Stitches Midwest

Again this year, my husband and I drove to Illinois to visit friends and for me to attend Stitches Midwest Market. Since it was just one big shopping extravaganza, there is not much to show or tell about except for my purchases. This year I went on a Saturday and it seemed there were more book signings and demonstrations than I remembered from last year. Pictures were not supposed to be taken in Market, so I can't show you the knitters' paradise.

The picture above shows the patterns I bought- Hum...6 patterns and 5 are shawls. The shawls and shawl yarn just seemed to draw all of my attention.

Below are the "extras" I bought. I needed highlighter tape, so picked some of that up. The Fix A Stitch is a crochet hook gadget designed to make picking up stitches in garter stitch easier www.fixastitch.com. I haven't tried it yet. The silver "thingy" is a clasp for the bag pattern in the top picture.

I have all sorts of knitting bags, but I needed these! The knitting chickens fabric is what attracted me to the left bag. The construction is nothing special, but the price was right. I use my large Nantucket bag all the time, so thought this little one might be handy, too.

On to yarn. The Filisilk is manufactured in Germany and apparently is new in this country. This is lace weight and 70% merino extrafine and 30% silk.



This is from a company I'd never heard about-Just Our Yarn, produced in the USA www.justouryarn.com. Most of their yarn was lace weight  tencel and was sold in kits with a shawl pattern, but they did have the yarn available without being kitted. This one is 100% tencel. The shawls they had on display made from tencel had such a nice drape.

Another blue! This is Lisa Souza yarn 55% silk and 45% cashmere fingering. Romi had a picture of a small detail of her next Muse shawl and it was in a similar color. Maybe that is what this yarn will grow up to be.

This is Miss Babs, www.missbabs.com. Hand dyed sock yarn 100% merino wool. I got to meet Miss Babs which is always fun.

It was fun to meet Roxanne from Zen Garden www.zenyarngarden.com in person. I had communicated with her once when I had run out of her yarn in a project and she sent another skein very fast especially coming from Canada. I belong to her Light and Dark Shawl club and just received the first shipment of that. The purply yarn is Serenity 20, color Gladiolus and is 70% Superwash Merino, 20% Cashmere and 10% Nylon. The blue one is Serenity Lace II, 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere and 10% Nylon color Navy Teal.

The last one is madelinetosh, Tosh Lace. I'm using Madelinetosh in a sweater on the needles and it is a wonderful yarn. The yarn is so consistently dyed even between skeins there is no difference as there often is with hand dyed yarn. www.madelinetosh.com. This is 100% Superwash Merino.

Saturday Sky August 27, 2011

A beautiful day at Stitches Midwest in Schaumberg, Illinois.

More Yarn

This is the Romance kit from Wool Girl. The bag is beautiful-silk. The other goodies not much but I like the yarn and the shawl pattern. It might get made some day.

This is the yarn from the August Zen Garden club-I think it is called Light and Dark Shawl Club. I didn't realize the pattern that comes with it is a mystery-2 clues came out shortly after the yarn arrived. I have too many projects with deadlines right now, I won't be making it for awhile.

Summer

It has been a hot wet summer, but already fall seems to be in the air. The goldfinches are eating me out of house and home. I have to fill the feeder about every 2 days. I have seen some sparrows stealing a meal there too. The desert rose is a desert plant and has enjoyed our summer.

Latest Club Shipments

I've said before, I love yarn clubs! Here are my latest shipments.

Above is Romi's Pin and Shawl Club. Love the pattern and the yarn. And notice the unusual pin.

Cookie A's Sock and Cookie Club. The yarn is A Verb for Keeping Warn labeled sport, but it seems to be knitting up at a fingering gauge. I have started the sock on the left.Not only does this club have 2 sock patterns, but it has 2 cookie recipes also.  Off hand I don't know what the cookie recipes are, as I'm trying not to have things like that in my house.

I do not belong to Wool Girl's Sock Club any more, but I do order special shipments like this Ice Cream themed one. It is OK, nothing special. I think the yarn is Zen Garden which I've used before and really like.

Yarnista/Three Irish Girls. I love this blue yarn but I'm not crazy about the slipper pattern that came with the club. In this club you get a choice of similar colorways of yarn. It is always fun to choose, then I forget what I ordered so it is still a surprise.  Each month an extra is included and this one included a $5 credit at Pulling at Strings www.pullingatstrings.com so I got the shawlette pattern by Alana from the Never Not Knitting podcast which I enjoy listening to. Hum, maybe the Wool Girl ice cream themed yarn will work for this shawl. 

Live Oak Shawlette

Many times I've looked on Ravelry to see people's pictures of how they have blocked their shawls. It is often very helpful-Thus, here are my pictures.

Pattern: Live Oak Shawlette from KnitScene, Fall issue. The digital magazine came out a couple weeks before the printed magazine did, so there was quite a discussion on Ravelry and people trying to persuade me to get the digital version. Believe me, I almost did, but would rather have the printed version. The day the magazine was released, I had a couple hours to kill, so went to Barnes & Noble, purchased the magazine and a cup of coffee and sat there and knit. The problem was, I read the pattern wrong, so had to rip it all out and start again.It was hard going to a group and having to knit on something else-had to wait for evening. (It was a charity knitting group.)

Yarn: Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock, colorway Padraig.
I added one pattern repeat of Chart A doubling the lace pattern.

Maile Sweater

I thought this was the cutest baby sweater. The bottom yellow one is done as the pattern is written, except I exchanged the raglan decreases-SSK for K2tog and K2tog for SSK. The other 2 added the pattern to the sleeves and I did all the increases after the garter stitch cuff rather than tapering the sleeves. To make it easier to join the sleeves to the body I put 4 underarm stitches of both the body and sleeves on yarn and grafted together when finishing.

Maile is a fragrant vine endemic to Hawaii, and it is traditionally used as a kind of very special lei. The lei is traditionally worn open, draped over the shoulders, and the leaf pattern in this sweater echoes that.

Pattern: Maile Sweater from www.whattoknitwhen.com

Yarn: (Green Sweater) Milk by laines du nord-63% Merino extrafine unshrinkable, 30% Milk Fiber, 7% Cashmere.

(Yellow Sweaters) Dream in Color Smooshy. Almost got both sweaters out of 1 skein. I did make the body of the all yellow one a little longer as my gauge was off.

Needles: US #4

Lazy Katy

The construction and shaping of this shawl made me do it! The coloration of the yarn added to its appeal. The pattern is called Lazy Katy and the yarn is Marks & Kattens Fama Trend and I used about 400 yards. The finished measurements are 58 X 28 inches. It was a simple knit so a good pattern to be knit in public.

Saturday Sky August 06, 2011

Another hot and humid day.

Spent yesterday and today basically coming and going on this road from home to Milwaukee for the funeral of my cousin who died suddenly at age 69.

Got some knitting done in the car, but also did half of the driving. I'm working on a sweater which uses 2 sizes of needles in the yoke, so when I got to the place to change needles, my other needle was not in my knitting bag! My trusty phone app told me there was a yarn shop in Eau Clair, 20 miles ahead, so with the phone GPS we had a scenic tour of Eau Clair, right to the door of the yarn shop. Yellow Dog Knitting, a lovely one!  www.YellowDogKnitting.com (Yes, Christine, I did see a yarn shop!)