Damn You Garter

My hands and wrists are going to hate my decision to knit my brother a blanket for Christmas. I'm actually almost finished, which is sort of a relative term at the moment. I'm working on the Moderne Log Cabin blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting, and it's a great pattern. I'm modifying it slightly because the way I chose the color order has left an overwhelming amount of the cream color instead of the green, which was supposed to be the focus of the thing. I'm on the antepenultimate block, which doesn't include the edging I plan to add too. Two months left, and I really just want to finish this thing so I can knit something that isn't garter stitch.



Very early progress shot. It's much bigger now.

It's going to be awesome when it's done and I know he's going to love it, but if anything gives me carpal tunnel in my life, it'll be this blanket.

I'm itching to make myself another shawl or 10. I figured out what I want to do with the Sanguine Gryphon laceweight I got at Rhinebeck--the Aeolian shawl (shawlette size) from Knitty. I'm really excited about it, and may start it soon just to have some variety in what I'm working on.

I've been neglecting taking pictures of my spinning. I started using my wheel a lot more in April this year and have spun a lot of my fiber in the meantime. I'll have to haul it all out when the sun comes back for some pictures. The lighting in my basement isn't ideal for showing off the colors. Right now I'm working on a naturally chocolate brown merino that I got from SVFF a couple of years ago. It's very nice as a squishy three-ply and I think I may have enough for a hat and mittens, and maybe a small scarf or cowl.

Fiber!

Each year I go to two or three fiber festivals, mostly with other people from LSG (our group on Ravelry). You can see my post about MDSW below. This year I also helped out a friend prepare for her first fiber festival--SVFF (Shenandoah Valley Fiber Fest). I spent a few weekends at her house prior to the festival, helping package her signature stitchmarkers and playing with her puppydogs. Festival weekend I essentially fetched and ran and watched the booth while she got food and shopped. It was an extremely exhausting but amazingly fun weekend, and her yarn and stitchmarkers are fantastic. (That's my subtle hint to you readers to go to that link and buy stuff. Now.)

This past weekend I went up to New York with LSG friends to the NY Sheep and Wool festival, affectionately known as Rhinebeck. It's probably around the same size as MDSW, and it's definitely in a more wool-friendly season. We stayed in a rented house on a lake and had a great time. The festival was really crowded, as always. Saturday was pretty chilly and really windy, but it was nice and warm on Sunday. A little too warm, and I wasn't really prepared with a lot of warm-weather clothing. Oh well. The only unfortunate part was on Saturday when we went to leave. We got into the car around 3 and finally got out of the lot around 4:30. Yup. Traffic leaving the festival was awful. I don't remember it being that bad last year, and I've never had it that bad at MD. I really hope that next year they have a better way of directing the crowds, because that was a huge downside for me, and I didn't even have to drive.

Want to see my haul?

 

You can click through to the flickr page to see the notes, but I got some sheepskin slippers to wear in the basement this winter, a skein of Spirit Trail Fiberworks  fingering weight merino/silk (the red), a skein of Sanguine Gryphon cashmere/silk laceweight (dark blue, at the top), some BFL/silk from Misty Mountain Fibers (natural colored, in the bag), a go-monkey design project bag, some blue/green BFL top from Fiber Optic Yarns, and some gorgeous alpaca/silk top from Gale's Art. 

Not pictured is another pair of slippers for my brother for Xmas, and a skein of Albuquerque yarn from Maple Creek Yarns (who either don't have a website or I can't find it) for Kellie of the aforementioned Lizard Toes. It's got sequins! And Kellie, if you somehow stumble across this, it's meant to be a surprise because I know you loved it at SVFF and you're going to be so awesome to teach me to use my loom. So there. 

Oh yeah, I got a loom. A friend's mom had it and hardly used it, so she wanted to get rid of it and wanted it to go to someone who would get use out of it and love it. I'm not really sure what kind it is, but it's really nice and pretty big. I'll have to get a picture of it.