so, i'm not done yet

putting away all the 'normal' stuff before getting out the holiday trim this week, i ran across these. i started this pair of mittens in march when i was on my mitten kick. i had run into the road block with the sweater, needed more fiber to spin into yarn to finish the sweater, but what to do with the mis-match yarn? well, make mitts of course. they were all done except for the thumbs. i really don't know how i let that happen. that is not like me to leave a project undone so close to the goal. my only thought is that i was waiting to get the wool to make the sweater yarn before i completed these. well, whatever the reason they are completed just in time for the balmy, warm november weather!
of course there was a smidge of yarn left. i can guess what your thinking..... another bottle cardigan. i refrained. i had packed all the needles and pattern away as we got the decorations out, so no way was i going down that road again.
until i read my email. a fiber friend would like the pattern. the one that's in my head. today i put it into the computer, and decided that i should knit it to make sure that it's correct.

i know i won't have enough yarn to finish, but i couldn't stop myself. it seems that the pattern is correct, at least i think it is. so it is going off with the understanding that the knitter has to use her judgement and be patient with my attempt at pattern writing.

saved!

it seems that amythefibergoddess is truly my fibergoddess! i got so caught up in life that i neglected to ask her to rescue me from with my bottle cardigan dilema. not only does she read my blog, she answers my requests and brought a full skein of horsemint yarn to the guild meeting today. she rocks!

so after dinner (while enjoying a lovely glass of riesling) i finished the bottom of the cardigan. i used only a smidge (technical fiber talk :) of yarn to bring this to completion.

that's five completed cardigans. i'm stopping. really, no intervention needed here!

seriously????

i made it all the way to the bottom and ran out of yarn. i have to repeat it, because i keep sitting here thinking that if i wait long enough, i'll have enough to finish. amy..... horsemint, worsted weight, scraps...... please??

not done yet

so, i finished the last bottle cardigan just as i was running out of yarn. they are so very charming...

so i'm thinking about what i need to cast in next, when i discover this...

nope, not done yet!

date night...

i've been gently (well, maybe not so gently) begging asking amythefibergoddess to guide me down the path of fiber dyeing. it just never seems to work out that we can hook up. so when i finished the miami beach shawl for her, she wanted to compensate me and all i wanted was a lesson in her dyeing kitchen. so last night, her herd was away and i was free so we had a date night!
i showed up at her door with two fleeces that i grabbed from the garage. now, here i will interject that i have a great partner, and while i was away at a fibery event all the summer furniture was stored for the winter. in the storage process all my washed, labeled fleeces were moved. so sadly i have no clue what fleece i grabbed, but it was a beauty. white, lustrous, long staple length.
the process was exact and more time consuming than difficult. the hardest part was choosing a color. or did i want several colors. would they blend together? clash? i had absolutely no idea. amy was a saint. i finally just said, 'you know me, pick!' she guided me to ~cape cod red (really, i sort of did that on my own) and mocha chino and golden pear. the idea is to have these carded together into roving.
so off we went, soaking the wool, heating pots, mixing dye solutions. i loved it!

as we were finishing the first batch, amy looks over at the grey fleece that i brought and exclaims 'lets do that too!' really? i'm there. so we went back to the color charts and debated what to over-dye this beautiful grey with. teal? not me. blue? i've done lots of blue recently. green? you can see how this was not going well. we finally came around to plum. it rocked! in fact amy was so happy she is considering it for one of her projects. we wrapped it up and i came home with several pillow-cases of colorful, wet wool.

and here it is! the november weather cooperated with a breeze, sunny day. left to right: plum, mocha chino, golden pear and cape cod cranberry.
next week i'll be sending it off to the mill. i couldn't be happier!

new england fiber festival

way back in may when sandy long and i traveled to the maryland sheep and wool festival, she asked me if i would be her travel companion should she get into a new festival. she was considering applying for the new england fiber festival in springfield, massachusetts and knew that her 'regulars' might not be available to help. high on fiber fumes and happy to be on the road i enthusiastically agreed. i easily rationalized all the reasons it would be fun to do.... new festival, different venue, cool vendors, past our fest but before the holidays, and hey... why not?  two weeks ago sandy get the call that she's in. she had already lined cc up to help, so i tagged along as extra labor. we set off on friday with two cars packed to the brim! it was a good thing we had that second car to carry our clothes, chairs and wine! we looked like clown cars traveling down the highway.
we arrived at the 'big e' late afternoon and got everything in place. the arena is a huge indoor complex that is clean, warm and extremely well run. we fell into bed that evening tired and excited. the next morning we fueled ourselves with starbucks and arrived to greet the festival goers. it was a slow but steady flow of attendees shopping. and shop they could with over 175 fiber folks selling yarn, fiber, and accessories.
sandy treated us to a great dinner out that evening

how can you go wrong with a micro-brewery drink and artichoke dip?
we finished the weekend with  a short day on sunday, packing up and heading home by five. sandy registered for next year, so hopefully she'll need the tag-a-long labor again!
what did i buy? well, a huge hank of yarn and a wool jacket. pretty good on my new fiber diet!

bottle sweaters

the original sweater is on the right and my 'copy' is on the left! recognise the buttons? they were the left overs from my sweater. quite handsome, don't you think?

in my typical fashion, i'm on a roll...... what else could you do while waiting for trick or treaters :)