A new shawl, handspun, and free patterns

I've cast on a new leaf lace shawl with some yarn I solar dyed earlier this month. It's a 440 yard skein of Knit Picks Gloss (wool/silk) dyed with Easter Egg colors. I will definitely order more of this yarn for dyeing experiments. The yardage is a little less than I'd like but the yarn is thicker than what I used for the original shawl. I'm hoping it will block into a large enough shawl for me. Though my SIL Dana has been dropping hints that it's her favorite sunrise colors. :-)

I finished spinning the royal blue/lime green wool last week. I plyed it the day my MIL died. I bought the fiber several months ago from someone who was destashing. That 5 ounces of superwash merino roving spun up into about 750 yards of fingering weight yarn. Yummy! The fiber is from the Dyepot. She has some wonderful colors! Sign up for her mailing list to find out when there is a sale.

My new spinning project is Rambouillet combed top from Etsy seller, Sarah Wood. The colorway is a lovely blend of shaded greens and rust. It was pretty felted from the dyeing process, not unusual for such a soft wool. Hubby took one end of it and I the other and attempted to pull it into two pieces. It wouldn't budge! I split it lengthwise into pieces, split it again, and then drafted it out so it's workable. I have a basket full of little balls all ready to grab as I finish spinning a length. It's spinning up very fine.

I have a few ideas for new knitting projects rolling around in my head. I need to write them down before I forget what they are. As I searched the web for some information today, I ran into a number of free patterns. So many temptations to knit!

1. A Little Felted Bag that I know I'll have to knit.
   
2. Stefanie Japel's Spencer Jacket (aka The Better Sweater) on the DIY Network site is from a Knitty Gritty episode. It was on yesterday. The cropped jacket is much nicer than the picture shows. The sleeves have a little lace detail toward the cuff and they flare out a bit. Nice! It's knit in bulky weight and is a fast knit.
   
3. Mohair Lace Stole in the latest Ram Wools newsletter. The picture doesn't do it justice. I have some mohair laceweight in my stash just waiting for a project like this.
4. A Square Baby Blanket knit from the center out in Old Shale (wavy) pattern. This would also make a nice square shawl.
5. Or how about making your own Stitch Holders from old coat hangers? LOL!
   

Michigan Fiber Fest

Michigan Fiber Fest was a blast on Saturday! A vanload of 8 from my fiber arts group rode up together. It's a 1-1/2 hour drive from northern Indiana where we live. The weather was perfect--cool and a little sunny--a great relief after the 90+ degree days we've had for most of the summer.

Since it was cool, Elizabeth was wearing her Cascading Leaves shawl and I wore mine too. We both had lots of people stop us to admire our shawls and ask about the pattern. Between us, we gave out almost every card I had with my blog and email address. I always carry a supply of cards to give out to knitters I meet.

The vendor booths and buildings were packed with people. Usually, by mid-afternoon it eases off. This year it didn't. If you didn't buy something the first time you saw it, it was gone when you came back. The food booths were bombed and ran out of things. I didn't even get my yearly elephant ear! :-( It was starting to sprinkle a little rain when we left the fairgrounds about 4 pm. Sunday was a very rainy day and would not have been a good one to attend the fiber fest. I heard that some of the vendor tents on the lawn collapsed and all their merchandise was ruined. Not good.

Here's my loot from Allegan. Top left is some rainbow dyed merino top from Orchard Hill Fleece Farm. I'm kicking myself for only buying one 2.5 ounce package. I'll spin it fine as a single to preserve the colorway and ply it with something else.

Top right is a package of merino/tencel and lower left is soy silk top, both are from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm. Directly under the rainbow top is 8 oz of Ashland Bay merino top in a gorgeous variegated rust colorway called Cassis. In the middle are 2 colorways of handpainted rayon from Babe's Fiber Garden. On the lower right is an $8 drop spindle that spins quite well, a high speed whorl for my Little Gem wheel, and a Bosworth featherweight (.5 oz) spindle. It took me a while to decide to spend the $$ for the Bosworth spindle. I'm glad I did. I'm spindling silk on it and it spins like a dream!

If you'd like to see a picture of me, my friends, and a couple of new friends, go to Joanne's blog. I'm the one on the far left in the turquoise shirt. It was great meeting Joanne. She's working on a book about fiber festivals. Can't wait to see it! I also got to meet Bonne Marie of Chic Knits.

I took my camera and totally forgot about taking any pictures until we were in the van on the way home. I am not a picture taker! I am so caught up in the moment and what's going on that I don't think about doing it. Pictures would have been nice for the blog but memories will have to suffice.

I picked up a flyer asking for volunteers to help continue Michigan Fiber Fest. Several people are stepping down from key positions, which could mean the end to this 10 year old festival. If anyone lives near the Allegan, Michigan area, please consider volunteering your time. As well as general volunteers, they need new ideas, a new office manager, bookkeeper, and someone to do advertising and publicity. I don't know if any of these jobs are paid or not.

They really could use a web page designer too. This year, their website didn't even offer directions, times, or much of anything else. I heard comments from festival goers that they were not even aware that it existed and that it was hard to find information about it. That's a shame as it's been going on for 10 years. This is my third visit to the event.

Their annual meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 7 pm at Sam's Joint in Yankee Springs, 2412 S. Briggs Road, Middleville, Michigan. You can contact their office at 269.945.2497.

Good things come in small packages

What's in this small box? It's the very first fleece I ever bought, fresh back from the processor. This creamy Shetland lamb fleece was bought from Sheltering Pines at the Greencastle Fiber Event in April. I dropped it off at the Wooly Knob booth that April 13th day for processing. Finally, here it is after 4 long months of waiting.

I opened the small box and released the fiber from confinement. It grew and grew and grew. Here's what it looked like out of the box and all fluffed up. It's an amazing mass of baby soft spinning fiber.

The 2 lb 9 oz raw fleece is now 1 lb 7 oz of clean, fluffy, and very soft roving. I pulled out a drop spindle and started spinning. Oh, does this spin into a fine single! I may decide to spindle it instead of wheel spinning it.

I split the fleece with my friend, Jessica. We each have almost 12 ounces of lusciousness to work with. As fine as this will spin up, we should get a lot of yardage. I can foresee some handspun lace shawls in our future. LOL!