A Knitting and Festival Update From Raleigh

hand knitting vest

Good morning friends! This will be a knitting and fiber festival update coming to you from Raleigh, NC.

Fiber Festival Updates

Let’s begin this post with our recent and upcoming fiber festival attendances.

Last Friday and Saturday we had a big time at the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival in Dickson, TN. I am so happy that this festival is still going strong. The weather was a bit chilly and windy but the fiber people turned up and made it spectacular! We had plenty of wool, so we aren’t bothered by cool temperatures. It’s nice to be able to go home each night too.

festival booth
knitting tools
knitting tools
fiber festival booth

Currently I am in Raleigh, NC for the Carolina Fiber Festival. The drive yesterday was long but uneventful. I wasn’t sure which route I would take. I had been leaning towards taking I-81 to I-77. The recently reopened the I-40 corridor from TN to NC that runs through Asheville. I was concerned about going that way due to the lane restrictions with my trailer. When I got to the I-40/I-81 split though, I decided to go for it and try the Asheville route. I didn’t love the narrow lane in the restricted part, but that was only a couple of sections. It was probably about 20 miles total, so not too bad. I may opt for the other way when I return home on Sunday.

I will be partially setting up the booth today and finishing it tomorrow. This festival is also a Friday/Saturday show. The hours are 9-6 on both days. I am excited that we will not be on the same weekend as the dog show this year. The dog show people took up so much of the parking, which was frustrating.

Knitting

In other news, I have some exciting progress with the vest project. I finished the knitting of the front and it is blocked. I need to sew the side and shoulder seams. When that is done, I can knit the arm and neck edgings. As you can see, I decided to go with a V-neck.

hand knitting vest

The remaining yarn from my third skein is only 22g. I am hoping this will last for the edgings, but I am dubious. I brought a fourth skein with me in case I need it.

On Sunday, while I was waiting for the vest front to dry, I cast on for my second sock with the sock blank. I have worked a couple inches of the cuff. It is a nice alternate project.

hand knitting sock

Okay, I will close for now and start getting ready to head to the fairgrounds. See you next time!

Posted on by — 4 Comments

Yarn Dyeing is Done and a Knitting Update

yarn dyeing and drying on the lines

All the spring yarn dyeing is done. I also have a bit of a knitting update.

Yarn dyeing

We got all of the remaining yarn dyeing done before the winter returned for a bit. It was a challenge to get the drying accomplished in the cold, gray weather. We got it on the lines the day before a small snow storm and frigid temperatures descended on Tennessee.

yarn dyeing and drying on the lines

We are having lovely sunny and warm weather this week. I have had the windows open for the last couple of days. That’s late winter/early spring around here. On Monday we did a custom dye job for a client. It is now wound up and ready for pick up. All of our yarn is likewise labeled and in storage.

I have a couple of festivals coming up in March and I am glad that all the inventory is ready. I do have to focus on one more task. It is one of my least favorite ones; income taxes. UGH! I will probably tackle that today after I finish this post. Wish me luck!

Knitting

Before I get to the taxes, how about a knitting update?

I am monogamously working on the vest design at the moment. As you can see in the photo below, I am almost to the armhole bind off. It would be great if I can finish this up in time for the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival.

Vest front knitting

I am already using the third skein of yarn. I am still hoping it will be enough. I hate starting a skein and not using very much of it.

Okay, I will close this short post. Thank you for reading!

Posted on by — 4 Comments

Colorful Moments: Yarn Dyeing After Scenic Stitches

yarn dyeing

The first festival of 2025 is in the books and now it’s yarn dyeing time again.

Scenic Stitches

Our first festival of 2025, Scenic Stitches in Chattanooga, TN was a great experience! I was very impressed with it’s first year. I can see a lot of potential for the future of this festival. There is room for improvements, as is to be expected, but overall a great time was had by all. I am excited to see what they will do for next year.

Knitting Notions booth
Knitting Notions Booth
Knitting Notions booth
Knitting Notions booth
Knitting Notions booth
Knitting Notions booth
Knitting Notions booth

Yarn Dyeing

As soon as I returned from the festival, I got to work on the spring dyeing. I spent Monday through Friday doing all the preparations and Saturday we got the first day of dyeing done. We were able to put it out to dry on Sunday. It was chilly but it is mostly dry.

yarn dyeing
yarn dyeing

On Monday I prepped the yarn and dye we needed for the second day’s dyeing. Today (Tuesday) was unfortunately way to wet, cold, and miserable. That means day two will have to wait. I am hopeful that Wednesday may be a tiny bit improved. If we can get that dyed tomorrow, it can go out on Thursday to dry. Thursday will be cold but not rainy.

We have one more day of dyeing after that which we will have to get done as soon as the weather permits. It’s what you have to expect in February.

Knitting

I haven’t gotten much knitting progress to show. I cast on the front of the vest in Chattanooga. I haven’t had much knitting time, but here is where I am at the moment. I am getting close to the end of my second skein of Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn. I have the third skein wound and I hope I can finish the whole thing with it.

Vest front knitting
Posted on by — 4 Comments

Scenic Stitches and Sock Knitting

graphic for scenic stitches

It’s Fiber Festival season and time for our first show of 2025. I have also completed the first half of a new pair of hand knit socks.

Scenic Stitches Fiber Festival

I am off to Chattanooga, TN tomorrow for the brand new Scenic Stitches Fiber Festival. I am excited, that there is another show in my home state.

graphic for scenic stitches

I am making the drive and setting up the booth on Friday. My booth numbers are 61-62 which is in the middle and towards the front of the hall ( I think) . The market is open on Saturday Feb. 1 from 9-6, and Sunday Feb. 2 from 9-5. There are lots of things going on besides the vendor market too. Please to a moment to check out the website for more details.

I have also updated my Event Calendar on the website. I have at least 20 festivals booked for 2025. Oh and by the way, can you believe this is our 20th anniversary year? Crazy!

Sock Knitting

As I stated above, I have finished knitting the first of my 2×2 rib socks made from the sock blank. I love the way the colors played out. I took some basic notes to remind me of details for the second sock. I will probably get the second one cast on for occasional breaks from my other main project, the vest.

sock knitting

I am going to get back to work on that this weekend. It should make good booth knitting. I may be too busy but I usually like to have something with me for slower lulls. It is also great for sharing what I am working on at the moment with other knitters. You know how that is.

Birthday

My birthday was on Sunday. It was a nice quiet day at home, which is just what I like most of the time. I made a carrot cake and spent some time reading and knitting. I also did a bit of book shopping the weekend before for my birthday gifts.

carrot cake
Posted on by — 6 Comments

Time For Some Mending and Knitting Updates

mending

I had a pile of items that needed mending that I worked on this week. I also have a couple of knitting updates to share.

Mending

Let’s get to the mending first.

I had several pairs for socks that had holes. I also had one pair that was knit toe up that needed the bind off repaired. In addition to these items, my favorite pair of finger-less mitts had a small hole. Last, my youngest son’s Christmas stocking had sprung a leak.

I arranged the items and some tools, including some needles and a Darning Egg, and set in to work.

mending
mending
mending tools

I tackled the easiest mending first. The sock that needed the bind off repaired was a quick fix. Next I worked on the finger-less mitt. It was simple to pick up the row of stitches above and below. Since there was a small gap of 2 rows between, I just grafted that back together. So, I was off to a good start, and feeling accomplished. I fixed the stocking in the same manner as the mitts, since it wasn’t something to be worn. It was good enough for my purposes.

grafting

Now it was on to the three pairs of socks. There were a few holes and a few places where it was just worn thin with fabric remaining. I started off with the idea of swiss darning, in both types of damage. I tried using the method where you create a network of strands over the holes. Then you use those to use for anchor the swiss darning to the fabric. I abandoned that method because I found it tedious. I also attempted to use the technique for the thin places. I disliked that as well. I had trouble with the small stitches.

swiss darning

After searching on YouTube, I found another technique that I liked much better. It is essentially a knitted patch that you anchor to the fabric as you create it. I ended up using this to fix both the holes and the thin spots. I am happy with the result too. The patches bond and flatten with the sock and are comfortable on the foot.

knitted patch

It is easy to do. You pick up stitches a few rows away and wider than the area you want to cover. Attach your yarn and begin knitting flat. You need to have a length of yarn that will be adequate for the whole patch. Thread the other end with a darning needle. At the end of each row, thread the needle through a couple of bars, in between stitches, to anchor the patch as you knit. I also slipped the first stitch in every row.

knitted patch
mending

When the patch is large enough, pick up stitches to graft it to the fabric. I did this two rows beyond the patch to allow it to flatten. The grating adds a row, so you don’t want that to buckle. I found that my Darning Egg was most helpful for the darning needle portions of this repair technique.

knitted patch
grafting
grafting

Knitting

Now, let’s talk about my knitting updates.

I finished the back piece of my vest design that I have been working on. I was glad that it blocked out to the size I wanted. I had been wondering if my gauge was on target, and it is.

vest

I will be starting the front piece soon, but I am into sock again lately. I went stash diving and wound up a hand dyed sock blank I have had for 12-15 years maybe? I cast on with 0 US (2mm) needles in a 2×2 rib. I plan to keep the rib on the instep. It’s my favorite plain sock formula. I am looking forward to seeing how the colors play out.

sock blank
sock in progress

Here is how it looked before I wound it. You can knit straight from the blank, two at a time. I don’t care for that however, so I wound them onto two separate ball winders. I started from the center where all the blue was so that would be to color of the leg. I will probably knit the first sock entirely, then cast on the second before starting the vest front. I am too curious about the sock to work on anything else right now.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

New Knitting Design Progress

new vest knitting design

I am making good progress on my knitting design. I also got some new books for Christmas.

Knitting a Vest

I have been working on my new vest design since my last post. This is the only project on which I have made progress.

I am almost to the arm hole shaping on the back piece. I am enjoying this stitch pattern. It is easy to memorize with just enough happening to keep you entertained. I usually prefer working from charts for stitch patterns, but you really don’t need one for this.

new vest knitting design

I am close to the end of the first skein of yarn already. I don’t think it will last through the arm hole shaping. I have three skein set aside for this. It looks like I will be using all three but I don’t think I’ll need more than that.

New Books for Christmas

Is there any better Christmas gift than books? Well, maybe, but they rank pretty high in my opinion. I hit the jackpot this year!

new books

I started collecting the hardback copies of the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling) last year. I have read them all and already own the Kindle and Audible versions. I wanted to have physical copies though since they are some of my favorites to re-read. I bought books 4 and 5 this summer. My children got my the rest of the set for Christmas. I am looking forward to re-reading these before book 8 is released.

I also hit the Barnes & Noble hard back sale the weekend after Christmas. I had some reward points to spend too. Here’s a few books I picked up. I haven’t read any of these before.

new books

I just finished The Frozen River and I enjoyed it very much. I will definitely be reading some other books by Ariel Lawhon.

This book is set in the post Revolutionary War period in Maine. The main character is a midwife who reminds me of Clare Fraser in The Outlander series. This story is based on a real person, Martha Ballard. She was a midwife who kept a diary. I remember owning a copy of her biography, A Midwife’s Tale, but I don’t have it anymore.

I planned to start my re-read of War and Peace on January 1. I will do that as a slow, year-long read. All these new books are calling my name right now too. Which one to read first is the question. Have you read any of these?

Posted on by — 9 Comments

Holiday Knitting and a New Pair of Socks

Hedgerow socks

I have some holiday knitting plans. I also have a new pair of socks to show you.

New Pair of Socks

I will begin my post with my newly finished Hedgerow Socks.

I love the simplicity of the stitch pattern. The pattern is continued in the heel flap which is a nice touch. My favorite element is the round toe decreases.

hedgerow socks
Hedgerow socks
round toe

I have made these in the past but I ended up gifting the first pair. I will probably be making this pattern again. It has become my new go to sock pattern.

Holiday Knitting

I am calling this holiday knitting, because I am starting it Christmas week.

Holiday Knitting vest

Last January I was doing some swatching of a few stitch patterns. I was planning to design a shawl or two. I tabled that idea since it was not working as I had envisioned. This week I had an idea, using one of those swatches, for a vest pattern. I plan to knit the sample and write up the pattern.

At first I was just going to make it for fingering weight yarn, using my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn. Later, I remembered that I had swatched the same stitch pattern in sport weight yarn. That gave me a really interesting idea. I think I will make the pattern for multiple gauges. It shouldn’t be difficult to do that.

swtaches
fingering weight swatch
swtaches
sport weight swatch

I am knitting the vest in two pieces and seaming the sides. The neck and arm edgings will be picked up and knit later. I haven’t decided what style I will make the neck shaping. A V-neck is nice but the stitch pattern may work better with a crew neck. We will see when I get there. In any case I am starting with the back so that can wait.

Upcoming Shop Update

In other news, we have been making some new Nostepinnes this month. We have some almost finished and there will be more after the holidays.

nostepinnes
nostepinnes

Merry Christmas!

Posted on by — 5 Comments

I’m Almost Sure it is Finished

Go Go Dynamo Shawl

I am done with my Go Go Dynamo Shawl; at least I’m almost sure it is finished.

Go Go Dynamo

Go Go Dynamo Shawl

I finished the knitting of Clue 4 minus the optional edging, on December 4th. I was still not sure whether I wanted to add the other section to the bottom. I weighed my left over balls of yarn. I have 53 g of the Contrast Color (the lighter one – Sea Oat) and 38 g of the Main Color (the darker one – Cypress). I was amazed that when I checked the pattern recommendation, that is the exact same amount that Stephen had left at that point. Funny, huh?

Go Go Dynamo Shawl
right off the needles

I looked at the directions for the optional border. I saw there were over 600 stitches to be picked up. That would be okay if I liked the edge. My person opinion is that it looked like a lot of boring knitting. I decided to block it first and see how I liked it in it’s current state.

Go Go Dynamo Shawl
Go Go Dynamo Shawl
Go Go Dynamo Shawl
Go Go Dynamo Shawl

After blocking, I am happy with it as it is. It is plenty large enough and I am ready to call it done.

The reason I say that I am almost sure it is finished is that I am reserving the right to change my mind and add it later. I do have plenty of yarn. For now though, I have been wearing it and I love it!

Sock Knitting

The other knitting I have done since my last post is on my socks in progress. I finished the first Hedgerow Sock and I am halfway down the leg on the second one. I think I will stick with this until I finish these over the next few days.

Hedgerow Sock 1.25

I have some other projects on the back burner which I plan to start as soon as I complete this one. Two of my planned projects are samples for the booth. I also have a few other design ideas that are percolating.

Decking the Halls

I am not one of those people who are really into Christmas. I do enjoy having some cheery lights for the holiday season. We put out our little low maintenance table top tree to add to the twinkle lights in the living room. I like to see them while I am relaxing in the evening with my knitting or a good book. Are you a big decorator or more minimalist, like me?

Christmas 2024
Christmas 2024
Posted on by — 6 Comments

A Knitting Update and My 2025 Reading Plans

Go Go Dynamo Shawl

It’s been longer than I like since my last post. Things have slowed down as far as traveling, but there is still lots going on every day. Most of that lately is just catching up on the household and production work. Let’s start out my update post with my knitting progress. After that I’ll get to other goings on.

Knitting

In my last post I was still on Clue 2 of the Go Go Dynamo Shawl. I began Clue 3 sometime in the second week of October, I think. I thought the brioche was slow. The short row triangles in Clue 3 took FOREVER. I finally got that completed this past week sometime. So, yeah, that was around six weeks to get that accomplished.

Go Go Dynamo Shawl
Go Go Dynamo Shawl
Go Go Dynamo Shawl

I have started Clue 4, finally, and it is progressing much faster. Part of the reason for that is that there are much less stitches. It is now proceeding from the middle of the shawl towards the top. The rows are getting shorter and there is not all the back and forth happening.

There is an additional edge that can be added at the bottom. I haven’t decided whether or not I will be doing that yet. The primary determiner will be yarn supply. If I still have plenty of the balls I am using, I will consider it. On the other hand, I may just be DONE regardless. We shall see.

Last Festival

The last festival on our schedule for 2024 was November 8-9 in Fayetteville, AR. The NWA Fiber Festival was founded in 2023 and I attended both years. I am looking ahead to seeing this festival grow in an area that is a new market for me. I expect to return next year.

NWA Fiber Festival 2024
NWA Fiber Festival 2024
NWA Fiber Festival 2024
NWA Fiber Festival 2024

I experimented with a different booth setup because there was a pole in the front of my space. That was also where the electricity was. It again took a little canoodling, but I liked it. I plan try some other arrangements next year.

Preparing for 2025

We are making festival plans for 2025. I have booked a few new ones and will be returning to many of our favorites. I haven’t updated the schedule on the website for 2025 yet. I will be getting to that sometime in December.

In the wood shop, Yarn Swifts are in production. Jerry started working on this batch in late September. All the bases and arms are completely finished. He is now making the dowels. I spent a week in November sewing bags and preparing the tags.

Yarn Swift Production
Yarn Swift Production
Yarn Swift Production
Yarn Swift Production
Yarn Swift Production

I will be starting to assemble, bag and store the Oak and some of the Walnut today. We have enough dowels ready to get started while he works on the rest.

I will be ordering more yarn for dyeing some time in December or January. I am planning to get the restock dyeing done in February. The days are starting to lengthen enough by then. It’s hard to get enough done in the day in December and January. When you depend on daylight hours outside to work by and get the yarn dry, more is better.

Reading Plans

While I am on the topic of plans for 2025, I will share my tentative TBR list. I always have a list in my head. Sometimes I lose focus. The books I wanted to get to don’t happen. So, this morning while I was having my quiet time with my coffee and my Kindle Scribe (LOVE this thing BTW!), I made a check list.

Reading TBR 2025
Reading TBR 2025
Reading TBR 2025

Now, this is just to remind me of what I really want to get to in the coming year. I am still somewhat of a mood reader. This is mainly a pared down list of my higher priority books that I already own. This doesn’t mean new books can’t jump to the top. I can decide to do that. :-)

I included a good variety of books I haven’t read, and re-reads of classics. There are plenty of shorter works and chunky reads. I love both! Again, it depends on my head space and mood at a given time. I am sure about one thing. I want to start War and Peace on January 1. I plan to do a slow year long read. I want to just live in that book while also picking other ones for variety. I am excited to start!

I have only read War and Peace once. I did some background reading this past summer to prepare for this re-read. I read a History of Russia and a very thorough and interesting biography of Napoleon. I think my read through this time will benefit from the additional historical familiarity. (not an affiliate link, but I do recommend these).

Closing

This has been brief, considering how much time has elapsed, but I covered the basics. I hope to get back to a more regular schedule of 2-4 post a month.

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving celebrations!

Posted on by — 4 Comments

An Unexpected Post From Home

MKAL Clue Two

I shouldn’t be at home this week, but because of the sad tragic losses inflicted on Asheville by Hurricane Helene, that is where I am. Hopefully there is restoration in progress and they will be getting their lives back to normal soon. My prayers are still with everyone affected.

Upcoming Travel

I do have two more festivals before we wind down for a couple months. I am driving to Frederick, MD on Wednesday and Thursday. The Frederick Fiber Festival is on Saturday October 26th. This will be my first time attending there. I wouldn’t normally sign up for a one day event that is so far from Nashville. This year I thought I would try it out since SAFF was going to be the weekend before and it would be a shorter drive from there. Of course that all changed but I didn’t want to cancel the Frederick show, especially after losing our SAFF income. Therefore, I am doing it anyway. I hope it will be worth the drive for us. I have heard good things about it so that I am hopeful.

I was at the Fall Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor last weekend. Here’s a few pictures. You may notice my Geogradients hanging in the booth. It got a lot of attention.

Fall Fiber Expo booth 2024

Knitting

While I was still in Virginia earlier this month, I decided to join the Westknits MKAL again this year. On the day that Clue One released I picked out my two colors from my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn base. I chose Cypress and Sea Oat. I was able to work on it all day that day and get the first section of Clue One done.

MKAL yarn

Over the course of the next two weeks, I finished the rest of Clue One. Clue Two was released while I was in Ann Arbor, MI for the Fall Fiber Expo. I waited until I had completed Clue One before I even looked at Clue Two. I said that if brioche was involved I wasn’t going there.

MKAL Clue One

It turns out I am going there after all, however. The alternative to brioche sounded too boring, so I decided to go for it. It’s not terrible, but it’s slow going. For every row work, you have to work it twice. So for 8 “rows” of knitting you actually work across 16 times. At the end of the whole clue there are over 400 stitches, so they are are pretty long rows.

I have completed the first brioche ribbing section. After that is another section of the Bubbles. Then you do both again. Clue Two is going to take awhile. I like how it looks but man, it’s time consuming.

MKAL Clue Two

In other knitting news, I have done a bit of knitting on my sock in progress. It’s a nice palette cleanser when I don’t want to have to focus so much.

Hedgerow Socks

Closing

It has been three weeks since my last post, so it seems like there is probably more I could report on. I can’t think of what all that might be at the moment though. I think I’ll close for now since it is getting late here and I want to have some knitting time tonight. See you soon and take care.

Posted on by — 6 Comments