Knitting is fun again

After what seemed like a long time, knitting is fun again.  May be because I've finished all my commitments for other people and I could cast on for myself...more on that later.

I finished the fingerless mitts on commission.  I had to knit 3 black/gray mitts to get 2 that were acceptable together, then ripped out the odd mitt and used it to knit the thumbs for the 2 fraternal twin mitts.  I was going to deliver them to the buyer but the Twin Cities got a huge ice storm Saturday night which turned the streets, sidewalks and freeways into ice rinks.  So the van stayed home all day Sunday and I was able to indulge myself.

I spent the day spinning and knitting.  I cast on a scarf from a new book I recently got, Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders.  I LOVE this book.  Now it may be because I have um just a few skeins of sock yarn in my stash.  But the patterns in the book are very diverse and fun.  I'm making a scarf called the Lettuce Slide Scarf.  It is a simple pattern but fun all at the same time.  And to add to my delight, I'm using my handspun.  I realized I had not made anything from my own handspun for me.  I've made things from my handspun, just not for me.  So I took a recent spin that is comprised of BFL and 25% silk and created this.

It doesn't look like much, but it feels wonderful and I know I will use and enjoy the scarf during our long winter months.  I also decided that I'm not knitting many Christmas gifts this year.  What I am knitting cracks me up.  I've given my mom Christmas socks for probably 3 years now.  She loves her handknit socks.  But this year I decided to mix it up a bit, I sent to the UK and got a kit for this.  Stop laughing.  It is cute.  But then I think pugs are cute.

Struggling with knitting

Well that is a title I never thought I'd type.  I think the massive amount of time I spent knitting leading up to the October craft fair did me in.  I'm spinning quite a bit, but the knitting is definitely taking a back seat.  I have finished the first of two reading mitts that a person ordered.  She wanted a brownish pair, I showed her several skeins via pictures and she picked this pair, it was brown, black and red.  Clearly the red has taken over the color palette.  I'm hoping it will still work for her.  You can see in the upper right corner the yarn I'm using for the black pair she also ordered.  It is a Zauberball of black, grey, and a bit of cream.  I'm up to the thumb gusset for the first mitt and while it is a bit thicker in weight, I think it will work out fine.  Just a bit chunkier.  I'm finding knitting on commission is more nerve wracking than I thought.  It is easier to have a finished product that the person can touch and feel and take.  This is harder for me.  I hope she will be happy.  Then my friend Ellen has ordered a pair of mittens and glittens for her granddaughter and husband.  So I have more knitting to whip out in the coming weeks.  I'm hoping to finish the fingerless mitts by next week.  So I can start on the mittens right away.

I have been spinning quite a bit.  I'm finding that is relaxing me more than the knitting at the moment.  We have had a lot of doctor appointments in the last month between my mom, youngest daughter, and yes our pug Gadget.  spinning has helped take the edge out of monitoring every ones meds and appointments. 

I realize the knitting content has been low lately, I will try to kick it into gear, after all the holiday's are fast approaching...soon I'll have my countdown and projects listed...why not know?  Pshaw...there is SOOO much time between now and then that there is no challenge....ya that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

OH I did do something exciting!  I took a knitting class.  This is only my third knitting class period.  I was able to get into a Lucy Neatby Ambidextrous Knitting class.  She is an amazing teacher.  I had a wonderful afternoon and feel like I can now neatly do stranded knitting with a different yarn in each hand.  She was encouraging and empowering.  If you can take a class from her, don't hesitate, you will enjoy it and learn.  And above all?  It was FUN!

Trunk or Treat

This year we participated in our church's Trunk or Treat festival.  It was the first time church did anything like this and I must admit, it was more fun than I anticipated.  While it was chilly it wasn't as bad as it could have been, no snow!  smile...In Minnesota one has to think about if you can get warm clothes under a costume in order to trick or treat.  Or you suffer for the sake of costume beauty and are cold.  This year Anna was an 80's girl....in all her crazy glory...and Emily invited a friend along for the fun.  Emily was a 60's girl ready to step out onto a dance floor while her friend Joelle was a princess, sweet and regal.

I'm working on 2 pairs of commissioned fingerless mitts, one will be finished in the next couple of days and hopefully the second pair will fly off my needles as my friend has also commissioned a pair of mittens and glittens for members of her family.  My Yggdrasil afghan still sits in the corner, waiting for me to tackle the final 2 1/2 sides of the final border.  Soon.  Once I get these fun projects complete I will focus on my own holiday knitting.  Do you realize there are 52 days until Christmas?  Yup...let the countdown begin.  I'm only planning on 2 knitted gifts this year, my mom loves knit socks, so I'll make her a pair to add to her collection.  And then just because?  I ordered a kit to knit a pug.  Yup, I've officially gone around the bend, because while I swore I would not knit a sweater for Gadget, apparently I don't think it odd to actually knit HIM.  Lord help me....I'm sure pictures will follow.

Lunch with a rabbit named Elliana

It is howling outside my window, gray, wet, gloomy, yup, perfect knitting weather!  While I don't look forward to slogging my way to and from work each day, I do love curling up at the end of the day with my knitting.  Now if I could only knit/spin as fast as my mind keeps planning on "just one more project."

Emily had her ortho appointment yesterday.  No more cranking of the device to widen her upper jaw, it is where they want it to be.  In order to keep the device locked into place, they thread a wire through it, wrap it around, twist the multi wire strands together...at that point the dentist stopped, and asked her, how she felt.  She had long wires sticking out of her mouth.  Her reply?  Like a fish on a pole!  Laughter erupted in the dentist office.  My girl, she has a way with words.

I visited the Wild Wool Market Saturday, it was nice to meet Susan and get a sense for the space so when I show up next month I have a better idea of what to expect.

And as promised, we went to Rainforest Cafe where Anna was tortured by having her picture taken in the wild.  Her response was not surprising but still made me laugh.

We managed to enjoy our lunch before the great hoards of people also decided to have their lunch and after enjoying our nachos and appetizers (best kinda lunch around) we headed to Build a Bear.  Where with only a nominal wait time, my girls each piced out a new friend.  (shhhhh don't tell any of Anna's friends she picked out a new bear).

And here to show her delight is Emily who is hugging the lovable and softly squishable, Elliana.  A perfect ending to our day.

Friday Fun

I can't tell you how happy I am that it is Friday.  This week has been a long one.  Emily had another procedure done at Children's on Tuesday.  She did great, it was fast and I can't say enough kind things about all the staff at Children's in Minneapolis.  They are caring and warm and compassionate.  Anyway, Emily did great and one more thing is done. 

Between work and doctor stuff, I'm tired.  Like bone weary tired.  I don't have a break in sight until Thanksgiving, so I'll just keep moving on.  Sometimes that is the best you can do, just keep moving.

I did get some happy news, I got a special knitting order from a person who bought something from my last craft fair.  So I'm happily knitting away on two pair of fingerless mitts.  smile

I've spun up a bobbin full of citrusy yellow singles.  I have another 4 ounces to go before I can ply them together.  Not sure how fast that will happen, since tomorrow we will head off to MOA to shop at Build A Bear as Emily's reward for being such a good patient and getting past this procedure.  Lunch at Rainforest Cafe and then on the way home, we will stop at the Wild Wool Festival, I'm participating next month, so I thought it would be helpful to introduce myself and get a feel for the space etc.  If I can remember, I'll try to take pictures of our adventures.

Anna is a bit miffed as I will need to pick her up from a sleep over at the very EARLY hour of 10 am tomorrow so she can go with us.  Boy the eye rolls I got with that one.  smile....

Aftermath from craft fair

Well I survived the craft fair last Saturday.  The day was beautiful, sunny and warm.  Which I think was a bit of a hamper for me.  Who wants to try on wool hats or scarves wearing flip flops and shorts in 84 degrees?  Not too many it turns out.  I can't say enough good things about the fair itself.  Very well organized, over a 100 vendors, booths ready for you when you walked in, check-in lasted all of 3 mintues.  So the fair itself was well done.  There was a steady stream of people, but very few of those people were buying from me or others in my vicinity.  Oh well, that is a craft fair, you truly never now how it is going to go.  The good things that happened were many.  I had so many lovelycomments on my items, they loved the colors and the quality of my work.  Take a look at our booth....

the laundry rack really worked out well I thought, my yarns looked very nice and it was an eye catching start of the booth.  My wheel tucked in nicely in the corner when I wasn't using it.  The brown and white star hat in the bottom left sold.  The lady wanted it for skiing and I think it will be wonderful for that.


Here is Ellen, sipping her coffee as we wait for the start of the event.  You can see her embroidered linens next to her.  She did well and was happy after the fair. 

Now for the funnies.  I did sit and spin, that was a huge draw, many people stopped, some grinning in deilght, others staring trying to figure out what the heck I was doing.  One young kid, just kept muttering "weird, weird"  One gentleman was so fascinated, I showed him the roving, explained the process basically from shearing to dying the fleece to creating the roving to my spinning it.  The best though was a woman, looking intently at what I'm doing and saying "did you make it?"  now I'm thinking, well yes, I am making "it" but I said, yes, I'm making yarn.  She got a very puzzled look on her face and said "no, you made that right?" and she pointed to my wheel!  I said, no, I bought the wheel from a company and she just was shocked and said she didn't know any companies made such things anymore.  I guess she thought I whittled my wheel out of fallen timber from my backyard?  I explained there are many companies that make wheels.  She just couldn't imagine that. 

The other funny thing is that even though I 'm sitting there spinning away, right next to a rack filled with yarn with labels saying "handspun" on them, most people did not realize that I made that yarn.  smile...

It was a long day but all in all a good day.  I gave out many cards with my info on it, I believe several have checked out the blog so far, maybe they will stick around.

Next up is the Wild Wool Market on November 27 at the Susan Hensel Art Gallery in Minneapolis.  Who knows what will happen then!

But the other nice thing of having the craft fair behind me?  I can now knit things for the sole reason I want to.  Not because I think they may sell.  So Yggdrasil is back in the basket next to my bed.  The weather has cooled off plenty so I can happily knit again with a huge pile of magnificent wool in my lap.  And just because I cast on something new a couple nights ago, in the Norwegian-Handknits-Heirloom-Designs-Vesterheim book there is a lovely work day shawl, it is knit as a large garter stitch center section, then you knit a lace border to it.  I think it would be a great shawl, but also a nice baby blanket.  I had a 1200 yard skein of Briar Rose yarn, in a deep red/black mix of superwash wool.  So I am just mindlessly knitting garter stitch rows and it is delightful....pictures next time.

If you are someone I met at the craft fair, I'd love to hear from you...

MN in the fall

Fall is my favorite season, it is crispy blue skies, winds rustling leaves, dry leaves crunching under foot and cool mornings with mild afternoons.  You pretend that you don't know what is soon coming (sshhh snow I'm talking about you).  Instead you marvel that leaves morph from varying shades of green to reds, oranges, yellows and browns.  That grass starts to feel crunchy under your feet in the morning.  Playing and laughing as you can see your breath in the morning waiting for the bus.  Fall is the best.

Knitting has come to a screeching halt as the preparations for the first craft fair is totally consuming me.  I did finish the very last item to go into the fair basket last night.  This scarf was what I worked on at the bus stop for several months.  While it took a looooong time to finish, when you think that all the time would have been lost time, it is a nice thing.  I used 4 different sock yarns, all but one are left overs from other projects.  I made up a very simple pattern and I'm ultimately very happy with it.  I made some fingerless mitts out of one of the yarns, so it can either become a set or be sold separately.  I introduce you to my fall scarf.  (not a very unique name) 

Tomorrow is the big day, I will be at the Maple Grove Community Center from 9-4 selling my hand spun and knitted items.  At this point, I just want to get there, get everything set up and see what happens.  I'm bringing my wheel, if it is slow, I can happily spin away.  I also think it will get people to stop and look at things to.  Kinda like a living historical exhibit?  Anyway, it will be a potentially very fun day.  I'll keep you posted on what the end results are.  If you are in the area, please come and see me, I'd love to meet you.