Knitting at the Beach

For memorial day weekend Chris and I are spending a couple of days at the beach with our parents. Its great to just lay on the beach and sleep and read-- I have been so busy lately with classes ending, graduation, getting engaged and starting The Painted Sheep that I haven't had any time to just relax and catch my breath. Of course, I can't keep my hands off the needles for long, so I've brought several knitting projects along. The ocean breeze makes it a bit more difficult to knit, but it hasn't stopped me from trying!

Wonderful Knitting Friends!

I just got back from a delightful evening at the shop with the greatest group of knitters--and friends. This morning I graduated and instead of having a real graduation part I figured I'd just celebrate at the monthly charity knit night at the shop. My mom fixed an ice-cream cake, but thats all I expected. But then people started showing up-- with food and gifts! We ended up with cake, champagne, strawberries, fresh home-baked cookies and yummy turkey wraps. Jo gave me a beautiful leather bound photo album for pictures of Painted Sheep stuff, Carol had a funny singing card and Pat gave me a beautiful journal and bottle of wine! It was totally unexpected and wonderful! Now I am full of yummy food and champagne and happy. Oh, and we got a bunch of blocks knit for a Warm Up America blanket! Thanks everyone!!

Bracelet from Shanna

Look at the beautiful bracelet that Shanna made me as a graduation present-- I love it!! Thanks Shanna!

Celebrations!

This is the time for celebrations in my life, it seems. Funny how things seem to come in clumps, huh? This month I have graduation, my recent engagement and my acceptance into a graduate fellowship to celebrate, and in July The Painted Sheep will have its grand opening. I am worn out just thinking about it! I will post more about my romantic trip to the mountains earlier this week and Chris's proposal later..but I don't have the energy right now!

Bonsai Top Finished!!!

I just finished knitting the Bonsai top I've been working on for the last month or so!! I really enjoyed working on it but am glad that its finished because I have so many other projects I want to work on. I just laid it out and sprayed it to block it and am going to let it dry overnight. Tomorrow I am working at the shop so I'm going to take the pieces with me to sew together during slow times. I can't wait to see how it turns out....I am happy with how the knitting turned out, not too many visible mistakes and all that, but am not sure about the style. Its just such a weird style for me. I'm not really a vest person. But we will see! I'll try to post pictures tomorrow but for now its bedtime.

Update: Got the top sewn together this morning at the shop and had AM take pictures. I still need to finish the armholes, but I wanted to take a picture while a) someone was around to take one for me and b) it was sunny out. I'm not sure yet what I think about it...it is a little big. I think its growing on me though.

Back to Reality

Well, my adventure at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Show is now over. We got back late last night after a 7 hour drive (I got lots of knitting done on my bonsai top!). We had a great time, met some cool people and bought lots of yummy fiber. I'll post more pictures and links to some of the vendors I saw and made purchases from soon. Unfortunately today I have to head back to reality and can't spend all day playing with fiber and blogging. I have exams to study for, a tv interview to prepare for (!?!), a website to design, a mother's day tea to organize and a felting class to help my mom prepare for. But before I get back to work, check out the blogs of the knitters/spinners/bloggers I met yesterday -- Mia and Gryphon-- at http://knitplaywithfire.wordpress.com/ and http://sanguinegryphon.blogspot.com/.

P.S. yes this is the same Gryphon that designed the beautiful lace skirt in the current Interweave (which is on my to-do list). Oh, and her daughter Lia is the cutest little girl I've ever seen.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

Where do I start? First of all, I met Eunny. She was shocked when I asked for her to autograph my copy of Interweave Knits but I explained to her that she needed to get used to being a celebrity. I hope to see her and many other "famous" bloggers (isn't it great that w/ blogs anyone can be famous?) at a blogger lunch meet-and-greet tomorrow. How exciting! Tomorrow I hope to do some relaxing and socializing but today was busy-busy-busy. The number of vendors (and sheep) was overwhelming. My mom and I bought a bunch of roving, a little bit of yarn (we tried hard to resist) and a raw fleece from a Jacob sheep. Mom is going to wash it and comb it into roving which I am then going to hand dye. Can't wait to see how that turns out. My favorite yarn buy was a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Super Sock in a bright red/orange/yellow color (Sugar Maple is the name, I think). I also got some amazingly cheap ($1 for 150grams) yarn from The Little Barn. It is blue/gray/white and made from organic cotton and "Ecospun"-- recycled soda bottles. I bought enough to make a summer beach-style bag or something fun like that. Its not particularly soft but the color is bright and it feels durable. We got a ton of roving for the shop (so please buy it all so that I don't have to feel guilty for over shopping!!). We also learned a LOT about the different breeds of sheep and are trying to collect handouts, photos and samples of the fiber of as many as possible. Oh, and I fell in love with Tess's Designer Yarns. Wow, she has some nice stuff. Lots of silk and silk/merino blends. The yarn was just a little too expensive for me to afford right now (though worth every penny, I'm sure) so I settled with just buying a pattern for a amazing lace sweater (Lotus Rag). I also picked up a sweater pattern (Sahara) from Stitch Diva at the Tilli Thomas booth--another place with amazing but pricey silk yarns. I love silk, by the way. Finally, I bought several (ok more than several) types of natural dyes to experiment with. Natural dyes can be difficult to dye with and very inconsistent, but fun to experiment with. Plus I know that Ann Marie wants some natural dyed yarn! Thats all for now, I'll post another update after tomorrow!

Felted Hat

Yesterday I knit up Pick Up Sticks' Wavy Flower hat pattern and today I felted it. It was a surprisingly fast knit on size 10 circulars. Right now it is drying. I can't wait to try it on! It might still be a little bit big but I can always felt it a little more. More pictures here.

School is almost over

Only one more day of classes! Ever! I will have a couple of exams next week but nothing I'm too worried about. This means, of course, that I will soon have much more time to knit! Yippee! I haven't been able to get much done lately, but I have finished a couple of small things: a crocheted bobble clutch from One Skein, one sock out of some of my hand painted yarn (the other has about 1/3 done), a shell out of Summer Net (no picture yet, though), and a hat that still needs to be felted...that might be it. I've also been doing some dyeing and working on getting The Painted Sheep ready for business.