Knitting in the Heartland

Had a blast.

Lots of new people.

Lots of old friends.

It was great fun to see what everyone was buying and all the projects that are in the works!  It was inspiring to see so many new faces doing what some of us "oldies" have been doing for years.  Even better is how excited folks were to be learning new things and exploring new facets of fiber arts.  I've got some great ideas running around in my brain on how I might be able to help get fiber education and playtime to come more often to the area.  They have to take back burner to the creative projects that are already in the works in the dye studio but I feel confident that some new directions are happenin.

Thanks to all those that supported. 

Special shout out "hey there" to Teri, Christy, Christine and Stacey.

Sometimes You Gotta Play

Couldn't sleep..............again.

It's 8:15 am now, and at least I have something to show for the time spent up!  Over the last 4 hours, I've put bands on some roving, fed the cats (twice...sigh), put laundry in, replied to a couple emails, rocked and contemplated the meaning of life, and spun this.  

Felt good to actually put it in to soak a few minutes ago.  76 yards is all...but considering I got a lot of other stuff done, I'm considering it 76 yards of feelgoodfun.  ME time.  Y.E.S.

First Socks !!

Ok....so I've been dyeing Feet First for ... well....a long time...and I've made plenty of little things from the stuff, but never got brave enough to try socks.  All that short-row stuff, just had me running for cover.  Sounded like too much keep-track-of-your-row-or-else drama. 

I succumbed.....decided to do a toe up, and I'm sure the folks who do socks all the time will look at it and grimace at the quality of the technique....AND I notice a couple stitches that...well...I dunno WHAT happened :-\    ....

but they look like socks!..............errr..."A" sock....hopefully when I get to the heel and that dreaded short row stuff.....I won't quit..........or worse yet suffer from the orphan sock syndrome and not even try to finish the second one.

But...........whatev....I'm happy at the moment....it's mindless right now, which suits me just fine ... thankyouverymuch...............and it's fun watching the stripes go round and round.

I can see where this could get addictive.............

In love with the Subtle

I'm deep in to skeining yarns both for dyeing and for the upcoming Knitting in the Heartland event.  I've seen lots of colors go by, and every once in a while, it's the subtle blending that makes you stop and stare for a bit.  Right on the heels of a really gorgeous intense turquoise, I did this one....

I was in love with the colors within the color of skein.  From a distance it's once thing, as you get up closer, you see lovely shades of completely (sometimes opposite) different colors.  Just like in nature.  This has always fascinated me, and I love to see it when I'm working.

so....just thought I'd share....although the picture doesn't capture all the colors....I'm a dyer...not a photographer :)

What a Difference a Day Makes !

Ok...so the 40 yards of uberfine merino is gone............but look what it turned out like!

It was fun to do, quite relaxing, truth be told.  And I finally memorized the pattern...........which for ME....was a very proud moment :)

Blocked it and wow, what a difference.  Even though I dyed this yarn, I'm not wild about the color, so I'm toying with the idea of dyeing the lace black.  Time will tell if I'll be brave enough.  Not sure what all that heat would do to the lace pattern, but it would be a good experiment and a great education.  I'll just enjoy this for a few days and then go ahead and dye!  I can see me using about 20 in of black lace....but mint green??? nope...not me.

 Anyway.........my post for the day.

Learning New Techniques

It's so great when you can learn new stuff!!

Finished plying the yarn above (well the larger 190 yd skeins) and ... like most of us..had some yarn left over.  I usually sigh and walk away telling myself I'll be back to "take care of that later" but I've been on a mission to clean up all lurking fiber in this room....so...hmmm

ok....the obvious is just keep it as a single, skein it off, wash it and there ya go.  But then I thought about navajo plying.  Now I've tried this technique before, and did NOT find it relaxing (quite the opposite sadly), but what the heck...the color of the stuff that was left is awful....there wasn't that much there....so....who cares if it turns out badly............and I won't be stuck here doing it for long.

Did a little research, came upon a different way of doing this, and WOW...I love this technique now.  It's amazing what a different angle on thought processes can do.  So I decided this would be the perfect thing for today's blog post.  Not alot of the yellow (thankfully)  - only about 35 yds of the 3 ply...but perhaps someone somewhere can use it for SOMEthing.

Wonder what I'll learn tomorrow ?

I'm lacin' !!

Hey now, THIS is progress.  Not only have I made the leap back into the "fiberworld" as my dad used to call it...but I'm bein brave!

Decided to take some of this new line of yarn I'm working on (shhhhhh....secret stuff, at least for a while) and give it a try.  Of course I picked up some of the laceweight .. so...what's a girl to do?  I decided to start knitting lace ...for the FIRST TIME....and with a merino.....ultrathin....single !!  Well....ok...it's just lace edging...but lace none-the-less. It's my very first!!!!!!

For me, it's a milestone...so hey....I thought it might make a good post.  I know it will look tons different when I block it, and I still have a ways to go before I use up this little 40 yd skeinlet, but for now, I'm proud of myself (on several different levels)

I've got thousands of ideas running through my brain, so I'm sure over the coming months I'll be zoomin all over the place.  Catch me if you can.