Work in progress Wednesday

Yeah, I finished my deadline driven knitting yesterday.  Hopefully I will be able to share some of them soon but one will wait until February.  It is very nice to be able to just knit to knit.  And I have all that yarn crawl yarn to work on.

My Sophia Cable Vent Jacket is actually making progress.  Fronts and back are done and I'm a third of the way through the sleeves.  No pictures but it is moving along.

And I may have conquered my dislike of making socks!  I don't want to jinx it but the secret for me is toe up.  This means I'll have something to share on Friday but till then here is what I have started as my second pair.

I have had this yarn for YEARS and I like the way it is knitting up into the stripes.  This will be just a plain toe up, slip heel sock.

While taking pictures of yarn and projects, I tricked my camera shy cat into a pretty decent picture.

Enjoy your Wednesday and check out the projects at Tami's

Yarn Crawl Update

Over the weekend I went to six stores on the Yarn Crawl.  Three were very close to my house and the others were ones that I hadn't ever been too.  That is the great thing of the Yarn Crawl, it is the encouragement to get out of my rut.

On Friday I went to Yarn and Stitches, which is close to my house but I had never shopped there before.  I had stopped in once to pick up a door prize donation they were making for Guild, but had never had time to really shop.  They have a very nice selection of different yarns and brands.  I realized that I need a plan before going to a shop like this.  I got some black and grey yarn for boot toppers.  There were lots of other wonderful yarns but I didn't have a plan.

I also stopped at the Wooly Ewe, the closest shop to my home.  They have had a change of ownership over the summer and they are rebuilding their stock and have a great selection.  I bought some cool, hand dyed sock yarn.

Saturday morning it was off to Fort Worth and Jennings Street Yarn.  I had never been there but they are know for their wall of color where they display the yarn by color versus brand or fiber.  This time I went with a plan - I had bought some very cool vintage buttons in Manchester made in the 40's from Maine Green Snail Shells.  They are very cool and I found some very great silk/cotton yarn that matches the buttons.  No idea what I will do but I have plenty of yarn to play with.  Linda at Jennings Street is fantastic and gave out these great yarn bags to the crawlers.

I then went to Knitting Fairy in Grand Prairie.  Alyssa does a lot of programs with our Guild but I hadn't been to her shop.  I picked up a large magnetic board for holding large charts.

Final stop of the day was the Artful Bead which is a great store for jewelry and beading and they understand how knitters love beads and lace.

 Sunday afternoon, I went East to Farmersville, a small Texas town with the brick main street and public square.  What a great shop!  Diane has a great selection of yarn for knitters, crocheters and weavers in a old store on two stories - balconies, wide front sidewalk with chairs, tin ceilings, vintage clothing and jewelry and more yarn than you can image.  The name is Fiber Circle and believe it or not, Diane knows where everything is!

  I wanted yarn for a grey skirt and got some in linen and wool.  Then there was some more yarn for a different color of boot toppers. On the way to the counter, I saw some Juniper Moon baby alpaca that was just too good to pass up.  I will definitely be going back there and probably often.  They have a knitting group every other Sunday afternoon that sounds like great fun.

So that was my Yarn Crawl Adventure.  We meet up at Jacob's Reward Farm next Saturday for their Harvest Celebration and give aways.  I wouldn't have believed it was possible but I think I have seen enough yarn for awhile!

I Love Yarn Day - It's a Yarn Crawl, Y'all!

Today is the day that the Craft Yarn Council designated as I Love Yarn Day.

And don't we all love yarn.  I'm planning to celebrate all weekend.  The wonderful folks at Jacob's Reward Farm have done a huge amount of work to organize a yarn crawl through about 15 different yarn shops in North Texas over a two week period of time.  In the first week, I've only managed to hit two stores, but have plans to end work early today and hit one or two and then go further afield on the weekend.  I'm going to head west to Fort Worth on Saturday and then east on Sunday to Farmersville.  

The crawl goes through next Friday so I won't come close to getting to all of them but will do more than half.  Next Saturday everyone meets up at the Farm for their Harvest festival and prizes and general yarn fun.  

To date I have been to two local Dallas shops:  Holley's and Shabby Sheep.  Both are great shops and of course I had to buy yarn at each.  That is the down side of a yarn crawl.  A little difficult on the wallet!

 At Holley's, I bought some great recycled yarn, Remix by Berroco.  Great sale price and I just love this yarn.  I'm thinking of a striped tunic in shades of cream, grey and rose pink.

At Shabby Sheep, I bought enough yarn for a cowl or scarf out of Classic Elite Mountaintop Chalet.  It is a chunky alpaca/bamboo in a chainette construction.  It feels just great.

So, I am celebrating yarn by supporting my local yarn shops.  Such a sacrifice!  Have a great weekend and I hope you have time to celebrate with yarn as well!

Finished Objects - State Fair

This year is just speeding by.  It's already State Fair time and I haven't even mentioned it here.  So I'm combining FO Friday with State Fair.  This will be my last State Fair (after this I'll count as professional by the official rules) and I did well.  I submitted three items and won two ribbons.

 A Blue Ribbon (first place) for my hat from my Masters Level Three.  Trust me that the hint of blue at the bottom right is my ribbon.

A Red Ribbon (that is second place) in the category of original design for my sweater from Masters Level Three.  I was a little annoyed that first prize went to someone who is by my definition a professional.  Hers was definitely superior to mine, but still a bit frustrating.

My third entry was my Shetland Tea Shawl - I came in tenth and they gave nine ribbons in the shawl category.  Granted, I flubbed the final grafting of the edging after dropping a needle and not being very careful on putting the stitches back on before kitchenering, but the rest was pretty darn near perfect.  10th place, really!  There were several stunning winning shawls and many had ambitious beading schemes.







I do have to say that the displays and layout were much better done than in years past.  The judges take a lot of flak in the online forums so lets give credit for a big improvement.

Hard to believe it is Friday.  Head over to Tami's to see lots of great projects.  Have a great weekend.