Since my last post I have been working through my summer to-do-list while I am home. I talked a bit about my dyeing goals and I am pleased to say it is all done. The new colors are all dyed, the others colors are all restocked, and it is all labeled and boxed in the trailer for the upcoming shows. Whew!
This is just a sampling of all that I got done. I didn’t get any pictures of the labeling and packing but I do have some finished prettier shots of the new colors.
The new colors are all available to order on the website in the yarns above and they will be making their debut at the Natural Fiber Extravaganza in a couple of weeks.
I am hoping to have my Firenze pullover finished in time for Stitches Midwest. I only have about an inch or maybe less to go on the body stockinette section and then the ribbing. After that it’s only the 3/4 length sleeves, and they won’t take too long, right?
I am so glad to be home for a stretch after a super busy spring show season. I went to 9 shows in 15 weeks and the last 5 were consecutive weeks with only a day or two home between each. To make it more crazy I usually had some production work to do when I was home. I am still working on dyeing more yarn, including 5 new colors. I am fitting that in as I can between home/family stuff. Here’s a few pictures of what I have in the works in that respect.
Fern and Graphite drying on the lines Emerald (Left) Graphite (Center) Fern (Right) New color samples for 2019. The one on the left and right of Graphite are as yet unnamed and waiting to be dyed.
So, the dyes are in the process of being mixed when I have an hour or two here and there to spend in my studio. The yarn is finally all here and now I just need a few days of good weather and no other critical tasks that need my attention so that I can get it all done. I had to take one of the guinea pigs to the vet yesterday and I have to take my father to an eye procedure tomorrow. Hopefully that will be it for awhile.
So the other thing I was planning to share was my Firenze sweater progress. I am working on the plain body section now after finishing the cabled yoke and dividing the sleeves. Progress is much faster so I hope to have it done by the next show, but that is in mid July so I’m not sure if that is a realistic goal.
Color is closer to true in this one from last week.Progress as of today.
I’ll close for now. I’m going to try and get the last bit of color mixing done this afternoon so I can possibly get the dyeing done over the weekend. Talk to you again soon!
I know. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? May has been a blur and no time for blogging. So. I’ll try and catch you up this morning.
I have had three shows and am at another this weekend with one more to go next weekend before I have a break in traveling. I will be home until the end of July. Where am I now? In Atlanta for Stitches United. I drove down and set up the booth yesterday. I didn’t get any pictures last night, so maybe later?
A few new things are in the booth like the finished Debussy . I am sorry for the quality of this picture, which I took last weekend in the booth, but it’s all I have at the moment.
I also managed to dye three new yarn colors which I am just realizing I have forgotten to take any pictures of!?! Sorry. I promise that will be something I will do today while I am at the booth and put them in the next post. Oh, but new colors also means three colors are discontinued, so they will be on Clearance for 50% off. The sale prices will be on the website by next week, if anything is left after these last two shows. No time to do it right now.
Ok, so what I’m knitting now (in my free time :-D) is a sweater for a change. It’s Firenze and I am using my Classic Merino Superwash Sport in Sapphire. I am getting close to being finished with the cabled yoke and I think the progress will pick up after that. It’s stockinette and rib for the body and then the 3/4 sleeves. I love those.
Remember the Holbrook Shawl I knit this winter? Pretty isn’t it? I guess someone else agreed that it was so pretty they needed it more than I did. I was stolen from my booth at Shepherd’s Harvest Festival in Minnesota a few weeks ago. I was very upset to say the least. So, not only do I need to re-knit this sample, I have made necessary changes to discourage this from happening again. This is the second sample I have had stolen in the last year. Six skeins of yarn also disappeared from my booth In Greencastle, IN. From now on I am securing all my samples with multiple zip ties and trying to arrange my booth where I am in sight of as much as possible. It’s really sad that it has come to this, but what else can you do? SMH
So, you will soon see another Holbrook in the same color on my needles. Sigh.
Okay, I have to close for now. I need to drop back by the booth and add some finishing touches before the evening Sneak Preview. Hope to see some of you this weekend or next at Hoosier Hills Fiber Fest!
I don’t think I mentioned it before but when I returned from Chicago the first week of April, the stray cat that hangs around our house had kittens next to our front porch. This is the mama cat and a picture when they were probably a week or two old.
They are about 4-5 weeks old now and you can see they are getting to be crowded in this space. I figure she will have to move them soon since she can’t really even climb in with them to nurse them anymore. She perches herself above.
I am almost at the end of my two week break from traveling. I am headed off to Minnesota for Shepherd’s Harvest Festival on Wednesday morning. I thought I was going to be dyeing yarn these last two weeks, but alas, my order has not arrived from the mill. I don’t know how I will fit in any restock dyeing at this point (when all my yarn arrives that is) as I have festivals for the next 5 weeks. I have 2-3 days in between each but that doesn’t help a whole lot for the way I work.
On the bright side, I have had much more time and energy for sample knitting. Debussy is coming along quite nicely and I may even have it finished pretty soon. This is how I spent my Sunday afternoon and evening.
YarnCon was great! I also had a good visit with my daughter Meredith and her family before heading back to Nashville. I always try to fit in a couple days to see them whenever I am in Chicago, since they are less than an hour east of there.
It’s a bit tricky to get photos of these two busy babies but I managed a couple halfway decent ones. LOL!
So after I got home I finished the Kimani shawl I had been working on and got it blocked yesterday, just in time for The Fiber Event. I am leaving in the morning for that and will be driving home Easter Sunday.
Before I get to the final glamour shot of Kimani, here’s how much yarn was left after the bind off. Yep 6 grams. Pretty close but at least I used most of the two skeins right?
Next to the little ball is the yarn for my new project. It’s a DK weight design by Dee O’Keefe called Debussy. It’s one of my favorite shapes to make lately, a tip to tip triangle. I am using my Classic Merino DK in Sea Oat.
Finally here’s the finished shawl and I am very pleased with it. I am going to close for now to help Jerry in the shop for a bit before we head out for a concert tonight. Never a dull moment!
I will get to Holbrook in a minute but first I want to catch you up since last post. I had a great show in Raleigh and drove home on Sunday. I did some house cleaning on Monday morning and then proceeded to get a relapse of the flu I had before I left home for Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago. Sigh. I spent most of that week home laid up with a fever and cough so the Holbrook I finished is just now getting blocked. I didn’t do any knitting even while I was sick but have gotten some progress done on Kimani this week. That’s it above. I really do like it in this color!
Okay, so here’s the blocking picture of Holbrook. This one shows the color surprisingly better than the ones I took outside today. This one on the blocking tiles was taken in my room last night with poor lighting. I guess the new Galaxy S10+ lives up to the camera reviews.
These however are a little washed out on the color. I was in a hurry I guess since I had a few other tasks to get to this morning.
This one will be with me in Chicago this weekend for YarnCon. I am excited to be able to return this year after missing it last year. I will be on the new vendor area on the Ground Floor near the Dark Matter coffee bar. Hope to see you there!
Good morning again! Last week you may recall I was in Pittsburgh for the Knit & Crochet Festival there and in the final stretch on my Holbrook shawl. All went well at the festival and I drove from there on Monday morning to Raleigh, NC, where I am currently for the Carolina Fiber Fest. I have had a couple of days here of down time, so I mostly hung out at the hotel and made good progress on my booth sample knitting.
I finished the Holbrook last night and while it is impossible for my to block it here in the hotel I will show you how it looks right off the needles and will update on it later once it is properly blocked.
So, last night after finishing that project I immediately cast on for the next one I had in the queue,Kimani, which I had brought the yarn with me in case I got to this point while away from home. I am re-knitting this one also to replace the sample I have in this pattern because I decided I wanted to try it in a new lighter color. I am using the same yarn I used before, Knitting Notions Classic Merino Superwash Sport in Honeydew. I have completed the first chart so far. I like how it is looking in this color. :-)
I have to go get the booth set up right now so I need to get the trailer hitched and head out for the afternoon. Next post I write will probably be from home. I love doing shows, but am sure going to be glad to get home. I miss my people. See you soon!
Good Morning! I arrived safely in Pittsburgh yesterday afternoon. I am here for the 15th annual Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival AKA Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival now, since it has been expanded to include all kinds of needle arts. We are expecting an exciting year, with lots of fun activities in the new Green Tree location. I will be heading over to set up the booth at noon but wanted to use part of my free time this morning doing a quick catch post for you.
As you see I didn’t quite get my Holbrook finished for the show. I am about 70% done on the border. The biggest set back was due to coming down with some cold/mild flu thing on last Wednesday night. I had a large mill dyeing order that I was trying to get done that I had picked up on Tuesday. I went out Wednesday and did prep work for that and got 4 of the 12 batches dyed before quitting for the night. After a light supper and bath I felt a fever coming on and went to bed early. Thursday morning it was clear not work was gonna get done that day. I was down with a fever off 100. I so didn’t have time for this. UGH. I was not able to get that work done until Sunday due to continual fever. I did manage some less strenuous tasks from my to-do lists that were mainly printing patterns, and other computer oriented stuff. I didn’t even feel like knitting the first two days. I am fine now, just have a bit of a lingering cough.
I did manage to DRAG myself out to Best Buy on Friday when my pre-ordered Samsung Galaxy S10+ was ready for pickup. I tried not to breathe on anyone, LOL. This is the first time I splurged a bit and went for the Plus. It was mostly the 4100 mAh battery that I wanted it for. I love it! I hate taking selfies as a rule but I was playing around with the camera in my room last night and took a couple for experimentation. I was surprised that I managed to not totally hate the results, LOL.
Well, the Holbrook shawl looks good, actually, what I mean is that the chances of being done by Monday so I have time to block it and pack it on the 12th aren’t looking great.
As you can tell, I have started the border edging but I am only about 30% done at this point. I haven’t given up all hope but I am realistic. I have a pretty long list of preparation tasks still and other things keep coming up too. I am trying to keep up and not let anything fall between the cracks. In order to do that I have to keep a handle on prioritizing that at least the most important stuff gets done first. Knitting is important, don’t get me wrong, but unfortunately it’s not at the top of the list.
So that’s my quick update. I have a million things to get to today, so I better get busy. Wish me luck!
I am about 10 days into my Holbrook Shawl and the progress is encouraging. I have only 3 repeats of the main stitch pattern, which means 18 more rows, if I want to end it there and move on to the border. I had entertained the idea of adding two more repeats to make it a bit larger, but I am probably just going to go with the size as written. I would like to have this one finished in time to have it in the booth at Pittsburgh and Raleigh next month.
Speaking of fiber festivals, I have been working through my other show prep lists when I am not knitting or taking care of the household and family tasks. It has been a challenge with all the rain this winter but I did manage to get some yarn dyeing done on Monday. This is about half of it which I put back out on the lines today during a short respite in the wet weather. My next opportunity to get it all dry will be Sunday and Monday.
There are things that can be done on rainy days too. I have some Yarn Boxes I need to wax, yarn labels that need printed, cut apart and color labeled, patterns to be printed, etc. Of course it’s that time of year that we all dread; tax time. I have done my Federal return, first quarter sales tax returns, and local business personal property return, so that’s at least out of the way. Whew! I also need to take my truck to get some scheduled maintenance done before I hit the road again.
