Design elements

A photo taken of a photo during Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's workshop in Efficient knitting.  It was incredibly fun and funny, and she sure has a way of telling a story!

I've been using her method of knitting "lever" style.  However, I needed a few tips at breakfast the next morning to adapt it to circular needles.  It works!

Fling time

We enjoyed the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling in Loveland, Colorado. Here's a taste...

Jenny enjoying a feel of the shawls designed by Franklin Habit.  His lecture was super interesting, and he could hardly speak from hoarseness.

Outside our room window, the Great Plains punctuated by the Budweiser event center.

The attached conference center hosted "The Loopy Lounge", open day and night for knitting, complete with ball winder, swift, and water!

And I got to pose with a fun, gracious Yarn Harlot, while she held my sock!

Then there was the trip to The Loopy Ewe shop in Fort Collins.

Lots of tempting fiber and fabric!

And a shot of the group shot from behind.

Ewe

Yummy Yarn

Swans Island seconds with "tonal defects".  I guess I like wool...

Natural Colors Merino Fingering

by Swans Island

Light Fingering / 3 ply

100% Merino

525 yards / 100 grams

Need?  No.  But I just read a bit of Yarn Harlot's book, "Knitting Rules" where she gives 5 reasons to keep a stash.  I feel SO much better.  Especially number... No, all five are equally valid!  

#2 for today:  It's from Maine!  It's sock yarn.  End of subject.

Caper Sock by String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn

Fingering / 4 ply

80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon

400 yards / 113 grams

This past summer I witnessed how much wear some of my garments get on a 4-5 year old. The dress I made for her has been worn and washed so much that it really needs to be retired. I was a bit disappointed to see the pilling and shaggy look of it, but my daughter pointed out that it has been worn many times, and in many daily (rough/outdoor) occasions, and washed ad infinitum, and it has every reason to look the way it does. And it is still loved! And worn!! So, I decided I should make a new one. In the same color, to encourage trading out. Here's the purchase, made at Halcyon.

Worsted Merino Superwash Solidsby Plymouth YarnWorsted / 10 ply
100% Merino
218 yards / 100 grams

Impulse?! Yes. Yummy? Yes!!

This is the biggest reason why I shouldn't be in Yarn Shops... I can't resist, let's see, colors, textures, all the senses...

From the time I walked into Webs, I had spied this hanging, Loose-Lady-Like, on the display towards the entrance. I fingered it, and walked around, and an hour later, I picked it up and took it to the counter. Easy! No ideas, specific, that is. I can think of all of creation being made with this yarn!

So I bought 5 skeins, and am hoping for the best.

tosh merino light

by madelinetosh

Fingering / 4 ply

100% Merino, 100% Wool

420 yards

I guess I like Merino.

Go ahead!  Make me an offer!  Better be a good one!!

Retail Therapy and Relaxation

Lots to do.  We went to the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair last Saturday.  It didn't disappoint any of us.  Even though the number of vendors was down, we found more than enough to keep our tactile senses active for 6 hours.  Our wallets were pulled out, and we found ourselves separated momentarily only to meet, share and say, "Did you see this---?"  over and over.  I especially enjoyed meeting up with a fellow blogger that I follow, and first contact went:  Hmm, this Cabin Fever vendor probably isn't the one, guess we'll look in the next hall... AHHH  It's Brenda! Brenda looks questionably at me for a nano-second, and then we are hugging!  See full report here.

Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) topped off the day.  We planted ourselves front and center.  Very fun talk entitled, "Your Brain on Knitting".  She knows her audience!

Be-decked in our shawls, we were admired and patted, and asked for pattern and yarn information by many attendees, and there were hundreds.

Back home, the next day, we sat outside, and enjoyed our Theta brain-waves.

Boot camp continues. No rest for D until there's a tree with apples on it. No rest for P until those seams are sewn on baby hoodie.  (Close ups to follow.)

Following Stephanie

Stephanie who?  Otherwise known to the knitting blogger community as Yarn Harlot, Stephanie writes great posts on knitting and life.  Her descriptions are wonderful, but nothing prepared me for what I saw yesterday.  There's a link under my column "Blogs I Read", and I recommend it highly.  First off, her mantra or punishment on August 31 was the prelude.  I know that writing a repeated sentence on the chalk board isn't quite the same as Command C/Command V in a blog, but amusing all the same.  I saw this:

I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it.
I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it.
I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it.
I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it.
I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it.
I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it....

 And two days later my breath was taken away.  Gotta have it!  Anything with cats is of interest to me, but this pattern hit me in the solar plexus.  It's called Catkin, and for pictures you'll have to see Stephanie's blog or Ravelry.  
And just half hour ago I made up my mind I would finish 3 projects and in what order...  Time to re-vamp.
Designer:  Carina Spencer - I couldn't stop looking at her other patterns;  gorgeous...