Finally, the Maryland Goodies!
Okay, so I have to be the slowest person lately when it comes to showing what I purchased at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I bought quite a few goodies as you can see below in the picture.
Starting clockwise on the top row, I purchased 3 oz of some beautiful kid mohair locks from Dry Creek Naturals from Georgia. Beautiful mohair locks. I bought them to spin up some boucle yarn like I made in class. I'll explain and show that in a moment. The next item is 4 oz of merino/cashmere (I think a 70/30 blend) purchased from Carolina Homespun. They were having a Maryland deal and the fiber called to me. It kept saying take me home and pet me. Sigh, I'm a real sucker for soft fibers. Robin didn't help either! She convinced me to only take 1 bundle home, but I wanted 2 of them. She saved me money though!
The next item is a big package of Ashland Bay blended merino wool in several different colors (1 oz each of 8 solids and 8 multis), purchased from The Fold, one of my favorite fiber stores. I always buy things from Toni.
This year Robin and I dropped a vest and its accompanying pattern off at The Fold for Nancy Shroyer of Nancy's Knit Knacks. Nancy is a member of our guild and designs some really wonderful sweaters. Anyways, she designed a vest for Toni of The Fold, and I liked the pattern so much I had to spin the yarn to make it myself, so that is what this bag of fiber is for. I don't see the pattern up yet on The Fold or Nancy's website, but I'm sure it will be soon.
The next bag of cream roving is some superwash merino I wanted, just in case something strikes my fancy.
Starting on the left of the bottom row, the first item is from The Good Shepherd in VT and is a dyed silk cap, a very huge one too! The item next to it are some silk caps I purchased for the purpose of dyeing them. The last bag of fiber and the first item I purchased the day Robin and I went to the festival is a pound of a Finn fleece. You can't see the color so well, but it is a lovely grey color with a touch of brown and is so soft. I can't wait to clean it up and spin it!
Robin and I enjoyed the festival and our visit so much. We took a class with Judith MacKenzie McCuin that Saturday morning for 3 hours. We learned how to spin beads into our yarn, shown in the bottom of the left picture below. We then learned how to spin a very light and lofty boucle yarn using mohair locks, shown at the top in the left picture below. I had a horrible time learning how to spin the boucle as well as the beaded yarn as I ply with my right hand holding the yarn on my left side. Odd I know, but that is me. I got it sooner or later though as you can see from the pictures below. We then plied the beaded yarn with the boucle yarn, the middle yarn in the left picture.
The picture at the right shows my attempt at what Judith referred to as "Push and Pull" yarn, top yarn. The boucle is shown again at the bottom and the middle yarn is the two plied together which I kind of like and have plans to try more of in the future.
Robin and I really enjoyed Judith's class and maybe in the future I'll take a different course from her.
Okay, that's it for my Maryland trip. Oh, I guess not since the Koigu I bought isn't in the picture I took. It isn't in the picture because I was already knitting with it and working on my Charlotte's Web Shawl, pattern from Koigu. I started on the Tuesday after Maryland and finished the following Wednesday, really enjoying the lace pattern and the colors of the yarn. The pattern is one of the easiest lace patterns I have seen in a while and I am pretty familiar with lace patterns. The 8 row and 8 st pattern is wonderfully easy for a lace beginner, of which Robin was and she enjoyed the pattern as well and wants to do another one!
So, below is a picture of the finished shawl and an up close look at the colors as they don't come out so well in the picture. I used the following colors, starting from the neck: P 107B, P706D, P513, P714, and P531 on the bottom. The little black kitty is Snowball. Yup, Snowball! My husband named her and she has to be where the action is always!
Okay, that really is it for this blog.
Happy fibering!
Starting clockwise on the top row, I purchased 3 oz of some beautiful kid mohair locks from Dry Creek Naturals from Georgia. Beautiful mohair locks. I bought them to spin up some boucle yarn like I made in class. I'll explain and show that in a moment. The next item is 4 oz of merino/cashmere (I think a 70/30 blend) purchased from Carolina Homespun. They were having a Maryland deal and the fiber called to me. It kept saying take me home and pet me. Sigh, I'm a real sucker for soft fibers. Robin didn't help either! She convinced me to only take 1 bundle home, but I wanted 2 of them. She saved me money though!
 |
The next item is a big package of Ashland Bay blended merino wool in several different colors (1 oz each of 8 solids and 8 multis), purchased from The Fold, one of my favorite fiber stores. I always buy things from Toni.
This year Robin and I dropped a vest and its accompanying pattern off at The Fold for Nancy Shroyer of Nancy's Knit Knacks. Nancy is a member of our guild and designs some really wonderful sweaters. Anyways, she designed a vest for Toni of The Fold, and I liked the pattern so much I had to spin the yarn to make it myself, so that is what this bag of fiber is for. I don't see the pattern up yet on The Fold or Nancy's website, but I'm sure it will be soon.
The next bag of cream roving is some superwash merino I wanted, just in case something strikes my fancy.
Starting on the left of the bottom row, the first item is from The Good Shepherd in VT and is a dyed silk cap, a very huge one too! The item next to it are some silk caps I purchased for the purpose of dyeing them. The last bag of fiber and the first item I purchased the day Robin and I went to the festival is a pound of a Finn fleece. You can't see the color so well, but it is a lovely grey color with a touch of brown and is so soft. I can't wait to clean it up and spin it!
Robin and I enjoyed the festival and our visit so much. We took a class with Judith MacKenzie McCuin that Saturday morning for 3 hours. We learned how to spin beads into our yarn, shown in the bottom of the left picture below. We then learned how to spin a very light and lofty boucle yarn using mohair locks, shown at the top in the left picture below. I had a horrible time learning how to spin the boucle as well as the beaded yarn as I ply with my right hand holding the yarn on my left side. Odd I know, but that is me. I got it sooner or later though as you can see from the pictures below. We then plied the beaded yarn with the boucle yarn, the middle yarn in the left picture.
 |  |
The picture at the right shows my attempt at what Judith referred to as "Push and Pull" yarn, top yarn. The boucle is shown again at the bottom and the middle yarn is the two plied together which I kind of like and have plans to try more of in the future.
Robin and I really enjoyed Judith's class and maybe in the future I'll take a different course from her.
Okay, that's it for my Maryland trip. Oh, I guess not since the Koigu I bought isn't in the picture I took. It isn't in the picture because I was already knitting with it and working on my Charlotte's Web Shawl, pattern from Koigu. I started on the Tuesday after Maryland and finished the following Wednesday, really enjoying the lace pattern and the colors of the yarn. The pattern is one of the easiest lace patterns I have seen in a while and I am pretty familiar with lace patterns. The 8 row and 8 st pattern is wonderfully easy for a lace beginner, of which Robin was and she enjoyed the pattern as well and wants to do another one!
So, below is a picture of the finished shawl and an up close look at the colors as they don't come out so well in the picture. I used the following colors, starting from the neck: P 107B, P706D, P513, P714, and P531 on the bottom. The little black kitty is Snowball. Yup, Snowball! My husband named her and she has to be where the action is always!
 |  |
Okay, that really is it for this blog.
Happy fibering!
-- posted by Annette @ 9:46 PM
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