Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Vote Today

Get out there and vote. Vote. VOTE!!!

Anyone who doesn’t vote, has no right to complain later about how things are going.

Monday, October 08, 2012

NH Wool Arts Tour 2012

This past weekend was the 2012 Wool Arts Tour. My daughters and I went, as usual, and my wonderful husband babysat the grandchildren. We had a great time, scoring lots of gorgeous yarn and other things. Here’s what I came home with.

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The Fiber Studio hand dyed lace weight bamboo yarn, 1336 yards, color: “Lapwing.” This is a gorgeous, SOFT yarn and much deeper in color than the photo appears. Should make a lovely shawl, not sure which pattern yet.

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Artful Yarns “Lustro” yarn, 36% viscose, 25% acrylic, 20% mohair, 19% nylon. Dark nearly-black brown and gold shades. I think it will make a perfect scarf to go with my new black winter coat, and I plan to use the scarf pattern on the reverse of the yarn label, “Lace Rib Scarf.”

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Fiesta La Boheme yarn, “Alaska” colorway, 50% rayon, 32% brushed kid mohair, 14% wool, 4% nylon, 165 yards.Again, the color is deeper than the picture shows. Not sure what I’ll make with this…maybe I’ll do a search on Ravelry and see what I can find. I’ve coveted a skein of this yarn for a long time.

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Nightingale Fibers hand dyed “Lillian” lace weight yarn, color Red, 80% baby alpaca, 20% silk, 1000 yards. Of COURSE this will have to be a shawl too, and I’m leaning toward the “Curved Shawl” in “Victorian Lace Today.” So soft…maybe I’ll just keep it around to stroke!

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Nightingale Fibers hand dyed “Eddie” fingering weight yarn, 50% superwash merino, 50% silk, 430 yards. I could make socks from this, of course. But I also may look through “Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders” and see what else I can come up with.

I also bought a lovely heart-shaped wood shawl pin, but the stick didn’t match. They’re going to mail me a matching pin, and then I’ll post a photo.

So that’s my haul. Anyone else go? What did you get?

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Knitting Accessories

Everyone who knits has yarns they covet. Lace weight or bulky; wool, alpaca or mohair; multicolor or single shade; we all have our preferences.

Then, there are other items we need when we knit. For example, knitting needles. Some prefer wood, others like plastic, while still others stick with aluminum.

And that leads into the discussion of straights, double-pointed or circular?

But there are other knitting related items that we don’t really need, we just want. These could include fancy knitting totes, stitch markers that are really knitting jewelry, or stitch/row counters that double as necklaces.

For me, the “unnecessary but desired” item is a shawl pin. I love shawls, both knitting them and wearing them, so shawl pins come naturally. Oddly enough, I don’t use them every time I wear a shawl, but still I covet them.

Here’s a picture of some of my shawl pins:

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Okay, not the best picture. But you may be able to see that I have metal, wood, and ceramic shawl pins, some in colors to match specific shawls, while others are neutral and could go with most anything. And no matter how many I have, when a new one catches my eye, I’ll buy it!

What do YOU covet in the knitting world?

And to give you a smile today on this cold, snowy Tuesday, I’ll close with a funny:

funny pictures - Hmm...you smell suspiciously  like a sweater...

Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Hilarious, Heroic, Human Dog

I have a tale in this recent Chicken Soup for the Soul books: https://smile.amazon.com/Chicken-Soup-Soul-Hilarious-Companionship/dp/16115907...