First Day of the Sale

And it went well! Here we have our first empty shelf.
That's where the organic, naturally colored cotton used to live. Someone bought it all for an afghan. Thank you to everyone who came by! I hope to see many more of you this week. The sale goes on until the 7th! Check the shop site for more info.

Cool Project!

This is the last of the three posts I've been meaning to do so here goes!
A little while ago, my friend Melissa asked me if I could turn this sweater pattern into an afghan pattern. The pattern is either something to do with FDNY or her fiance's family pattern. Maybe she'll tell us which in the comments. Anyway, she wants to make two afghans, one for her dad and one for her soon-to-be inlaws.
It took me a little while to work out the motifs, but eventually, I think I got them.The braids were the easy but the two fancy cables took some time.

The raspberry stitch on the ends was the easiest. I just looked it up online! Then I knit this uber-swatch! I'm glad I did because I found a couple of mistakes in my graphs. Then I wrote up the pattern for Melissa. I usually like graphs for myself but Melissa prefers it written out line by line so that's how I wrote did. I have a new found respect for anyone who edits knitting patterns. Proof-reading that thing gave me a headache!

New Hampshire Sheep & Wool

Another fine time was had at NHS&W this year. Susan couldn't make it this year so I promised her some beautiful pictures of fiber.

Yummy fiber!That's the guy I usually buy fleece from. I never know what I'm going to find! This year's big score was a Dorset fleece. There seemed to be a lot of Dorsets around this year which is interesting because some years you just can't find them. I like it because it makes good socks and is not supposed to felt. That fleece and several others went back to Zeilinger in the trailer. We should see them back here sometime in early August.

By far the coolest thing that happened all day was when Ty and I went to see the alpacas. Now, alpacas have never had any use for me. Whenever I go look at them, they hide at the back of the pen. Not so with Ty. She started talking and suddenly they started humming to her! Look how they are looking at her! They just loved her voice! We went over to another pen and tried it again and that alpaca started humming to her too. I think she's the alpaca whisperer.

More Sock Club Yarn

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I have a bunch of posts in my head and I may just post them all in a big cluster rather than trying to do one a day. Frankly, I'm just not always in a posting mood so I should strike while the iron is hot.

Sooo....

Yesterday I dyed May's sock club yarn. It was another flower inspired yarn, iris this time. All the bearded irises look so great this time of year! I was inspired by the ones that are more blue than purple with that little touch of yellow inside.

Once more I started out dipping the two halves of the yarn. Then adding the highlights in different colors.

Something I didn't notice was that my gloves had a hole in one finger. This, unfortunately, gave me gangrene finger when I was done. I did manage to scrub most of it off. I just look like I've got a dirty finger nail now. Hey, what are you gonna do.

I need to find somewhere new to ride!

I have had it with the bike path! I almost got into a huge accident this morning involving a pack of about ten women runners who felt the need to take up the entire path and a ten-year-old boy on a bike who popped out from behind them trying to pass at the same time I was. I'm still not sure how I managed not to hit that kid!
One of my goals while riding is not to end up in a heap on the ground especially not after having crashed into someone's child. I actually felt safer after I got back onto Mass. Ave!

Gore Place Went Well

Gore Place went very well this year, though it was as hot as I've ever experienced it.

As you can see, I ended up bringing just about everything I could.

Annie and Regina showed up at 6:50pm on Friday and stayed to help pack. They turned what was going to be about a two hour job into one that took about half an hour.

Then they showed up at 8am with their friend Eamon who is 6'4" and able to sling shelves full of yarn around like tinker toys.

Consequently, the booth was set up in record time and the shopping began!We even got an impromptu Morris Dance performance from some guys visiting the booth across the way.

I did actually get out of the booth more than any other year but, thanks to the heat, didn't end up going far. Our booth really was the best place to be.
Thanks to Annie, Regina and Eamon, the booth was broken down, moved back here and the shop put back together by 6pm that night! You guys are the best!!