Tag: KY Fiber Fest

Posted in Completed Projects, Current Projects, Fiber Events

KY Fiber Fest, Tempest, and New Projects

Posted on by mslindz

Last Sunday, Karen, Emily, and I went to the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival. It was rainy and overcast, but we still had a pretty good time. There were quite a few vendors, though less then I had in my head there would be. I was amazed at how much fiber and spinners there were! There was a whole group spinning. I wish I’d taken a picture! There was also a good amount of yarn, alpacas and sheep, and vendors selling non-yarn/fiber things. I didn’t get many pictures because it was icky out, but here are my favorites.

Baby Sheep
Baby Sheep

Alpaca
Alpaca

Pretty Yarn
Yarn

Of course you know I didn’t come home empty handed! I purchased two skeins of sock yarn from MacKintosh Yarns and one skein of lace weight tencel from Weaver’s Loft.

KY Sheep and Fiber Festival (Purchases)
Top: MacKintosh Yarns Celtic Sock in Sumac and Skye Sock in Camo Girl
Bottom: The Weaver’s Loft Yarns of Distinction Tencel Lace Weight

No plans for the lace yet, but I’ve seen their booth at festivals before and have wanted to try this yarn for a while, so I decided to go for it finally. The Camo Girl definitely needs to be socks (fun bright ones!). Undecided about the Sumac, though with sock yarn, can you really ever have enough? hahaha 🙂

I know I just showed this WIP for the first time last week, but look what I finished!

Tempest (Modified) - Hmmm
Tempest (Modified)

It still needs buttons (not going to keep it closed with DPNs forever!), but I have some picked out and I’ll be washing and blocking this tonight. I absolutely LOVE how this turned out. This is the best fitting sweater I’ve knit so far. I love everything about it. I can’t wait to get it washed so I can start wearing it! Even though it’s getting warmer, there are still some cool nights and it stays cool in my office, so I’m sure it will get some use before it gets really hot here.

Tempest (Modified) - Back
Tempest (Modified) – Back

Since I finished the sweater and was in the process of deciding what to knit next, I’ve started working on the Labyrinth sock again. Yesterday I turned the heel and I’m about halfway done with the leg. Here it is two repeats into the chart (I’m on the 5th repeat now).

Labyrinth Sock
Labyrinth Sock

I have to admit… I’m feeling project withdrawal from Tempest pretty badly. I put all my other projects aside to work on this one. I was enjoying the designing of the modifications, the yarn, the colors… everything! For about a week I’d been considering what I want to knit next when I got an email from Interweave Knits about the Jail Cardigan.

Jali Cardigan

I knew I wanted this to be my next sweater with a few modifications. I’d like to make it shorter in length (take off 2-3″ from the bottom) and possibly do 3/4 length sleeves instead. Once I finished knitting Tempest, I started considering my yarn options. I ended up deciding to get Knit Picks CotLin after reading up on it and getting some opinions from other knitters on how it holds up as a garment. My major concern was that the yarn is a cotton and linen blend and that it would be too heavy as a finished sweater. I love Ravelry for this! It’s a great way to find out about a yarn before committing. I ordered the yarn Wednesday morning, it was shipped a few hours later and on my doorstep when I got home from work today! That’s amazingly fast for Knit Picks, especially when there’s free shipping. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that I live in the same state it gets shipped from.

Knit Picks CotLin "Whisker"
Knit Picks CotLin in Whisker

I decided on a light grey for this sweater. I figured that way it would go with all of my wardrobe and I don’t have any sweaters like that yet (though Tempest does go with most of it). I’ve already done one swatch and it looks like I’ll need to go down a needle size, so I’ll knit another swatch tomorrow. I do like how it knit up and washed. I’ve not experienced any of the fuzzing that some people mentioned and it’s really quite soft – softer then I expected. Can’t wait to get this started!

Posted in Current Projects, Fiber Events

Project Updats and KY Fiber Festival

Posted on by mslindz

After finishing up the Camber Cardigan, I was bit by the cast-on bug. I initially decided I wouldn’t let myself cast anything on until I finished the Summer Breeze Vesper socks, but since I didn’t have much on the needles, I cast on for Ishbel in Handmaiden Sea Silk to bring to the Spring Fling with me.

Ishbel
Ishbel

I did work on it a little bit while at the Fling, though since I’ve been home it hasn’t seen much progress. While I was at the Fling, I finished up the Summer Breeze socks, so I decided to cast on my Spring Fling socks. A number of people going to the Fling decided to all knit Vesper socks and take a picture at the Fling, so I decided to use Damsel for mine. By the time I got home after the Fling, I had one sock finished.

Spring Fling Socks
Spring Fling Socks (Vesper in Damsel colorway)

Just before the Fling, I started another sock. I thought it would be good to have something with a little bit of a pattern that was interesting, but simple enough to work on while socializing. I decided on doing the toe-up version of Ampersand using Socks That Rock Lightweight in Farmhouse. I didn’t end up working on it much while at the Fling, but I’ve made it up past the heel and onto the leg (the photo below shows just before I turned the heel). After getting back from the Fling, I worked on this sock while figuring out the details for another project I’m working on.

Ampersand
Ampersand

The big project I’m working on right now and the one that has been getting all my attention is a modified version of the Tempest cardigan. Recently Adrienne (in my knit group) knit Tempest in three colors of Wollmeise and I really like how it turned out. It had been in my queue for a long time, so I decided I needed to make this sweater. I kept trying to decide on three colors of Wollmeise to use, but didn’t think any of the colors I had really went together that well. I had two skeins of Bugga in Faithful Beauty in my stash (which I bought thinking I’d make a shrug or shawl with it), then I caught a Bugga update and got two skeins of Ruby-Tailed Wasp. Once I got the colors together, I knew I had to make Tempest with this yarn. I had the yarn just before the Spring Fling, so I decided I wanted to wait until I took Jared’s sweater class before casting on since there were a few things about Tempest I wasn’t totally in love with: the neckline, that it is knit in pieces and sewn together, and that it didn’t have much of a border/edging.

After an excellent class with Jared where I learned a lot about sweaters, I decided to use the striping pattern of Tempest, go with a gauge I liked that is slightly different then the pattern, add a garter stitch edge to the bottom, change the neckline to be a v-neck shape, and knit it in one piece. I started it on May 1st and it’s been the only thing I’ve worked on. I really love working with this yarn and these colors! It’s been exciting to figure it all out and see it coming together. I’m up to the yoke now and I think I’ll be done with the body of it this week. After the body is done, I’ll do the button band, then the sleeves.

Bugga Sweater
Tempest – Modified

Now that the sweater is getting too big to be portable and I’ve been wanting to jump back in the Socks from the Toe Up KAL, I decided to cast on the Labyrinth socks Monday. I’m using Bigmouth Yarns Buxom Sock in “You’re Turning Violet, Violet”, which is a sock club colorway from the Willy Wonka Sock Club. I like how it’s working up in this yarn. It really shows the pattern well.

Labyrinth Socks
Labyrinth Socks

Even though I’ve got a number of projects on the needles, I’m already thinking about what I’m going to knit once I finish up Tempest. I bought a number of sleeveless summer dresses recently, so I’ve been looking at patterns for shrugs and cropped cardigans. What’s your favorite shrug or cropped cardigan pattern? I’m still undecided on what to knit that will be versatile and go with at least a few of my dresses. I’ll likely need yarn, too, since I don’t have any colors that would match well with any of the dresses I have. What’s your favorite summer yarn? I’m thinking maybe cotton or a cotton blend. I don’t want anything keeping me too warm during the already hot summer months!

This weekend is the First Annual Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival. Looks like I’ll be headed down with some of the gals in my knit group on Sunday. I’m looking forward to going and hoping it’ll stay as nice as the forecast is predicting! If you’re going, leave a comment and maybe we can meet up while there. 🙂