it's way past midnight...

and I'm still knitting. Actually, I just started knitting. About an hour ago, I just finished cleaning out the closet, packing up all the cold weather clothes and arranging boxes for Good Will. So after several glasses of sweet southern style iced tea, I'm wide awake and knitting and catching up on all the knit blogs. I'm so glad tomorrow is a holiday. Not only do I get another day to sleep late but it also means there are only 4 workdays until the weekend. Yay!

In the past week, I've been to three LYS in Northern Virginia. Capital Yarns, Aylin's Woolgatherer and today I stopped by Knit Happens. Not a bad week, eh? I couldn't resist the lure of Koigu and trekked over to Knit Happens today. I came home with a couple of skeins of this...



It's such lovely place. I really must go there more often. I was able to see Wendy's Inishmore in person. Of course, as I was behind on my blog reading, I didn't realize it was the sweater until I came home. I can only dream of knitting that quickly. I can't even finish a scarf in 9 days.

Anyway, there is proof that I've been knitting this week. Tempting...


and a closeup so you can see my wonky stitches

hopefully ::fingers crossed:: it will get better when it's blocked.

beads, gems, jewels and yarn

It's only 3 days until the weekend. At least it's a long weekend. I need a holiday. All I want to do is sleep. I'm tired and achy and I feel yucky. But at least I'm knitting. I've got ruffles and tempting and a shawl from the dyed dreams and I can't find my camera. That's what happen s when I clean.

This past weekend, the gem and Jewelry show came to town at the Expo Center. A while back, my sister and I struck a deal, she would come with me to Maryland Sheep & Wool festival, and I would go with her to the jewelry show. A fair compromise, or so I thought. After the umpteenth table of beads, and jewelry (that I can't afford), she looked at me, and said "you can go to the yarn store, I'll call you when I'm done here." I have a wonderful sister. Luckily for me, Capital Yarns is right next to the Expo Center, and it was a shorter walk to the store than to the car. They had a very helpful staff, and their selection of yarn was quite good. I came out with a bit of Tahki for a summer sweater. My sister can spend hours looking at beads, I can spend hours looking at yarn. We all have our things.

On Sunday, I woke up early headed out for pancakes and Star Wars. It was excellent. The pancakes. And the movie. Now I know why the fanboys are happy.

Have a great week y'all. Happy knitting.

lavender

It's still FPW and I have no FO's or knitting to show you. I hope you enjoy my lavender rose (my first of the season)

Lily of the Valley

for Chelsea and her Flower Picture Week

Dyed Dreams and Giant Hosta

Looking back on my last post, It sounds like I came away from the Festival empty handed. Not entirely. I bought this lovely mohair/merino blend from Dyed Dreams. Here's about 500 yards sitting on my giant hosta.


and some roots!


Madder. And some assorted mordants from Earth Guild. I experimented a bit with Kool aid last summer. Now I want to give natural dyeing a try. I'm quite intrigued with the 25 colors from one dyebath experiment. 5 different mordants, 1 dyebath, 5 modifiers = 25 different results. Now I just need an uninterupted weekend to try it out.

As for knitting content, I'm one ball short...on 3 different scarves. I need another ball of Byzanz and another ball of Jo Sharp Infusion Mohair and another ball of KSH in Marmelade to finish up my scarves. (My Pearl Beaded scarf just celebrated it's first birthday.) I need to finish something so I can start onTempting. Lolly's looks wonderful, so I thought I'd give it a go. I've got my yarn, and I'm all swatched, and I'd like to start tomorrow.

Have a great week y'all! Happy Knitting!

Next year when I go to the MDS&W festival, I will...

be better prepared. I wasn't expecting that many people. Oh but all the yarn, and the rovings, and the fleeces! I was definitely in fiber heaven for a while. It was certainly a crush getting through to all of the vendors. And the lines. Wow! Some moved quickly and some not at all. Next time I'll remember to buy when I see it. I will not tell myself I'll go back before I leave. Especially when you're on a bit of a time constraint. After wandering for a couple of hours, (4 hours!) I realized I needed to get back to Virginia (an hour and a half away), in 30 minutes. No time to go back and get what I needed wanted.

I really need to learn how to spin...

Spinning straight from the rabbit...




sheep at the sheep festival...

I can go!

I'm quite excited, I'll be able to go to the MDS&W festival this weekend! My weekend schedule had to be slightly rearranged, but it looks like I'll be there on Saturday. Yay!

Knits certainly have been making the news lately. First Martha's poncho. Now Jennifer's Blanket. Have you seen this? Quite Stylish, don't you think?