Wool Gathering 2017

We weren't going to go.  We had agreed to that when we had our little shop hop a few weeks ago.  But like true addicts, we couldn't resist temptation.  Cindy and I ventured over to Yellow Springs yesterday to visit the Wool Gathering.  We went early, got a good parking spot ("princess parking" as she calls it) and beat the crowd.  Afterward we had lunch in Yellow Springs and then headed home with our treasures.  It was a nice practice run for Rhinebeck for me.

A group lovely creatures greeted us at the gate.    There were little goats

and big goats.

and alpaca of all sizes

and soft little bunnies

and various sheep who would consent to be photographed.

I had two goals for the day.  Find buttons for my Super Bulky Grandpa sweater and finding autumn colored sock yarn.

A basket of wooden buttons of varying sizes entertained us for a while as we sorted through to find 4 that matched.  Below they are resting on an almost finished sweater.  Last sleeve is on the needles.

I had a very specific idea regarding the autumn colors I wanted.  We came across some yarn that had no green and too much red.  I passed it by hoping to find something closer.   Later we came across a booth that had some that were closer to what I wanted.  I decided to buy this skein thinking this may be as good as it gets.  It lacked the green but it also was not too red.

Then later I found the almost perfect skein.  It was a lovely mix of autumn colors.  The colors are not showing true in this picture unfortunately.

Other treasures from our day included the following:

Tooth stitch markers that can double as earrings.  These will be gifted to my daughter who is in dental school.

The pack of mini skeins from Destination Yarn in the Ohio colorways.  I think I'll make a Hitchhiker scarf in these and name it Hitchhiking Around Ohio.

And my final purchase was 8 ounces of chocolate alpaca-silk blend roving.  It is a beautiful!!

We passed on buying skeins of 100% alpaca DK weight yarn.  The booth had a model of Caissa.  I thought about getting the yarn to make it but decided I'll wait until Rhinebeck for that purchase.

As mentioned above, the Grandpa sweater is almost done.  One sleeve is finished and the other is on the needles.  I should have it finished Monday or Tuesday.  I won't have a chance to block it before it leaves on a trip with me, but that's OK.  It'll get a nice bath after we return.

I recently pulled Relax out of hibernation.  It got tossed aside over a year ago.  It has become my fallback project.  I'm not setting a goal for getting it done.  It will just be my project to pick up when I need a distraction from other projects.

Yarn Crawl 2017

Last year my friend and I participated in a yarn crawl throughout northeast Ohio.  This year we had planned to take part in the I-75 yarn crawl, but life got in the way.  We decided to hold our own over Labor Day weekend.  We visited 7 shops between Dayton and Cincinnati.

Our first stop took us to 2nd Street Public Market in downtown Dayton.    We were looking for an alpaca shop that was only open 3 days a week.  What we found was a market with full of different vendors, ranging from various foods to wood crafts.  This proved to be a very pleasant surprise.  We didn't buy any alpaca products there, but we did walk out with a huge pretzel, a loaf of artisan bread and natural skin products.  When I got home I promptly told my husband that we need to take a trip over there sometime.

The next stop was another shop in Downtown Dayton named Strings Attached.  It was a cute little shop with very friendly staff.  I picked up a Crazy Zauberball.

From there we headed south.  We attempted to visit a shop in Centerville, but found the place was not yet open for the day and had a "Going Out of Business" sign on the door.  So from there we headed further south to Springboro to visit Wooly Bully.

I had visited Wooly Bully a couple years ago and was impressed with the selection in the shop.  Cindy found some linen on the discount shelf that she couldn't pass up.  I found a set of bent double pointed needles to try.

While in Springboro we walked down a block to a cute boutique.  I couple shirts caused my credit card to jump out of my wallet.  Darn if I don't know how that happens!!

Lambiken's Hideaway in Hamilton was our next stop.  I've known about this shop for years but have never made it there.  There were several rooms to explore.  I came away with a couple skeins of  Villa.  This yarn is so soft and lovely.  It will someday become a cowl or scarf.

Silk Road was the next stop.  This is a hybrid yarn-fabric shop in northwest Cincinnati.  I found the cutest knit fabric that was imprinted with Charles Harper cardinals.  Charles Harper was an artist that lived in Cincinnati.  His art featured animals, sometimes in a comical setting.  The fabric was too cute to pass up and will become a long sleeved shirt for me.

In the picture above I also show some fabric that I will use to make another shirt.  The raccoon print was purchased at a shop in Columbus and was also too cute to pass up.

After a stop for lunch and a dash into Busken's Bakery, one of the things I miss by not living in Cincinnati anymore, we headed to Hank.  Hank was the yarn shop closest to the nursing home where my mom lived during her last 17 months.  I would stop there and pick up yarn for a project to knit while I sat with her.  This was Cindy's first visit there and I think she fell in love with it as much as I do.  I came away with two patterns and yarn to go with them.  First was a Laceball to make a Holey Scarf.

Second was Elite linen for Stonecrop Top.

Our last yarn stop was Fiber Optic.  There I picked up 4 ounces of an alpaca/silk blend.  It is going into my spinning stash.  I also picked up another spindle for my spinning wheel since most of my others are occupied.

Slaying Dragons

Drachenfels has been tamed.  This project was finished and blocked last weekend.  It ended up being quite large and lovely.

The colors are true in this picture, but it give you an idea of how big it blocked out to be.

Here the colors are more accurate, but still a bit too blue in the photo.  This was pre-blocking.  Overall I am very pleased with how it turned out.  It will be a snugly thing to wrap up in on chilly days.

There are a few other things on the needles.  Here is Prevarication.  This is one of the patterns in the Curls 2 book.  The pattern repeat is fairly easy to follow, but I think I messed up the starting sequence.  I figure it doesn't matter as long as I am consistent.  My intention for this is to just learn the Curls technique.  Maybe later I can apply it to my own lace pattern.

Last year my friend and I went to a local fiber festival.  I bought a yarn bundle in a gorgeous green color.  One skein was fingering weight and the other was a lace weight halo.  At the time I wasn't sure what I would do with it.  Along came the Combinatorics KAL.  This KAL called for two coordinating yarns.  I thought I'd try using this yarn bundle for this project.  This is a bit of a gamble since the KAL is a mystery, but so far I think it is working out nicely. 

Here is how the two yarns are playing together.

Here is Clue 1.

It is now a long weekend, made longer by taking today off.  It is a cool, cloudy day thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Harvey.  The rest of my day is going to be spent making soup, watching college football and knitting.  My perfect day!!