Spa 2011

Yesterday I went to Spa IX in Freeport, Maine. It was so much fun! Thank you Lynne for taking me. There were tons of people there ... I was so impressed by how many people came up to see me that I didn't recognize until they said their names, and then I recognized their names from their posts to the New England Textile Arts mailing list. It was very good to be able to see many old friends! And it was good not to have to be working!!! 

Heh heh.

I was fortunate to meet up with Cindy who did a demonstration of spinning one-handed for me! Hi Cindy! It made me realize that the way I am doing it is correct, so I think I'm going to keep on spinning after all. I stopped because I didn't know if I was doing it right, but now I think I am. Plus Jim of Good Karma Farm gave me a little bit of pin-drafted roving that I'm gonna try. It's evil of him too, because if I do spin it and like it, I'll buy more :) and I'll probably love it!

The only two things I bought were a skein of Good Karma Farm's Secret Sheep blend yarn (pics later) and a pattern from Springtide Farms that I supposedly have, since I got it at last Spa, but I can't find it. Now before I go madly off to start two new projects, I better go finish some others!

Two New Goals

First, the Endless Mohair Scarf is done! In the words of Natasha (of Boris and Natasha), it is soft and cuddly like kitten ..... 

 

The chocolate is just because.

The other major goal is I got the Mystery Sock Family Jewels Sock #1 done, AND I have started sock #2, no small effort there, because doing Judy's Magic Cast On with only one hand and starting knitting on it one handed is a real pain in the ass. However, I will probably do it more often, because I will get better with practice, and it is a little less of a pain in the ass than grafting is one-handed. Sigh. I remember when none of this stuff used to be hard. Here's pictures:

It took me probably an hour to finally get this little bit cast on and knit. I don't even want to tell you how many tries and rip-it-outs it took me.

Pretty :)

The bind off technique is Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off, which you can find here. I don't think I've done bind offs in quite this way before, and it is a good bind off for a toe up sock. I think I'll use it again. I've learned so much making this sock!

Almost Done!

Clue 5 is downloaded and I'm ready to begin! Then I'll be 50% done, lol. I wonder how long it will take to knit the second sock?

Anyone?

Is anyone on Twitter? I just started it up again. I'm Beth8717 if you want me :)

I'm Done Clue 4! One More to Go!

Clue #4 is done!

        

Now that we're past the heel, I have to put both front and back photos in :) The back is nice, but there's a lot of k1 p1 ribbing, and you know what? That's probably harder for me than anything else. I'll stand back while you admire this and say "awww".

Chorus of voices:   "Awwwwwwww."

There. :) I wanted to show that there were no holes on my Fleegle heel, whch is shown here with a little of Wendy Gaal's flair throne in:

The Fleegle Heel is a simple short row heel for toe-up socks made popular by Susan Glinert Stevens, [Ravelry link] known as Fleegle over on Ravelry. She has a good explanation on making a short row heel with no holes, one that is easy and fun to do. I'll probably use her toe-up sock pattern on my next socks.

Finally, here's my other sock which I will now go to work on while waiting for Clue 5:

 

 

Knitting and Books

First, I've been knitting a little.

Mystery Clue #3 of the Family Jewels socks is done:

    

That's the beginning of the heel gusset on the left. I've never done this heel before; it's called the Fleegle heel, and it's supposed to be easier than the short-row heel, which it is so far. I really don't like short-row heels because a) they're hard to hold together and make gigantic holes on the sides which you have to stitch together after and b) I always get little holes on one side,  I dunno why. Maybe I'm just crabby because it's early in the morning and my coffee is cold and Clue #4 isn't out yet, but I really don't like short-row heels, with the exception of garter stitch short-row heels like Lucy Neatby does. They never show the holes. But then, I've never studied her sock video, so she probably shows how to avoid the holes in stockinette stitch too.

Nicky's patiently waiting for Clue #4 to come out too.

    

In the meantime, I started another pair of socks with Toefutsies in pretty Easter colors of lime green, dark purple, robin's egg blue, and pink.

And I did a little work on the random number scarf.

Suddenly I have a lot of books I'm reading. One is The Fiery Cross, the Diana Gabaldon book, but I'm tired of the series a bit, need to take a break.

Then I started Guardians of Ga'hoole: the Capture, by Kathryn Lansky, about talking owls that live in a fantasy world. I haven't got far.

I recently started The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, by Sam Harris, my non-fiction fix. 

And the one I most recently started, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind, which is apparently not available on Amazon anymore, but it was when I bought it.

Now I'm going to watch two more episodes of Lost and then take a nap.