TNNA

We are back from TNNA and had a wonderful time!  Kristi, Paul and Laurie did an amazing job designing the Shalimar booth.  We had three spaces this year and the extra room was wonderful!

I finished Tempest just in time to wear on Saturday:

I love how the colors of Ore and Love Potion look together.  It was a really fun knit and it's so nice to have a finished sweater that fit's so well.  I may have to knit this again in another colorway.  I'm thinking of possibly doing something with gradient stripes next time.

I've been reading Carrie aka IrishGirlieKnits  blog for several years now and have done a few test knits for her.  I was so excited to finally get to meet her!  She is one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet and she has some really fantastic designs that I was able to admire in person. She even offered some really great advice for me as a designer which I am really grateful for.

  The lovely shawl to the right of me is Falling Slowly one of Carries newest designs. 

We were able to spend some time with Anne and Erica (and her super cute baby!) from KnitSpot.  Anne's booth was amazing!  Seeing so many of her designs knitted up and all in one place was incredible.  Even though David couldn't be there, we still managed to get him in the group picture:

Anne was kind enough to give me a sample card with all of the Bare Naked Yarns on it.  I've worked with the Breakfast Blend for the Ribbon Street Cowl design earlier this year and it has a lovely hand.  I'm sure I will be coming up with a new design for one of the other yarns.  Stone Soup and Kent are really calling out to me right now!

I'm a few days late posting about TNNA.  Last week our dog Roper, took a turn for the worse and we had to put him down.  The vet thinks that in addition to his heart issues he had a brain or spinal column tumor.  We had him for almost 13 years and it's been really hard being in the house without him.  He was very well loved and a special guy.  He was always right by my side or where he could watch me to see what I was doing though out the day.

Wandering Wildflower

Introducing Wandering Wildflower

Introductory price of $3.50 until July 1 on Ravelry

Wandering Wildflower is a very versatile pattern and can be worn as a scarf or a cowl.  If you make the version in the pattern it will use close to 450 yards of fingering weight yarn.  The pattern can easily be modified to accommodate a skein with less yardage by casting on fewer stitches.  Shannon who test knit for me used an alternating color for the eyelet section. It's really quite striking.  Just waiting for her to upload pictures.  We are giving her slack though. I think she is still unpacking boxes from her move last weekend.  If that won't put a delay into things, I don't know what will!

Yes, the pattern name was changed :)  A friend suggested that Kracken might not be the best choice for something that is wrapped around ones neck.  Lindr came up with the name and will receive a copy of the pattern (Lindr please contact me via Ravelry and I will send you a copy right away).  JudyH also will be receiving a copy from our random drawing.  Thank you to everyone who participated!

I'm packing today to leave for TNNA tomorrow.  It's exciting to go and get to see friends that we don't see that often.  I can't believe it's been over a year since Ive seen Anne and Erica!  Im really ecstatic about getting to meet Carrie aka IrishGirlieKnits this year!  Ive always loved knitting her patterns and have done some test knitting for her in the past.  

If you are going to TNNA this weekend, please stop by the Shalimar Yarns booth and say hi.  I will be working all day on Saturday and Sunday morning.  Ive finished my Tempest sweater and will be wearing it.  It's hot pink - Love Potion and gray - Ore so I should be easy to spot. 

Moving Along

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/SpinningLara/tempesthttp://www.ravelry.com/groups/shalimar-yarnsAfter months of searching our friend Shannon and Rob found the perfect house.  They closed on it yesterday and  I went over to help them move out of their apartment.  They had planned on taking a couple of  days to move since the apartment lease wasn't up until the end of the month.  While we were loading the first boxes we ran into Young, one of our friends from knit group who lives in the same complex.  Young's husband is an exchange student at one of the local colleges and they have only lived in the US for about six months.  While we do sometimes stumble along with the language barrier, we all have a lot of fun together.  Young said hi and asked if it was moving day and then left and came rushing back with her husband, son and daughter.  They helped all day and even made room in their mini van to accommodate some of the smaller boxes and things.  We managed to get everything moved yesterday which was really exciting!  The only picture I have is the one Shannon took of Rob yesterday morning right after closing:

The porch stays shaded all day and I love all the different peaks of the roof.  I hope they have many years of happiness there!

Aside from helping with moving Andy and I had started our patio project.  The rail road ties were finally delivered this week.  We have the area laid out and hopefully will start laying the ties down this weekend.

Like most homes in this area, our yard is sloped (we live in what is known as the Hill City).  The slope makes it hard to have a place to sit outside comfortably.  The patio will be about 24' x 24' and three sides will be built up with the rail road ties.  We are going to fill it it in with dirt and then top it off with pretty stone.  There will be a landscape fabric barrier to hopefully prevent weeds from growing.

Tempest is coming along nicely.  I'm on the second sleeve and hope to have that done by the end of the weekend so I can block it and start seaming.  I think it's going to be calling it close to get it finished in time for TNNA next weekend.  I have nightmares about trying to seam it together in the car while Andy is driving though the winding mountains of West Virginia.  To top it all off, I don't have buttons for it yet.  The pattern calls for 14 buttons!  The only place in town with buttons is JoAnn's. I wish I had the foresight to shop for them at Maryland Sheep & Wool, but it's too late now!

Wentletrap is being test knitted by a group of wonderful knitters in The Testing Pool  on Ravelry.   Jan, Lyz, Bhama, Lydia, Tamsyn, Jenna, Margi and Ann have all offered to to test knit.  I'm really ecstatic to have such a talented bunch of ladies helping out!  The pattern will be released in the first part of July.

If you are wondering about the name, a Wentletrap is a type of sea snail that has a high spiraling shell. 

The stitch pattern I used reminded me of spiraling sea shells.  After searching for hours online I finally went to Wiki and searched for spiral sea shell and Wentletrap came up.  Wentletrap also means spiral staircase in Dutch which would work for this as well.

I had better get back to work.  I still have somethings that need to be finished up (besides Tempest) for TNNA.  Making mini-skeins for the Shalimar Yarns booth and putting together a few other goodies.  If you are going to be at TNNA in Columbus next weekend, be sure to stop by the Shalimar booth #130, 132 & 134.  I will be there all day on Saturday and Sunday morning.  I will also be at Sample It on Friday night. 

Rain, rain, go away.

It's been abnormally cooler here so far this June.  I actually contemplated turning the heat on for a bit yesterday.  I managed to restrain myself and opted for adding a sweatshirt over my long sleeve shirt.  The rail road ties for our new patio project were going to be delivered yesterday.  It was raining so hard from Tropical Storm Andrea that the delivery was rescheduled until next week.  At least the ground will be easy to dig where we are adding the patio! Our soil here is red clay and when it is dry it seems almost as hard at concrete to dig.  It's going to be a wet weekend here so I think we will be working on some inside projects.  After seeing a larger-than-a-small-dog spider in the basement, I'm hoping we can do a bit of organizing down there.  We still have a few things that need to be sorted from when we remodeled the kitchen last year.  Andy is going to help which is great because I think the spider is now under the dryer.  I sprayed it with wasp spray but it took off so quickly that I think it may have survived. 

I finished the back of the Tempest sweater.  It's such a cute pattern and very easy to follow.  I'm hoping to start the front's this weekend.  We picked up Warm Bodies and The Guilt Trip from Redbox.  It's going to be a perfect night to curl up and watch movies. 

If you are working on a striped project and having trouble carrying your yarns, I put a little tutorial up on Ravelry.  It's in post #253 in this thread.


Kristi sent me one of the new Another Way Kit's from the last Shalimar Etsy update.  I just love these colors, this grouping is called Vero Beach. 

It's not like I didn't have anything else on the needles that I should be working on, but I just had to cast on as soon as the kit arrived!  The Another Way pattern is so much fun and really quite easy.  The colors are really happy and cheerful. 

Needle felting therapy is still going on.  I think my arm muscles are getting into great shape from it. I think I need to work on the mushroom house a bit more.  The top looks a bit flopper than what I had planned.

Ive coerced Beth into felting too.  She came over last week and made the cutest gnome.  I wish I had taken a picture of him to show you. 

Que

How many projects should you have in your que on Ravelry?  I mean really, right now I have 533 things to knit in my que.  There are a lot of sweaters in there.  If I knitted 8 hours a day for the rest of my life Im not sure that I could knit all the items in my que.  It takes me about three evenings to knit a sock so potentially I could knit 52 pairs of socks in a year.  Provided that no frogging was involved and we all know how that goes.  I either need to stop adding things to my que (difficult as there are so many cute cardi's out there that are begging to be knit) or dedicate more time to knitting.  Right now I only have two projects on the needles, Tempest by Ann Weaver in Breathless Ore and Love Potion.  I'm thinking of adding one large stripe towards the top in Blue Raspberry but haven't committed to that yet.  I'm also working on the second sock for the new sock design.

Ive gotten really distracted by the needle felting.  Which is great, but it's really cutting into my knitting time.  I spent a week working on this owl.  She is close to life size. 

 

I'm also working on a large mushroom house for the gnomes from the last post.  While I did order a crazy number of couple of felting kit's Ive also been using some roving that I purchased at my first MDSW.  It came in a huge bag and wound up being courser than what I like to spin. I've tried to re home it several times and there haven't been any takers.  I'm so glad it stayed here because Ive really been having a blast needle felting it.  

Does anyone have fun plans for the weekend?  Tonight I'm making Wiener Schnitzel, German Potato Salad and cooked red cabbage.  We are going fishing either tomorrow or Sunday and I'm really hoping we can go to the movies and see Star Trek.  A few years ago a new theater was put in and it has stadium seating with arm rests that can flip up.  The seats are really comfortable and it's a great place to go on a hot summer day.  We are also working on plans for a new patio area.  I'll have progress pictures soon (I hope!).

PS I finished Ardelise but need to block it!  Yay!  That was a LOT of stockinette!  And did you see that Signature Needle Arts now has convertible needles?  They look super cool!

Blocking With Noodles

Blocking with noodles she says.  Interesting concept, but sounds like it could be a bit messy.  I always have a bit of a quandary when blocking a large object that has been knit in the round like an infinity scarf.  Anne Hanson who has been a wonderful mentor and who I have test knit for recommends rotating the knitted object as it drys to prevent creasing.  This works really well and will guarantee that there will not be any creases.  Sometimes though, I forget that I put something out to dry or I'm limited on time that day and worry that my nice infinity scarf won't block well.  Connie came up with a very easy way to Block It and Forget It (like the infomercial - Set It and Forget It).  She used paper towel tubes at each end with a towel wrapped around them and said it worked like a charm.  Andy and I were walking around a sporting goods store and I spotted some pool noodles and the light bulb went off.  I picked one up and walked around with it while we shopped.  I have to give Andy a lot of credit, he never asked why I wanted a pool noodle even though we don't have a pool!  When it was time to block the new infinity scarf I took a good chopping knife and cut the size I needed.  The cut noodles worked like a charm:

And we have a name for the new pattern: Kracken.  While it wasn't one of the ones that were posted in the comments, it's gone over really well with everyone we told.  I used the random number generator to choose the pattern winner.  Congratulations to: JudyH. Please PM me on Ravelry (SpinningLara) with your information and when the pattern is published I will send you a copy.  We are hoping to do a photo shoot for for it this weekend.  Test knitter's Liz and Shannon have been knitting away on theirs.  Liz has been working on two Kracken's and Shannon is doing one in two colors that is really amazing.

Here is the new sock design that I've been working on:

It's a really fun and quick knit.  I'm casting on for it's mate over the long weekend and should have the pattern ready for test knitting sometime next week.  If you are interested in test knitting please let me know.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend.  Please take a moment to remember our fallen hero's.  They gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we can enjoy the freedom's that we are fortunate enough to have.

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 :)