Practicing what I have learned.

Now that I am back from the Snake River Fiber Festival, its been time to practice some of what I learned. First let me talk about the ball of yarn that my hand is showing the yarn. This is the May fiber of the month from Spunky Fibers. If you have not signed up for this, its a must in my book. For $15 a month you will receive from 2 oz 0 4oz of a fiber that is hand dyed. This month Amy King did a bit of a departure. The colorway is called Nightshade the fiber is 4 ounces of Coopwoth. Amy usually dyes bright colors so this one was a surprised. I love it. Its kind of hard to see but there are shades of blue, green purple and browns along with black. I have about 230 yards. My plan is to make socks. I will get started on them when the weather gets a bit hotter here.

My second skein is some wool, I can't remember what, that I hand dyed. I took about 10 hanks of roving to the festival to sell and this is one that did sell so I decided to spin it up. I use the havajo plying method, I have known how to do this for a long time but have never done much with it. I'm really happy with the result. I think I will try this on a larger project in the near future.

May mid-moth KAL

I have been having some issues with my computer so I have not been able to add pictures to my blog until today. Here is my version of the monthly dishcloth KAL for May. I love this pattern, but of course I say that for everyone we have done so far. I used Sugar and Cream and color is swimming pool. There has been some talk about what to do with all the dishcloths we have been making. I have mine in a large bag in my yarn room. With three daughters there seems to always be a birthday party to attend so my girls know that they can go pick a cloth or two and then grab a lotion, soap or any other bath products that are in out linen cupboard to make up a quick gift. Also at Christmas my husband is always looking for small gifts to give out to the ladies at work so I have a supply for him already to go with out having to stress out about making something up.

I have yarn every where

One problem with being a spinner and working in a yarn store is, I have yarn everywhere! I know you might be thinking 'what the heck does she have to complain about.' Well I'm not really complaining but I do have a lot of yarn that needs to move from the skein stage and into the becoming something stage. Because I think of myself more as a learning spinner, I try to take some time each day or so to spin. Well I have hanks of yarn all over the place. I did sell a few skeins at the Fiber Festival last weekend but not enough to make a dent in my stash. So I thought it was time that I make something up. This is the result. They are crochet fingerless mitts. The pattern comes from the SRK leaflet by Kertzer. The leaflet is number 141 and you can find the pattern at www.kertzer.com. The pattern calls for two stands of Kid mohair called ovation, or about 115 yards and a size I hook. Well I used some wool/mohair blend that I spun up a while ago. To get the right gauge and to fit my cute little hand I had to go down to a G hook. I did have quite a bit left over so I may use that to make some cuffs or something.

Snake River Fiber Festival - stash enhancement

Well I could not attend a Fiber Festival with out a little bit of stash enhancement, now could I. I don't feel a bit bad about all the money I spent either. I asked for money for my birthday and for mother's day. So I had a good bit of money to spend. I course I could have spent so much more but I did have a limit. I'm happy to say I did return with some money. 56 cents. But look at all the goodies I got. The sheep buttons and the figure came from Hartwells booth. If you just have to have some for yourself you can find them at http://auser77444.websitewizard.com/. I now need to spin up some yarn to make a cardigan for the buttons. The picture of the roving is all that I picked up to spin I didn't buy any yarn this time. The two balls of roving pictured in the lower right corner come from the Fiber addict. The right blue and pink ball is one that I have been looking at for about two years. I just love the colors so I thought it was time to get it. The second is a color way that I don't normally look for. But this one was a colorway that we used in the spinning class that I took, so right after class I stopped by Marri's booth and picked it up. Its from Mountain colors and I just love the way it spun up. In my class I used the Navajo playing method so I think I will do the same with this one, when I get to it. The other funny thing is, if you look closely there are two balls of roving that are just about the same color. I bought each one on different days and didn't realize it until I got home and was unpacking them. The one still in the plastic bag is from Greensleeves spindles and it has all kinds of glitter in it. Now let me talk about the two balls of roving below. I was able to meet up with a couple of Internet friends. Yes it was a good meeting and they are who they say they are. When I go to a fiber type festival, the first thing I do is walk around and look at everything, then I go back to and look at the stuff that caught my eye. Well would you believe on the second pass at looking at every thing I met up with Spinnderella her self. Lynn is such a sweet person and it was so much fun to meet her. Plus her rovings were just wonderful. I bought the bright pink one just because it was so pretty. I usually don't go for that color but its just wonderful. The other one is so neat, it has olive green, lime green, pink. purple and all those in between. I can't wait to give each of this a try. But I must confess the rovings in the tall plastic jar will most likely just look lovely in my yarn room for quite a while.

Snake River Fiber Festival- Classes

While I was at the Snake River Fiber Festival I was able to take a couple of classes. This first one was on Plying called Twist and Shout! Plying techniques for perfect yarns by Judie Overbeek. If you ever get the chance to take a class from her I would suggest it. She is a very good teacher. Sometimes the sign of a good teacher is how they deal with a problem student. I'm happy to say that I wasn't the problem student, but I did sit by her. I don't know if this every happens to you or if its just me. But when I take a class it seems there is always someone in the class who has no idea what they are doing. In the class description it clearly stated that you needed to be an intermediate spinner. Now I'm not sure I would call my self that but I do feel very comfortable with what I'm doing. Well this poor gal next to me could not get her wheel going in the right direction for anything. Judie was so patent with her. I do think I was able to improve my plying skills. I plan to work on some of the things I learned in the next few weeks.

The other class I took was needle felting. Now when I signed up I wasn't so sure I really wanted to do this, but I have had several people talk about wanting some classes on the subject, so I thought I guess I better. Well I had so much fun that I can't wait to do more. My end result is this troll kind of guy. I have always had trouble making faces in just about any medium, but I think felt is more forgiving. The best part was I left class with out the need for a band-aid, some were not so lucky.

Snake River Fiber Festival

Well I hope everyone had a great weekend. I sure did. I, along with three other friends went to the Snake River Fiber Festival in Idaho Falls. Its about 4 hours drive from Boise, so not to bad of a drive. I went last year and had so much fun, so I have been looking forward to this trip. This time We decided to go as a vendor. I was able to sell a few skeins of hand spun and a couple of hand painted rovings. These are the pictures of the display that we set up. Over all it was very successful venue for us. We are looking to do a few others in the area in the future

May Flowers

As the saying goes April Showers bring May flowers. When it comes to the Monthly Dishcloth Knit a long, that holds true. This is my version of the knit-a-long. Its kind of hard to see but there is a daffodil on the cloth. My favorite flower, so of course this one was a blast to knit. I used some left over yellow sugar and cream that I had on hand.

Back on Blossom Street

If you love a good read and haven't read the books A good yarn and The shop on Blossom street, then you have missed out. If you have read them then you know that Back on Blossom Street in now in print. Yea! Now I don't normally read romance stories but these books are different. They are more relational. For me I usually read mysteries. But Debbie Macomber has a great talent to tell a store about women and they relationships that they have with other women. My girls that take my knitting classes every week have read the books and have decided that we are the ladies of Blossom street. So next month we as a group will be reading the book and knitting the shawl patterns. This one is the main pattern in the book. It was really fun to knit up but I did have to do some figuring. The designer some times makes things clear as mud. To start off it didn't tell how much yarn to use and what size need to use. So after a couple of attempts I was able to knit this green one up. I used Lion Brand woolease that I had in my stash, I wanted to figure out about how much yarn I would need. This one took about 500 yards on a size 10 needle. Its 26 inches long and 58 inches wide at the top. Of course I could have made it longer but I was shooting for a shoulder length one this time. After you figure out what yarn and size needle to use the pattern is really quite easy. The other shawl that I have started is made with Lorna's Laces Heaven and the color way is water colors, I'm using a size 7 needle. I don't know how many yards I have in the ball so it will be as long as the yarn permits. My girls are also planning to knit the basic shawl that is also in the book, we are going to donate them to a shelter for abused women during the holidays.

Number 13

Well I just counted all of my top down sweaters. This is number 13. I do have to say that I have made more then that, these 13 are mine. I have over the years made some for other people but I must confess that I knit mostly for myself. This one is special as I dyed the roving then spun the yarn. It usually takes me about a week to knit one up. This one took about 2 and half months. Of course most of that time was spent spinning. I have never spun a three ply before. The fiber is BFL and it was a dream to spin. I purchased the roving from Woodland Wool Works. I then used Dylon dyes to paint the rovings. The 3ply is about a 13 wpi. I knit the sweater with a size 9 needle. I did make this one a bit over sized. My plan is to wear this one more as a coat this next winter. I like to wear a heavy sweater instead of a coat on cold days. Enjoy!

Don't you hate computer problems?

Don't you just hate computer problems? I have not been able to update my blog, email or even read through my email for a while as I have been having some issues with my computer. So I need to catch up on things that have been going on around here. Even though my computer is going at a snails pace I have not. I have been able to get lots of knitting and spinning done. But before I talk about all of that I want to share with you my latest box of goodies from my SKP 10. I did get this box last week. So the chocolate is now all gone, but it was good. The glass sheep are just the cutest and they now sit on my bedside table. Also the sock yarn is really nice. I think this is beginning to be a sign that I need to knit more socks then I usually do. On average I only knit maybe one or two pair a year. Thanks so much to me SKP10.