Greeny greens...

My Project Spectrum Hand-dyed Sock Yarn Swap Pal was Beth and she completely spoiled me! She sent me a whole box full of goodies - just check it out!

Awesome, isn't it?

There's the yarn, of course. But there's green tea, green picture frames, green (eco) chocolate, green mohair locks for spinning, and tasty Japanese snacks. (there may or may not have been some other candies). And did I mention the yarn?

Pretty!

Pretty subtle green yarn... I think it might have Pomotamus in its future.

But speaking of new projects, chalk this one up to "I couldn't help myself."

That's the first sleeve of Celtic Icon from Inspired Cable Knits, which I decided to order after I saw Stephanie's review of it. It's made out of Limited Edition 1 from Brooks Farm, the 60% wool 20% silk 20% viscose blend that I got at Maryland 2006. The sleeves and side panel will be green (perfect for Project Spectrum May) and the body will be blue (Project Spectrum June)! This will definitely be more than a 2 month project, though.

One request for help - does anyone have a good technique for Increasing and Decreasing 5 into 1 stitch? Most of the other techniques are explicitly spelled out, but they sort of gloss over that one. So far I've tried: K-f-b-f-b-f and M1 Kf-b-f M1 for the increases and P5tog and s-s-p, psso, p2tog, psso for the decreases (I've finished another cable repeat since this picture was taken) but I'm not terribly happy with any of them. If anyone has any bright ideas, please let me know!

Socks, Socks, Socks!

I've been holding out on you a little bit... I've had a few finished pairs of socks for a while now and just not blogged them.. but here you go:

Blue and White!

Yarn: can't remember. A previous post states that it's Regia cotton, but I can't find a colorway that matches. It's a pretty blue and white color - maybe 5432?
Pattern: Made up; short-row heels and toes and a patterned cuff
Needles: 2's I think
Comments: This was my first sock project on sock needles. I actually knit the first one as a practice to my Sockapalooza (the first one) sock, but then I didn't have enough time to knit the second one before I had to start the real socks. There's a brief mention of it last January, and then I had actually finished them in June 2005, but they'd never gotten their own FO photo until now.

Stripey Green Socks!

Yarn: Regia Mini-Ringel 5343
Needles: US 1.5's
Pattern: Made-up; plain stockinette with heel flap
Comments: These socks I knit from the cuff-down just to prove that I could - I had the short-row thing figured out pretty well, but I wanted to do a heel flap on tiny needles just to see if I could. And it worked out. Well documented on the blog, started here, progess here, a picture of it in Panama here, and then one sock finished going into the Lent-Along. I did work on the mate to this sock during the Lent-Along, but just finished it up right after MDS&W. This yarn was purchased at last year's Sheep & Wool, so it feels good to have it done.

Pretty Ruby Slippers!

Yarn: Socks That Rock in Ruby Slippers
Needles: US 2's
Pattern: My own, ribbing and cables
Comments: This yarn was bought at Rhinebeck, so it's one of my quickest sock knits yet! I made the pattern up, and knitted toe-up with short row toes and heels.

Right now, I actually don't have a pair of socks on the needles (gasp!). I think the next pair will be from the yarn that my hand-dyed sock-yarn swap-pal sent me (it's gorgeous!) - but more on that in the next entry.

Maryland Sheep & Wool 2006

Maryland Sheep and Wool. The very phrase conjures up images of yarn, smells of sheep, and memory aches in my stomach muscles from laughing. It was more superfungoodtimes this year, that's no doubt. There's the Fabulous Fiber and the Fantastic Fair Food, but the true highlight has to be the Friends. Just look at our crew:

we may look a little sad here... this is our goodbye photo

If you click on that photo, the one on Flickr has "notes" that will help you match faces to blogs (just in case you're curious). I had a really awesome time staying with Heather, Kate, Paula, Anne Marie, Jen, Jess, Sarah B., Maya, Betsy, Amy, Lara - better roomies you could not ask for. And I managed to find Cara, Maggi, Heather, Kelly, Cheryl, Natalie, Brooke, Lolly, and Jenna at the fair, and I met a few new people like Jodi, Norma, Claudia, Sylvia, Theresa and Elspeth, too (and probably others that I'm just not remembering right now)! Knitbloggers are seriously some of the best people in the world. Just amazing.

There were lots of good times - enabling each others' shopping, sharing tasty experimental fair foods (deep-fried Twinkie, anyone?), drinking martinis, joining the gargantuan Meetup on the Hill, staying up late knitting and talking, petting the sheep, watching the slinky sheepdogs, and one last thing...

rolling down the hill

I had a minor wardrobe malfunction in that picture, so please don't zoom in too far, or prepare to be horrified. In order to get photos with no wardrobe malfunction, we had to try the roll multiple times, include one with a mid-hill collision. Maybe we can persuade someone to share those photos when she's feeling better...

And now, the haul. I was more restrained than last year, and even more than two years ago. Actually, looking back at those posts, I have done pretty well with last year's goodies. Many of the things there are knit up (three pairs of the socks, the Brooks Farm mohair) or gifted/swapped (the other Brooks Farm). The 2004 haul I still need to work with, for the most part. Maybe this year.

Anyway, here's what I got on Saturday:

Yarn Haul Ahoy!

Again with the notes on the flickr page - that's handy! But this year my suppliers were again Brooks Fiber (3 years running!) with their Limited Edition wool/silk/viscose blend (60/20/20), and a new candidate, Tess' Designer Yarns with a 900-yard skein of raw silk, sock yarn and angora! One more skein of sock yarn crept in there somehow, plus the logo backpack and a beautiful hand turned nostespinne. No pictures, but on Sunday, I did get just a bit more yarn - 1400 yds of a tweedy cotton blend for $16. Deal!

Once again, going back to work this morning was depressing. But at least I can go back and look at all my pictures whenever I need to relive some fiber festival fun. Hugs to everyone I met!