A Wool Gathering

Hubby and I drove to southern Ohio for A Wool Gathering fiber festival in Yellow Springs (near Dayton). It was a surprisingly sunny and hot day with temps nearing 90 degrees as we arrived at the festival about 2:30 pm. It was packed! We were lucky to find a parking place by the Inn. Those who parked out farther could ride a free trolley from the outlying parking lots.

Most of the vendors were set up inside 3 huge tents on the ground. Interspersed around them were many smaller tents. It was hot outside and uncomfortably hot inside the tents. Though still had a great time shopping vendors I've never seen at other fiber festivals I've been to in the past. I came home with lots of goodies and business cards in case I want to get anything else. :)

Young's Jersey Dairy Farm is the location of the festival. Their cheese and ice cream shop was so busy that the line went out the door. Thankfully, you could buy a cup of ice cream from a booth outside. Hubby and I sampled the vanilla and it was very good but melting fast. It helped us cool off a bit.

We saw a sword fight between two members of a group that dress up in medieval costumes. Sorry, I can't remember their name. I loved their outfits thought they were definitely too heavy to wear on such a hot day.

There were activities for the kids. Two tents were set up where kids could turn a crank to make their own jump rope. Someone was driving a vehicle that looked like a plane at the front and end with little trailers linked behind it. The kids were having a good time! A batting cage nearby was busy with people hitting baseballs.

I was severely tempted to buy a small Shetland fleece at one booth. There were several mills at the festival where I could have dropped it off for processing. Wooly Knob and Ohio Valley Fibers were both there. I resisted the temptation to buy that much wool. They had a tent set up where you could watch them shearing sheep.

Here's a picture of my booty from the festival. A t-shirt for hubby, some Cashmere laceweight, a skein of superwash merino laceweight, 3 skeins of fingering weight, plus spinning fiber in natural and bits and pieces of colored. I bought Falkland, Cormo, BFL, merino, and Corriedale.

Here are links to the vendors:
(BTW, just checked some of these and they don't work. I don't understand vendors who give you a card with a website and it doesn't work.)

Cashmere laceweight - Stitch Sisterz
Hand dyed superwash merino laceweight - Carriage House Woolens
Grab bags of fiber - Happy Hands Yarn
Undyed Falkland - Bullens Wullens
Undyed Cormo - Wooly Knob Fiber Mill

It was a very long day. We left home about 9 am and didn't get back until 10:30 pm. Too many hours spent in a car in one day! I did get some knitting done on a baby blanket I've been working on.

Bagatelle - a tiny felted bag

Bagatelle is a little tote bag that I knit with leftover feltable wool. Felted it stands 7.5" tall (not including handles) and 16" around.

I used about 130 yards of Patons Classic Wool in the Regency colorway with a pair of size 10 (6 mm) 16" circular knitting needles. (Any worsted weight feltable yarn will work.) The bag is knit from the bottom up starting with a garter stitch rectangle for the bottom. The sides are picked up around the rectangle and then it's knit in the round. The handles are formed by binding off and casting on stitches along the top edge. The stockinette handles roll to form tubular handles when felted. No seams to sew! It's very simple to upsize.

This is a free pattern. If you're a member of Ravelry, you can click HERE to download a copy of the pattern. Have fun!

P.S. This pattern was part of the Holiday Mystery Gifts Along (knit & crochet) for the 2009 season. I'm donating some new patterns to this year's group. If you want to find out, you'll have to click HMG to join the fun. LOL! The 2010 season starts on Saturday, September 18th!

Celestial Trio

Three variations on a simple theme--a shawlette/scarf and two shawls--all constructed with pi shaping that ends in a lace border. Easy to knit and addictive! Knit one in every color. Easy to adapt for different weights of yarn. Written instructions for all three are included in the pattern including a lace chart for the border.

I came up with the idea for the shawlette/scarf as a pattern for the goody bags at my knitting group's annual retreat. I paired the pattern with a ball of Knit Picks Palette yarn. Yes, it only takes 231 yards of fingering/sock weight yarn to knit it! The pictured shawlette was knit in Celestial Blue on size 7 (4.5 mm) knitting needles. This is a nice little wrap to throw around your shoulders to keep the chill off in air conditioned rooms or restaurants or over your winter coat for a flash of color.

I had so much fun knitting the scarf version that I decided to upsize it to a shawl. So came about version #2 that uses 630 yards of fingering/sock weight yarn. This is a very full shawl that comes down to my elbows. I used Knit Picks Palette in Golden Heather for the main body of the shawl and Sweet Potato for the lace border.

Then I wondered what would happen if I omitted the front edge increases. Thus came about version #3, an almost half circle shawl. I used 440 yards of rainbow merino yarn that I had spun some time back. It was waiting for the perfect project and this one was it! I love how it turned out!


For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

Name That Bag!

This is a bag pattern that I donated for use in the Holiday Mystery Gifts group in 2009. I'm ready to post the pattern as a freebie but I don't care for the pattern name. I called it Bag it Up! for HMG last year. It's pretty boring.

Want to take a go at giving it a better name? Post a comment with your name suggestion either here on my blog or in the naming thread on my Simply Simple Knits group on Ravelry. If I use the name you suggest, I'll gift you a copy of any of my patterns.

This is a felted tote bag that is knit in the round from the bottom up. The handles are knit in as you bind off the top edge. There's even instructions for knitting a pocket to sew to the inside of the tote. I used a variegated yarn for the sides of the bag. Isn't it cool the pattern it made?

The garden is beginning to wind down for the season. It's been an odd year for the garden. First wet, then hot and dry. Our sweet corn didn't do very well. The ears were small and not well filled out. At least the raccoons didn't get it this year! LOL! Cucumbers and summer squash plants have died due to bug damage. The beans are about done. Potatoes are dying which means we can dig some at any time. Winter squash is setting fruit. Oh, and tomatoes are coming in great guns. I've been busy freezing things for the winter. The only time you can go outside to pick anything is in the middle of the day when it's sunny or the mosquitoes eat you alive!

My knitting group held it's 2nd annual retreat on August 7th at the University of Notre Dame. We had a great time. One of our members taught a Fair Isle knitting class for us. I put together goody bags with the help of some of the members of our group. It was a fun and relaxing day for all who attended.

Last Friday I went to Michigan Fiber Fest in Allegan, Michigan. It was scorching hot that day. Got there about 15 minutes after they opened and it looked like a lot of other people had had the same idea as I had to arrive early. By the time I reached the last building I was dripping sweat. Didn't stop me from buying some Pygora combed top, merino, silk hankies, and Polworth wool before I was finished shopping. :) The booth owner where I bought the Pygora was shocked when I told her I was allergic to alpaca. She said but it's billed as hypoallergenic. It's not. I know a lot of people who are allergic to it. She told me that Pygora (from a goat) is a hair fiber like alpaca. I have my fingers crossed that the Pygora doesn't bother me the way that alpaca does.

I'll tease you by saying that I've got another free bag pattern and a new shawl pattern that I need to blog about. Both patterns are already up on Ravelry. If you're a member of Ravelry, you can see all my patterns by clicking HERE. You must be signed in to view it. Casey is working on making our design pages visible outside of Ravelry.

Lydia's Star

Back in the spring, I stumbled across a pattern for a vintage circular shawl in a very old publication. No picture but the description of a star and leaf pattern intrigued me enough to find some yarn and cast on. The instructions were surprisingly easy to understand and update to modern knitting terminology. I finished the shawl after several weeks. It is gorgeous! I may well be the first person to knit this design in over 100 years! (That really appeals to the history major in me. LOL!) It would be a real shame to lose this piece of our knitting heritage. So I have taken the time to write and chart the shawl pattern for others to use.

First off, I've given the pattern a new name---Lydia's Star. I'm dedicating this pattern to my niece’s grandmother, Lydia, who passed away this summer after a long battle with cancer. A donation will be made in Lydia's name to the American Cancer Society for each pattern sold.

The original shawl pattern cryptically titled “A Handsome Round Shawl Knitted in Star Pattern and Leaves” is from Weldon’s Practical Knitter (1895) had no picture of the shawl. I've adapted and updated the vintage pattern for use by modern knitters. The 6 page pattern contains updated instructions, errors have been corrected, vague instructions clarified, missing instructions added, the pattern totally charted, and a lace edging added. The original shawl ended with a just few plain knit and purl rounds. I felt that such a beautiful shawl deserved something a little more special than that.

I used 1500 yards of fingering weight yarn (Jaggerspun Maine Line 2/8) on size 4 (3.5 mm) needles to knit this shawl. My finished shawl measured 52” across at the center but could have been blocked even larger. I didn't have a space large enough to block it as much as I would have liked.

I hope you enjoy knitting this shawl as much as I did.

The pattern can be found in my Ravelry pattern store.

All money from pattern sales is donated to the Mercy Corp.

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

Soar - a shawl to crochet

I have another new shawl design for crocheters. This one I call Soar. It's an asymmetrical, wing shaped shawl that really showcases yarns with long color runs such as Zauberball and Noro. This started out as a more typically shaped shawl until I realized that it was growing wider way faster than it was getting longer. And I was running out of yarn. So I decided to make half a shawl and see what happened. I liked it! :)

I've been asked me how do you wear this shawl? Here are a few ways that I can suggest. My Ravelry testers came up with even more. A friend told me she would wear it as a hip wrap. The shape lends itself to being worn in lots of ways.
Crochet has a reputation for using lots more yarn for a project than knitting. This is one design that breaks that rule. I used a 459 yard/100 gram ball of Zauberball sock yarn in the Fuchenbeet colorway and a size H (5 mm) hook for this shawl. The shawl measures about 43" along the curved top edge, 66" along the bottom curved edge, and 35" deep along the side long edge.

The magic of this shawl is an easy two row stitch repeat containing nothing but dc, sc, and ch stitches. If your were to look at a close up of the lace, it looks like a flower or a cats paw lace pattern in knitting. (BTW, a friend challenged me to come up with a knitted version of this. I'm working on it. LOL!)

The three page Soar pattern includes full written instructions and a crochet chart. The pattern can be found in my Ravelry pattern store.

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

Wisconsin and stormy skies

Hubby and I took a weekend trip to Wisconsin recently to visit my cousin, Debra and her hubby Jeff. We've been wanting to do this for some time. The drive up was uneventful except for some unexpected traffic south of Madison, Wisconsin on the interstate. Black River Falls, where my cousin lives, was having a festival so we had to come in the back way. More scenic but showing signs of storms that had rolled through the area earlier in the week.

They live out in the country where they have several acres of land. To get to their road you have to drive down a gravel road that runs through a farm bearing an Organic Valley logo. There's an Amish farm across the road from their house.

Their house is more spacious than it looks from the outside. The first floor has a mudroom, 4 bedrooms, a large family room, dining room, and a big kitchen/dining area. The odd thing is there is only one bathroom in the house. The previous owners added on as they needed more space but neglected to add a second bath. The lower floor has a 2 car garage, plus 2 large and 2 smaller rooms. My house would fit easily inside of theirs.

Not long after we arrived, we got in the car again to visit the local brewery. Sand Creek Brewery was giving free tours during the festival. We got a behind the scenes tour and a history lesson on the family that owned the brewery and what other uses the building had been used for over it's life. (You can check out the link to the brewery to read about it's history. It was very interesting.) It was very hot the day we visited so a trip to the cooler in the basement was very refreshing. It was so cold down there that you could see your breath. :) Hubby sampled their Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout and said it was very good. The brewery is hosting an Oktoberfest on October 2nd if you're in the area. We're told they have beer, food, music, and arts and crafts. Sounds like fun to me!

We had a good time while we were there but it seemed like we had just gotten there when it was time to head back home on Sunday afternoon. We had barely gotten onto the interstate when we began to run into heavy traffic. The closer we got to the Dells and Madison, the heavier the traffic became. It's weird to see big city/Chicago type of traffic in the middle of nowhere. Stop and go or creep and crawl is no fun driving. By the time we got to Madison, the 4 lane interstate looked more like a parking lot than a highway. I convinced hubby to get off the interstate and take another highway going south. I seemed to remember reading something on the web about Chicago people clogging the interstate from Madison to Chicago on Sunday afternoons. I must say that all the license plates we were seeing were Illinois plates and not Wisconsin. The locals must know to avoid the road on Sundays.

Knowing that there was Cubs game Sunday night in Chicago, hubby decided to go west and south of Chicago before we headed east. It was nice to get out all the traffic and see farms and open spaces again. I was surprised on I-88 when we started seeing these all over the place. Yes, hundreds of wind turbines turning in the breeze and generating electricity dotted the landscape for miles along the roadway.

I was glad when we finally pulled into our driveway. Nice trip but way too much time in the car for 2 days.

Our summer started out wet, then we went through a dry period. Lately, it's been very hot and stormy. When Chicago and Milwaukee got flooded with rain last weekend, we got a fair bit ourselves. So much so that there was some water in the basement again. Hubby and I woke up early on Saturday morning to our weather radio going off warning of another severe thunderstorm headed our way with 70 mph winds and heavy rain. Even though hubby had been home sick with some bug since Thursday, he was out in our front yard digging our drainage area deeper to keep the water draining down from the street from coming toward the house and going into the basement. We only need this extra drainage when we get dumped with large amounts of rain. The ground was already saturated from several days of rain. We really need to come up with a better drainage solution for heavy rains like this.

After all that effort, the storm broke up before it got to us. We did get more rain before the front moved through our area. In the evening, another line of storms moved south of us. Inside the house, I noticed the rosy colored light coming in through the windows. I grabbed my camera and went outside to see what was going on. Here's what the sky and clouds looked like. Very odd!

After all the rain, our zucchini and squash plants have been producing like crazy. The bad thing is the squash bugs are doing their thing so I doubt the plants will be around much longer. I detest squash bugs!

The first tiny tomatoes are turning red, peppers are setting, the corn is tasseling and beginning to set ears, and green beans are almost big enough to pick. Yum! I've cleaned out my freezer and am busy freezing produce for the winter. It's cheaper and better than store bought and I know exactly what's in it and what's not (no GMOs, no pesticides, no herbicides, no made made chemicals of any sort). You can't get better than fresh picked from the garden. Second best is visiting the local farmers market. I do that too for things that we don't grow.