longmeadow open house

for the fourth year, sandy has invited us to her home, farm and shop for an open house. the first year we took the scenic route (translated to mean we were sooooo lost) and last year we traveled in frigid temps and snow. this year was a pleasure, sunny skies and mild temperature and fabulous fiber friends. i had a car full of wheels and spinners and we spent the drive catching up and talking wool!

when we arrived, sandy was in the barn showing folks the lambs., so out we went...

my first stop was to see miles. i knew he had been busy (18 babies- what a dude!)

beautiful. his fleece is gorgeous and he was not bothered with all the attention the babies were leaping and clambering about.

sandy certainly has a full barn with lambs more expected in april. after the barn visit we piled into sandy's wee house, filling up every room and spent the day eating, spinning and chatting.

her shop was scavenged and left looking pretty empty by the time we departed. i had to have something fun to play with, and i purposely took my wheel empty. i'm still not over the radiance shawl thing, so i started spinning this romney/bamboo batt...

i have another smaller batt that is very similar, so i may combine them and get two wraps. we left late in the day, making our way homeward. a wonderful time, but next year????? i'm shopping early!

next project

i wrapping up (heeheehee) the radiance shawl.  i had been spending most of my knitting time with baby blanket#2, it's so easy to take with me and mindless to work on. so i devoted time to radiance.

soon, it was time to work on those leaves......

these are such fun to do, quick and easy. they are also just like chips, you have to do more than one. before i knew it i could see the end of this project.....

so what do i jump into next? there's a new pattern that a friend sent me ( she's doing it right now, so i'd have built in help) or another radiance ( so not sick of this yet ) or another pattern that i got at new england fest, or ??????
yikes! i  know in the big scheme of life it's not earth shattering, but i like to have that travel project (babyblanket#2) and another bit more complicated. i've also got traveling in my future, so i want to choose well.

or.....that baby blanket may just get finished sooner than later!

done

i knit like the wind and finished the sleeves friday evening. it went out to dinner at moe's, drove around while we did errands, all in all it became a well traveled sweater!

i returned it to sandy on saturday, leaving her just the ends to weave in from her knitting. i left the ends on the sleeves just in case the dudes arms were longer than she thought. the birthday is next week, and there is still snow in the air, so hopefully it will get use.
so that left me with a quandary.... what to knit next. i picked up the second radiance shawl that i had started and got back into the groove.....

i'm still not sure if this is going to knock my socks off, but the pattern is working much better the second time around. the yarn is a bit stiffer, not as soft and i'm concerned that the color is too 'clown-like', but it's not enough to make me stop.

then there's the next baby blanket. i absolutely love this yarn. love. it. bright, fun, soft... it has it all. my only teeny, tiny concern is that it screams 'girl'

i had both the grandma and the aunt of the little one give me their very honest assessment before i kept going. they both agree the it doesn't matter what the gender is, the blanket is a go! i cast on the raspberry and i'm throwing caution to the wind.

one more sleeve

i see the end. it really is near, i just need to keep my focus. i finished the first sleeve yesterday and got the second started.

then got caught up in all the life stuff that happens. then i started to panic that i wasn't getting further along, realized that i lost a needle and my glasses, then went on a tear to find them.

and when you find it in the strangest place...... take a breath, regroup and stay on task!

finishing her knitting

saturday near the end of the guild meeting, sandy was slugging away to finish an adorable 'john deere' green sweater for her grandson. i remembered her talking about the sweater, see her start the sweater and never gave it another thought. here we are nearing the end of the winter season, and she was working feverishly to complete it. her grandson's birthday is soon and since she missed christmas she would like to have it done then. she was facing several obstacles...... lots of lambs being born and needing care, getting ready for the open house, serious 'john deere green' fatigue. i had a moment of extreme sympathy and said "give it to me, i'll finish it." the words had barely left my mouth, when she handed me the entire project..... bag and all!
i love finishing and i think that is one of the reasons i immediately cast-on the same project that i've just completed. there is such a rush, a feeling of accomplishment to get the end. how could i not want to do that with this sweater? all the was left for me to do was the bottom, neck and sleeves.

bottom? done!

neckline? done!

sleeves are slowing me down a bit, but i am determined to have this back in her hands by saturday. knit-on!

squares - done!

i finished all those mitre squares..... all 16 of them. knitting along, i remembered why i did not like this yarn. while it is as soft as all get out, it is so very, very splitty. there are several spots that i can already see small snags, but the overall effect is lovely.

then i turned it over.

billions of ends to weave in. and with this splitty yarn i imagine that it will take lots of wine to finish.
so i started on the borders. i'm anxious to get going on the next blanket in those peacock colors, but have decided to show restraint until i get this one completely knit. i've got until july to weave in those pesky ends ;)

with any luck, i'll be done by tomorrow.
i decided to get that vivid blue fiber plied and washed this week. i wanted to have it done and off my wheel before the guild meeting this month. we'll be playing musical wheels and i want to have my bobbins empty. not that it's really necessary ( i've got lots and lots of bobbins) but i like to have all my projects done before i get rolling on another. so, that blue fiber????....... delicious!



(amythefibergoddess has reserved another batch for me)

the second time

i'm still knitting away on the baby blanket. i'm on the third row (there are a total of four) and it just rolls along.

over the weekend, an area yarn store had their 'super bowl' sale. i feel forced to go to make sure that i'm not missing something fabulous that should be living in my yarn stash. i wandered about the store, touching and pondering all the lovely products. when i reached the aisle with the acrylic/ blends i realized that this would be a perfect opportunity to choose colors/yarns for the next baby blanket that i need to make. it seems that july 2013 is a popular month for births! i knew that i wanted a different type of yarn (this bamboo is very splity and will catch on everything) that would be easy care. and soft. soft is the ruling factor in this decision. so i stumbled upon this.....

and knowing the grandmother, i hoped that bright peacock colors would be the way to go. i'm now quite anxious to get this started!
i did finish the ombre shawl.....

i couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. in fact, i barely had it on the blocker when i fell into my normal habit of casting on another!

the yarn is kauni effects left overs from a sweater i did several years ago. it will have the same blending colorways and i'm zipping right along on it. i may even do another one of these i enjoy the pattern that much!