Summer to Fall

Well, I'll begin with the Fall because I have a weekly question for the Amazing Autumn Coffee Swap.

The topic is:


I took the above photo in Colorado on my recent mini-vacation. It was about 45 outside, the leaves were crunching, and I was so in love with being there. So this week's topic - what makes a "Fall day" for you? How do you know it's here, and what do you love about the weather, the scenery, or something else that makes Autumn lovely?

The "I" above refers to the host of the swap. I have my own fall pictures :o)


These are from a recent trip to the UP of Michigan. I love the beautiful colors and the crisp air -- being able to wear sweaters and scarves without the heavy withercoat and boots. I love the excitement of the upcoming holidays and... sigh. I love everything about fall. It's my absolute favorite season.

And now onto some of the fiber festivals I went to this past summer (well, August and September).

First, was Stitches. It was a fantastic time as the Knitter's Guild here in town had a bus go down so I was with my knitting friends the whole time. Unfortunately they don't allow cameras inside, so I only have pictures of my extensive purchases. Ha.

I got a lot of sock yarn...

Some yarn to make some fingerless gloves


Some 100% Alpaca yarn for a sweater


And a great deal on a bag of yarn


I also got a pattern for a great cabled sweater, but I don't have an individual picture of that.

I also went to Wisconsin Sheep and Wool and unfortunately forgot my camera. I went with a couple members of my knitting group and we had a fantastic time wandering amongst the booths, looking at sheep, and watching the herding dog demonstrations. We even got to see (and pet!) a day old lamb. I think I want sheep now. I have pictures of teh things I brought home though, so wihtout further ado:

Some more sock yarn purchases. (OK, I admit it, I'm a sucker for red, orange or yellow sock yarn. Now I just have to use some of it, hahah!)


I also bought a few types of roving... some suri alpaca in fawn, some white rambouillet, some black and white Finnsheep, and some dyed merino that reminds me of the northern lights in that it's really dark with splashes of magenta and green. I haven't taken any pictures of that because I haven't put any of my fiber stash on Ravelry, haha.

The prize of the day though was some yarn to knit the February Lady Sweater (ravelry link).



I'm so excited!

The final exciting yarn related thing from the past few months was that I got a spot in the Wollmeise Sock Club! I found out about her when I was living in Germany -- when she was still taking custom orders via email and was barely known here in the US. I love her colorways and so when I heard about the Club, I decided to throw my name into the lottery, not expecting to get a spot. But I did! Since everyone has received their packages (we got them in the middle of September), I won't put up the "spoiler" warning.

The contents:




The knitting needles are size 2.5mm dpns (what I use!) made from the wood leftover after manufacturing cellos! The pattern has twisted stitches and cables to make a beautiful bavarian design. The yarn colorways are of course amaazing... and even better in person. The package was well worth the cost of the club. Now I can't wait for December though!

Well, after that onslaught of pictures I think this posting is done. I'll post again soon though with pictures of the pair of socks I finally finished last weekend!

On and Off the Needles

Well there's been some knitting in the last couple days. I was hoping to finish Tubey this weekend, but I had a little more knitting to do than I thought. This is what it looked like yesterday afternoon when I put it on some waste yarn to try it on...

(Don't mind the pooch...)

Notice anything funny?

Yeah, notice those big things sticking out at the armpits? I guess I made the back a little too long. Oh well. It's looking ok though, and fits a lot better than I thought it would as my first sweater and not using the yarn called for. I definitely need to knit a few more inches though. I want it to be on the longer side. I put it back on the needles and have been knitting on it some more, but still have about 5 inches or so to go according to my measurements.

I also frogged the Snicket Socks. I know that 4 out of the 5 people who took my poll said to try to rework the heel again, but the yarn wasn't standing up to frogging very well.. and I didn't think it would be good to frog the heel another 2 times (4 times total). I'll cast on again for them with another 2 repeats maybe. I'm going to wait until Summer of Socks starts up though.

Lastly, I went to a local flea market today and found some good deals. I got all of this for only 2.50 euro (the 3 50 g balls of sock yarn were 1 euro, and the krug was 1.50 euro)!

It's a nice red color yarn.. and it came with the little reinforcing stuff for the heels! I'm not sure what brand or anything.. Roedel I guess?... but who can pass up 150 g of sock yarn for 1 euro? Not me, that's for sure. Haha.

It Came, It Came, IT CAME!!!!

I was just about to get out of bed this morning when my doorbell rang. I opened the door and was given this:

(OK, so it wasn't open when it was given to me. I was just so excited that I broke into it before realizing this is really something I should blog about.)

It was my Wollmeise package! It came quickly since they just shipped it on Friday. I had seen it on several blogs (Elemmaciltur and Bockstark Knits and pictures from the Summer of Socks Flickr group)and decided that since I was in the same country as them, I just had to have some! (plus my trip to London fell through, so I had some extra cash lying around and never having bought hand dyed yarn I thought it was my chance!)

So I ordered 4 skeins of their superwash sock yarn:

Campari-Orange: Beautiful purpley reds and yellow and orange.

Birkenrinde (Birch bark): Black, grey, and an off-white

Sonne (sun): Bright orange and yellow (it's a lot oranger than on the website and I'm not sure if I like that or not. This may end up in a secret pal gift or yarn swap or something)

Gewitterhimmel (Stormy sky): All sorts of shades of GORGEOUS blues.. teal, navy, azure?

And she even included a sample skein of the thicker yarn in the Zenzi colorway (Zenzi is apparently a common name for a milk cow here in Bavaria and it is grey and brown and cream)

So that was my excitement for the day! I haven't decided what to knit with it yet (most likely socks, but I have no clue as to patterns.. there are many I am looking at). Maybe one will be the first yarn I knit with for SOS '07!

Venice! (and Yarn and Knitting of course..)

Hey!

Venice was great! Well... good. Venice would have been better if had been me and my boyfriend. Or me and anyone but just my brother who thinks a trip to Europe involves sleeping 15 hours a day and once you've seen one canal/bridge you've seen them all. Sigh. C'est la vie.

Anyways, a few pictures (ok, LOTS of pictures... sorry) for your enjoyment.

A view of Venice from the plane. This was taken on the way back, but I figured it was a nice picture to start out the whole "Venice" picture thing with.

Yum. Cappuccino and a chocolate croissant like thing for breakfast. (That is my brother's hand and plain croissant-- boys don't appreciate chocolate--in the background)

Piazza San Marco (AKA St. Mark's Square) from a water bus.

A self-portrait* from St. Mark's Basillica over-looking the square. (*Yes, I had to take a self-portrait because my brother decided that 2 minutes was long enough to look at a famous square.)

Canals are pretty....

Really... they are pretty!

Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal with some gondolas... from a water bus. I know, I'm talented.

The nearby island of Murano is famous for its glass. Below is a picture of someone making a part of a chandelier.

Glass Christmas tree.. in May. But it's pretty!

Close up on the tree.

And now for some knitting... my Snicket Socks managed to come with me! Here they are by a canal in Venice while I was out wandering about after my brother decided to take a 3 hour nap in the afternoon of our 1.5 days in Venice. Sigh. But it turned out OK because it started to rain while I was out (the only rain we had) and on the other side of this bridge I just happened to pop into a store that sold yarn. And I bought some. By the time I was done (only 20 minutes or so) it had stopped raining. I'm pretty sure that was a sign that me and this yarn were meant to be. More about the yarn later.

Yummy pesto and some yummy wine. I had to drink the whole half bottle by myself because it was the smallest size of wine they sold (no glasses!) and my brother didn't want any (sigh again).

Fish stand outside our hotel.. it was really colorful!

New knitting bags! So now I'm up to 5. I already had Germany, Austria and Paris. My boyfriend (C as you recall me naming him... yet I haven't really used it) bought me the Luxembourg one because we had been there before I began collecting the bags and he lived only 30 minutes south by train when he was in France. I bought the Italy one on the trip.

The 2 pretty balls of 40% mohair and 60% Dralon (R) ?? by a company called Tropical Lane. The line is Follie di Colore and it's a blue/purple (more purple than it looks in the pictures). It's really soft and nice.. and was only a little more than $5 for 50g/150m (if that's not a good deal, please don't tell me. I convinced myself I could buy it because I thought it was a good price.... and it was pretty/soft/yummy). I'm thinking a scarf because I don't know if I have enough for much else. Any ideas anyone?

Well I suppose that's all for now. Sorry there's not so much knitting content. I got another repeat done on the Snicket Socks and have knit a fair bit more on the lace scarf (it was my 6 hours in a train to and from a beer festival knit) but the pictures aren't all that exciting (at least not as exciting as Venice!).