Presenting....

Here are pictures of my newly finished Lace Circle Sweater:

Isn't it beautiful? It's nice and warm, too. You wouldn't think so, being that it is so see through. But it is.

One down, one to go

One sock of the pair is done:

Only one more to go! Perhaps it will go quicker now that I am not trying to knit and write down the pattern at the same time. Hopefully they will be done so that I can enter them into the Socktober competition at Iris Fine Yarns. Hey, I've got a day and a half!

Busy, busy, busy

Last week was a humdinger of a busy week. First, I had to work all week. Monday night was ok--I could stay home after work. Then I was busy with something every other night of the week until Sunday. Ugh. Thankfully this week is really quiet. For the most part.

I did manage to finish my pink sweater in the midst of all the goings-on.

Here it is blocking. It's now resting comfortably in my dresser drawer with all my shawls and summer sweaters. It's debut will be on Wednesday, for Knit Night, naturally. Of course, there are always those who want to disrupt my enjoyment of Knit Night by holding other events then. Shame on them! So, the sweater and I have to make an appearance at a meeting and then leave. ASAP!

I also started a pair of socks that are supposed to be for Socktober at Iris Fine Yarns. If I were just knitting them from an already done pattern, they would be on the downslope of done-ness. Unfortunately, I got it in my head to design a pattern to enter. So, I am still on sock number 1. But, I'm on the foot part!

See?

This is a better picture of the patterning. I decided to knit the foot part that goes in your shoes plain because all those nupps didn't seem like they would be comfortable in one's shoes. I have the pattern written down if anyone has a hankering to make these. The name of the pattern is Convallaria Majalis. It is the Latin name of lilies of the valley.

On the home front, Churchill has been out of sorts because Mommy has been gone at stuff for so many evenings in a row. Poor baby. Unfortunately for him Mommy still is going to knit while she's home. Sorry Billy. You could sit next to me like a good boy. I think he gets lonely now. When he's home alone, he really is alone.

A perfect day

Yesterday was Paulette's birthday. We both took a furlough day from work. She wanted to spend time on the beach. Fortunately, the weather cooperated. It was perfect weather. She wanted to go to Sheboygan to sit on the Northside beach. So, off we went! (We also managed to fit some shopping and going out to lunch in there).

Here's me getting unexpectedly splashed. I didn't think to bring my swimming suit. I would have gone swimming if I had it along, because the water was really warm. Not like it usually is, where your feet go numb from the cold.

Paulette in the water.

One of the old jettys.

Paulette knitting.

Close up of my knitting.

The body of my sweater is all finished!

You can almost hear the waves.

The sand was as hot as I remembered it from when I was a little girl. It felt good.

I miss being able to come down to the lakefront whenever I want. Lake Winnebago is not the same.

Here's a leftover from our weekend excursion to Stitches Midwest:

It's Lyra! I was very excited to find this pattern. I had found the other Herbert Niebling pattern books, (I didn't buy them) which were $45 each.

Anyhow, yesterday's weather was a great gift. After the cool summer we had it was nice to be able to finally do what I had wanted to do all summer--sit on the beach. I even got a little sunburned. I never even thought to bring along sunscreen, because it's September now. I hope I soaked up enough warmth to last me until next summer. My lovely hometown lakefront, I promise to try and not be such a stranger in the future.

Monday is a day of rest

Friday and Saturday were days I have been waiting all year for. It was fiber festival weekend!!

On Friday (a day of vacation), Paulette, her sister Cheryl and I went down to Jefferson, WI for the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. Oh mama, it didn't disappoint! Here are my purchases in no particular order:



Here we have (for the non-spinners amongst you) a wraps per inch gauge. Useful for determining what gauge yarn you have. It has one inch and one-half inch openings.




This is a spinner's control card. You use it to determine the weight of yarn you are spinning by comparing the "single" or ply you are spinning to the marks on the card.




These are one of the things I went to find at Sheep and Wool. They are Louet Mini Cotton Cards. Of course, I had to try them out. They make the locks of the the alpaca I have washed into nice fluffy fiber for spinning. I am very clumsy with them yet. I managed to card one of my little fingers, which bled profusely. I have about a quarter of a shoebox carded into "rolags" of fluffy baby alpaca fiber.




This is sparkly fiber that you can incorporate into the wool, alpaca, etc. fiber when you are carding it. I did put some of the white into one of the rolags I carded to see what it looks like. It's pretty!


Patty had a booth there with her alpaca farm stuff. She brought the rest of Diamond Rio's fiber (after Vicki and I had taken what we wanted from it) and also other fiber (including some from my favorite alpaca, Silver Bells). Diamond Rio and Silver Bell's fiber sold very quickly.

We also saw Vicki from our knitting group there. She was with her mom.

On Saturday we got up early to drive to Schaumburg, IL to Stitches Midwest. More money was spent. Here's the loot:



These are really expensive stainless steel Signature double pointed needles in size 0. I saw Paulette snap a wooden size 0 in half last week, while she was knitting with it. I didn't want to suffer the same fate. She bought some of these, too.

Aren't these pretty? I am going to make the smaller ones into pins. They are just on floral wire right now.




This is a really expensive, but really pretty, shawl stick. You use it to keep your shawl on by sticking it through the lacy fabric, kind of like a big stick pin.




Finally, I found yarn for the Peacock Feathers shawl I want to make. And it was inexpensive as well, ringing in at $7.50 per skein. I bought 4 skeins.


Here's a picture of the shawl:



Isn't it lovely?




I also bought this lovely pima cotton yarn from the Windy Valley Muskox booth. I bought 9 balls of it, enough to make a tank top. I also bought another ball of the Quiviut blend in aqua. I now have enough of that to make the Swallowtail shawl.

Yesterday, I was inspired during church. I know, I know, I should be paying attention. I was, but all of a sudden it came to me how I could make my own shawl sticks. I went up to Appleton for supplies. Here are the finished products:

I will be making a lot more of these. Perhaps I'll look into selling them somehow.

I did manage to get in some knitting time, since I didn't drive for most of Friday and Saturday. I am currently binding off the body of the Lace Circle Sweater, aka The Pink Blob. Next move with it is to cast on sleeve one. I normally knit two sleeves at a time, but these are knit in the round on circular needles. So, it's one at a time.

Tomorrow is Paulette's birthday. I am taking a furlough day. Don't know what she wants to do yet. If you all recall, I went to Door County on my birthday.

I survived!

I survived the torment of serving food at the Labor Day picnic yesterday. I did manage to injure myself, though. I accidentally sliced my hand while slicing a brat bun. Thankfully it's only about 3/4 of an inch long. And it doesn't impare my knitting ability! I am currently sporting a lovely aqua bandaid on the palm side of my hand under my little finger.

Speaking of knitting, I am knitting on another pink blob:




Here's a closer look:

The yarn I am using, Rowan Kidsilk Haze, is really thin silk with fluffy mohair. This sweater is going to be light as air (but warm) when I am finished. I have 9 rounds to knit before I start the armhole rows. It's moving right along!

Endings and beginnings

Wow. It's September. How did that happen?

Our garden is finally producing:

I finished my Norwegian Woods shawl:

I started a fluffy pink sweater:

Paulette bought a St. Francis statue to put in the memorial garden that I am going to make for our deceased furry friends:

Someone finally bought the house next door that has been for sale for at least 1 year. Yippee, it's going to be owner-occupied. No more renters on that side of the house. The lady who bought it is really nice. She wants to plant flowers and a garden. Her kids are going to live upstairs from her. The kids have two orange kittens. I hope we get to see the kittens.

I am looking forward to a nice quiet weekend. Monday is the Labor Day picnic. I will be an indentured servant for the day for our labor council, serving food and doing who knows what else. It makes me not look forward to Labor Day. Isn't Labor Day supposed to be a day to rest from your labors? Instead I am serving food to sometimes rude people. I just hate it. I always hope for rain so that the crowds won't be that big.

My payback is that I am taking next week Friday off and Paulette and I are going to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. We are also going to Stitches Midwest next week Saturday. At least I have something to look forward to.