Happy Anniversary

It has been 21 years honey- Tim and I started dating 21 years ago on Halloween- We were at the Halloween dance in High School - I was dressed as a dalmatian, he was a mountain man in tight buckskin pants- I'm not sure where those pants ended up, but I still have my dog collar somewhere


I started a pair of socks in my Sioda yarn- The yarn is dyed with lac and looks like a baby pink and light purple blend. The Sioda has a barber pole effect, the merino picked up the dye differently than the silk (85% Merino and 15% silk).
This one is in DK, so to make sure I had enough (this is a smaller skein than I sell), I weighed the ball as I wound off enough to make one sock- this is the baby cables pattern from the first Charlene Schurch book
Sensational Knitted Socks
This is a great sock book if you don't have it.


I have been often asked about beginning socks and how I learned. I followed the directions in the Anne Budd book, The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns: Basic Designs in Multiple Sizes & Gauges (Interweave) This is a great book and I recommend it for every knitters library. it gives basic patterns for nearly anything a knitter needs to make at one point or another. I was forever looking for mitten patterns at one stage for hand spun and then I found this book, now I can spin away and worry about gauge later.

What I'm listening to- Henry the VIII, I am- Herman's Hermits- This song is a bit before my time, but I saw Herman's hermits and the Monkees in concert when I was in High School, so it took me back to the fateful dance. All I can think of is the horrible Lionel Ritchie song we danced to

Never mind- Norah Jones is on now- I'm going to make it

Now back to real life-

I have actually been doing some knitting this week- one I can't show you, because she found the link to the blog- so no peaking at the Xmas gifts!

Here I am on the Refined Raglan-

I like this sleeve design a lot, it and the rest of the sweater had a provisional crochet cast one, you then turn the edge and pick up the stitches on the other side, so the edges come out super neat, with no ribbing, and no curling. I know you are supposed to pull the chain out, but I liked the way the white looked against the brown. I may try to use this sleeve in the disastrous Spiral sweater of my own misguided design from ages ago. it would be quite nice to wear my own sweater design to a show sometime.

And, I found my Clapotis from last summer. i don't think I ever loaded a photo, so here it is-

It is too long and too narrow, so I think I need to reknit it again. Tim was right, the colors are ugly, maybe I can overdye it and make it better-

We made Knitter's Review!

We were mentioned in Knitter's Review!!!

I can't breathe! I can't breathe!

- Donkey from Shrek 1

Just my luck

We have a two hour evacuation of the building and I didn't have my sweater knitting with me- I know, I should always have a sock project handy, but after making all those samples for Rhinebeck, I don't have any desire to knit socks at the moment. I'm trying to finish the refined raglan I began last Spring.

But look, someone else is planning to make socks- Dropstitch knitter - who bought two skeins of my yarn- I'm so excited- i can't wait to see how all those skeins look knitted up- it's like letting my kids leave for school all over again-terrifying and exciting all at the same time- you are happy for them, but cringing at the same time.

and another one

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brownhair/1713864146/

The amazing thing

The amazing thing is- I bought nothing at Rhinebeck- and I did try. i walked around on Sunday afternoon when it started to get a bit quiet and I saw nothing that I had to have. The yarn diet has been going really well this year and while i have bought some yarn, it certainly isn't what I have bought in the past.

I did drop off a merino fleece we found in the basement to Twist of Fate to get processed, but other then that- nothing- not even fried dough! So, I think I deserve a present- I worked hard- I dyed all that yarn and worked all weekend without fried dough- although the fried dough guys were just across the way and it needs to be fiber related- so I'm thinking a woolee winder would be the perfect me gift-

Tim wants a Soay ram as his present

and look - my sold yarn on flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/archivistontheedge/1698058825/

Bad swapper, bad blogger, bad driver- decent knitter

July- really July! Has it been that long? Apparently it has- no excuses really, but now that Rhinebeck is come and gone- let's hope time is a little easier to come by.

Rhinebeck was great- thank you to everyone who stopped by the Ancient Threads tent between barns 26 & 27- we had a record breaking show and the hand dyed yarns sold like crazy. I took over 120 skeins and I think about 10 came home.


I will try and get those on Etsy asap- maybe today. The roving all sold really well also- we have a small amount left.
One of the best parts was seeing some of the projects people brought in to show off- made from our fiber
here's one


A beautiful shawl made from mystery roving- I'm sorry I forgot the get the name of the spinner/knitter- please email me if this is yours!

I think the whole experience showed Tim how there is a market here- now he is talking about buying/ making another carder- I have to order more blanks to dye. Back to work tomorrow-