SomerKnits

Was awesome. I had a great time! I took a drop spindle spinning class because my exchange partner on the flat rate box swap local swap sent me a drop spindle and alpaca fiber and I needed to learn what to do with it. Its a lot of fun, although I have avoided getting into spinning for years now because I knew I would start wanting those beautifully dyed pretty braids of fiber you find hanging all over the place a fiber festivals. And they are so touchably soft. I was totally right, btw. I ended up bringing home some turquoise merino and black merino, which I will probably spin separately and then ply together and then I also brought home a pretty braid of blue and brown lovely softness. I've made a bit of progress on the alpaca fiber. I practiced more in the evening while Kellie and I sat around on the couch, stuffed full of sushi. I also came home with a loom! Just a little 16" one. The box looks straight out of the 70's but it seems to be good quality, all woo...

is TOMORROW!!!! For me, anyway. I know it starts today, but I work all day today. Tomorrow I plan to enjoy a nice relaxing day of knitting and fiber folk. Maybe I can get someone to show me how the drop spindle my exchange buddy sent me works and then I could spin the alpaca fiber she sent. :-) Well, better get dressed to go load-in American Idols Live. woo-hoo.

I took the time this morning to pin out the Vacation Clap. Its not the best blocking job ever, I really wish I had some blocking wires. Oh well, I think it looks great. I can't wait to be able to wear it. Thank you sooooo much to Mountain Colors for helping me to be able to finish it. I will definitely be using Mountain Goat again, the yarn was so wonderful to work with. And I will probably make the clapotis pattern again. Once you memorize the repeats, its a fairly simple but elegant looking pattern. :-)

With the help of a lovely lady at Mountain Colors I was able to get the rest of the yarn I needed and finish my vacation clap! (the yarn came monday and I finished it yesterday). I am so happy with it. Its beautiful and soft and wonderful. I finished it while sitting behind the light board during focus for the load-in of Wicked, they all said it was pretty. And my partner in crime at the light board, Sarah, ended up having to use it to wrap up in because of how freezing the dang booth was, so she appreciated it as well. There will be more pictures as soon s it gets blocked. I am soooooo happy with it!

I started a market bag yesterday using a pattern I got in a recent exchange and one of those giant balls of cotton that I have had laying around forever. Not that I really need another market bag. I have probably about a dozen of those reusable grocery bags and my mom recently gave me this really cool "green" set that has a grocery bag and an insulated bag and a big market bag and stuff and they all match and it pretty cool. But I've always wanted to make one of those stretchy cotton market bags, so I'm doing it anyway. I got over halfway done during last night's driller game, so the project doesn't seem like it will be a lengthy commitment. Who knows, maybe I can add this to my repertoire of quick gifts. This particular pattern has a doubled bottom that is open on one side so the whole bag can fold in on itself and button closed to make it easier to carry in a purse or in your car or whatever. Pictures soon. :-) Maybe I can finish it during meal br...

This is a lovely view of some state or another and the pretty scrubbies I was knitting as we were driving through it. It was one of the less scenic days with pretty much only major interstates. BTW - can you tell which colleges the scrubbies are for? I had to have some method of picking colors, so that was the method of choice this time. Ben and I at his friend Collin's wedding. I love my hat! It was the first opportunity I had to wear it since I bought it. :-) Outdoor afternoon weddings are perfect for hats. We need to bring hats back, people. Quick picture on our 20 minute stop in Niagara. Seriously, we were there 20 minutes. But once you look at the falls and take some pics, what are you supposed to do? But I'm glad we swung by there because it was nice to see the falls and now I can say I've been. :-) It really was a wonderful trip. We both had a great time and everyplace we went was fun and interesting. Back to the knitting, a wonderful lady at Mountain ...

I realized while posting about my roadtrip that I had never gotten around to posting about Tulsa's WWKIP day events. And they were such fun, they definitely deserve a post. Also known as A Day of Yarny Goodness, the festivities began at the cherry street farmers market. I had made some cloths for a potter friend of Ben's there because he had given me some adorable little cups a few weeks before. Below you can see the big brightly colored bowl he put the cloths in while we were sitting around talking. More than one person picked them up to see if they were for sale. :-) Pictures of the knitting during the farmers market can be found here: http://tulsawwkip.blogspot.com/2009/06/tulsas-2009-world-wide-knit-in-public.html I had on a big sun hat, so you can find me hiding under that. Next was the big yarn estate sale. This was an add on to our original plan, so we squeezed it in before lunch. Look at all that yarn, and thats just the front yard. You get inside and can barely...

Look, a very flirty polar bear! He really was.  He hung out there just staring at us or whoever walked by for a really long time.  Every once in a while he would stick his head up for a breathe and then put it back down again.  That was at the Memphis Zoo, by the way, where we went after the amazing and awesome Graceland! See?  Graceland!  Very awesome start to the road trip.  Everyone should go to Graceland at least once.  But more on the road trip antics later, I am getting side tracked from the tragedy of the vacation clap. See it on the needles, resting on the dashboard?  Its all soft and pretty.  So the yarn I am using is Mountain Colors Mountain Goat, colorway Mystic Lake.  Very soft and pretty, didn't have a problem working with it.  I only had 2 skeins and I wasn't quite getting guage anyway, so I stopped 2 whole sets of increases short and went into the straight section.  I kept careful track of how far I got with the first skein, did exactly the same amount with the s...