado that I would never have seen, signed up for a spinning class, petted a lot of yarn, added to my stash, bought a book on the drop spindle, and, at one store, thought the roving was too good to pass up, so I now had more roving in my stash.  Roving is wool (or other fiber) that has been conditioned and ready to spin.  I understand that "conditioned" means the sheep (or other animal) donated the fleece, it was washed, dried and combed so that all the fibers are aligned and ready to spin.   I thought the hard work had been done and I pictured myself doing drop spindle spinning sitting on my deck enjoying the beautiful fall that only Colorado can offer!
Snap out of it, the drop spindle is not my friend!  It was much harder - even with great pictures in the book I bought - than I ever thought.

I had signed up for a spinning class at the nearest fiber arts store, happily only about 5 miles from my home, Table Rock Llamas.  The shop worker said they had cancelled the last one due to not enough people.  I was the first to sign up and the class was only 8 days away from my sign up date, so what's the odds that it would fill up?  I resigned myself to the drop spindle and the fiber I had picked up along the Crawl.   Imagine my shock when the owner of the shop called on Thursday to tell me the class on Saturday was a "go!"

On Saturday morning, I gussied myself up for the class - and to be honest I was dreading every minute of it.  But, since the class would be canceled if I didn't attend - as they had only the minimum needed for the class, I felt I had to go.  I walked into the class room to see 3 spinning wheels set up and ready to go!  No backing out now.  I checked my courage and sat down at one.  I met the instructor, Sharon, of Woodlake Woolies.  She really knows her stuff with spinning, and teaches a lot of classes on spinning easy to difficult stuff.  I applaud her for patience since we had to learn to control our right hand, our left hand and both feet at the same time!

It was instinctive to put my feet on the peddles and begin peddling.  The problems arose when I put some fiber in my hands and was actually going to spin yarn.  After 4 hours of tension (both the wheel's and my tension), twisting, drafting and plying with 2 different types of fiber, I had this:

Can you believe it?  Then I was hooked.  Having no wheel at home, but all that fiber from 2002 and the Yarn Crawl, wasn't enough for me.  I bought 8 ounces of what the shop owner called "sheep" since it was wool, but from different breeds of sheep.  I also bought 8 ounces of white merino and rented a wheel for 1 week.
Sunday came and went without any spinning.  Then I had to spin on Monday, so here is what I did on day 1 of my new career!

This is a combination of the Yarn Crawl fiber (dark brown) and the "sheep" plied together after spinning.  So, since I was hooked, I also spun up the 2002 fiber which was blue, but showed up as grey in the next picture.

One day 2 of spinning, I finished the Yarn Crawl fiber - red/black, and the remainder of the 8 ounces of  "sheep" and took both the "sheep" white and blue to Table Rock Llamas hoping they had a large enough bobbin that I could ply the white and blue together.  Not so, I purchased 8 more ounces of Merino in a color called Daffodil and borrowed an empty bobbin.  So here is what I did on day 2 of spinning.  I'm pretty proud of these.  Consistency is getting better and I'm hoping to move on to the merino soon.  I have about 50 yards of the red/white and the same for the blue/white.  It is more of a bulky weight yarn.

I'm on a quest to learn to spin finer and finer yarn, but today is Wednesday and the wheel is due back on Saturday!  Gotta get spinning!

Connections

I often find that knitting connects me.   Knitting connects me to the person who designed and created the pattern I'm using.  If I'm doing some "designing" (in quotes 'cause I'm not a real designer) it connects me to Barbara Walker and her great treasuries of stitches.  If I'm using hand painted yarn, I'm connected to the person who created the wonderful colorway.

I'm always connected to my past when knitting, to my mother and grandmother, who taught me to knit (and some basic crochet stitches).  I learned to form the stitches, follow the pattern, shape the pieces and finish the garment from watching what they had to show me.  In those days (1950 - 60 era) almost every girl learned these skills.   My Mother is the "nana" of Nana's Needles.

 To stay connected to my past, I have saved my mother's old knitting books and needles. It is with great pride that I hang these in my home, appropriately enough in my "sewing and knitting room".  These are such treasures and I'm so glad they all survived so I can own them.

                                                                

My Mothers Knitting Books and her plastic needles

Yesterday I was connected to myself with knitting.  It is strange that you can re-connect with your own past through knitting, but I did.  In the early and mid 1960's I was in nursing school and due to a midlife  baby for my mother, I had a 3 year old sister at home.  For Christmas one year, I bought yarn and knit the cutest sweater and skirt for her.  It was knit in a blue yarn, probably sport weight and wool.  The skirt was pleated and the sweater was a top down raglan with a cabled yoke.  I sat in my dorm room and knit this in my spare time.  I remember it as if I just knit it yesterday.   When my parents died in the 1990s and we were cleaning out the house I actually found the sweater and skirt + the directions to knit them.  Not being into knitting at the time, I unfortunately threw both in the trash.    

Back to yesterday... I was knitting a pattern on US 4s which called for K3tog at times, which can be very hard to do without sharp points and firm needles.  The bamboos and the acrylics were not getting the job done, so I went hunting in my knitting supplies and look what I found.  A whole set of aluminum size 4 doublepoints!  You can tell from the package that these must be old.  I wonder what I paid for them in the mid 1960s.   

US size 4 Princess Aluminum Knitting Needles

I immediately remembered using these to knit the sleeves of my toddler sister's blue top down raglan sweater.  What a find!  Imagine these needles have been moved from North Carolina to Louisiana to Tennessee to Missouri to Kansas and now in Colorado.  I was thrilled to find them, and guess what? They worked perfectly for the knitting plus they connected me to my younger self, simpler times and days gone by.  I wish everyone could have such connections!

Do You Still Knit?

There are many things in life that we try and let it fall by the wayside.  There may be a million excuses for not continuing.   Get too busy, lose interest, have something that takes it's place?  Who knows why, but our obsessions sometimes wax and wane.  I've been thinking a lot about blogging lately.  Not sure why, but in looking back at blogs saw that this one has really fallen by the wayside.  So, I think I'll start blogging again.  If nothing else just to give my hands a rest from almost constant knitting.  

Do you still knit?  Has that fallen by the wayside as well?  If anything,  I've become more obsessed with it.  It is my constant companion, in my bedroom, in my den, in the hotel, on the plane, while I watch TV, while I read a book, while I listen to music, while I listen to podcasts.  You name it, I knit.    I find about the only times I don't knit is in the movie theater (although I could garter stitch through that, but the butter on the popcorn would stain the yarn!)  and while I drive.

Ravelry.com has been a place to post pictures of projects - my name there is Nannyknitter and anyone can see that I've posted several projects over the years.  I didn't post pics of Christmas presents so there were even more projects.

I'm especially proud of The Twelve Scarves of Christmas - a scarf for each of the 12 days of Christmas.  These aren't literal interpretations (except the Five Golden Rings) and some even have feathers!   Check them out - the patterns are for sale there.  Some patterns sold at first, but I'm not planning to retire on that income! LOL  The patterns are also on Patternfish.com.   Look for the designs of Nancy Totten at both websites.

The Twelve Scarves of Christmas 

After a lot of work and not much return on the patterns, I decided to knit an endless loop scarf using the scroll pattern.  I called this Waves of Grain Loop and put it on Ravelry.com for FREE.  It has had 400+ downloads so far!  Maybe that is the way to go.  People always like something for FREE, right?

My Waves of Grain Loop - doubled as a cowl

I've become obsessed with Downton Abbey on PBS this year.   I downloaded season 1 and season 2 to my iPad and find the episodes to be great fun while flying (which I still do every week- although I am semi-retired).  I believe in combining passions, when possible, so am working on a new project, which I will call The Abbey Collection of Scarves, Shawls and Wraps.  The patterns for Mista Bates, Anna, Lord Grantham and Sybil are fixed in my head and will be knit soon.  Look for this collection on Ravelry.com with more added as others are completed.   It is so fun to be knitting (what I think will  be a part of the collection) while watching the episodes!  The acting is wonderful and the story lines are fantastic.  Luv, Luv, Luv Downton Abbey.  Can't wait for season 3 which will include Shirley MacLaine as the American "grand mama."

So rambling aside for the day and hands rested, will return to my knitting.  Hope you are still knitting as well.

TaDa! Too

Well, Once I saw the wrap coming to an end I wanted another project. I was in love with the Katarina Cardigan http://www.cocoknits.com/knit/garments/sweaters/katarina.html I wanted to knit one for myself -who knows why, I certainly don't need it, but you know how that goes. We knit because we can, right? I went to Twist, my LYS and began hunting for yarn. I found that the pattern calls for a dk weight yarn, but at 4 stitches per inch. I didn't think that would happen, so I used Silk Garden Bulky in color B. It gave me the gague and I think looks great. Here is the finished sweater/jacket: The actual colors are more jewel tone and actually brighter than the picture. It was a fun sweater to knit and now I'm looking for another yarn so I can knit it again! I like the way the sleeves knit, cast on with provisional cast-on then knit down after finishing the sweater! This way the sleeves are the right length! Neat idea, huh?

Next project is the Sampler Afghan from Melissa Leapman's book, Cables Untangled. Here is a picture of it from a fellow Ravelry knitter. It will be a long undertaking, but knits in strips and blocks so that it will travel easily. I'm only on my second strip at present and hope to finish it by next year! I'm using Berroco Comfort in light blue.

Ta Da!

Finished! I didn't work on the Borris Wrap for about 3 weeks due to travel for work. When I picked it up this morning, I was surprised to find that so little remained to be done, so I finished it while watching morning TV. Here is how it looks:

I can't wait to wear it and think it will look great with a black suit for work! The circle is actually a shawl pin that I got at Stitches Midwest from Gita Maria, web site http://www.gitamaria.com/ She had an awesome booth at Stitches and everything was beautiful - enameled silver work! I chose this one to go with the wrap.

I'm now knitting on the Katarina Cardigan - pattern found via Ravelry - using Noro Silk Garden chunky - it's going fast and hopefully will be finished by the weekend. I'll post if I'm finished. Next project for me will be the Sampler Afghan in Melissa Leapman's book, Cables Untangled. Can't wait to start is as it is done in squares and panels so it should make a good project to take with me out of town next week.

Irish knit

When I was at Stitches Midwest in August, I saw the Borris Wrap by Maggiknits - who has wonderful Irish knits designs. I bought the kit, but hadn't done very much with it til this week. I finally started it, the pattern is a bit challenging, but the pictures in the book (which came with the kit) make it easier to follow the written pattern.

I think it is a work of art! The pics are in the blue colors, but I chose the black and red!
Anyway, here is my progress!

Why didn't I think of it?

The more I knit the more I say, why didn't I think of that? My latest knitting project is definitely one in that category! When we visited your LYS in Macon, I bought the Plymouth Yarns Baby Alpaca Grande Vest pattern and enough yarn to knit it. It was truely an impulse buy but one of my best purchases. It is a bulky yarn which is knits fast and is very soft.

Just look at the finished vest!

It doesn't look too much like a vest in this picture, right? It really is a long piece with K2P2 on each end and K1P1 on 1/2 the stitches in the middle. Then it's folded over, like the picture and seamed just on the K2P2 part.

Clever! - Why didn't I think of that?

But here is the way it looks when you wear it! Looks different!

I wore it yesterday to Knittin' on the Prairie KAL (look for a blog by that name later) and everyone loved it. Part of the beauty of this is probably the softness of the alpaca which allows it to stretch. I decided to knit another using wool - actually Cascade Yarns Eco+ in 8448 Crushed Berry color. I'm hoping that the yarn will work and create another great vest.

Catching up - again

Just thought I would blog since it's been a while. Have been too busy lately, but I guess we are all way over our heads with the holidays, work and trying to maintain some semblance of family life.
Last weekend Heidi participated in the local Christmas Ice Show. There were 4 songs in which she skated with 3 of the costumes provided, since they were group numbers and all the outfits had to look alike. She had one solo - skated to Once Upon a December from Disney's Anastasia. Lisa wanted the costume to be similar to the movie, yellow with a blue sash. Of course there is only one way to get that - make it. Luckily we have a great small shop that sells only knits - including Lycra - for swimsuits and leotards. But she didn't have any yellow, so the shop owner dyed the fabric to create the costume. I spent all day Sunday Dec 9 making the costume but It really turned out pretty and she skated so well. The costume really fit the routine and so many of her skater friends complimented her on the dress. I have a home-made video of the performance and am trying to learn how to upload it to the web (file is too large) so all the family can log on and view it. Meanwhile, here are some photos of her solo:

This is her spread eagle position - and here is the ending:

OK, now to my Christmas knitting. I finished the vest for Heidi and her American Girl Doll! I don't know if she will wear it or not, but it turned out cute. I have to get out today and find buttons - then wrap it for the tree.
I have a friend that I wanted to knit something for as a Christmas gift, and gave myself only a few days to get it done since I wouldn't be seeing her again before Christmas after last Thursday - 12/20. I thought the Tickled Pink scarf from the latest Knitter's would be great, but wanted to change it somewhat, varying the shades of the same color.

Well it was a disaster - butt ugly actually. Here is how far I got before I decided to abandon it.

Isn't it horrible? Looks like a bunch of snakes. Who would wear this around their neck?

Anyway I had some Rowan Wool/Cotton in a cream color and knit another scarf with the same pattern but didn't get it done in time. I'll have to give it to her after the holidays. The scarf pattern was easy to knit, once I put it on shorter needles. It is just 4 stockinette stitches knit from bobbins and occasionally twisting the yarns to join two strips for 4 rows. I really enjoyed knitting it, but since it is in such a bland color, I don't know if she will ever wear it. If I had time, I would try to dye it some color. Sorry that I don't have a picture of the finished scarf. Once blocked it looked good, otherwise it kinda just bunches up into a long skinny strip.

How is your knitting going. WFAT finished? I'm trying to decide what to bring along for my trip to your house. I have several projects going, but mostly with multiple colors - making it necessary to bring along more yarn than I want to carry.

Hope you have great holidays! Looking forward to our trip to your house. Next year, Kansas for Christmas?

WFAT - Underway

WhereFore Art Thou (WFAT) is underway. I love the design of this pattern and the lace is easy to knit up. Today's fashions crack me up. Everyone is questionably expecting - it's why I've nicknamed this sweater WFAT. It could mean a lot of things - Wonderfully FAT. Wickedly FAT. Whoa FAT! Whoknowsmaybeshe'sjust FAT? In any case.... that's what this is becoming. I took this photo on Friday. I'm now through three repeats of the lace pattern. I secretly hope that I'm done with it by this weekend so I can wear it to the Steeplechase Races, but I'm going to be realistic. I'll have a back up outfit in mind - just in case.

Oh, and Ravelry is AWESOME. You should absolutely sign up if you haven't already. I bought some cheap chunky yarn to knit the girls snoods this weekend. A snood is designed to keep a greyhound's ears and neck warm in cool weather, as they have the tendency to catch a chill easily. A friend of mine calls my dogs "snake dogs." When he heard that I was knitting a snood for them, he asked if a snood was hood for a snake dog. Here's a picture of the snood I am making for them, thanks to a great new friend I've met on Ravelry.

Lizard Ridge and Gloves

My local yarn shop is doing a Lizard Ridge KAL so I am knitting along with them, even though I can't make the meetings. Here is my progress so far! 7 of the 24 blocks done. The color isn't so good in the picture, but these blocks are ADDICTING! Don't start them unless you are really ready to spend all your time knitting blocks. They are a great portable project, in case you are traveling soon.

I am having fun with the blocks and the different Noro Kuyreon yarn! This blanket should really be warm! I just hope I don't felt it by mistake! I have an afghan that I knit for my mother in the 1960s out of some wool and I know she must have machine washed and dried it because it is slightly felted. Thank goodness she took it out of the dryer when she did or it might have been a potholder when she finished.

My other project has been the gloves from Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn. I've found that I would rather knit gloves than socks so I'm jsure these won't be my last. I have some Louet Gems sport weight that I'm going to use for some gloves as well. I haven't tied in the loose ends on this picture, so I won't be wearing them with the strings hanging!

I used the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd for the directions to knit the gloves. Do you have that book? It was the first place I looked when I thought I would knit gloves. Made the process easy.

That is so cooooool!

I am so delighted to pass to you the "official black sheep of the family" baton! HAHAHAHAHA! OK, so do each of your aunts get one for Christmas?

Seriously, that is such a wonderful thing to do. Just think of the stories you'll tell. I can't wait to see it all! No pun intended. With your experience, maybe we can do one that is knitting related!

My alpacha gloves were cute but not too serviceable. The yarn doesn't have the stretch you need for the gloves to fit the hands. So,now I'm using some Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn to knit some gloves. To be on the safe side, I am using K1P1 from the cuff all the way to the fingers. The gloves look kinda strange, but they fit and hopefully will stay on.

Here is my latest finished project.

It's my red sweater from the Red Sweater KAL. I need to post the picture to that blog as well.
I have too many UFOs to even begin blogging about them.
I'll write more later, meanwhile keep the posts coming!

The Wait is OVER!

I finally got my invitation to Ravelry on Thursday and the buzz is worth it. What an awesome site. My screen name is greytblackdog. So if you're on, come by and say hi. I've not gotten a ton of stuff added to my list yet, but it is an incredible community. The groups are awesome. I've only joined 2 so far, but I'm sure I'll find more. If you've not signed up on the waiting list to get an invite, you should do so NOW. It only took me 2 months to get mine!

So, here's my surprise. Check out the calendar 11 of my favorite greyhound women and I made this summer for 2008. It's getting a lot of attention in the greyhound community and we hope eventually the national media will pick it up (which we're working on). Maybe this will make the official black sheep of the family!

Glad you are back!

I'm so glad you are back on the blog! I've missed you and what you are working on.
The current project looks great! I'll bet it works up fast and will make a cute vest. Where did you get the pattern?

At Stitches Midwest, I met 3 women from Wichita and we hung around together. Since then we've stayed in touch and this last Saturday took a day trip to Guthrie to the yarn shop there, S.W.A.K. for a day of shopping. This shop is wonderful with friendly staff and a fantastic inventory. She carries a lot of Berroco yarn and patterns. The shop has a spring workshop each year, this year in May and my Wichita knitting buddies and I are going to go to it this year. On the stash ehancement expedition, I bought enough yarn to do a sweater using Reality by Artful Yarn. The colorways are all named after TV Reality shows, Survivor, Amazing Race, The Bachelor, etc. I bought enough of the Amazing Race to knit a cool jacket sweater. Can't wait to get it started!
I just finished a pair of alpaca gloves for Heidi. When she ice skates her hands get so cold. She buys gloves (and of course looses them) wherever - WalMart,etc and they are all synthetic - not waterproof and not warm. I uses some Alpaca sock weight yarn - I think Cascade yarn but not sure. It was my first attempt to knit gloves which I did over the last weekend, but got the fingers too short, so I had to rip them down and re-knit the fingers. I could have started over and re-knit the entire glove in the time it took to rip and re-knit just the fingers! I enjoyed knitting them so much that on our yarn shopping trip I bought some Jitterbug by Collinette (sock weight wool) and am knitting another pair - only this time for me! I'll post a pic when I get home and can take one.
Just glad we are back to blogging now.

So Proud of You!

First of all, I am so proud of you. I knew the first time I saw that wrap that it was going to be a huge hit! I only wish I could have been there to see you model it down the runway!

I've been delinquent on this site and to my knitting besides some baby items like hats and socks this summer. Between moving and work, I just haven't felt much like knitting or being crafty at all. Not sure why. But I'm currently working on Juliet, which I can't wait to finish. Being a yarn snob, I'm embarrassed to say that I'm using some Patton's yarn that's 75% acrylic 25% wool, but it was the exact color and weight I was looking for. Go figure. It's working up nicely, though so no complaints.

I love your new site. It's awesome. Have you checked out Ravelry yet? I've been on the waiting list since August 19 for an invite and I'm getting closer every day (I'm number 26,914 on the invite list and there's now only 7242 people in front of me!). I hope by early October to be online. You should jump in line too. I think I'm going to be addicted once I get in.

We also are fostering a greyhound right now. Check out our adventures with Charlotte at our greyhound blog GreytBlackDog. I'll also have a big surprise for you next week (no it has nothing to do with a baby or expecting one) so check back here on Sunday, October 7.

New web site

I'm not sure what's happening here. I haven't seen a blog post from you in a long time. I hope it wasn't anything that I said or did. But thinking you are just too busy, I thought I would begin to blog again.

The motivating force for this is my new website! The owners of Cascade Yarns encouraged me to do a web site with my pattern for the Wright Wrap, so here is what I was able to get together. http://www.nansknitting.comFor some reason I can't get the hyperlink to work, but if you copy and paste, that should work.

I'm thrilled that I now have a website and the ability to pay for the pattern through Paypal, download it to a .pdf file and start knitting. You can also link to http://www.cascadeyarn.com
Cascade yarn since the wrap is made from Cascade 220 worsted weight yarn.

I was very lucky that my daughter has a friend who does websites professionally and through email she has created this web site for me. From it you can purchase the patterns for the Wright Wrap as well as the other designs I have published. I'll be working to add some other designs as well. Let me know what you think.

Stitches Midwest

I went to Stitches Midwest this weekend. Flew into Chicago on Friday, shopped all most of the day on Friday in the Market. It was fabulous! Just when you think you can't possibly knit another thing, along comes wonderful stuff. I bought a kit to make a wonderful wrap designed by the person, Maggie (sorry I forgot the last name) who does the wonderful Irish designs! The kit came with her latest book! I had to ship it home since I am not going home til Friday of this week. Can't wait to start it. I bought enough Tango to make 3 scarves, and enough yarn to do 2 vests.

The greatest part of the weekend was that I chose to show my Wright Wrap - from our previous post at the Student Show on Saturday's banquet.



I had been watching some fabulous pieces be shown, absolutely beautiful lace - which is really hard to do, so I was getting embarassed about showing the wrap and wished I could back out, but couldn't. My right arm is in a splint due to a tendon injury, so I got someone else to model it for me. I was so surprised when she started on the runway at all the applause! Then she turned around to show the back and you could actually here the audience do a collective gasp. Needless to say, I was so proud. Then at the end of the show they decided to give 3 prizes and they called my name as a winner of one! They were polite enough not to name them 1st, 2nd and 3rd, so I really don't know what they thought except it was a winner! I received a certificate for $100.00 off a 2008 Stitches event. But an even better situation is that I met the owners of Cascade Yarns and they were thrilled that the wrap was made from Cascade 220. So thrilled that Jean told me to send her the pics for her to put in their company newsletter. I hads stopped by her booth on Friday and showed her the pictures of the wrap. She thought the pics were great but told me after the show that the real object was so much more breathtaking. She also said that they always had extra yarn, (seems they bag into bags of 10 but the suppliers don't always send an even number of skeings) so for my next piece she can give me all the yarn I need to make it! Others were taking my picture in the wrap - which I had to model on stage in order to get the prize. Others stopped me after the show and on Sunday to tell me how much they liked the wrap, including some of the instructors who had stayed for the show. Needless to say, I am still pretty excited. This was an awesome moment in my knitting career.

Craftster.org

OK, I should never have looked at this web site, I found the knitalong sites and am hooked! There are too many great patterns and projects that I want to do. I found the Irish Hiking Scarf Knitalong and pattern. I didn't join the KAL, but bought Knit One, Crochet Too, Gourmet Collection, Creme Brulee DK Superwash Merino and knit the scarf. Here is the finished scarf. I love it and think I will enjoy wearing it.

I've knit too many scarves this winter. Not sure why except they are easy and fast to knit.
Any thoughts about going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival? I'm still thinking about it.

Too funny

That's too funny. You know what? I found the book on sale at Herrschner's and ordered a copy last week. I'm looking forward to knitting some matching sweaters.
I'll post those later.

I've also joined the Red Sweater Knit Along. I wanted to knit a jacket so I liked the thoughts of red and a knitalong. This is the first one I've joined and hopefully I'll have a jacket at the end. I swatched and cast on just before the Super Bowl.

Here is my pattern and progress so far.




I chose Knit Picks Elegance - 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk in Barn Red.
I'm also joining the Traveling Cables Cardigan Knitalong. I'm using the same yarn in Silver. I'm looking forward to this challenging pattern. Here's the picture of the pattern.

I haven't started this one yet, but I'll post progress to both the Knitalong and our blog.
Now, I think we should plan a trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May. I went in 2001 and really enjoyed it. It would be fun to go and perhaps meet some other bloggers and podcasters. It's a great wool and yarn event.

The Perfect Knitting Book for You

Mom and I found the perfect knitting book for you and Heidi, Knits for Girls & Dolls. We thought you would have fun knitting matching sweaters for Heidi and her doll, Sasha. As far as knitting books go, this one is as reasonably priced as they come! $13 bucks! How can you beat that. I can't wait to see what you create. I looked at all the major retailers to find a copy of this book without luck. The Home Sew catalog that my mom buys doll shoes and such out of for her cloth dolls was the only place I could find a copy.

I've finished all the pieces of the Fisherman's Shrug and now the assembly begins. I hope to start sewing tomorrow night. Then all that is left to do is pick up the stitches around the collar and knit the ribbing. Not too bad. It's been cold enough to wear it the last few days. Maybe I'll be able to finish it and enjoy it next week.