Yarn Snobbery

Pam MacKenzie wrote a blog post entitled "Being a Yarn Snow has it's Limitations" last week and it got me thinking.  In her post Pam talks about yarn snobs limit themselves to all natural fibers or just wool.  It really made me reflect on how I perceive yarn snobbery.  I had always thought that a yarn snob limited themselves to more expensive and fancier yarns and wouldn't be caught dead purchasing yarn from a big box store or a craft store.  I know some knitters who are like that, which was where my train of thought was coming from.  I also have considered myself to be a full blown yarn snob because I only knit with yarn that I really like and isn't that what knitting is all about?  Having a yarn that feels wonderful and is even prettier to look at, glide across your needles and produce something that you or someone you care about will enjoy wearing?   I think we are all a little bit biased when it comes to our favorite yarns.

When I go shopping for yarn, the first thing that always gets my attention is the color.  I think that's the case for most knitters, we are naturally drawn to colors that we like.  If I am shopping in person and not on line the next thing I notice is how the yarn feels.  I have a really hard time putting a skein of yarn down if it is really soft and luxurious to the touch.  The final decision maker is how the yarn smells.  Yes, I know it's weird, but I smell the yarn.  I have no idea what the ladies at Maple Creek Farm use to wash their yarn with, but they really should sell it.  It's fragrant but not overpowering and smells nice while I'm knitting.  It's a little bonus feature that I think is pretty cool. 

Of course we all have our favorite fibers to work with, and mine happens to be wool or a wool blend.  I really enjoy the softness of cashmere and silk and when added to a nice merino it's like the icing on the cake.  Cake is good by itself, but put some icing on it and now we are talking! 

There are so many different types of yarn and fiber out there that to limit yourself to just one is like only eating one food for the rest of your life.  I like to try different yarns and fibers because you never know what you might like or how they will knit up.  A friend once gave me a skein of yarn that had been made from recycled bottles.  Sounds weird, I know.  It was kind of a boucle' and I wound up making a reusable market bag out of it.  

There are some yarns that I really don't enjoy knitting with and tend to avoid.  They tend to either be scratchy, contain a large amount of soy which makes me itch like I have poison ivy,  or just don't feel good when I fondle them.  It doesn't make them bad yarns, or yarns that shouldn't be used.  They just aren't right for me. 

Are you a yarn snob?  If so, what makes you one?  

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?

Blogaversary!

I'm not sure how it slipped my mind, but this month is my 2 year Blogaversary.  My friend Tierney encouraged me to start a blog for quite some time before that.  I really wasn't sure what I would write about since I often have a hard time coming up with things to say.  I know a few of my friends who are probably laughing at that last statement, but I really do have to think about things before speaking most of the time. 

In celebration of my Blogaversary I'm having a sale in my Ravelry Pattern Shop.  10% off all patterns until May 22.  Just use coupon code: Blogaversay when checking out. 

The two secret projects that I have had in the works are complete.  One has been sent off for submission to an online knitting magazine.  My fingers are crossed that I did the submission correctly and that the editors like the pattern.  The second one is waiting to be released in the next couple of weeks.  I can't wait to show you pictures of both of them.  The Amazing Beth test knitted both of these patterns.  She can't really be bribed to show them off, unless you offer some luxury yarn or perhaps chocolate.  I'm really not very good at keeping surprises to myself and this is killing me!

I do have a new sock pattern in the works.  It's cute little design and works up nicely in tonal colors. 

Ive been coveting the beautiful hand thrown yarn bowls that I keep seeing on Etsy and at the fiber festivals.  While they are beautiful, they are really expensive and I kept putting off getting one.  Mostly because the one's that I really like are around $100 and $100 can buy a lot of yarn.  I was cleaning the dining room to get ready to paint the bottom of the wall and took this cute little bowl down from the top of the pantry. 

I found it at an estate sale for less than $10.  At the time I thought it was for making baked apples, but then realized that the hole in the center could let the apples juices drip into the oven.  It's really too small to be a bunt pan so it wound up sitting around collecting dust.  As I washed it off of it, it occurred to me that  it looked like it could work as a yarn bowl!  I stuck a center pull ball in it and voila! Instant yarn bowl. It works like a charm and the yarn feeds nicely out of the center pull ball like it's supposed to.

One really cool thing I found at MDSW this year was at a brand new vendor, Going Gnome.  Ive done a little needle felting here and there, and have always enjoyed it.  I wish I had taken some pictures of their tent.  It was really too cute for words. The top of the tent was bright red and had big white polka dots on it to resemble a mushroom.  I wound up going back to the tent a few times over the weekend.  They have some pictures of the beautiful things they make on their blog.  I picked up a couple kits from them and made these guys:

I enjoyed making them so much, that Ive called Jen and had her send a couple more kit's and supplies.  I've had a stressful few weeks with my Grandmother not doing well health wise and our dog Roper having some health issues as well (when it rains it pours).  The needle felting has been a huge stress reliever.  There is nothing like stabbing something repeatedly to make you feel better, and even better than that is you get a cute little wool guy when you are done. 

Thank you so much for reading my blog :)
 

Cowltastic

I spin quite a bit, in fact this year I think my yardage is around 7,000 yards.  No kidding and no exaggeration.  A friend of ours  has a llama farm and I do the majority of their spinning.  It's a lot of fun and I really enjoy it.  The downside is that after I get the spinning done for them Im usually too tired of spinning to do any for myself.

 Kristi being the temptress that she is, had given me some of her fantastic super wash merino that she dyed in Zombies Treat the day that I kissed the sheep and caught the plague.  It spun up so nice and lovely, being very soft and light, and just a big knitting tease.  I let it sit on the coffee table for a couple of days so it could be admired by everyone one that came by. 

Today I just couldn't stand having that unknit handspun here a moment longer!  Before I even picked out a pattern, I wound it.  It sat there with me while I searched patterns on Ravelry.  I knew it wanted to be a cowl.  Something with some texture that would show off the colors of the yarn.  I finally came across the Mermaids Tail Cowl.  There was a moment of shear panic when I couldn't find the right needles and then realised that I was looking in the wrong slot in the circular organizer.  Before I knew it, I had cast on and the yarn was flying though my fingers.  Only one pattern repeat left and it will be done.  I think there is more than enough yarn to make another cowl, and possibly some matching mitt's.

Not the best picture, but I was so excited about it I just had to post!

 

Is anyone else counting down the days until The Walking Dead returns?  We can't wait!  Bring on the Zombies!

Felted Soap

Looking for something quick and easy to make and give this Holiday Season?  Felted Soap makes a wonderful gift that even non fiber (are there such a thing?) people will love. 

 To get started you will need assorted colors of feltable roving. 

I have a big bag that came from Stony Mountain Fibers in Charlottesville, VA.  Barbara Gentry, the owner, has a lovely assortment of wool roving in all sorts of colors displayed in cubes along one wall of her shop.  I went through and put a random assortment of colors in a bag just for making soap and needle felting. 

You will also need the following:

Bars of soap  Obvious, I know, but you will still need them.  This batch came from our last vacation.  It's Crabtree & Evelyn and it was a nice hotel.  That's all Im saying!

Heat resistant kitchen gloves.  Mine are latex free.

A large glass container that can go in the microwave.  I use an 8 cup glass measuring cup.

Step one: fill the glass container 2/3 full with water and heat in the microwave until steaming but not boiling.

Step two: take small pieces of roving, about  twice as long as the bar of soap you are using, open them up and lay them on top of each other.  Randomness works best and gives the most interesting results.

You want to make sure the roving is thick enough so that for the next step no part of the soap will show through.

Step three:  Determine which side of the roving you want to show on the finished soap and place that side down.  Place the bar of soap on top of the roving.

I wasn't kidding about the Crabtree & Evelyn.  Nice, eh?

Step four: Wrap/wind the roving round the soap leaving a bit hanging over the side edges:

I smooth the roving out just a bit with my hand before the next step.  Make as many as you like, it's fun!

Step five: This is the fun part!  Put your heat safe/resistant gloves on. *note each soap is done one at a time

Making sure your water is very hot, submerge the roving wrapped soap into the water.  It is important to hold the soap so at the beginning the roving doesn't loosen up or become unwrapped.  I cradle the soap in my hand. 

Now using both hands agitate the roving on the soap.  This can be done in the water or above the water.  Re submerge the soap as necessary to keep it wet and help in the felting process. (If the roving is not felting quickly try shocking it in ice water then back to the super hot water)

When the roving is firm and appears to be felted around the soap, rinse under cold water.

Step six: Lay your finished soap in a well ventilated area to dry.  A baking rack works well.  I use an old window screen on top of a clothes drying rack.  The soaps should be dry within 24 hours.  If you live in a humid area it may take a bit longer. 

When they are dry they are ready to give!

The Fourth of July was fantastic for us this year.  My husband and I drove to Wintergreen Resort  for an  evening of fun and fireworks.  We got there late in the afternoon and staked out a place for our chairs and had funnel cake with ice cream and beer.  Believe it or not, these do go together pretty well.  Or maybe I was just really hungry....

As the afternoon went on, many more people came.  Several very good bands played throughout the day and into the evening.

I had to take a picture of this guy.  We called him the sneaky photographer.  No idea who or what he was photographing, but he was being quite sneaky about it.

Our little point and shoot digital camera did a pretty good job of catching some of the fireworks.

Bill, Andys dad, had a birthday last week.  We took a drive out to visit and got to meet the new additions to the family. Here Bo and Bella.  They are rescue boxer cross puppies and are about four months old.  They are so happy and wiggly that it was hard to get them to stay still for a picture.

Bill found this in the back yard, it's not alive (thank goodness).  It amazes me how large things grow here in Virginia.  The chapstick is for perspective.  As far as I know bugs don't wear chapstick, but you never know.

I signed up for the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry.  I'm on Team SuperFleece and spinning Cotswold that I had sent to Singleton Fiber Processing in Maryland this spring.  It's coming along nicely and I should have more than enough for a sweater and shawl. 

The past couple of weekends we have been taking our bikes to Percivals Island for early morning rides.  It's great fun and good exercise.  Most of the trail we ride on is shaded so we haven't gotten too terribly hot. I keep a knitting project in my basket and Andy has a telescoping fishing rod strapped to the rack on his bike.  There is a nice place to fish in one area and there happens to be a bench in the shade which is perfect for tranquil knitting.