It’s been awhile. Really, it’s been far too long. I think about my blog often but the days never seem long enough to do everything I want to do.
Anyway…
Here’s what I’ve been up to for the past few weeks.
I went to the Breaks Interstate Park with my mom.
I made a couple of commissioned baby things:
I made a shawl for a sweet little lady that I’ve adopted as my grandma.
And, I turned 30.
One day at work a package arrived filled with the most amazingly soft yarn, Miss Babs Sojourn (65% cashmere and 45% silk). In it was one skein (their last skein) of a color called Mystery Mine. Although there were threats of hair pulling and mud wrestling, I came out victorious! The skein was mine! I loved it so much I wound it by hand instead of using the ball winder.
It was 200 yards of fingering weight heaven that I knew I needed to make an item that would be close to the skin. The Eleanor cowl from Knitty was the perfect solution, especially since I love lace.
Last night I bound off and this morning I seamed it. If it wasn’t going to be 93 degrees today, I’d wear it all day.
Here’s the link to episode 18 of the Craft Culture podcast that includes me 
I had such a great time with Dani and I’ll be posting photos as soon as the dust settles here in my life.
Dani of the Craft Culture podcast is on her Summer Tour. She is visiting five cities in the Eastern US Chicago, IL, Cleveland, OH, Newark, NJ, Abingdon, VA and Greensboro, NC along with her home town of Anchorage, AK during the tour. She is traveling around to meet knitters and knitting groups to discover why, how, ins and outs of what we do.
Sunday evening I’ll be picking up Dani from the train station. (I’m so super excited to see Dani! Squeee!) Monday we’ll be visiting Thistle Cove Farm and Dreamland Alpacas and seeing the sights of Southwest Virginia.
Tuesday, July 20th, You’ll get the chance to meet Dani! She’ll be at A Likely Yarn from 3-8 conducting interviews with our area knitters & knitting groups. Come by and say Hello!
I finished my Vanilla with a Twist socks this week. They started out as a plain vanilla pair of socks but I decided to put a tight cable up the back of the leg to hopefully give it some support. I used the rest of my Intentions sock yarn to make these.
Sunday I started spinning CJ Kopec’s Jester (2/3 merino and 1/3 colonial). It is incredibly soft and practically spins itself.
Monday I went stash diving and came up with a bunch of destash yarn and some other yarns that I want to knit but have been hanging around for awhile.
I cast on the Dandy Neckerchief in Summer Linen which is a cotton & linen blend. It’s been great to knit with since the summer has certainly arrived. It’s been far too hot to knit wool.
I also cast on a blanket in Cherry Tree Hill cotton/rayon bouclé in the colorway Winterberry. I have four 440 yard – 8 oz skeins. It’s not something I would make a garment out of so he only thing I could imagine making was a blanket. I love the colors! It’s basically a giant Grandma’s Favorite Dishcloth.
I finished the Chopstick Socks and I am in LOVE with this pattern. I’ll definitely be making several more since I have a good stock of hand painted sock yarn.
I also finished the Murder Mystery SAL.
Not much on the needles this week. A pair of plain vanilla socks made out of Intentions yarn in Courage. The Nightingale socks haven’t been touched since last week.
A few weeks ago I was asked to be a demonstrator at the local 4-H center. I was an avid 4-H’er so I checked my schedule and said a quick yes! Last night I gave four 15 minute demonstrations on drop spindling and a speech on where yarn comes from. I was pleasantly surpised that the kids were interested and asked really good questions. My biggest surprise was the interest the little boys took in spinning. I got a few really good kid comments that made me giggle. I had the kids name off animals they thought would be good for making yarn from their from and one little boy insisted that elephant hair would be great. At least one kid in each group asked if you could spin and make a sweater out of cotton candy because that is what the wool looks like. I had a wonderful time and I think the kids did too.
Ok, I had a big weekend and I didn’t want to type it all out so I recorded a video. Sorry about the bad edits and barking dog.
Edit: BTW, I said that the Scarlet Fleece did not have a colorway listed, I found it and it is called Poodle Skirt 100% Australian Wool Top 4 oz.
Edit #2: Also, I didn’t post yesterday’s Friday FO’s so I’m adding it at the bottom of this post since I’m wearing the FO in the video.
I finally finished the Tappan Zee!
After reading comments on other Rav project pages that the sweater comes out a bit on the small side, I opted to make it two sizes up. I like the way it fits and I’m in love with the buttons. I made it in Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport in the colorway Roasted Coffee. It took five skeins and I have about a quarter of the last skein left.
I recently made another Ishbel shawl in the larger size. I made it in Alpaca Prima in a pretty heather brick red.
This was the last yarn I spun on a spindle. The fiber came from Cindy of Studioloo in my Monty Python swap package. I love the bright colors!
This Cranberry beauty is what I spun on Willow during an eight hour Dr. Who marathon on Sunday. 157 yards, 2 ply, wool but not sure what kind. Looks to be near sport weight.
