Coquette

Introducing Coquette

Have you ever touched a yarn was so soft that you could wrap yourself up in it? I liked the Coquette yarn so much, that I named my new shawl design after it! 

When I got my first skein of Coquette, I fell in love it!  I knew I had to design a shawl that I could wrap around myself and really enjoy the feeling of the yarn while I was wearing it. The Coquette shawl is light and airy while warm enough to keep the chill off your shoulders. Coquette is the perfect accessory for any occasion and pairs well with everything from your favorite dress to jeans and a t-shirt. The simple lace pattern is easy to remember and enjoyable to knit.

I am so excited about Coquette and hope that you will enjoy knitting it as much as I enjoyed designing it.  Please use coupon code: WF2014 in my Ravelry Pattern Shop for $1.00 off.  The coupon expires on August 18, so don't wait too long! 

Use the same coupon code atWanton Fibersfor 10% off your order through midnight August 18th.

SKAL With Cat and Sparrow and a New Pattern is on the Way!

I'm so delighted to announce that there is a Spin and Knit Along (SKAL) for Night's Watch in the Cat & Sparrow Ravelry Group.   The SKAL official start date is September 10, but since they are located in Australia we thought we would go ahead and announce it now to give everyone a chance to order their fiber for the spinning portion.  If you aren't a spinner, no worries because Julie of Dyed By Hand Yarns will be offering a limited edition Night's Watch coloway in one of her fab yarns for anyone who wants to just do the knitting portion.  All the details for the SKAL can be found here:  Cat & Sparrow Night's Watch SKAL   Check out this cool batt that they created in the Night's Watch color!  I can't wait to get spinning on it!

Next week I will be releasing Coquette,  a new lace shawl pattern in Wanton Fibers Coquette yarn.  Rachel from Wonton Fibers will be having a update with lot's of Coquette in it next Friday the 15th.  I can't wait to see what colors she has for the update.  I absolutely love this yarn, it's one of the softest yarns I have ever touched.   Seriously if I had enough of it, I would wrap myself in the skeins and wear them like clothes. 

I am over the top excited about the pattern and will be giving a copy away on Facebook.  Yesterday I noticed that my design page on Facebook is only 9 likes away from reaching 400.  I can't believe it!  I really appreciate all of the support from you guys and can't thank you enough!  Once the page reaches 400 I will do a drawing for the Coquette pattern.

I have never been very good about holding out on things and really can't resist giving you a sneak peek of Coquette.

Maryland Sheep & Wool Recap

When non-knitting friends and family ask me about Maryland Sheep & Wool or MDSW as most fibery people call it, the only way I can describe it is that it is like Black Friday held at a fair for fiber enthusiasts.  There are every type of sheep that you can imagine, yarn of every color in the rainbow and fiber type, fantastic lamb cooked in a countless number of ways, and more fiber and yarn enthusiasts than I have ever seen in one place together.   Since pictures tell a much better story than I can, this post will mainly be pictures of what we saw and enjoyed.

The Central Maryland Knitting Guild yarn bombed the fence at the entrance.  What a happy thing to see first thing when we arrived!

 

 This is a baby mohair goat having his breakfast.  It's a good thing our yard is too small for farm animals or this guy would have been coming home with us!

 After we went through the line to get a t-shirt our first stop was the Miss Babs booth.  This was the booth to be at the festival.  There were a few others that were busy, but Miss Babs booth was packed for the entire weekend and the line to pay went out the back door of the building she was in and curved around.  When we saw the line Andy immediately told me to go pick out what I wanted and he would wait in line.  I wish I had taken a picture of the line - it really was like Black Friday only with out the pushing and rudeness.  Everyone was as nice as could be!  I made it in and out of the booth with some goodies and met Andy who continued to wait in line while I walked through a few other booths.  Have I mentioned that he is the best husband ever?!  I was really excited to see my Mother of Dragons shawl hanging up in the booth along with the pattern.  It's one of my proudest moments :)

 

I picked up a few goodies in her booth and a couple of skeins from other dyers that I like. Can you tell that I was in a bit of a purple mood?

From left to right: Miss Babs Polydactl Set in Edge of Reality (I think this is going to be a new shawl design!), Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply in Shaken Not Stirred, Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply in Bat Sh**** Crazy, Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply in Perfectly Wreckless, Miss Babs Yowza in Zombi Prom, Maple Creek Farm Yuma in Twilight, Ellen Coopers Yarn Sonnets Tinkerbell's Gold in Diva - those flecks you see are sparkles, and Maple Creek Farm Portland in Spice's.  

I also picked up a few other goodies.

Andy found the bag with the dragon on it.  I absolutely love it and totally missed it when we were walking by the booth that had them.  It's a backpack and holds a huge amount of yarn.  What else would you put in a backpack, right?  A purple MDSW t shirt, added to my Signature Needle collection and picked up a Shark Week kit from the Tsarina of Tsocks that I pre-ordered before the show.

On Sunday we got to hang out with our friends Julia and Daniel.  Julia was so sweet and brought some of her Babydoll Southdown roving!  I'm pretty sure it's from her own sheep and it's so soft that you just want to cuddle up with it!  She brought sampler of different colors which you can find in her Etsy shop and a larger ball in a beautiful creamy white color.  I think it's going to be time to break out my wheel soon and spin this lusciousness up!

One of the other booths that I had way too much fun in was Going Gnome.  They had so many cute felted things and were so nice and let me take a million pictures of everything!  There was a felted chess set with Vikings and gnomes, a couple of tree creatures that had incredible detail, and one of my favorites was a giant purple dragon.  I think she was about 4' long!  If you look closely at the picture of her you can see that she accidentally stepped on one of the gnomes!  I picked up some felting supplies while I was there and took a few extra pictures of the Viking so that I can make one.

My Aunt Linda, Uncle Gary and Cousin Lindsay live within driving distance of the festival and we got to visit with them Saturday evening and stay the night.  Lindsay has her own place and came over so we could all hang out and have a mini slumber party.  Andy and I tried to stay up with everyone, but couldn't stay up as long as we liked.  We had so much fun visiting and they have a beautiful house on the water.  We were able to sit outside in the evening and have wine and appetizers.  Gary has built boats as a hobby ever since I can remember.  We were talking about when he lived in Franklin Square, NY with my Grandparents. Every summer I would get to go spend some time with them and it was always a huge highlight.  One year Gary was building a boat while I was there and he took a picture of me and my brother in front of it and one of us took one of him leaning on it.  It's been at least 35 years and he still has the boat.  He pulled out the album from when he was building it and we decided to try to recreate the picture!  I think we did a pretty good job.

Andy took a picture of us.  It's been so long since we were all together, but it didn't seem like it.

I was able to work on the shawl in Coquette while we were driving to and from the festival. It's making really good progress and I am really enjoying the pattern and yarn.  I haven't named the design yet and have just been calling it Coquette after the name of the yarn.  Since that name has been used for patterns about a million times on Ravelry, I think I need to pick something else.  Any ideas?

Festivals, Knitting and Blooms

I had so much fun at the Powhatan's Festival of Fiber last Saturday.  I have worked at festivals and trade shows for other companies and organizations, but this was the first time I actually had space at one.  I wasn't sure what to expect or how it would go and I was a little nervous.  Erica had some great words of wisdom for me which really helped to keep me on track and not worry so much beforehand.

It didn't take long for Stephanie and I to set up.  The practice set up was well worth it.  We knew where everything was going and operated like a well oiled machine.  We were in a great spot and I think the booth looked really good.

Once the festival opened for the day our booth was so busy that we hardly had time to take a break!  I am so blown away with the support that you guys have given me and can't tell you how much I appreciate it.  I really enjoyed getting to meet so many of you at the festival.  Thank you so much for stopping by our booth.

I am so over the top excited that my Mother of Dragons pattern will be in Miss Babs booth this weekend at Maryland Sheep & Wool!   If you are going to the festival and haven't gotten a copy of the pattern yet, be sure to stop by Bab's booth to get yours and some Yummy 2-Ply to go with it. The original shawl will be on display in the booth.   Beth was kind enough to lend me the one she test knitted to the festival.  It's the dark green one in the picture above.

If you are wondering what the pattern is like, Tina Sanders did a great review on her blog - and there is a chance to win a copy of the pattern there so be sure to leave her a comment. If you would like to see the shawl in motion, Julia from the Dropped Stitches Podcast shows her's off and does a pattern review too.  Julia was one of the test knitters who whipped the shawl up in record time so that it could go to Stitches South. Julia and her sister Jennifer are a riot to watch and their podcasts always make me laugh. 





Today I am getting packing and doing a few last minute things before we head to Maryland Sheep & Wool.  The first priority (of course!) is to figure out what knitting projects I want to take.  I have a simple hat that I am working on for my Uncle.  Since we are staying with him this weekend, I had better hurry up and get that finished.  I think I can get it done between tonight and the car ride up.

I am bringing a new sock design in progress.  It's small enough to tuck into my bag at MDSW and I can work on it while waiting in lines.  The yarn is Gnome Acres - House Gnome in the Aquaman colorway.  Andy got the yarn for me for Christmas because Aquaman was my favorite superhero when I was a kid.  Can you see my inner geek peeking out here?

I am also taking the shawl I am working on in Coquette from Wanton Fibers.  The yarn is so incredibly soft and really enjoyable to work with.  It's triangle shaped and worked from the bottom up. 

I think these will keep me occupied during any lag time over the weekend.  Our drive is about four hours each way so it's good to have something to work on in the car.

I'm leaving off with pictures of the garden.  Andy and I have spent the past couple of weeks removing the bark mulch and replacing it with stone.  In the long run it will be much easier to maintain and hopefully we will have fewer weeds.  This first picture is taken from our deck and overlooks the garden on the side of the house.

Columbine which is one of my favorite early spring flowers.

The chives always look so pretty when they are blooming.

 

I was a little surprised with the early appearance of this group of Irises!  They are in a really sunny spot in the yard which I think is why they bloomed so early.

I hope to see you at MDSW this weekend! 

Powhatan's Festival of Fiber

The past week has been spent putting the final touches on everything for the booth that Stephanie and I will have at the Powhatan's Festival of Fiber tomorrow.  I have had so much fun putting the Ready to Knit kit's together, sewing the bags for the Limited Edition Mother of Dragons kit's and making the stitch markers to go with them.  Here is a sneak peek of the Mother of Dragons kit.  The yarn is Indieway Yarns First String Plus and is a lovely Superwash Merino/Nylon blend.  



Stephanie and I decided that we had better do a dry run with the tent, tables and some of the displays so she came over last night.  We set up on the patio and had a blast figuring out where everything was going to go.  Hopefully this will save us some time in the early morning hours tomorrow while we set up.

 

I am coveting that painting of the llama wearing glasses that Stephanie painted! I know just where I would hang it too.  

I already had the majority of my stuff packed up.  I set up my tables and a few other things to make sure they would fit under the tent with everything else.  It worked out well and we are good to go!  I've had everything staged by the stairwell for a couple of days.  I think Andy will be glad it's out of the house!

 

We are all packed up and ready to go!  Since Steph and I live about and hour away from each other and we underestimated how much we were taking, we decided to take separate cars and meet up at the festival grounds.  I will take lots of pictures and hopefully one of us will have time to watch the alpaca shearing so I will have that to share with you too.  I think we are going to have a fun day and I am really looking forward to it!

The little bit of knitting that I have had time to do this week!  It doesn't look like I did much, does it? I really didn't have as much time to knit as I had hoped to, but that's ok.  The nice thing about knitting is that it doesn't go bad and it's there anytime you want to work on it.  The lovely yarn I am working with is Coquette from Wanton Fibers and is 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk and 10% cashmere.  To say that I want to roll around in it and rub it all over me would be an understatement!  I am working on a new design, it's a bottom up shawl and I will have more details on it as it comes along.