Whirlwind Knitting

Winter's here in London, Ontario. It started as rain and now we've got snow, blowing snow, snow thunder, and wet snow. It was a good weekend for staying indoors and knitting.

I've been cranking on the gift knitting. I'm thinking to get it out of the way before December and then I can work on something lovely and relaxing when the Christmas crazies hit. I finished up a pair of traveling socks (the ones I carry in my purse so that I am never with out a spot of knitting). They're great man socks, but I'm so over the black and red color way after the boy's gloves too.

The yarn is ONLine Seirra color, 2.25 mm needles, 74 sts around. K3, P1 rib, standard heel flap and the rib continues down the foot. While the ribbing makes for a sock that will fit a wide range of sizes, it's rather annoying to work after a while. My next traveling sock has a plain foot.

To give myself a break from the black and red, I knit this bubble gum pink number.

This shade of pink will tickle the fancy of a little girl's heart and I'm hoping that the grown up style will give it some chic. The yarn is gorgeous to work, as it came from Doug's own sheep, here in Ontario. The pattern is The Dawn of the Cape, Ponchos and Wraps - A Knitter's Dozen. Not done with the pink I moved on to this raspberry number:

The pattern is the Sofia Cowl from One-Skein Wonders and they yarn is Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk. The yarn is so lovely and soft it was a treat to work with. I picked up one ball on sale for $5 , so the cowl came up a bit short. But I don't care. Someone will love to wear this around their neck.

Then it was time to move into the blues. First with white:

This is a free pattern I found on Ravelry called Fingerless Gloves "Musica". I've sized it up to fit a big fella and my other modification was to eliminate the lice patterning around the cleft note. I wove in my contrasting color instead. It peeks through a bit, but not too much.

To be perfectly honest, I don't like it much. The color work is too big and so it looks clunky to me. The recipient will likely still like them, and they are a quick knit, so I will forage on and complete the other. This is more what I like to see in a mitten:

Another free pattern found on Ravelry, called Hansa Mittens, I am utterly in love with this mitten. It's perfect. The design of it, the simple cross pattern that is easy to memorize yet interesting to look at, and the lovely braid offset by the simple hemmed edge. It's worked in Knit Picks palette.

Just for contrast, here's the two of them together:

Some might say I'm too picky, and others may say I'm not picky enough. For me, it's all knitting. So long as someone will get some use out of the finished product, I'm satisfied. But there are some projects that thrill me to the bone and hitting that sweet spot is the thrill of the week.

Here's hoping there's more thrills in store next week.

S'no Bother

What a mixed up fall we're having. Snow in October, then last week we had sun shine and warm temperatures, now back to blowing cold and grey skies. But it's alright, I pushed through and finished up Luke's mittens in time for a freezing walk to school on Monday.

These gloves are my own pattern, that I'm not even going to try to write up because it's all a blur now. I call them "Snazzy Gloves" because that diagonal on the hand really mesmerizes the eye when worn. Luke was already in bed when I finished them, but I'll try to get him to give me a modeled shot in the morning.

It was a very busy weekend because besides the gloves, I had to take some work home with me. But I still squeezed in some family time and managed to go shopping for boots. During the snow in October, I dug my old pair out and realized that they'll do for walking the dog, but not much else.

I've got hard feet to fit, ladies size 11 or size 10 wide. So I knew needed to shop early to get the best selection. I found a pair at Payless that were cute and almost fit, but sort of pinched on the ball of my foot. The sales lady, bless her, talked me out of buying them. She said, "If they don't fit right now, you won't be happy with them."

So we went to Sears, thinking big store, big selection. We were shocked to discover that they didn't sell any sizes larger than a ten. Jim was very indignant on my behalf.

We cruised through a couple other shoe stores in Masonville Place, but I wasn't prepared to pay $265 for a pair of boots. And the styles were so awful! Suede things with no shape, or sneaker styles that came up the leg all wrapped around with ties. What's with the bondage boots? Anything professional looking comes with spikey heels and skinny legs. Oh, it is frustrating to be a big woman with large feet looking for a sensible boot that fits. So I gave up on women's boots and bought these:

Men's size nine, $79.00. They fit like a dream and I think I'll actually be able to walk in the snow with them. Imagine that!

Froggy came a courtin'...

This has not been a productive week for knitting. Mr. Froggy has called and invited my knits to his charming pond.

First up, the project I was so thrilled about, Cul-de-sac, by Elsebeth Lavold. I tried working it in a cotton/acrylic blend yarn and I don't think it's working out. Just look at the curl:

If this were wool, I'd be confident it could be blocked out. If it were cotton, I'd try to iron it flat. But with an acrylic/cotton blend, I have a strong suspicion that this is how it will lie till the end of time. I still like the yarn, but me thinks it wants to be something else. A garment that doesn't flirt with the curl. "Rip-it, rip-it!" calls Mr. Froggy.

Then last night, I started working on gloves for Luke. He requested red and black as his colors and I even special ordered some red for him from the internet to get just the right shade. Yesterday the cherry red Sisu arrived from the Knitter, so I dashed up to the stash closet and in the dusky light, I grabbed the first dark ball of Kroy that came to hand. But in the bright light of morning, I saw that my haste had made waste. Luke has adamantly refused to accept NAVY and red mittens:

Mr. Froggy has already taken these to his pond and they are no more. But two inches of black cuff have grown onto my needles this morning.


The design is my own, something I scribbled onto a sheet of paper last night that met the approval of my fussy son. So far, the knitting is simple and the design seems striking.

At least when Mr. Froggy comes riding he brings gifts with him. The last week has brought me a wealth of knitting literature.

The magazines were given to me by the friend of a co-worker who is moving and didn't want to move these with her. It was a delightful present to be handed a heavy bag of these great magazines! The old pattern books I picked up at the local library book sale, and the copy of Handknit Holidays I found at Winners for $8.00.

I just can't turn down a cheap pattern book. I'd rather get rid of it later than leave it behind and end up wishing I'd bought it. I must confess to being awful stingy when it comes to buying new books and I think this is the reason why. The good ones stick around and you can usually pick them up a few years later for so much less.

I have two extra magazines that I'm willing to give away since I already own these issues. Anyone interested in them?

Breathe

I was reminded this weekend of the expansion/contraction cycle that a therapist once explained to me. He described how we expand our selves into connection with others or into emotional highs which are then followed by an inward contraction. It's like the tides, or even better, like breathing. Well this weekend I expanded on Saturday and contracted on Sunday.

The expansion on Saturday was due to a shopping trip wherein my very sweet husband bought me an expensive dress to wear to a formal Christmas party. It was his idea, he was delighted to do it and he even asked to come shopping with me and suggested the store to go to. He came into the change room with me while I tried on the dresses. There was one that took my breath away and his too. Even though it was a little more than we had planned to spend, he insisted I buy it. What a rush!! Both of us were giddy and thrilled with the purchase. So that was the expansion.

Sunday was grey, windy and wet. We stayed in, played a board game, read books and of course, I knitted some. I finished up two more Christmas presents this weekend, but was at a loss as to what to work on next. I got grumpy about it, so that was the contraction. I've sorted it out though and I'm thrilled with my next project. Expand.... See? Just like breathing.

No pictures of the dress today. I'll show you all when I get myself dolled up for the actual party. And no pictures of the thrilling new project. I didn't get it started till late tonight and I'm sure it won't photograph well in the dark. Of course, I do have pictures of my FOs. First up, the ubiquitous scarf.

This is just a moss stitch scarf. But the yarn is a mohair wool blend and knit loosely it makes an extra smooshy fabric. Love it!

Then this morning I knocked off a one-skein quickie, which is also a winner!

It's the Cable and Bobble headband from Interweave Knits, 2006. Yep, I even did the bobbles. They sort of looked like little flowers to me, or like jewels in a crown. I used Paton's Soy Wool Stripes and a 6mm needle. I added 4 extra stitches because of the smaller needle size. No gauge swatch for this super-quick project. I really like it. I may have to do another for myself.

Now back to the work week and a thrilling new knit project to take me through it. Yippee!

Hot Stuff

At only twelve years old, my son Alex is hot stuff. So I knit him gloves to suit his personality.

I used the chart from the Hot Rod Socks AKA Olympic Flame socks for the flames. The rest was just designed on the needles. Alex was a very good sport and put up with me shoving a partially knit glove on his hand over and over again. He even put down the video game to try them on!

Pattern: my own - 64 sts around, with an offset thumb.
Yarn: various sock yarns
Needles: 2.50 mm

Alex took the plunge this year and joined Air Cadets. He was enthralled with the idea since he was ten and had every intention of joining when he turned twelve. But when it actually came time to show up, he got cold feet. Jim and I gave him a parental push and made him join, with the caveat that he could leave if he wanted to in January. So far, he seems to be enjoying it.

In September he went away for an entire weekend for survival training and survived. So did we. The only thing that worried me about the survival weekend was not being able to contact him if I wanted to. I'd never been in that situation with one of my children before. Last week he got his uniform and on Sunday he put it on for the first time to participate in tag day, which is a fund raiser for the cadets.

I can't describe the mix of feelings I have over seeing my son in uniform. Pride, respect, worry, all tinged with a rush of mother love. I'm beginning to think that raising teenagers is going to be the hardest part of this whole parenting gig.

Flattery

I'm on a roll designing on the needles these days. Here's a pair of socks I designed and knit for my mother-in-law, Cynthia, for Christmas.

Pattern: Flattery - by me
Yarn: Kroy
Needles: 2.25mm

I'm calling them Flattery because I was trying to imitate Nancy Bush's Latvian patterns. These socks have some ribbing on the back of the upper leg, and a lace pattern that goes from the top to the toes. You can see this design better when they're on the sock blockers.

You can also see how loose they are. My blockers are a medium, so I'd say that these socks are a ladies large, or more due to stretch. Cynthia is diabetic and has arthritis, so it's important to her that the socks pull on easily and are very loose. I'm very confident that these will fit the bill. I think this sock would be great for most diabetics or ladies with large calves.

Now I know someone is going to ask me for the pattern. So here's a quick'n dirty one. I expect you know how to turn a heel and that you have Barbara Walker's stitch dictionaries. If you don't, try the library.


Flattery

First set-up that teeny cuff. Cast on 72 stitches (18 sts per needle). Work 4 rows of K1P1 ribbing. Increase one purl stitch in the last stitch of the last row and move the last two stitches to the working needle.

Next, set-up the calf ribbing and start the lace. You've already got two purl stitches on the working needle, now (K4, P2) to the end of needle 1. On needle 2 and needle 3 work Barbara Walker's Chevron and Berry Stripe. This pattern has a 17st repeat, plus 1 st to finish the pattern. So after doing two 17-st repeats, you should have one stitch left at the end of needle 3. Move it to needle 4. Now (P2, K4) to the last two stitches, P2.

On the next row, start working Italian Chain stitch on needle 1. Continue in Chevron and Berry Stripe pattern for needles 2 and 3. Then back to Italian Chain stitch for needle 4. I knit 3 repeats of the Chevron and Berry Stripe and then switched to stockinette for needles 1 and 4. When I switched, I decreased away one stitch at the center. Then I knit 3 more repeats before starting my heel. I had to decrease away two more stitches, one at each end of the heel flap to get an even 70 stitches for the whole sock.

I prefer a heel flap sock for roominess. If you're doing a short row heel, you may not want to decrease those extra stitches away, so you can get a deeper heel. Knitter's preference. And that's pretty much it. Knit your heel, then the foot, and then the toe of your choice.

I hope that's clear enough. I'll edit it if need be. I don't have any charting software to capture the lace pattern. If I did, then this sock pattern wouldn't be a freebie, ya know?

Identification

Jim and I walked down to the elementary school tonight to vote. As we waited in the hall we read the sign which described the accepted pieces of identification. Jim got to the table first and handed over his driver's license and voter's card. While he spoke with the lady, I looked over the table and noticed a child's knitted slipper, two plastic needles and some rag tags of yarn. Thinking quick I dug into my purse and when it was my turn at the table I waved my sock in progress at her.

"I've got my identification right here!" I said.

She laughed at me. "Oh you smarty!"

Isn't it fun, being a knitter?

Glad to be Alive

The weather today was so beautiful. The color on the trees is intense this year and the sky is a vivid shade of blue. A good day to be thankful for friends, family, food and for feeling fine. Also, I think my husband is thankful for this:

Pattern: Durrow
Yarn: Beaverslide - sale yarn
Needles: 5mm and 4mm for cuffs and collar
Modifications: oh yeah, I made some!

I started with the sleeves and got them both done to the same point. Then I knit the body which was a slog. I've heard good things about Beaverslide yarn, mostly that it softens when washed. It certainly wasn't so soft to knit. But I'm not a wuss, it was the boring ribbing that had me pushing to get it done.

Just before joining the sleeves to the body, I added 6 short rows to the back of the body. Jim is a slim guy so his sweaters tend to ride up at the back due to his shoulders. The short rows are to give him extra length in the back in the same way that many ladies need extra length in their front.

I was going for a modified-raglan/shoulder-strap treatment for the shoulders because I really wanted those cables to come together around the back. I fudged it, and it's not perfectly equal but I did get it together.

I like that it's not perfect actually. Even down to the fact that I twisted both rings and so I've got a little bloop at the grafting point instead of a nice twist. I've decided I don't care! It's unique this way! Life isn't perfect, neither am I, and neither is my knitting.

Then came the neck and having that extra cable at the back meant that I didn't need nearly as much neckband at the back as I did to fill in the front. No worries though, I used some short rows to fill things in and here it is:

It all flows together fairly well and you'd never guess that a knitter was just going crazy on this thing. It's an enjoyable experience to just let the knitting tell you what to do. It flows. Of course, having some technique under your belt is a big help to problem solving.

The sweater hasn’t been blocked in the photos and I’m expecting it to loosen up some. With a busy day of cooking and cleaning today I didn't have a chance to do it yet. Also, as noted above, the Beaverslide yarn I used was a sale yarn and it seems to be different shades of grey. Once I became aware of it, I noticed color changes even within one ball of yarn. I’ve decided that it’s so subtle I’m going to call it a feature. It goes well with my extra cable bloop at the back.

Now the gift knitting can begin in earnest.

Time Flys

I generally try to blog once or twice a week, but I've missed the last couple of weeks entirely. Life became a cacophony of teenage angst, health concerns and stresses rather than the pleasant symphony I'd prefer. My policy for this blog is to always remember that it is a public space, and so for that reason I'm not going to go into a lot of details here. I can say that the teen angst, while painful to watch, seems like a good thing since it indicates emotional growth. And I can also say that the health concerns are minor, since we are monitoring things at a very early stage. As for stress, who doesn't have that in their life?! My challenge is to remember to nurture myself and maintain my connections through it all.

Most certainly there has been knitting. Just this morning I finished Durrow. But it deserves a post of it's own. Instead, here is some more gift knitting completed. A pair of super big socks for man-feet:

And a pair of Fetchings, modified for a different gauge:

I don't like them much because of the curl, so I'd do them differently the second time around. I still think they're gift worthy though. A non-knitter might not care, and a good blocking might sort out the curl.

These Three Gifts

After the excitement of the Knitter's Fair, my brain was buzzing with ideas for my Kauni yarn and I think I've figured out what I want to do.

I really like the Kestrel's Alight motif, but I don't like the kimono design. I don't think it's one I'd be comfortable in or would suit me. What I'm thinking of instead is a pullover, with maybe some side shaping, and a very simple treatment of the edges using the purl when you can method. I puzzled over the side-shaping part for quite some time. I've decided to use a panel, as in the Sandy cardigan, and fill it with the leaf chart. As it decreases to the waist I'll prune out the branches and then grow them back in when increasing.

It's clear in my mind now, and I finished up some gift knitting so what do you think I cast on next? Yeah, not the Kauni. I started Durrow, a sweater for Jim. It was against my first impulse, but Jim's birthday is in November, and he really needs some more sweaters, and it seemed smart to knit grey wool while there's color on the trees and save the rainbow yarn for the dark days coming.

I've got three possible gift items knit up. My favourite, and least likely to be a gift, is these mittens:

Pattern: Komi Mittens by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: various sock yarns, all superwash with nylon
Needles: 2.5mm

I used sock leftovers of Trekking and Doug's hand dyed. I just love the color combo! It clicked. But I ran out of the Trekking so had to sub in some leftover Knitpicks Essential.

I still love these mittens. If I'm desperate, I'll use them for a gift. But even better would be for them to go in the family stash as a back up pair so no one in my house will go mittenless this winter.

I also knit a one-skein wonder scarf:

The ends aren't sewn in so you can see how close I made it. It's a shortish scarf, but the blues are pretty and the pattern is light and airy. See?

I have no idea what the yarn is as I threw it in my bag at the Needle Emporium's Tent sale sans-label.

I also made a Monteagle bag. It was fun, but... Let's just say, mine came out a bit different. Here's my advice to anyone trying this pattern using dish cloth cotton instead of linen: Go up a needle size! Or several! My bag is squat. Still serviceable, oh yes, but wide and not deep.

It looks like someone's idea of a crop top, yes? I screwed up somewhere because I had way too many stitches left at the top, so I totally improvised the handles. It's a working bag though. I loaded it with six big cans plus four regular sized cans and then shook 'em all about to lengthen the stitches. Nothing fell out (thankfully, because a can landing on my foot would have hurt!) Here it is loaded:

It just might be gift worthy.

In other news, some how the handle of my ball winder broke off. I have only myself to blame since I should have put away my toys when I finished playing with them. The good news is that one drop of advanced Crazy Glue seems to have mended the break. I wound six skeins of worsted tonight and it held. Whew!

What I Bought at the KW Knitter's Fair

This year, I took my mother to the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair and we both had a great time! Like many mothers and daughters, we used to be too enmeshed and over the last several years we struggled as I carved out my own space and identity. However the experience was worth it because we've both grown. This trip to KW felt like graduation to me because we both had a really good time.

Buttons by mom.

On our way there, we got a little mixed up and my mother said that she was having trouble being the "NAGivator". Ha! I had such a laugh. Freudian slip much? I have a feeling this term is going down into the family vocabulary.

The Knitter's Fair this year was held in two ballrooms at Bingemans and both were filled with vendors. The crowds weren't so pressing, so it was very pleasant. They had a much better set up for food too, but mom is diabetic so we had brought our own lunch.

We shopped, ate, took in the fashion show and shopped again. Here's what I bought:

This Briggs & Little Sport was on sale for $1.50 a skein. Ridiculous! I'm thinking stranded socks. My mom bought a bunch of the Briggs & Little two-ply. Enough for two sweaters for herself. She's got a very deep frugal streak in her, mom does.

But I was on the look out for the Needle Emporium because I had a coupon burning up my pocket and a long-held dream to fulfill.

That's 720 grams of Kauni Effektgarn. I was going to buy 7 skeins (each one is either 140 or 150 grams) but the nice sales ladies told me I wouldn't need more than 5. So I put two back. Which left me a little more money to spend on:

Yeah, I need sock yarn like another hole in the head. But I love the vintage labels on the Kroy and it was only $3.50 a skein. I need plain sock yarn for those lace and cabled beauties. The Noro was on sale for $11. Too good a price to leave behind, even though I still have extras from the other balls. I have an itch to see what this stuff would look like in a stranded mitten pattern.
The Soak is exclusive to the Sweet Sheep and it has a light citrusy scent. I usually use Eculan in lavender, but Jim doesn't like that scent, so this will be good for washing his sweaters.

It was nice to see friends both near (Nadine, Isa, Kat, Lynn, Catherine and Janice) and far (Connie) and maybe I made a new friend. (Hi Pat from Michigan!) The Knitter's Fair feels like Christmas to me, including the Christmas aftermath of cleaning and recouping. Monday comes too soon.

I Made This!

The Sandy Cardigan was a fun knit and the result fits great! I'd recommend it to any big girl with a big calculator.

I'd read online that people weren't happy with the fit of this sweater and I think I understand why. There are some rather complicated numbers to crunch for this baby. She was a head-scratcher for sure. I had to read the pattern through several times to get the gist of what was going on. Plus, there's the errata to follow.

The other thing I did was to knit this a little tighter then the recommended gauge. I'm assuming that the garter stitch will stretch out. It's a safer bet than hoping it won't. I have less ease than the pattern called for too.


There are some really clever moments in the pattern. I particularly enjoyed the sleeve cap shaping and the neck, where short rows are used to good advantage.

I loved working with the purple acrylic. It's soft, has a lovely heathered tone, and it behaved well during the knitting (which you know the Noro didn't). It looks great in garter stitch!

My mom made me the ceramic buttons and we're both very pleased. She's happy to get a request and I'm happy with how they turned out. They've got embossed flowers, and two shades of purple on them. Thanks Mom!

More on Raising Teens

This past weekend we had some company over and the woman was describing some difficulty she was having with one of her teenage sons. The lad had taken to wearing all black, with the hip chain and dyed his hair jet black. She told us how she put him in his place.

"I told him how he and all his friends are trying so hard to be different that they all end up looking the same anyway!"

It's an innocent enough statement, but what struck me was the tone of contempt in her voice. She seemed proud that she had struck a telling blow on the teen.

Another mother was describing how her 17 year old daughter had spent the summer lazing around, wouldn't follow the rules and was now trying to move in with one of her friends. One friend had bailed on her, so she was trying a different one. This mother told me how she was coming down hard on her daughter.

"I told her, if this doesn't work out, then she'd have to come back home and live by the rules. It's time she straightened up her act!"

Now my boys are only 12 and almost-14, so I have hardly any experience raising teenagers, but both of these cases saddened me. They feel hard, and cold. In the first case, I feel that the boy's need to figure out who he is should be respected. In the second case, the girl should have an opportunity to negotiate what her rules and responsibilities at home will be.

I recently had a talk with Luke (Mr. Almost-14) because he kept acting contemptuously of me because I didn't know his favourite cereal, or which books he'd already read. I told him this:

"Luke, you're right, I don't know you. You're growing up and discovering who you are. I won't know about you unless you choose to tell me. So please don't disrespect me if I don't have all the answers. Instead, talk to me."

Luke understood this and he agreed with it. Though he kind of laughed at the idea of talking with me. ;-)

I read Barbara Coloroso's Kids Are Worth It! when my children were babies and I think that's where I get my ideas about how to raise my teens. My role as a parent is to guide them, not make their choices, to protect them from their own lack of judgment, and to give them responsibilities to live up to in proportion to the freedoms they earn.

Check in with me in 4 years. Let's see if I can hold to it.

A Slice of my September

It's been stressful having the kids back at school. There are so many papers to sign and details to look after. But Luke has settled right into highschool and he seems to be happy. We're so relieved and hopeful too, that he may finally bloom. He's writing, he's interested in after school activities and he seems to be taking a proactive interest in his homework. Of course, as soon as one kid gets his act together, it's the other one's turn to kick up a fuss.

Alex is extremely resistant to water these days. Which is unfortunate, because at twelve, his need to shower has increased. Apparently, I'm an entirely unreasonable mom for expecting him to shower two days in a row. I was quite surprised to get so much resistance on such a trivial topic, but we've hammered out an agreement; if you stink, go shower.

My thrill for the week came from my co-worker Carl. In July we were discussing our pending summer vacations and when I heard he was making a trip to Iceland I naturally mentioned Icelandic yarn. He volunteered to pick some up for me and asked me what kind I liked. I asked for naturally colored laceweight and lo! behold what Carl delivered:

I was gobsmacked, speechless and just about ready to squeal. What a thrill! I wanted to repay Carl his money, so I asked him how much it cost. 920 kroner which he tells me translates into about $12 Canadian. Dudes, Schoolhouse Press wants that much for one ball, plus shipping. What really makes this yarn special for me, is that Carl went through the trouble to get it. Thanks again Carl!!!

I think the Icelandic yarn wants to be a sheep puppet. (Likely held double.)

My Sandy Cardigan is almost done, but I have to wait yet for the buttons. I want to save telling you about it for a future post, but let me just say: It is good. Very good.

I finished a pair of socks.

Pattern: Knotty Pines, from a vintage Patons book
Yarn: MadelineTosh Highland Sock
Needles: 2.25mm

I had no idea one sock is darker than the other. It doesn't matter in the least. The yarn was lovely to work with, and I really enjoy how the color worked up. The pattern was simple to memorize and work. Even though it's a lace pattern, it's not excessive. This pair will be going to Jim. My sock drawer is quite full.

In the cheap thrills department, I found this at my local Goodwill:

I got two for 49 cents each. There's a nice soft halo to this yarn that would be lovely on a pair of mittens. There's something romantic about red wool mittens with a soft halo about them.

Next week I'm looking forward to going to the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair. I expect to see a fair number of Londoners there. I'll be watching for you; give a shout out if you see me. I'm pretty sure I have readers in the London area that I've never met. Please introduce yourself. I'd like a chance to say Hi!

And just to round out this rambling post, I give you vegetable sheep:

A Fair Report

Yesterday was the final day of the 154th Harrow Fair and it was well worth the drive to go see it. The fair has a very strong rural and agricultural background which was evident in the exhibits, events and displays. They had many categories to enter and a lot of creative classes. The children's entries were delightful. There was a great turn out of entries in all categories. Here's what the knitting section looked like:

Yowza! I had entered 5 items and came away with 4 ribbons. The following picture shows my two firsts, one for the Rainbow Lopi sweater and the other for a boy's aran hoodie (it's hard to see the red ribbon over a red sweater).

I took second for the Shetland Garden Faroese shawl and third for my Noro stranded socks. The shawl lost out to a poncho that must have taken a great deal of will power to knit. Its in a chenille yarn and it's just huge! I was told to keep knitting lace because next year they wanted to have a separate category for lace. They thought it was like comparing apples to oranges trying to judge between these two.

Mary Jane, who guided me and helped me through the whole entry process, entered 7 items and came away with 5 ribbons. One example is this beautiful little baby sweater:

Lovely, isn't it? Makes me want to pick up some baby yarn.

On a sad note, the Western Fair is only offering knit classes for children 7-10 and 11-15. I don't understand the rhyme or reason behind these decisions. There's a article in the Londoner that sums up my feelings about the situation, but the article doesn't offer any explanations. It seems that the Western Fair is now an urban fair, with the focus on entertainment, business and products.

Thank goodness for good old-fashioned country fairs. Keep up the good work Harrow Fair!