Screw you, internet idleness!

A long overdue update.

I've been busy these last few months.  Busy, and apparently not very motivated to update this blog.  Well, no more!  Here are a few of the things I've been working on lately (some can't have pictures published yet, some haven't had pictures TAKEN yet, oi)

A while ago, I knit the "Great Tube Shawl of 2012" for my sister in law, in trade for some sweet baby clothes (now I just need a baby!)  She sent me a picture of what she wanted it to look like.  The picture didn't get very large, and I couldn't exactly tell how it was made...so I made it up!  She seems happy with it, so I am happy with it :)  I'm even sort of famous-ish in San Francisco for it!  It seems that my sister in law went to a swanky event, where Margaret O'Leary was also present.  In short, she owns several boutiques across the US that specialize in loom knit garments.  She complimented my sister in law on her shawl, and when informed that it was hand knit by moi was suitably impressed.  WOO!  Like I said, sort of famous-ish.  Here is a picture of me in the GTS2012.

Not the greatest photo perhaps, but you get the idea.  There are 2 different types of beads on the fringe, and those were my husband's idea.  The colours are dark grey and dark red, as those are her favourite colours.

I had the opportunity to take a dyeing workshop with Sam of Yummy Yarn Studio.  She taught me how to double knit (and turned me into a double knitting freak!) and I really like the way she teaches and explains things.  Her yarns are a dream to work with, and I figured out why I never ever have a problem winding her skeins into cakes, no tangles or anything!  It has to do with the ties in the skein.  If you are out east this summer, she is taking a trip down to the Twist Fibre Festival, you should take a road trip out there and check it out :)

Here are the yarns that I dyed in Sam's workshop.  I decided to take a step outside my comfort zone colours and just have fun!  I'm very pleased with how it worked out :)

Greens and oranges.  I think this will become a shawlette...

Pink, golds, navy....socks?

Turquoise, navy, salmon.  Looks like a tropical fish.  Socks, I think.

During my blog absence, I also finished a Wingspan.  Voila!

I hadn't yet cut the tails, oops!

Also in this time, I got to go (for the first time ever!) to Old Fibre Week!  This is an annual event held in Olds, Alberta celebrating fibre.  You can take spinning, weaving, and dyeing courses, as well as learn how to judge wool and all sorts of other things.  Of course, they also have a marketplace, the reason I went :)  I went with a few enablers ladies from my knitting group, and I bought:

Oprah's fleece

A yarn bowl!

A darning egg!

And a few other goodies not pictured here: a raw fleece (for a song!) to spin, some prepared corriedale fibre to spin and some luxurious blue silk hankies to spin.  The darning egg is really a present for my husband.  The shaft is applewood, and the egg is maple.  I am knitting him his first pair of socks, and he wears his socks out hard.  In order to entice me to make him socks in the first place, he promised that he would darn them for eternity.  I was a) surprised he could darn and b) surprised he would offer.  So, every good darner deserves an egg.  It's handmade by a local artisan to boot.  I had a blast at this Fibre Week, and look forward to many many more.

My next update will have some more double knitting, I swear!