Sheeps and WIPs

(Read, please, "sheeps and weeps".)

Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair
So much fun!

I had never been to a fiber festival before, so I batted my eyes at Adam and we drove out to Cummington with our trusty GPS. The weather was fabulous, and we enjoyed walking around and seeing all the yarn and fiber and petting the sheep.

There were some baby angora bunnies for sale, and I got to pick one up and hug it -- they're so soft and cuddly. They're also a lot more relaxed about being around people than our princess is, which is probably because they have to get used to being held so they can be plucked. I think it would be absolutely awesome to have an angora of our own, but Adam thinks the fur everywhere would be a nightmare. (Our rabbit, Miss Abigail, is a mini rex, so she doesn't have the long outer hairs that make for a good angora, but she is fairly hypoallergenic.)

I bought a super-soft alpaca yarn for a sweater from one of the booths, but I suck at estimating how much I need for different projects, so I realized when I got home that I won't have enough -- I have 650 yards, and for a full-size sweater I'll probably need about 1000. I'm trying to decide if I want to a) email the yarn source to see if they'll sell me another skein or two; b) buy a skein of alpaca yarn from another supplier and make a striped sweater; c) make a cropped sweater and/or one with short sleeves. Decisions, decisions!

On the way home, we stopped at Webs in Northampton, which did not disappoint in terms of size and selection. I got a skein of Dream in Color Smooshy, which I'd never actually seen in person before.

Poor Adam was a little sick of yarn by the end of the day. He's such a good husband.

Millefiori cardigan
I'm probably half-done with the back of the sweater, and I really like it. I found the clam stitch section incredibly difficult, but now that it's done I love the look of it. I hadn't swatched it (bad knitter), so I put in a lifeline and read the directions... and was like, "You have to be kidding me." I held my breath and did the whole repeat, and it looked horrendous, so I frogged it, cursing under my breath the whole time. But somehow, when I did it over, I got the hang of it. I love that about knitting -- eventually things just click and some bizarre set of directions produces a gorgeous result.

Several hats and a cardigan

I finished my lacy cabled cap, and gave it to my friend today. She loves it! She told me she used to have a cap like that, but she had lost it and was very happy to have a new one. I'm pleased -- I picked the pattern because it reminded me of her.


I finished the cap on the subway on Wednesday night, which means I should probably be grateful for the fact that there have been delays on the Orange Line every night for two weeks. (I'm not grateful.)


I'm going to start swatching for my Millefiori cardigan tonight, and I'm hoping to work on it a little in the car to Massachusetts Sheep & Wool tomorrow. (I say "hope" because Adam doesn't like me knitting in the car -- he's convinced that we'll get into an accident and the airbag will propel my needle into my heart, or something like that. He's a worrier.)

My real traveling project is a set of hats for a newborn. I'm starting with a chocolate bunny hat, and I want to make a similar rocket hat (the baby will belong to one of Adam's coworkers), then a lacy hat and a cabled hat, probably of something like my own design. It's kind of nice to make baby stuff, because it's so small that I feel accomplished after a few nights on the subway.

I've been neglecting this blog, but I'm back and determined to use it. I'm going to try to chronicle my crafting on a more regular basis so I don't bore my other blog's audience half to death.

On the knitting end of things, I'm mostly between projects -- I'm almost finished with a lacy cabled hat for one of the techs in the lab, but I don't want to work on it this weekend because it's a nice portable project to take with me on the subway. (Except for the cabling part. I suspect, after trying it, that cabling a hat that's already on 4 DPNs on the subway is the definition of insanity.) I love the hat, but I might end up ripping back to the start of the decreases to modify the cables. We'll see.

In more knitting on the subway news, a girl sitting next to me on Friday evening was noticeably staring at my knitting, which made me uncomfortable enough to drop a stitch. I don't mind people asking about my knitting, or looking over casually, but she was sitting right next to me and was obviously staring. Awkward.

I'm really itching to start on my Millefiori Cardigan, but the yarn is still on a FedEx truck somewhere. I looked through the pattern today, and am slightly apprehensive -- this is definitely going to be the most challenging piece I've ever made, not to mention the biggest.

On the sewing end, I made a table runner from a vintagey lemon print. Next weekend I'm planning to make matching placemats. I'm definitely still a novice sewer, and the table runner is not perfectly rectangular, but I don't mind the obviously handmadeness of it. I also patched two pairs of ripped jeans -- no more sending them to my mother-in-law, who patches them with stiff iron-on stuff! I patched them with pieces cut from an old pair of capris, which matched perfectly and which are already worn soft.

I like sewing, and I'm excited to make myself skirts and handbags, but I don't think I'll ever be as excited about sewing as I am about knitting. Still, now I can make sweaters with skirts to match!