Catching Up and Moving Forward

Yes, so I have been crazy busy (and also a little bit sick) lately. I wanted to share about my spinning fun of last weekend before I move on to everything else (which is causing me my sickness and general feelings of tired, tired, tired!). Last Sunday I was at our local museum participating in a Pioneer Day. I got all dressed up and took my lovely Quebec production wheel and sat spinning all afternoon. (I am not posting a pic of me in costume because I look vaguely wretched in the two I had to choose from, so here is a pic of the setup). I plied some Icelandic fleece that had been moth-nibbled, so I overspun it in my paranoia that it would fall apart if I did not. That left it a wee bit "ropey" after I washed it, so I apologized to the gods of spinning and concentrated on how much I loved the two ply I spun and plied of a bump of mixed Romney wool that I have had forever (seriously, it's the first bit of fluff I ever bought!).




On Monday, my husband, son and I went to my parents' house for a lovely dinner with my little neice, Kate (yes, her mother was there too!) Here is Kate enjoying the Fur Yarn beaver yarn headband that my son was modelling in my last post. Both she and her mum loved it and Santa has taken note....




Next we move on to preparation for the Downtown (Toronto) Knit Collective's Knitter's Frolic, on deck for tomorrow. I have titled this pic "waiting for paint to dry", which is exactly what I was doing at the time - I had to re-paint my booth sign. You can also see knitting needles in progress as well. This has been my week. What complicates things even more was my brilliant idea to take stuff from Fur Yarn with me too, which sounded like a blast (and I'm sure it will be once I am there and set up) but for the last few weeks I have been readying stock at Fur Yarn and then coming home to do the same thing here. The end is in sight, though, my friends. I leave at 3pm today to set up, ready or not, and besides having to take the last two nights off due to illness and weeping into a lovely bbq dinner prepared by my husband yesterday because of all the time I had lost things are looking good. I will have yarn, I will have patterns, I will have shelving (quite key!) and all the bits and bobs required to sell things. Now I have to go and wax some wooden needles and pack the car before it rains (please don't rain on my newly painted sign - I really am quite pleased with it!).










By the way, here is a pic of a spinning wheel I am hoping to sell at the Frolic, but I have severe doubts that it will fit in my car. Check it out. Any interests, email me through my address in My Profile.







P.S. Check back here next week (maybe even as late as next Friday - taxes and illness being what they are) for a free pattern release!! Hint- if you bought one of my puppy patterns at Frolic (or any other time), you will be tickled.....

Only a week late....

Alright, so I've dropped the ball a wee bit when it comes to posting, especially since the big Harlot event was a full week ago, but really, what more is there to say that hasn't already been said by knit-bloggers everywhere. For my part, I went in to "The Big City" with my new boss, Paula and introduced her to the wacky world of the Yarn Harlot.



I brought along a Fur Yarn project to work on, as did Paula. Mine is shown here. It is the Child's Scarf in a colour called Rose Beige. Paula had a headband stuffed in her purse that she finished at the event, along with some hair clips decorated with fur (she left one of those as part of the tip for our waitress at the pub after the talk!).



Also on the "show-and-tell" front. May I present my willing (for now) model (and son), Ruben, sporting my first ever Fur Yarn piece, the Headband. This colourway is an ombre shade in Navy. Ombres are made with Premium Grade Beaver fur, where fur is dyed without bleaching the pelts first (done with most other colours to ensure an even colour) and the colours take differently to the different shades of the fur, so some looks almost black depending how it catches the light - very hard to see in my amateurish pic!



The obligatory "socks-on-the-needle" picture (which is a common project for me) is D.G. Handknitting Yarns' self-striping stuff, col# 2603. I am employing my lovely Latern Moon ebony dpns that my soon-to-be-sis-in-law bought me for Christmas (I know it was all her because I pulled her in to Lettuce Knit down in Kensington Market to show her its delights and pointed out a few appropriate items for Santa's consideration). I'm working the pattern from Ann Budd's "recipe book" for knitters, The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. I love how the heel flap is worked, leaving a little chain of selvedge stitches on the end. This is new to me, and a keeper in my books. There was something to do with the turning of the heel that I didn't like, but I can't remember it right now, so I'll have to let you know when I get to it on sock #2. I feel like I might end up with my own "master sock recipe" at some point that draws on all my favourite tricks collected from the different patterns I've tried. The length of the first sock is a bit of a problem for some reason. I did my usual "try the sock on until it's long enough to reach the base of your baby toe" thing and then did my decreases. The sock is very small to look at. Yes, it fits, but I guess it is stretching when on my foot, cause I hold it out against my foot and I have to stretch it to match the actual size of my foot. What's that mystery about being bigger on the inside than the outside? I can go with that. Maybe I will nickname these socks my "Bermuda Triangle" socks?