Random

A random list for Monday...

1. Maryland Sheep & Wool is only two weeks away! Sadly, I won't be there. Everybody fondle some yarn and roving for me, okay? I have (another) work trip that is taking me to Alaska! Hopefully that will be fun... wonder if I can see a moose!

2. You remember the Sweetheart Baby Sweater? Doesn't it look cuter like this?

Now that's a sweater!

Meet Lily. Doesn't she look great in pink? And she has great handknit booties, too (made by another crafty friend of their parents). She was born just a week after her shower (they had it just in time!), and was four weeks old when we met her and took this photo. The sweater is adorable, and will hopefully continue to fit her for a while yet, with the sleeves rolled down :).

3. Arwen progress.

No hoodie!

As I mentioned before, I knew that I didn't want to make this into a hoodie and I had grand plans for the collar. Well, guess what - it worked! This book has instructions for making a mitered corner in a cable pattern, I tried it, and it worked! I continued the cable band for several inches (until running out of yarn as a matter of fact) separately from the rest of the body. Then I improvised some neck shaping, and I'm pretty happy with it! I sewed them together to get a better idea of what it's going to look like. It puckers a bit, so I think I'm going to rip it out and try sewing it again, but I think it will work out. I'm sure a good blocking will help, too.

4. Spring has sprung here in my yard. Some Project Spectrum appropriate azaleas:

Pink and Green!

We've been doing some planting - new azaleas, rhododendrons, and a cherry fruit tree! I can't wait to have some fruit! And our blueberry bushes (planted as tiny little twigs when we first moved in) actually have their first flowers on them - maybe we'll get some berries there, too.

5. Spoiling my cats. I love my kittens, but this may be the ultimate - when Cleo was sitting on my lap the other day, I was surfing the web. I found a link to something on You Tube, one thing led to another, and...

What's that?

Searching for "hamster" on You Tube found some very Cleo-approved videos! She liked it when they made noise, and when they ran away. One ran away from the camera, and she actually looked behind the laptop screen, just in case it went back there... What can I say, they're spoiled cats!

6. Virginia Tech. I don't really know what to say. Several of my colleagues went or taught there, so it's been on our minds a lot this week. Crazy world.

Jetsetter, Part 2

About 24 hours after visiting Artfibers in San Francisco, this was my view:

Seattle on a remarkably clear day

Yes, that's the Space Needle. And, since it was nice and clear, Mt. Ranier (my first glimpse!). My co-worker previously lived in Seattle and knew some great vantage points to get good views of the city. This was what we saw looking west:

Water! Mountains!

All the way over to the Olympic Moutains. Seattle really put on a warm welcome for us! 36 hours later, I was back in DC, looking at a weather forecast of snow for Easter weekend. (Note to DC: not impressed.)
Tomorrow, my travels continue on the East coast with a few whirlwind tours. Sadly, not much time to see or do anything.

While I was cleaning off the camera, I found this:

Rainbow!

This is from my trip to Williamsburg, VA last month. This is the color range that they've obtained using natural dyes (and, one would assume, only those available a few hundred years ago). Something to aim for, although I'm not going to give up my Jacquard acid dyes anytime soon!

Knitting, spinning and dyeing updates soon!

Jetsetter, Part 1

So even though I travel a bit (more right now than usual), it still sometimes surprises me that I can be posting to my blog one night, and then less than 24 hours later, be looking at this.

look familiar?

And even better than doing the tourist thing (cable cars! Haight/Ashbury! Pier 39! Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl! Lombard Street!), was visiting my favorite yarn store, Artfibers. I also made a brief trip across the Bay Bridge to check out a new store, Article Pract. And I couldn't help picking up a few things (vacation yarn doesn't count against the Knit From Your Stash, right? Right?)...

Just a few things. With the SF skyline

From Article Pract, I picked up that huge hank of green laceweight for a super-secret project (mom, this could mean you!), and the latest issues of Knitscene (love the shawl-collared sweater, and the Kenobi Jacket is pretty cool, too) and Rebecca (more on that in a moment).
From Artfibers, there's some tussah silk roving to spin (Artfibers is branching into spinning fibers! Could it get any better???), a skein of Valparaiso - 50% alpaca 50% merino (bought for something for Dan - I was thinking fingerless gloves, but he's thinking a hat). I picked up my sweater's worth of yarn out of Hana, a 100% silk fingering weight yarn that is super soft. I pondered the color options for quite some time and finally went for the raspberry. Then I looked through my new Rebecca mag, and found this:

Isn't it pretty?

I'm going to make myself finish the first piece of Arwen before casting on, but after that all bets are off!

More on my travels (although no more yarn) next time.