There Is Still Knitting

 After all, this is a knitting blog. And I do knit every day.

(BTW, excuse my long absence... the High Holy Days always throw me off.)

I am trying to focus on a few projects instead of being so scattered. I have a friend who is a monogamous knitter and she finishes so many things.  Inspired by her, I've made decent progress on the linen-stitch scarf.

It is very pretty and it will be a cozy scarf. However, I am still quite sure this will be my last linen stitch project.  Too tedious. And it's very easy to make mistakes.

After four unsuccessful attempts, I put the Porto Sweater into time out. Instead I'm working on Design 10. Yes that's it's name. It's an easy cardigan so I should be able to finish this one. Normally I would not make a sweater with only three projects on Ravelry, but I saw a sample at the yarn store in Evanston and fell in love with it.

All the colors are off ... I waited too long in the day to take good photos.

Now for some exciting news: The Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Show actually took place in person.  I went with my friend Suzi, who I haven't seen in a while. She's a retired teacher, too, and it was so much fun to catch up. And, I wasn't too extravagant in my purchases!

A yarn store about 30 minutes from my house is about to start a mitten knit-along, so I purchased two skeins from their booth to make the
Songbird Mittens for Rachel.

I also picked up two luscious indie skeins of DK destined to be fingerless mitts:

And this bag just insisted that I take it home with me:

It was wonderful to attend High Holy Days services in person. Worship really is a community experience. My congregation is a combination of hippie and traditional Judaism that hits the right notes for me. I feel very lucky to have this unusual schul (Yiddish for synagogue) in my life. As always, I was very busy repenting!

I Swore I Wasn't Going But ...

A friend talked me into going to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. (Don't you love how it's not my fault?) "But I'm on a yarn diet!" I protested.
"It would be a great place to sketch," she countered.
How could I turn down an offer like that?

 So, we headed off to look at these guys and, yes, we just had to wander through the market. I was quite restrained, but couldn't resist this pattern and yarn. If you look closely, you can see that the buttons have little bikes on them. The whole package is from Jenny the Potter's booth.

 I asked Jenny how our festival compares with Rhinebeck and the Maryland festival. She said that those festivals draw a lot more people and are more profitable, which makes sense, given the population density on the East Coast. However, she lives in Minnesota, and enjoys how easy it is to get to Jefferson, Wisconsin, and the mellow nature of our festival.

And, yes, there was drawing. We perched ourselves on the bleachers and watched some of the competitions:

Full disclosure: There was one  other purchase but that deserves its own post!

Sheep & Wool: What Could Be Better?

I escaped the crazy traffic of Big Ten football yesterday and headed to the rural town of Jefferson for the annual Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. In tow were Suzy and Debbie, two friends I met at the Greater Madison Writing Project Workshop in 2014. It was a beautiful day, perfect for a drive in the country and hours of browsing sheep (and alpaca) stuff.

This year, I went with a list of projects I wanted to make and their yarn requirements. I'm not sure this saved me any money, but it did keep me from making too many impulse purchases. Before I left Keith suggested that I go look at my stash to discourage myself from buying anything, but I assure him that wouldn't have make any difference, not once I walked into the marketplace!

The pink skein above is for one of Wendy Johnson's Lace Stripe Scarf, while the white and purple will make two sets of mittens. I've promised my friend Marsha that I'm going to teach her how to read a color chart and make mittens, so I picked out yarn and a pattern from the nearby Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill. The pattern is Bosnian Patterned Mittens.

I didn't totally avoid impulse purchases. Isn't this yarn fun?
 It is destined to be an Octoberfest Shawl.

The company was great.  I spent a month in an intensive writing program with them, and feel so lucky to call them my friends! But we all live in different areas so we don't get together often enough. Suzy has long been interested in wool rug hooking, and she got a chance to try it out:

 Debbie gave it a whirl, too. I resisted in an effort to stick with my mantra: No new crafts!

I can hardly wait for next year!

WIP: It's A New One

Earlier this month, I blogged about how I want to make the Harriet Sweater. I bought the yarn and pattern at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. Lucky for me, my partner in yarn accumulation saw that the Harriet Sweater is adapted from Cottage Creations' Babies & Bear Sweater, so I picked up that pattern, too.

For once, I am going to think before I plunge into a major project. I am going to make the baby sweater first. I think it's a good idea because the construction of the sweater is unique: You knit it in two halves, beginning with the cuff of each arm, and then you use the Kitchner stitch to sew the backs together. Suzy has made the baby sweater before and assures me it's a bit strange but not too hard.

Besides, I just felt like casting-on something new and different. This school year is shaping up to be a challenging one, so I wanted to treat myself. It's a hectic week with the Jewish New Year starting tonight. I will take off Thursday to observe the holiday, which I always enjoy. Still, it's hard to miss a day at school. Special ed students, even more than other middle-schoolers, crave predictability!

I'm linking up with Ginny for Keep Calm, Craft On.

What I Bought

I actually think I was admirably restrained at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival this past weekend. I did, however, make one MAJOR "investment" in two huge skeins of Briar Rose Sonoma, a heavy worsted weight wool.

Pretty huh? It is destined to be a Harriet's Jacket. There was a sample of this adorable sweater at the Briar Rose booth, and I just fell in love with it. With three unsuccessful sweaters behind me, I actually think that this is one that I can complete. I'm even going to swatch!

We noticed that the ombre style of dying is really popular. Most of of them were packaged in cakes like this one. The real color is more green-blue than it looks in this photo. It's Coloration from Ogle Design, which is based in St. Francis, Wisconsin. I love the way shawls look when they are knit from these skeins.

And this one was on sale! It is Sweet Feet by Interlacements. Yes, I love wild colors. I think this will make a really fun hat.

My mom was a bit horrified that I bought more yarn. I don't think I've been successful in convincing her that a stash is a good thing!

Way Too Much Wooly Fun

I spent the entire day yesterday at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival yesterday with my friend Suzy, and we had a great time. It was a perfect  September day, blue sky and just cool enough to wear a lacy cowl.

I met Suzy at my writing program this past summer, and this was the longest time we've spent together. We were talking a mile a minute, which turned out to be somewhat of a problem ... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

More and more, I value this event for reminding us of where wool comes from. Animal-sourced yarn is not primarily a manufactured product -- nor is lamb, for that matter. We knit and eat thanks to hard-working farmers. In my last newspaper job, I covered agriculture for Madison's morning paper, and I quickly learned that I could never have made it in farming. No one works harder -- with less job security -- than these folks.

Farmers are also smart -- and often very funny.  This fellow above lives on a farm called Queso Cabeza in Olivet, Michigan. We knew right away that this family had Wisconsin roots because the English translation of their name is Cheese Head (Go Packers!).

 Suzy and I shared so many laughs, one of which involved these sheared sheep:

 I could not help but calling them: Ku Klux Lambs (get it???).  I have to add that I am sure that this is purely coincidence and that the owners are wonderful people.

Also, I enjoyed a few moments of fame. I was standing in line at the Briar Rose booth (yes, there was shopping, but that's another post), and the woman in front of me kept looking at me. I checked my fly; it was zipped. After a few moments, she said, "Do you have a knitting blog?" It turned out to be Chicago blogger (with Wisconsin roots), Jodi of A Caffeinated Yarn! Wow! I can tell you that her little boy is even cuter in real life than in blog pics. '

And one other coincidence. We discovered that Suzy's best friend during her childhood lived in the house that I now live in (she hadn't been to my house, yet). Is that weird or what?

So, back to all that chatting. Suzy and I paid no attention to where we parked the car. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful, because we walked almost the entire parking lot before finding my car!