Pardon me -- your 1337 isn't showing.

I finished knitting the torso of the Noro and alpaca top-down raglan cardi. I'm super-pleased with it so far. The fit is just right -- yay, Laura, for an excellent pattern! I took pictures of it this morning. Normally, it takes me a little time to sit down, download the pics from the camera, fuss with them in Photoshop to get them color-corrected (that's why you often see a grey card in my pictures - that's a Neutral Gray 5 card). Things might take a leeeetle bit longer this time:

My lappy says something like this:


Actually, my particular BSOD tells me that it has something to do with the memory. I ran diagnostics and my lappy failed March A, March B, March X, and March Y tests. I don't know enough about computers to know exactly what this means, but past experience tells me that this probably isn't good for the files I haven't backed up.

Alternatively, I can pop out the keyboard and start jabbing at my computer's innards with a #17 straight needle and see what happens.

I went into Eleganza yesterday because, despite my calculations that ensured perfect fit, I messed up the yarn requirements for my Top-Down Raglan Cardi. I need more Noro Silk Garden #47 (yarndex closeup), lot P. I was hoping that Kristi might have a ball or two leftover, but no such luck. I looked for another yarn that I could use as a substitute, but no luck with that, either. I checked Ravelry stashes but no one had any listed for sale/trade. So last night I bought two skeins of #47, lot V on Ebay. Even if the dye lots are not exactly right, I am confident that I'll be able to tweak them to make them work.

My main tweak so far for this sweater: I took the remnants of my last skein of #47 and divided them into sections by color. There were 5 distinct color changes in all. I then cut each color section exactly in half and wound each piece into a little ball, so I have 2 equal sets of 5 colors in little bitty balls. This way, I can knit each sleeve with one set, so the sleeves have the same colors/equal stripes.

While I didn't get what I originally wanted, my trip to Eleganza was not entirely without success. I bought a bag full of yarn to make another top-down raglan cardi:

• 3 sk Noro Silk Garden #226 (grey - blue - purple) (yarndex link)
  
• 1 sk Manos Wool #04 (turquoise) (yarndex link)
• 1 sk Cascade Lana d'Oro 1066 (blueberry)
  
• 1 sk Cascade Lana d'Oro 1069 (purple)
  
• 2 sk Noro Cash Iroha #108 (chocolate brown)
  

Arrrgh, I want so badly to show you guys pictures of these yarns together! I'm very excited to play with them and make them into a jewel-toned sweater! Here's a quick collage to show you roughly what they look like together, until I can get a proper picture:



The Silk Garden #226 has little bits of the robin's egg blue in it (picked up by the Manos #04), along with a larger portion of blues that go beautifully with the Lana D'Oro #1066. The Cash Iroha (background of the picture) picks up the deep chocolate/coffee colors in the Silk Garden.

That's all for now; keep your fingers crossed that I'll either get the lappy sorted out or rig up another computer for transferring/editing my pictures.

New yarn and stuff

Plus, evidence of a finished project:

Now with 300% MORE YARN PR0N!

It's Monday, and you need to look at pretty yarn.


First, let's take a trip to Kiparoo Farm, in Adamstown, MD.

Kiparoo Moonlight, in dark purples

Kiparoo Moonlight in red-purples

Kiparoo Glitter in indigo

Next, we'll review results from Steph's awesome Halloween Destash party. Thankfully, I took less yarn (I think) than I brought.

mystery yarn, oatmeal color, 3.7 oz
looks like mostly wool wrapped with nylon.
purchased at MD Sheep & Wool.

mystery wool, 100% wool.
laceweight, on a BIG cone.
weight, including plastic cone, is 1lb, 4.4oz


blue loopy mohair boucle, 3.6 oz


knitted roses! I can't wait to use these, maybe on a black
cardigan or wrap. Nicky Epstein would be proud!

Back to Kiparoo for a bit, to show you Silk Road, a 50/50 wool/silk. It's heavenly to touch, next-to-the-skin soft (even for me, the itch-a-holic).

Kiparoo Silk Road, 50/50 wool/silk
264.0 yards (241.4 m), 150g.

Knitted up, it looks like this:

Huckleberry Ascot,
from Interweave Knits Holiday 2007.

Coming up next: I'm test-knitting and reviewing Shalimar Yarn's Superwash Merino Sock yarn!

You knew it was going to happen

I made three stops on the Countryside Artisans tour.


I don't even have to tell you, do I?


Story (and photos) to follow.

Oops, I Did It Again.

I was perusing Ravelry this morning and saw this lace shawl. Keep in mind that I am at a weak point right now for lace. I was, as Jane Austen (?) so wonderfully put it, "seized by a freak at breakfast" and was tempted to run down to the basement and rifle through my lace knitting patterns and cast on right then and there. Then I remembered that I didn't have any laceweight wound up into cakes or balls. Pfffft.

Firmaments Shawl by Bonnie Sennott.
Image swiped from Ravelry to show you
how freakin AWESOME this thing is.
Image property of aedes.

Ah, back to my story. So I was perusing Ravelry when I came across the Firmaments shawl. It's inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem. Ravelry link. Webs link.

So, I, uh... clicked on the link to Webs. I looked at all the lovely colors of Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca Silk (Webs link. Ravelry link). And then I must have blacked out -- because next thing I knew, my AmEx was out of my wallet and I confirmed an order for one cone of black, one cone of french blue and one emailed pattern (ok, technically, my AmEx didn't even make it out of my wallet, but it must have ventured forth, because I'm one of those people with a freakish memory for strings of numbers... and somebody typed that number and its expiration date in while I wasn't looking).

Did I mention the yarn comes on half-pound cones? Cones = No Winding. Cones = Instant Cast-On Gratification. Cones = FULL OF WIN.

*sigh* I need to get some sleep. If I get some sleep, I might actually do my work instead of browse Ravelry patterns and buy impulse yarn. Beautiful, soft, silky impulse yarn...

Maryland Sheep and Wool 2008 Wrap-Up

In my hurry to get to MD Sheep & Wool, I forgot my camera. I kicked myself a few times and then got on with the day.

Well, I went on Saturday with the intention of just buying some sheep's milk cheese from the folks at Menhennett Farm. Damnit, I forgot the name of the man who makes it. But he said that this was probably their last year at MD S&W, which made me sad. We had a lovely chat about cheesemaking (did I mention I love Tiffany Aching?), and he walked me through the process, which I thoroughly appreciated. For those interested, Menhennett Farm cheeses are also for sale from Bill Houder at the Town Clock Cheese Shoppe in Gap, PA (717.442.9090).

Cheese transaction completed, I decided that while I was there, it wouldn't hurt to maybe take a stroll through one of the barns. Just to look. I wouldn't seriously be tempted; just observing.

Walky, walky, walky... no temptations... ok, we're good. Hey, I can see the other end of the barn and I still haven't bought anything! Woohoo! GO ME!

Hey... what's that? I made it about 3/4 of the way through when I noticed a familiar stack of Corridale roving crates. I saw the back wall displaying a series of Ashford wheels. The barn I walked into was the one where Stony Mountain Fibers had their booth. I love Stony Mountain Fibers.

So I thought, well, a couple braids of roving wouldn't be bad. After all, roving isn't yarn, and I told myself I wasn't going to buy yarn. And ooh, that's a pretty color... Oh, and I like that one, too. Hey, here's one that's undyed; I could maybe try my hand at that! And then I saw something fluffy and chocolately brown in the corner... BUFFALO DOWN! I had been pondering this ever since I saw their ads on Ravelry. I felt the sample skein. I had to have it. So I bought an ounce of that.

100% dehaired American bison down from Buffalo Gold

Last year, I went on a blue-buying spree. This year was brown (okay, and a little blue).

50/50 wool/silk roving from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks

Colonial Wool top, "Northern Lights" colorway, from Stony Mountain Fibers

70/30 Alpaca/Tussah from Stony Mountain Fibers

100% bamboo top, "Expresso" (sic) colorway

100% superfine Merino wool

Alpaca/Merino/Tussah, undyed

silk hankies, "Mendocino Hedges" colorway

All told, I had a couple braids of 50/50 wool/silk, a couple braids of Colonial wool, some undyed Tussah/merino/alpaca, some superfine merino, about a pound of 70/30 alpaca/Tussah, 4.35 oz of espresso-brown bamboo top and a 1-oz stack of hand-dyed silk hankies.

And cheese.

And a lamb sandwich in mah bellay.

On my way out, I yelled at lickmysticks (Ravelry link). I did not demand earrings, though. I felt that startling a pregnant woman well into her third trimester -- who likely has the knowing of some obscure fighting skills with knitting needles that she learned during a stint in Needleworth Jail -- was probably enough.

Afterwards, I sat for a little bit with the Western Maryland Ravelers (Ravelry link) tailgate party and waved maniacally at passing buses. Casey, Jess, Mary-Heather and the rest of Team Rav stopped by our tailgate! They had enough grace to not look visibly disturbed at our bubbly over-enthusiasm and cheers of "WOOOO! RAVELRY!!! YEAH!!!"

And just when I thought it was over...






I went back in.


I made a beeline for Tess' yarns. I really wanted to buy seven skeins of silky wool to make the sweater from Pattern #74 that they had displayed as a model.... but I had enough cash left in my wallet for two skeins of sock yarn (you know, now that I'm a sock knitter and everything).



Then I gathered up my purchases, slung 'em into the car, had a wild and bumpy ride going a leeetle too fast over the rutted field of the HoCo Fairgrounds parking, drove to Eleganza and rented a wheel. It was a good day.

Yep, I rented a wheel. You know what that means...

Lead me not into temptation....

I already know the way.

I slipped up on my yarn diet this weekend--not only slipped up, but fell on my ass. And I'm very pleased about it.

But first, quick recap and summary:
Saturday, I went to tea in Frederick with Anne and a bunch of her friends. I had a wonderful time meeting everyone. Afterwards, I was heading home to help take care of my baby nephew when I saw some cute things in the window of a boutique. I hemmed (want to go in; parking meter might expire). I hawed (really ought to be going home). I went in... and I emerged victorious. I bought two skirts on sale (woohoo!) and one cardigan that wasn't one sale, but went PERFECT with the brown wool skirt. I think I also liked it because it looks like something I would want to knit.
(tea image from here).

Sunday: two yarn sales. You already know what's going to happen.

1. Dancing Leaf Farm
Picked up another skein at Dancing Leaf Farm of Loopy Mohair in the Briar Patch colorway (the sample is a little bolder than most of the yarn in that colorway actually looks). I like to have it on hand for edging whatever I end up making out of the Salsa and/or Tango.

I also bought a copy of Knitting Loves Crochet -- partly because I do not love crochet and I'm hoping this book will give me a reason to use my multi-pack of hooks for something other than seaming (and fake-seaming à la Elizabeth Zimmerman) -- and partly because it was 50% off. If you didn't know already, I have a huge prejudice against crochet. I think it's usually ugly and screams, "OMG I'M HANDMADE BY A CRAFTING ROOKIE STUCK IN A 1970s TIME LOOP." I bet that there are more aesthetic offenses committed by crochet enthusiasts than any other fiber group.

knitting loves crochet, even if Courtney doesn't.

Ten bucks was about as much as I was willing to invest in finding out if crochet had any redeeming qualities when paired with knitting... or whether it would be the fiber equivalent of Cooperative Learning, the great education debacle of my childhood (if you have questions about the efficacy of Cooperative Learning, ask me. I'll tell you how quickly I learned to hate the stupid kids, as well as anything that smelled of group work). I'm not planning on working any of the projects out of it in the near future, but I look forward to flipping through it.

Rounding up my random purchases at Dancing Leaf were:
- a purple shawl stick (could have also been a hair stick in my longer-haired days), which goes beautifully with my stashed Dancing Leaf Salsa and Tango yarns, in case I make that Ring Wrap thingy (whatever it's called, from Knitter's Winter 2005).
- two grab bags of yarn in random green colors. I know, green is not my thing, but I'm hoping that if I buy enough green yarn, I will make things for my two best friends because they look good in green and I want that green stuff OUT of my stash.
- three bars of Wooly Queen goatsmilk soap (two in Cucumber/Cantaloupe and one in Honeysuckle).

2. Kiparoo Farm
Then we did a quick shimmy over to Kiparoo Farm, where the wind was threatening to blow away everything in its path. Safe in the shop, I picked up a chocolate from one of the many heart-shaped boxes. Mmmmm, chocolate...

and then I saw some yarn tucked in the back corner of the shop. I wasn't planning on buying any yarn; in fact, I was planning on buying NO YARN WHATSOEVER. I picked it up. I held it up in the afternoon sunlight streaming in through the window. I admired the deep burgundies and dark chocolate browns with occasional hints of silver. I opened the big binder of patterns sitting next to the yarn; the very first one was for an Autumn Leaves Capelet in the colorway I was fondling. The model was hanging up on the wall just to the right. Well, who was I to argue with the conspiring forces of Fate?

Kiparoo Farm "Moonlight" (wool/nylon)

Normally, I advise against red+brown combinations -- even the thought sends shudders down my spine. But in this colorway, Annie got it right. The colors work. It reminds me of chocolate-dipped strawberries eaten on a warm summer moonlit night. Wanna see it again?


I also picked up a skein of brushed mohair/glitter yarn in deep, saturated overly-ripe-strawberry red. I figured I could always do a 1" or so border in it. The color in the photo below isn't exactly right... but trust me, it works with the yarn.

Kiparoo Farm "Glitter" (brushed mohair/sparkly stuff)

3. Miscellany
I take back what I said earlier about everything crochet being ugly. Here is the first cool thing I have seen come off a hook:

the Marcel Wanders Crochet Table.

4. Afterward: Remember the cute skirt and sweater I bought on Saturday? I bought these fairly sensible shoes at Nordstrom today to go with them (in brown, of course). I generally have a thing against sensible shoes, but these are actually cute on. Will post pics eventually.

I'm Just a Girl Who Cain't Say No...

...to yarn, anyway. Last Friday Anne and I set out on the super-fabulous Great Winter Yarn Crawl '07! I had researched a long line of shops to visit in MD, but we ended up hitting four -- which turned out well because we were able to take a leisurely place and enjoy each stop. I apologize for the lack of pictures... still working on figuring out how to get them off the camera and onto my computer at work.

First stop was Dancing Leaf Farm (Barnesville, MD). I bought a skein of Salsa (wool/mohair) that Dalis had laid out in a Christmas display of red and green yarns. The red color I bought is really more of a deep coral -- a saturated orangey-pink sort of red. If I haven't waxed euphoric about how wonderful Dalis' colorways are, let me repeat it: GO SEE HER YARN. You will want to take it home with you and look at it and have it be yours forever. I also bought a hardbound copy of The Opinionated Knitter. Put the yarn and book together and what do you get?

A Baby Surprise Jacket for my nephew! It's about 1/3 done now, knitted on US4 needles. It's my first EZ experience and so far I love the ease of garter stitch and the simple pattern. I knit a lot of it last night while watching the Masterpiece Theatre version of Jayne Eyre (mmmmmm, Rochester....). Which reminds me of this:

from signals
link to shirt)

I liked The Opinionated Knitter so much that I went to Borders yesterday morning and bought a copy of Knitting Without Tears (20% off coupon put to good use!). These will get more use after I explain Winter Yarn Crawl Stop #3...

Winter Yarn Crawl Stop #2: Forestheart, Woodsboro, MD. As we drove past Forestheart, I said, "That must be it. It looks like an artsy place." You will know you have arrived when you see the purple mailbox, purple roof and a purple van parked out front. The inside is jam-packed with all sorts of fiber art and craft-related activities and supplies. There is a wall of cones of weaving yarn; a huge section dedicated to rug-hooking; a section for glass beads and bead-making; various assorted fibercraft magazines, including back issues of Spin Off; a lower section for spinning and dyeing... It's roughly organized, although many things seem to be wherever they landed. Shopping there is a bit like going through your aunt's garage or attic -- you can rummage around and find something you want -- except you have to pay for the stuff you take with you.

I have wanted to try rug-hooking for several years but held off because (1) like I need another hobby and (2) supplies aren't cheap. Mary had a small kit that I thought was adorable and I decided to take the plunge and buy it. I also bought a book, The Art of Rug Hooking, because the featured rugs were beautiful, and a small perforated-paper cross-stitch Santa ornament (I used to do a TON of counted cross-stitch when I was little and I love working on paper -- these little kits are the kind you can do in an afternoon and feel good about finishing a project).

the finished rug-hooking kit.
yay sheep!

We stopped for lunch at The Vintage Coffeehouse on Main Street in Mount Airy. Their coffee is delicious and the interior is everything you think a coffeehouse ought to be: funky, warm and comfortable, with friendly staff and good food.

Winter Yarn Crawl Stop #3: Knittin' Chicks, Mount Airy, MD. This place is set a little back off the main road in a bright traffic-middle-line-yellow building. Inside is bright and cheerful with well-organized yarn just waiting for you to pick it up. I really liked this store. The owner, Dalia, is enthusiastic and helpful. It would be a great place to sit and knit. I picked up a skein of Cascade 220 Superwash Heather in a ruby color; I fell in love with it.

Remember that copy of The Opinionated Knitter I bought a few hours previously? Well, while fondling the Cascade 220 Heathers, I decided to knit myself a yoke sweater using Elizabeth's Percentage System. The body will be the deep claret color (4008?), with the Scandinavian-patterned yoke in grey, charcoal and deep blue (4009?). I can't wait to cast on for this one...

Also worth mentioning: Dalia had set out her finished body for the Noni Medallion Travel Bag. This thing is HUGE. She said that before felting it's roughly the size of a small country.

photo from noni

And when you see it finished, it's gorgeous. Anne bought the pattern for it, so I might wait until she's taken it for a test-drive before I think about attempting it.

By the time I settled on yarn colors for my EPS yoke sweater, the sky was starting to get a little dark... we headed off for our last

Winter Yarn Crawl Stop #4: Diane Kelly, Firesong Fibers, Cooksville, MD. Diane has a beautiful studio in her home. It's the best and most organized I've seen. She raises angora goats and Blue-Face Leicester sheep. I bought one washed Young Adult mohair fleece from a Reverse Badger girl -- a stunning black and white mix -- and two raw yearling mohair fleeces that are such wonderful golden colors and of superior fiber quality. Next step is to buy some combs (Diane recommends the two-row small Louet hand combs) and also to wash the stinky fleeces at some point. I am so thrilled to have them and look forward to spinning them.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Plus, the places we didn't get to are in the Baltimore area, so that can be another day's journey!

Solstice Celebrations!

(sung to "Happy Birthday to You")
Happy Solstice to Me,
Happy Solstice to Me,
Happy Solstice to Court-neeeee!
Happy Solstice to Me!

Since I'm not Pagan, I figure I can celebrate Winter Solstice any way I like. I decided that the right and proper way was to buy myself roving on Etsy.

100% Merino "Cowboy Cool," 8 oz.
from CJ Kopec Creations

40/40/20 Bamboo/Alpaca/Merino plus some sparkly stuff "Midnight Magic," 3 oz
from loop

Bamboo/Alpaca/Merino
"Glowing Hearth," 6 oz total
from loop

I also completely finished moving out of the rental and into the new house. I moved into the rental on 21 June 2006 (Summer Solstice) and moved out 21 December 2007 (Winter Solstice). It wasn't planned that way, but interesting how it turned out.

Internet access isn't set up yet at the new place. So... posts will have to be done while at the office. Hopefully soon I will figure out a way to get pictures off my camera/laptop and onto the blog -- I've done a lot of spinning recently -- just finished up 6 oz of 70/30 Merino/Tencel 2-ply Fingering and a I-Think-It's-Blue-Face-But-Can't-Remember 2-ply Worsted.

Also, I finished Spawn of Thrummed Mittens yesterday! Woohoo!

Random note: I'm looking forward to trying a magnum of Belgian Beer... the 2007 edition of La Chouffe. I'm not a huge beer-drinker, but since it was a gift I feel obligated to open it (hey, we all make sacrifices).


So, if there's no blog post before, I hope you have a great Yule/Solstice/Christmas/Hanukkah-Was-Two-Weeks-Ago- And-We're-Having-Chinese-Food-On-the-25th Holidays!

Autumn Studio Tour 2007

I went on the Countryside Artisans Autumn Studio Tour. It's a trek through the foothills of Sugarloaf Mountain, in the scenic part of Montgomery County (yes, there is a rural, scenic part). If you missed it, they are holding subsequent ones this fall and winter--see the website.

First stop was Kiparoo Farm, a working sheep and dairy farm. As we pulled up to the shop, my grandmother said, "You can tell an artist lives here." It was a bit of an adventure going down their long, winding, rutted dirt driveway--SUV or truck highly recommended--although my aunt's sedan managed it fine.

Kiparoo Farm Yarn Shop

I bought yarn for a Christmas present for one of my best friends, who hopefully is too busy in dental school to read my blog. But if you do read this K, I'm not telling what it is. The real surprise will be whether I get it done before Christmas. At top is a wool/mohair Aran-weight, and below is a skein of loopy mohair.

The following is a sculpture by David Therriault at Alden Farms. I love it. I want to take it home and have it be mine forever. I want to place it in my garden (when I have a garden of my own) and have it be a restful object of contemplation. The only reason I haven't bought it is the price. And I've almost convinced myself that it's worth dipping into my savings for this hunk of stone with bits of iron in it (beautiful hunk of gorgeous stone with bits of perfectly placed iron in it. After all, I told myself that I was saving up for either a Roth IRA contribution, or art purchases). That, and I don't have a place to put it. Oh, but I would design a garden around this...

if wishes were horses, this would be in my stable.

I did, however, buy a piece I could afford: a stone and iron picture frame. It is a good consolation prize. The carpet background doesn't do it justice--it is most at home in the grass, or on a wooden mantel.


After that, we went down below Poolesville to Lindenwood Farms. I suspect it is an old farmhouse, but it has been perfectly maintained/restored. There was an artist's studio there (a beautiful studio in an old farm building). I was mostly interested in the architecture of the main house. There was a well:

Next to the well was this sort of lighthouse structure. I forgot to ask the owners what it was. Does anyone know? My next guess would be some sort of mill, but there's no river nearby.

There were a couple places we went that I didn't take pictures of--if you're in the area, it makes for a lovely weekend. A word of warning--it will take the whole 10-5 time if you stop everywhere excluding the vineyard.

Morningstar Studio reminded me of an embodiment of the ideal Appalachian studio... I wish I had a printing studio like this:


One of my favorite stops was Dancing Leaf Farm, where Dalis hand-dyes everything in luscious colorways. It is a beautiful, peaceful place. I wanted to stay there for hours, just watching the sheep graze.




I bought one skein of Salsa, and one of Tango. I think the colorway is "Briar Rose" but it changes a bit everytime she dyes it--even in the same colorway, there are a lot of variations. I love it!


I also bought some soaps there that a friend of Dalis makes herself--goatsmilk, with jojoba oil and shea butter and all those good things in it. I have plans to go buy more when I run out.

The last stop was to Art of Fire, a big glass-blowing workshop in a converted dairy barn. I didn't take any pictures there... but I did buy a pink champagne flute for my mother (she collects and uses unique champagne flutes) and I picked up literature on class schedules (Anne, your influence works even when you're not around. Scary, huh?). Yes, like I need another hobby. But it might be interesting just to try it... maybe I'll suggest that for a Christmas present.

Ok, next blog post: Shenandoah Fiber Festival, and perhaps some SotS progress--I've started Chart 3!