I got my invite!

I'm finally on Ravelry! Hooray!

I can't find any of the other Sit Sip & Knit ladies, though. Drop me a comment with your user name & I'll add you to my Friends list. Or you can just add me, yay!

Yarn School '07

Yarn School was a blast! It is held annually at the Harveyville Project, a sort of residential art co-op occupying an old school campus smack in the middle of rural Kansas. The classrooms have been converted to guest rooms, sparsely furnished but very roomy. Mostly we gathered in the auditorium for classes & just to generally hang out. It was a big crowd this year, about 30 spinners of varying experience levels. This is my roommate, Marsha, who has been spinning for a year or so -- she showed me the ropes on the first evening & got me spinning on one of the school wheels.

This is Cathy, another brand-new spinner like me. She was quite frustrated on Thursday night, just felt like she would never get the hang of it. (In fact, her cell phone rang about an hour after she started spinning with Marsha. It was her husband, asking her how it was going. Marsha & I both burst out laughing when she said in tones of maximum exasperation, "Honey, I suck!") Needless to say, by Sunday morning, it had all clicked for her & she was spinning like a pro.

My first skein! A natural brown wool. It's tragically overspun, so don't look too close. By Sunday I had learned that you don't have to treadle like hell to make yarn, so the overspinning problem cleared up.

The old chem lab had been converted to the Dye Lab, where we had lots of fun with acid dyes and microwaves and crock pots.

The dyed roving was hung up to dry in the breezeway between the grade school and high school buildings -- doesn't it look pretty?

There were alpacas! (This was our field trip on Friday.)

There were goats! These are Pygora goats, a pygmy-angora cross.

There were bunnies! Epically puffy Angoras.

And just for an added bonus, we found on Saturday that the town fair was going on! There was a parade in the morning, some cheeseball rides on the main drag, and... ribbons to be awarded in various craft categories. Naturally, with a school full of fiber artists, we all rifled through our bags to look for an item to enter in the Knit or Crochet categories. I dug up my Blueberry Waffle socks and entered them in the Small Knitted category. Imagine my surprise when I won first place!

Heigh ho

It's off to Yarn School I go! Lots of pictures to follow, I'm sure.

The last of the gallbladder episode

Thank you to everyone who asked after Mike. The ultrasound showed he had stones, so the gallbladder ended up coming out with no further ado... it was done laproscopically & he came home the same day. His recovery has been completely uneventful and he is feeling fine, eating normally & was back to work within a couple of days. All is well again.

Rosebud

Yarn: Elann.com's Peruvian Uros Aran (50% wool, 50% llama) Needles: size 8 Stitch pattern: Rosebuds from 356 Knitting Stitches a Year My second lace shawl, this one made as a gift for my dear friend Miriam, who loves all things rosy.

Lace, of course, is all about the blocking. Before blocking, the shawl resembles nothing so much as a crumpled, wadded mess.

I soaked it in the sink for a few minutes, then squeezed it out in a beach towel. Now it's ready to block.

For this project, I invested in a set of blocking wires from KnitPicks, which made the whole job much easier. I heartily recommend blocking wires to anyone who wants to knit lace.

The lace pattern opened up beautifully, and the shawl grew by several inches. I actually finished this shawl a couple of months ago, but have been holding off on posting until I could present Miriam with her gift. Happy Birthday, dear one!

Griffindor Quidditch Robe

The second major piece of Hunter's Harry Potter costume -- the robe -- is done! (The sweater, you may recall, was finished a few months ago.) The last bit that I need to make are the (faux) leather greaves & vambraces. Then we'll come up with some white pants, a broom, and some round-framed glasses. Voilà, a perfect little Harry Potter.

ER Booga

The ER Booga is finished & felted. It's tiny! I put it in the washing machine with the intention of checking on it every ten minutes, and then promptly forgot about it. The result: it felted down to a tight, dense little purse that's half the original knitted size. It stands about 7" tall and the base is a 5" square. The spiral stripes turned out nice too.