My Kind of Farmer's Market

In case I haven't mentioned it, I LOVE our new hometown.  It is wonderful on so many levels and I never expected we would be this happy here.

Today was another reason why I love our town - we have a farmer's market.  When we first moved here we went on a hot summer day and it wasn't quite up to the farmer's market standards we had back in CT.  However, today it blew the CT market out of the water!  Today and one day next month, they have fiber vendors at the market!  Lots of fiber vendors.

Check out this gorgeous array of handspun.

More handspun from the same vendor...
stunning but quite costly...these skeins were $65.

Check out this bag made from a wool jacket.

This one is embroidered...too cool.

Our daughter wanted to take one of these home...not happening.

I fell in love with this "tree" of skeins.

As you can see it was very busy.

Lovely colors but sadly a bit scratchy for me.

See the blue horse/unicorn one near the center?
I will be knitting up a pair for our daughter.

I only purchased a pattern this time - fortunately, a lot of the vendors will be back in February.  Now I can reflect on what yarns I saw and then plan a purchase.  What a fun morning we had at the farmer's market - my kind of farmer's market with YARN!

Can You Feel The Love?

Sometimes when I'm knitting something, I just can't feel the love.  Sometimes I realize it quickly and sometimes I realize it too slowly.  Best thing though is to realize it before you finish knitting the entire item.

Case and point - I was knitting Tinder by Jared Flood out of some Cascade 220.  I really dislike seaming (even though I think I'm good at it because I sewed before I learned to knit)...so I converted the pattern to knit in one piece.  I got as far as the underarms and put it down for weeks.  Part of the reason was that I needed to have quiet time (not during the holidays) to do the math to convert the sleeves to seamless.  When I picked it up, I realized part of the reason was I wasn't in love with it at all. The pattern is interesting but it wasn't something I loved.

So I frogged 17 1/2 inches of an entire sweater body - 3 skeins of Cascade 220.  That's a lot of knitting but better to love what you knit than just live with it.  So, for now the yarn is in a time out while I do some stalking of patterns.  I think I'll find something else in my stash to work on for a while.

One of These Things Is Not Like The Other

One of these things is not the same...got to love a Sesame Street Song, right?  Not when it applies to your knitting though.

I had been finishing up my Cotton Reel Mittens which I realized why I don't knit mittens - they are like socks.  You have to make two of them.  I went into finishing frenzy - stupidly during a really exciting playoff game between the Broncos and the Ravens.

I bound off the thumb, wove in the ends and put on the mitten.  It looked great, right!?

So then I got out the first mitten and put it on and realized something was wrong - one of these things is not like the other...see?

Too many stitches on the left hand mitten...grrr.  It went into timeout overnight and the next morning I got to work.

Painful but necessary.  After carefully paying attention to picking up the right number of stitches, I finished the second mitten.  Two of these things are the SAME!

And I'm done with mittens for a while!

For My Husband

My husband won't let me knit for him - I constantly offer sweaters and he keeps saying no.  So while I was knitting this Cascade Eco Plus blanket, the kids would say "who is that for".  Until I received my lovely friendship blanket, I would say "it is for me because you keep stealing my blanket".  

The other day our daughter asked again and I replied "this is for dad".  She must have forgotten because when she saw it blocking she said "I hope you're not giving this one away!"  I agree - it is lovely, it is warm and my husband loved/loves it.

I couldn't get the color right -see the last photo for the true color.

This is the truer color.

How To Make A Knitter Smile

It's simple, it's easy - wear their knits and let them know you love them.  Within 24 hours I received this email from my friend who asked me to knit some cowls for her for Christmas gifts:

My sister was a lucky recipient!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Margaret
Date: Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 11:16 AM
Subject: blue neck wrap
To: Sarah

I’m loving this!  This is the second time this week I’ve worn it. It’s great with anything V neck or ‘regular’ neck – i.e. without a turtleneck.  Thank you!

And then I received this photo:

That is how to make a knitter happy!

Ornament Organization

Every year I decorate our wreath (and tree) with handknit ornaments.  The wreath is exclusively hand knits.  I always take everything down before New Years Eve as I want to start the year fresh and with house that is back to normal.

So, when I took all my handknit ornaments down, I gave them their own little storage unit.  Doesn't this look wonderful?  They are all packed up and waiting til next December.