While the Canadian Hockey team was getting ready to go into overtime at today’s fantastic last sports event of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, I was sitting at my computer, officially crossing the Ravelympic finish line with my projected. I finished……… YEAH!!!
Here is the collage of my finished handspun Multnomah – it is such a fabulous pattern. I know I will knit it again – with handspun or with some of my commercial yarns. It’s a great little pattern.
Ravelympics 2010 - The The Finish Line - Multnomah Shawl
It was a fabulous 2 weeks. I wish I had taken in more of the action but it seemed a rather large challenge getting around all the people with the little creatures.
I feel accomplished that I got this project done. During the week, I have to tell you more about my fun shopping trip to my fave LYS, 88 Stitches
I’m really loving that there is a wireless network to connect to while I spend two hours at the dance studio while I wait for the little Miss. Oh yes, I think I didn’t mention that I got an iPhone for my birthday last week. I wanted one so badly but really can live without one so it was a great surprise and much as I expected, I love it.
This morning I lined up at the ungodly hour of 6:20 am to participate in the awesome annual customer appreciation Sal at the fabulous 88 Stitches. Thanks to Sue and all her stuff (including the hubby ). You guys are awesome!!! I will flash my stash on Ravelry but let’s just say a bunch of lovelies came home with me, mostly Noro. I like it for weaving.
And, as the Olympics wind down, I still have hope to finish my project. I have two more rows to knit. Those will get done in the next hour, here at the dance studio. Blocking right after and maybe it will be dry by tomorrow for its photoshoot!!!!! I Believe…..yes I can do it.
I’m knitting and really hoping that I can finish before the Olympics are over. I think I can do it. I’ve made decent progress on my Multnomah. I have about 24 rows of the feather and fan pattern left to knit. My goal is to finish knitting by Friday and block on Saturday. Here’s a rather dark picture of my progress:
How about one year??? Yes, indeed, that’s how long it took me to finally block the Sivia Harding’s gorgeous Norwegian Woods shawl. I checked it out in my Ravelry projects and I finished knitting it on or about January 4th last year. It sat on my book shelf in my room the whole entire year and finally, the desire to try out my new blocking wires gave me the impetous to get it done!! Blocking wires……. can I say, are a must have. it was so much easier than all with pins although in itself, it was still awkward.
Here are the finished project shots. I went a little nuts with the camera:
I will soon take another piece of the needles that will take some blocking. I promise I won’t leave it for a year to block. Really, honestly!!!
Up here, north of the border, it’s Canadian Thanksgiving today. We had our turkey feast last night so today is a day to hang out. I started my Thanksgiving weekend celebrating in fibery style with a quick shopping visit to 88 Stitches. There was a great Thanksgiving sale going on and what’s a girl to do but to support the sale and do some shopping.
Here’s the stash:
- Thanksgiving Day Sale at 88 Stitches
Bottom right is some Malabrigo sock in the sought after (or so it seemed at the store) Tiziano red. I have no idea what this one wants to be yet. Malabrigo sock does look and feel a bit too yummy for me to actually use it on a sock project. I’ve kind of had a hankering of doing another Diamond Fantasy scarf from Sivia Harding. There are several other good options as well for a lovely skein of yarn like that. Then the other two skeins on the outside are a solid and a multi skein of Araucania Rancho. These two coordinate and I think are destined for a future weaving project. In the middle are two skeins of lovely, vibrant Frog Tree Brushed Suri. It’s fingering weight and I’m maybe thinking of an Ishbel. That yarn comes in some lovely colours and it was very, very difficult to decide.
Another outing this weekend took me to the Fraser Valley Bead show which is now over and done with. Let’s just say it was an expensive outing, especially because I probably only spent an hour on site. I bought all my fall supplies of sterling silver chain, clasps. Took delivery of a sizable order of chainmaille rings from my “ring dealers” and got sucked into the most gorgeous of clasps. I love these clasps….. love, love, love them but of course, they are also expensive – very expensive – making a piece of “for sale” jewelry very expensive and making it hard to find just the right market but I just can’t resist these pieces of art. I will show finished pieces only but one clasp that came home with me was a 5 strand clasp in sterling silver with inlayed black onyx…… and the cuff I will be making – with solid sterling rings – will be just for me. There were a couple of other clasps, one of them a necklace toggle meant for a front closing necklace that I will start creating the chain for in just a few minutes here.
Here’s hoping for a good craft show season this year…… my mind is brimming full with ideas!!!!
Category: Stash and Supply Shopping
Tags: araucania, bead show, Chainmaille, craft shows, lace, malabrigo, rings, scarf, shawl, sock yarn, sterling silver, Weaving, yarn stash
I’ve been doing a bit of Tour de Fleece spinning but this spinning project has taken me the whole entire first week and then some. I set out to spin a 3-ply sock yarn with a Fun Spun Socks Kit that I got from my dear friend Shelley at Fibres West in the spring. These kits are great. They come with 5 ounces of merino fibre in a graduated sequence of colours. The one I chose to play with this time is the pink dawn colourway with colours going from a very light pink into a deep, almost brown burgundy. I meant to spin it for socks but somehow in the process I did what I had planned on doing with a second kit and that’s to spin for a small shawlette. That was by mistake and what I did wrong was to not divide all my little one ounce bundles into half first so that I coulds pin two different skeins ranging from dark to light. I ended up spinning just one skein, a 3 plied skein. Had I not planned on spinning for socks, I would have spun a 2-ply and achieved a bit finer yarn etc. etc. But I didn’t figure out the error of my ways until I was well into the project already. Really, I am not upset by that faux pas though because I love my skein and I just started knitting it into a little shawl tonight using a pattern from the book “The Intentional Spinner”. It’s working up nicely. Here’s a collage of the yarn:
Pink Dawn Merino Fun Spun Socks Yarn - 3 ply - Spun for a Shawl.
The yarn is about 15 wpi and I only got about 280 yards. My biggest problem was that I didn’t weigh my fibre this time to split it into thirds and I really misjudged my even division. On 2 bobbins, I ended up with tons of singles leftover while the 3rd bobbin was all done. I usually have more left on one bobbins than the others when doing a 3-ply but this was significant. I bet I lost at least 75 to 100 yards in the process. Maybe only 50 yards but still…. a significant loss due to me rushing through the process.
I’ll show pictures of the shawl progress soon. Now I have to get kidlets into bed.
