Posts (page 2)

The shopping list for Fiber Fest continues.  (Whenever I refer to it thusly, the Muggles think I'm off to eat bran flakes and study colonics.  *sigh*)  I invite you to check out the event site.  I will grant the website sucks.  But the shopping is absoTOOTly fabulous.  Compare the vendor's list with SOAR.  So, since Fiber Fest is closer for me, AND has more goodies.... enough said.

List includes:  Merino/Tencel sock yarn (Socks that Rock Seduction, for preference)
                     Yarn to knit Chateau Marnier for Mom for Christmas
                     Cashmere yarn for Wine and Roses gauntlets for Mom for Christmas
                     Row Counter bracelet
                     Stitch markers
                     More Lanaset dyes to play with
                     Cutesy tidbits to squirrel away for Secret swap type stuff
                     Whatever strikes my fancy and puts me over budget.

So we'll see what I actually come home with.  I'll bring along the yarn requirements from "The Secret Garden" from The Children's Collection by Jade Starmore for the Muffin, just in case.

Maybe I'll even get a little jumper weight shetland yarn to play with fair isle knitting, if I see a good deal.

Rethinking the patterns/sock yarns....   I think I'll try to get the Harry Potter spell-themed pattern out of my head and onto paper.  And I think I might use it for the next Hogwart's Sock Swap.  If it goes well, I might try to put it up as a .pdf.  I'm not sure how that works, but I suspect I'd need an actual website with a shopping cart function.  Still, it's a pipe dream with legs.  The one running 'round in my head seems to want to be called "Stunning" and has a wand emitting sparks.  Maybe I'll dye some yarn that has black, with a blending repeat of deep cobalt, blue violet, royal purple, red violet, and red.  *ponder*

I often daydream (usually when behind the wheel - beware) about what all I could get done with all the time in the world.  Lately, shopping for sock yarn has brought me a new musing.  If I had the time and facilites, I've all these ideas knocking around in my head for themed sock-of-the-month club offerings.  Maybe I ought to just start on working out the pattern designs in case I ever get it in my head to try.  Currently running laps in my cranium are a "Famous British Queens" series - featuring Boudicca, Grania Mor, Eleanor of Aquitane, Anne Boleyn, Mary of Scots, and Victoria; "Fairytales" - with Rapunzel, the Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, Rumpelstilskin, Snow White, The Tinderbox, and Patient Grizelda (options for a 2nd series also leap to mind), and one based on various spells from Harry Potter.  Those I haven't narrowed down yet.  So, look for these to come to at Etsy shop near you - in my next life.  *sigh*

I'm setting up a new blog here to use for various exchanges, knitting content, and other crafty things.  That way partners in secret pal exchanges aren't forced to slog through personal stuff or re-enactment based posts, and friends and fellow re-enactors and forced to wade through my progress on my "Falling Leaves" socks, etc.  For anybody interested, my "other" blog is at this location.

Later on I'll post pictures of said socks.  And I'm busy making my shopping list for Fiber Festival.  I think I'll be half-way intelligent this year.  I'm going to inventory what dyes I have, and which I think would be most useful.  So I'll have to page back through "Color in Spinning."  And I'll bring along yarn requirements for a few of the projects I'm thinking about making.  That way, if I see something suitable, I'll know how much I need.  Though I do want sock yarn.  That's my "buy whatever looks pretty with no regard to usefulness" item.  I'll let myself get whatever strikes me.  Beyond that, I want some hand-dyed worsted weight for a baby hat.  And possibly enough tweedy yarn in a color that moves me to do "The Secret Garden" coat for Her Imperial Cuteness.

I must say, that while I love the Starmores' patterns, I don't really care for their attitude toward knitters in general.  So I'm in no huge hurry to put any more money in their pockets.  Therefore, I'll probably knit some of the designs in "The Children's Collection" and "The Celtic Collection."  But I'm darned sure not buying the yarn packs from them.  I'm still kicking myself for not buying "Tudor Roses" when it was at my LYS.  If ever I happen across it for a decent price, I'll still pick it up.  At some point, once I get a chance to invest in a spinning wheel, I'll be able to spin yarns myself, and not sorry about trying to find commercial substitutions.

I also preordered a couple of books:

Romantic Hand Knits