Tag: knittingnotions

Festivals, Yarn Dyeing, and Knitting; Oh My!

yarn dyeing Knitting Notions

There has been a lot going on since my last post. There have been festivals, yarn dyeing, knitting, and more.

Festivals

I wanted to write this post so many times in the last three weeks. By the time the days priorities were completed, I had no steam left.

The first weekend in September, after Labor Day, I was in Jefferson, WI for the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival. What a great weekend it was too! The weather was cool and sunny. It was super busy all three days. I left totally exhausted and needing to dye more yarn. More on that in the next section.

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival Knitting Notions booth
Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival Knitting Notions booth

The third weekend in September, was the 29th annual Wool Gathering at Young’s Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, OH. This is an outdoor event in big tents. The weather was hot and sunny for setup day on Friday and also on Saturday. It was cloudy with some afternoon showers on Sunday. The attendance was great even in the heat. Thanks to all who support the vendors no matter what the weather. :-) I especially enjoyed seeing Maureen of KnittingIsSoFun blog. It was so lovely chatting!

wool gathering festival Knitting Notions booth
wool gathering festival Knitting Notions booth
wool gathering festival Knitting Notions booth

I had a short day and a half at home, and now I am on the way to Winchester, VA. This coming weekend is the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival. I drove halfway up today and will finish the drive tomorrow. I will be setting up the booth on Friday. I am excited to see another blog friend there over the weekend. :-)

Yarn Dyeing

So, as mentioned above, after Wisconsin Sheep &Wool Festival, there were some gaps in the yarn inventory. I wasn’t out of anything yet, but the weekend between the two festivals was my only time home long enough to re-dye some yarn. So, yarn dyeing was what we did on the second weekend in September.

yarn dyeing Knitting Notions
Day One Yarn Dyeing
yarn dyeing Knitting Notions
Day Two Yarn Dyeing

I spent most of three days getting the dye and yarn prep work done. Saturday and Sunday were dyeing days, and Monday and Tuesday was spent labeling and storing. Wednesday was packing for Wool Gathering. I had one day after returning from Ohio to reload the trailer with a few things and pack my stuff again. That brings me up to today where I am now, in southwest Virginia for the night. Whew!

Knitting

It will probably not be a surprise that not a lot of knitting has happened in the last three weeks. I did manage to complete the knitting of the back piece of my Summershine Top. I have begun and knit the ribbing for the front piece, but that is it.

knitting

I may be planning to knit the Stephen West MKAL when it launches. I will be in VA that week with a few days to rest between festivals. I have not picked what colors of Classic Merino Superwash Sock I plan to use. I’ll let you know in my next post. This year’s palette is four colors, and I will probably do a gradient set. Is anyone else taking the plunge this year?

Reading

I’ll end this post with a reading update of what I have finished and what I am currently reading.

During my drive to and from Wisconsin, I ended up listening to Gilead**** by Marilynne Robinson. I enjoyed the story but I don’t know that I will read the other books in the series.

During my drive to and from Ohio, and still continuing during my drive to Virginia, I am listening to Blackwater: The Complete Saga by Michael McDowell. This is classified as Horror, but honestly it’s not that really. It’s more of a family saga with a weird monster/supernatural element. The prose isn’t bad, but it’s not fancy either. I am enjoying the story even if it is a bit strange.

I am almost finished with my bedtime reading; Light in August by William Faulkner. Now this one is some fine prose. I love Faulkner’s writing. I am enjoying the story too. Definitely a ****1/2!

I started The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith/J.K.Rowling. I only read the first 12 chapters though. I decided to save it until I finished Faulkner so I can devote ALL my attention to it this week. I am excited to really dig in soon!

Okay, I am kinda tired and really to chill for the evening. I’ll be back soon. Thanks for reading!

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Hand Knit Socks and Other Chit Chat

hand knit socks

It has been awhile since my last post and there’s not been a lot of knitting. I have a finished pair of hand knit socks and some other chit chat.

Knitting

I have not started writing the pattern for the vest. I have, however, finished the pair of hand knit socks I was working on.

Hand knit socks
hand knit socks

I have some plans for a few projects but I haven’t cast on for any of them. Knitting hasn’t fit into my days since the socks were off the needles. My fingers are starting getting itchy though, so I may cast on the Classic Merino Bamboo that I wound up last fall. I set it aside to make Muqarnes in the short sleeved, cropped version. I am using Rose for the sample.

Knitting Notions hand dyed yarn
The red yarn is the one for this project

Reading

One of the reasons I haven’t been knitting much is probably because I have been reading a lot more instead. I am fine with that. Reading is just as much my happy place as knitting. I have been a reader since as far back as I can remember. Knitting came into my life in my early teens, but books were my first and long time companions.

I am still making my way through my re-read of War and Peace. I like the Pevear & Volokonsky translation the best. I am intentionally taking my time with it this go round. I aim for at least a chapter a day, but sometimes read more. My goal is to immerse myself in the story and live with it, while I also read other things. I am enjoying it this way.

I am also reading The Complete Stories of Eudora Welty. This is a wonderful book to slow read. I dip in a read a story a day or sometimes only a few a week. Her old southern charm is enchanting. I can hear her voice in my head while I read. I am savoring this volume.

In March, along side the above books, I read a lot of shorter mystery books. I follow quite a few book bloggers on YouTube and March was Mystery Madness. I read four John Banville novels ( The Drowned, The Lock-up, April in Spain, and Snow). I also read The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins and We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. While it wasn’t exactly a mystery, I also read Orient Express by Graham Greene. I like his work and have quite a few more on my TBR. This one was good, but maybe not as good as some of his other works. My favorite so far is The End of the Affair.

All the John Banville books were good; the stories were pretty interesting but I like the most is his style. I have read 8 or 10 books by him at this point and he hasn’t disappointed me. I also liked The Blue Hour. I read one of her other books, Girl on a Train. I enjoyed them both for their compelling style that drew me in and kept me reading past my bedtime.

I was not as thrilled by the Chris Whitaker book. I am in the minority here, but I don’t enjoy his writing style. This was the second book I read and I was unimpressed to be honest. Both, We Begin at the End and his newest one, All the Colors of the Dark, were highly recommended. I don’t know how much of my reaction is due to the audiobook, because I did listen to most of these books. I have the Kindle versions for them so some of both were read that way. I mainly disliked his dialogue style. I can’t pinpoint what it was, but something was annoying me. I think His books just aren’t for me. I am not saying they are badly written, but neither one appealed to me.

In April, I listened to the newest Chris Bohjalian release, which is a Civil War historical fiction novel. This was really good as I have found every other book by this author. I listened to this while driving and loved it! I also listened to The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett. She is one of my instant buy authors. I have read all her books, but one. She never disappoints either.

I took a shot with a new to me author, Charlotte McGonaghy’s Wild Dark Shore. I listened to this on Audible. I picked it up purely based on it’s description and reviews. It is described as a mystery/suspense with literary style prose. It was those things, but I don’t know if I’ll read any other of her books. It was a bit heavy handed on the “environmental crisis” for my taste. I rated it 3 stars though. The story itself was interesting and compelling.

I am currently reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. There has been such a lot of buzz about this book lately. I am not interested in Westerns as a genre, and that’s what 90% of the people also say who are raving about this book. It’s praised for it’s character development and the writing. I HAD to see what all the fuss was about. I got on the Libby wait list for the Kindle version and it finally came through on Saturday. I am four chapters in and it’s pretty fun so far. I am really enjoying the dialogue and story telling style. I’ll let you know what I think after I have read more. It’s gonna be a challenge to read a 945 page book in 3 weeks. Wish me luck!

Festivals

I’ll finish off this post with a quick festival update. At the end of March, I was in Ann Arbor for the Spring Fiber Expo. I had a weekend home and then was in Greencastle, IN for Greencastle Wool Show.

Greencastle Wool Show 2025 - Knitting Notions Booth
Greencastle Wool Show 2025 - Knitting Notions Booth
Greencastle Wool Show 2025 - Knitting Notions Booth
Greencastle Wool Show 2025 - Knitting Notions Booth
Greencastle Wool Show 2025 - Knitting Notions Booth

I was home last week and for Easter weekend. We had some of the family over for the afternoon on Easter Sunday. It was a fun day of food, visiting, and egg hunting for the little ones. Sorry, no pictures. I don’t know why I forgot to take any.

I will be back out on the road Thursday for the Midwest Fiber Fest in St. Louis, MO. Hopefully it won’t be a whole month before I talk to you again. Thanks for reading!

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A Little Knitting and My Festival Goodies

Knitting Notions Hand Dyed Yarn

I am back from the Southern Comforts fiber Market. While I was there I did a little knitting and bought a few goodies.

Knitting Progress

I will start off by showing you my knitting progress on the Summershine Top. I only worked on the Organic Cotton Sport one lately. I finished knitting and blocking a sleeve in this yarn and in the Linen/Cotton one. After checking for gauge on both and they looked good, I cast on the back piece in the Organic Cotton Sport.

Organic Cotton Sport Summershine Top
organic cotton sport sleeve
Linen Cotton Summershine Top
cotton linen sleeve
Organic Cotton Sport Summershine Top
organic cotton sport sweater back piece

Over the weekend while I was in Charlotte, I got about half of the back piece knit. I haven’t measured the length but I think it needs to 15″ or so before beginning the armhole shaping. It looks like around 8″ maybe.

I haven’t worked at all on the Veritas Shawl since the last post. No brain space for that one right now.

Festival

Now on to my festival update. I returned yesterday from the Southern Comforts Fiber Market in Charlotte, NC. This was the fourth year for this show and it is growing nicely. I was excited that there was a noticeable increase in the customer attendance this year. We had a great show and I am looking forward to going back next year.

Knitting Notions Hand Dyed Yarn
hand dyed yarn display
Yarn Swifts
handcrafted yarn swifts
darning Eggs and Nostepinnes
hand crafted darning eggs and nostepinnes

I don’t often get a chance to do much shopping while I am vending. I planned, however, to make a visit to Brick House Fiber Arts booth and pick up a few sets of my favorite needles. I am slowly collecting a set of all of my most used sizes and lengths.

Brick House Fiber Srts knitting needles

What I love most about their knitting needles are the cables. They are wonderful and drapey. No coiling at all! The needles themselves are perfectly sharp and friction-less. I highly recommend!

One of my vendor neighbors had some lovely bags. I had been thinking lately that I could use a new, larger, main knitting bag to hold my supplies and extra yarn that won’t fit in my project bag. This is especially handy on longer trips, which I will be on his coming week. More on that later. Anyway, I fell for this beauty.

New knitting bag
new knitting bag

I have moved in and I absolutely love it! It is nice and roomy. It has several pockets and a holds quite a lot. What I really like is that it folds in and looks smaller than it is. When you open it up, it is very expansive. When you are carrying it though, it doesn’t feel huge. The maker doesn’t have a website but her business name is Yours By Design. I think she’s on Instagram. Wait..I found her Etsy shop.

Where I’m Going Next

Before I close this post, I will mention where I am off to Wednesday. I will be going first to Allegan, MI for the Michigan Fiber Festival. After that I will be headed from there to Pittsburgh, PA for the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival. I will have a couple days off between, so if I don’t post before that I should have time to post then. See you soon!

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Sometimes Weekends Are For Knitting

saltarello shawl

It’s not often that I get weekends off but sometimes weekends are for knitting. I was home and my work was caught up so I took the weekend off and did lots of knitting. It was wonderful!

Knitting Saltarello

I will get to my current knitting projects that I began this weekend in a moment, but first let me share my finished Saltarello (Ravelry project page) with you. I cast off on Friday morning and took some before and after blocking pictures. The transformation is always so amazing!

saltarello shawl unblocked
Before blocking
saltarello shawl blocking
During blocking

I am thrilled with how it came out! I used 160g of Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn in color Obsidian. That calculates to about 690 yards. I used size 5 US needles. I measured it the day after I took it off the blocking pins, and the relaxed size is 72″ x 31″. So, mine is a bit smaller than Dee’s sample. She notes in the pattern that hers is 75″ x 35″.

saltarello shawl

I think I want to wear this in my booth this coming weekend at SAFF. It is a good size for me and I am excited to show it off. I hope it will be an inspiration for knitters to want to make it. I just love lace knitting. It is fun and interesting to make and looks so elegant.

New Knitting Projects

Mingling Daisies

Speaking of interesting knitting, I decided to go with the Sea Coral for my Mingling Daisies shawl (Ravelry project page). It is definitely interesting to knit. I had a rough start, which is mainly due to the inflexibility of the I-Cord edging I think. I started 3 times before I got everything going right.

classic merino bamboo for mingling daisies
mingling daisies shawl

Once I got past the setup and worked it bit of length it started to get easier. The daisy stitch is fun now but I hated it in the first rows. I am also used to working pattern stitches and lace from charts. This is not charted, but it’s pretty easy to memorize so it’s not too big a deal. I am adjusting and using my progress keeping app (Row Counter) to chart my place in the pattern. I really like how it is looking so far and it is fun to work on now.

Knitting the Geogradient MKAL 2023

This is an impulse project that I cast on this weekend along with the above. I can’t explain why I felt compelled to knit this shawl (Ravelry project page). I have never done a Westknits MKAL for several reasons.

  • I don’t generally like surprises in my knitting.
  • Despite his obvious gift for designing, I am rarely tempted to knit them. They are not typically to my taste.
  • I don’t care for garter shawls in lots of colors, but here I am making one. Who knows why?
Classic merino superwash sock for Geogradients MKAL 2023
westknits geogradient MKAL 2023

I think what intrigued me was the colors. I have been watching and even helping some of my customers pick out the colors for theirs and it just seemed like such a fun knit. I dragged out almost every color I have in my Classic Merino Superwash sock yarn and started playing with sets.

I took dozens of pictures and looked at them in gray scale. I narrowed the sets down to three. The greens and the blues/teals fit the gradient criteria the best. It should come as no surprise that I settled on the greens. I love green.

classic merino superwash sock geogradients sets
classic merino superwash sock geogradients sets
classic merino superwash sock geogradients sets

I have completed a bit less than half of Clue 1. I am not going to stress about the time table. I am not concerned much if I fall behind or see clues before I get there. I got started a bit late anyway. I just hope I like where it goes and plan to have fun with it.

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Meanwhile Back in Nashville: a visit to the Work Shop

Back in Nashville

I arrived safely back in Nashville on Sunday. The traffic on the drive was light for most of the day until I got to Knoxville. Between Knoxville and Nashville I hit at least 4 slow downs due to who knows what? There were construction zones a few times, but they didn’t have workers present. So, I finally arrived around 3:30 pm just as a rain storm was bearing down on Nashville. I got the trailer turned in the driveway and my luggage out before it poured. I waited for it to stop raining before unhitching though.

Back On the Road

I took the afternoon to unpack and rest a bit. On Monday I did the grocery shopping and some trailer restocking. Today, Tuesday, I washed and gassed up the truck, hitched up the trailer again, and packed for my next trip tomorrow. I am leaving in the morning for Michigan. I will be setting up the booth on Thursday for the Michigan Fiber Festival. I started vending at this festival in 2007. It is a three day show, Friday – Sunday and is at the Allegan County Fairgrounds. I have always liked this festival but improved more now that I am in the new Expo Building. The light and ventilation is much better than the old white building where I was for the first 12 years.

I will be going straight to Pittsburgh from Allegan on Monday next week. I am once again back for the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival in Green Tree, PA. We will be setting up the booths on Wednesday since the dates for the show are now Thursday-Saturday. It just makes more sense not to drive home. I’ll talk more about this show later though, because I wanted to spend some time in this post with a work shop update.

Work Shop Update

If you recall, we were starting a new batch of Yarn Boxes before I left for Charlotte, NC. While I was there, Jerry got the pieces all cut to final dimensions. That means that the next step is to cut ALL the finger joints. This is a time consuming process. Aside from the time involved in making the actual cuts, the jig is tedious to set up and tweak it until everything is lined up exactly right. If that doesn’t happen the joints won’t line up correctly when we start assembling the sides and bottoms together. Prayers for patience and wisdom are appreciated ;-).

While we are on the topic of the work shop and our processes, I’d like to share a new page I have on the website about that. I have had in mind for awhile to write up a gallery type page that not only shows but also informs interested visitors about what goes into making all of our various products. When people come into our booth at festivals or visit our website, they may not already know that almost everything they see there was hand made by us. From the wood knitting tools and accessories, to the hand dyed yarn and knitted samples, it is all us. That is pretty cool to me and I want to share what it takes for that to happen. I hope it will be interesting and informative and a work in progress itself as we add new items or change how we do things. If you’d like to check it out, here’s the link to a Sneak Peek at Our Production. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think. Is there something you’d like to see there that I didn’t include?

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Hello from the Southern Comforts Fiber Market 2023

I am grabbing a bit of down time to send you a “Hello” from the Southern Comforts Fiber Market.

Getting Ready for the Market

Thursday afternoon was set up day. I arrived at the appointed time and was there until they kicked us out for the night. I did manage to get the booth 95% ready when I left for the night. The final touches, sample arranging and signs, were easily managed on Friday morning before the market opened.

Knitting notions booth Southern Comforts fiber Market

Market Days

Friday was a nice day in the market. I met lots a knitters and crocheters and had a wonderful time chatting and showing off our wares. I enjoy helping my customers find the right supplies they need for their projects. That can be the right tool, the best yarn base or color, or the perfect pattern.

One thing that I am excited to report is that the new trailer did, in fact, make restock pulling SO MUCH EASIER. It is great having the extra room to move the totes around to get to stuff. Also, since they no longer have to be stacked as high, I have an easier time manipulating them. It only took about a half an hour to get to what I needed, which means it’s earlier when I get my supper, LOL.

Saturday in the market has been a bit busier and it’s already almost break down time. I have my truck and trailer hitched up and in a decent proximity for loading in a few hours. I am anticipating a smooth pack up.

This is the third year for this festival and I have been at all of them. It is still a new show and I am impressed with how much it improves each year. The attendance is still on the low side, which is common for a new festival, but I see the potential for it to become much bigger. The committee seem to be focused on growth and doing a lot to achieve it. They are also fabulous at caring for the needs of their vendors. I will definitely be back next year.

Home Again

I’ll be staying the night and driving home tomorrow. The upside to driving home on a Sunday is, no rush hours to worry about. I started a new audiobook on Wednesday while driving to Charlotte. It’s one that I think I picked up during one of Audible’s BOGO sales. It’s The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton. I am enjoying it and looking forward to continuing the story on my drive tomorrow. I have listened to a number of her books and they are always entertaining. See you soon Nashville!

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Greetings From the Great State of Texas

This morning I am sending you greetings from the great state of Texas. It’s been three years since I was last here and I am excited to get my booth set up today for the East Texas Fiber Festival. I am writing from my hotel room which is about a half an hour from Canton, where the venue is located. It was a long haul to get here but for a change I took my time and stretched it out over two days. It was an uneventful drive this time. We made sure to check and grease all the bearings and air up all the tires.

Due to the leisurely pace of my travels, I had a bit of knitting time at the end of my driving days to get some knitting done. As you can see I have almost finished my second Shapely Mitts. I only have to knit the ribbing at the finger end of the hand and then work the thumb section to have a completed pair.

Progress on the Cables and Lace Blanket is coming along as well. I found that I use about 23g/84 yards per each pattern repeat. What this means, which is the good news, is that I did estimated well for the yardage required to make the Medium size. The bad news is that I don’t have quite enough yarn to make that size. I started with under 1400 yards. I knew that but hoped I had over estimated enough in the pattern that it would work. Oh well, I’ll just have to leave off a repeat saving enough for the border.

I am going to cut this short and head over to the venue for booth set up. See you soon!

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We Are Getting Down to the End

The 2022 festival season is wrapping up. We are getting down to the end of our show schedule with only three more festivals to go. I am currently in Asheville, NC setting up the booth at SAFF (Southeast Animal Fiber Fair) which begins tomorrow. I didn’t get any booth pictures today before I covered up everything.

What I do have pictures of is my work station in my hotel room where I am doing a bit of website updating, order shipping and blog posting.

I also have some new knitting on the needles. I know that in my last post I mentioned that I was going to start another size test knit for the gansey pattern I am working on, but that didn’t happen yet. It will, but I wasn’t ready with enough numbers and info to cast that on. So instead I am test knitting the medium size in another of my patterns, Cables and Lace Blanket. I made the original sample in the small size using Organic Cotton Sport. I am using a discontinued base which I had a few skeins of un-dyed in my stash. I was in the mood to use it that way instead of dyeing it. This yarn is a sport weight merino wool that is similar to my current Classic Merino Superwash Sport, except that this one is not machine washable. I love this base. I hated to discontinue it but most people seem to prefer superwash wool. The yardage is similar so it should help me to verify if my yardage estimate in the pattern is correct. It’s a fun and relaxing pattern with enough going on to keep me interested.

Knitting only one thing at a time is my usual practice but every now and then I like variety, especially if I am not in a hurry for the current project to be finished. So I went stash diving before I left for Asheville for a second project to put in my knitting bag.

Many years ago I dyed hand painted colorways in addition to my tonal solids. I switched over to all solids several years ago, but I hung on to a few souvenir skeins from that time for myself. Here’s one of them in my Classic Merino Superwash Sock base in a colorway that I called Malignant Narcissism. It’s a Rush song title, for anyone who cares.

I will probably make a pair of Shapely Mitts from this. I can always use more of these. It’s hard to have too many pairs of finger-less mitts on hand.

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An Unfortunate Turn of Events

I spent a few days getting some work done at the hotel plus a bit of knitting and reading. Wednesday afternoon everything changed though. I had been planning to work some more on pattern writing through Thursday and on Friday drive to Orange, VA to set up the booth. Hurricane Ian caused an unexpected and unfortunate turn of events. The festival decided that it would be best to cancel since it is an all outdoors event. It was disappointing but probably the right call. It is a right mess there when it rains a lot. It’s no fun having all your inventory in a tent under those conditions and driving in trucks and trailers on muddy fields is not for the faint of heart. LOL!

So I am home and have a weekend off that I didn’t expect. It’s just as well since I need to get in some yarn dyeing and now I have 5 days instead of 2 to get it done. We also got a call from the mill and they brought me 18# of fiber to dye as well. There are some more Nostepinnes and Darning Eggs that Jerry made while I was gone to get finished and labeled.

He’s still got more blanks roughed to make more of both.

I am mixing up dyes today with the plan to get the dyeing done over the next day or two.

In knitting news, I have almost finished the Gridiron Sock but I am almost sure I am going to run out of yarn. I will dig up something to finish out the toe. They are for myself and I don’t mind.

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A Wonderful Weekend

The Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend, was awesome as always. All three days kept me very busy. I saw so many knitters and even a few fellow WordPress bloggers, Alissa of Headknits and Bonnyknits. I came home on Monday, tired but happy.

Bensusan Shawl (Ravelry project page) got a very nice debut in the booth. It drew a good amount of attention too.

I took a few pictures of Bensusan here at home last week before packing it. The color is a bit off. The Cypress is more dark olive like this picture from my website.

So try to mentally fuse the color of that skein above with the shawl and there you go. :-) The texture is lovely from the cables. I knit the large size and when I measured it fresh off the blocking pins it was about 80 inches on the longest side and 35 inches down from that to the point. That is a bit larger than Dee’s measurements for the large but it may draw in a bit more after awhile. I used all three skeins of the yarn with only 3g left over. That comes to about 740 yards.

I have not been getting a lot of knitting done lately due to my busy schedule. Here is my latest progress on my second Gridiron Sock. Sometimes a sock on the needles is the perfect thing. It will be accompanying me to Yellow Springs tomorrow for the Wool Gathering at Young’s Jersey Dairy.

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