A Good day out

Well, today was my day at the Fibres West festival. I was super glad to be there, and tried to do my best to volunteer at the guild table, but I honestly ended up walking around for ages with my girls! YAY! Jane, Julia,  Aimee, and Anna. Thanks ladies.
It was a great day! Food was awesome, and of course there was yarn!
This was one of the free pass days that I am allowing myself this year.

Aren't they lovely!? I am super happy. I used all of the yarn I purchased last year, so I thought that this would be a good idea. I hope I am right! I can't wait to use it! Malabrigo, Indigo Moon, Sweet Georgia and West Coast Fiber Works. Yum.


Can't wait to show off some finished objects too. I am so close to being doen two sweaters, I was unhappy with the collar on one, so I am reknitting it. Socks, and fingerless gloves are on the needles too. Were you at the show? What did you get? Yarn Harvest is the next thing for me to save for! Sweet.

Hello... how are you?

Hi there! Busy long weekend in the works? Not for me.
At least, I hope note.
So far this morning I was at 88 Stitches for a nice sit and stitch with the owner and a pal of mine. Lovely muffins and coffee on a blustery day.
Then on my way home I stopped in at a favorite nursery for potting soil and two new house plants.
Now I am blocking shawls, blogging and spending sometime getting back on line. I seem to be exhausted when I get home from work lately, so I avoid the computer altogether ..... but hey, What can I say. I really want to see what everyone is up to so I really can't stay away. LOL

So news. Fibres West was a great day last Saturday. Jane has a great little synopsis on her blog ... go check it out. There was a great vendors area, althought no presentations that we wanted to see while we were there. Lots of local yarnies, and some great hand-dyers.
We saw some friends grabbed some lunch and spent some money. I wish I had planned a little better, last year I had notes on the patterns I was intrestd in and the yardage i would need..... not so much this year. I was just happy to have some time out with the gal pals.

The Three purchases.
One: Soak Unleashed I was out of wool wash, and this was at a booth, YAY!

Two: Sweet Georgia's Silk Crush Sock Yarn ..... yummmy. The color is named "Saltwater" and this photo does not do it justice. It is beautifully deep and a lighter shade of blue. Not softer, just lighter, if that makes sense.

Three: Licorice twist from Unwind Yarns, which I have been stalking for a year. I wished that I had bought it last year and so this year I found it and took it home.

I was wearing my completed Central Park Hoodie! YAY  I finally finished it. I love wearing it! It Is so warm and comfy, so I am considering making a second ..... we shall see.

I have started a new sweater and I am not really  along enough to show it off, so I will save that for another day. In short it's a design by my friend Jane, mentoned above, called Sedum. I did have much in my stash that would work for it, so I was doing some swatching, and  finally settled on a yarn that I already own. That makes the process way easier, so I started, and I am almost to the arms which makes it just a strip of knitting at the moment. As I said pictures when it is a little farther along.

Hope you are well and getting up to something that intrests you. I look forward to reading about it. I think my next post will be about something neat to get up to on rainy days......

I have knitting!

Another update and another Baby Suprise Jacket!

Seriously!

I do love the versatility of these little things.... I am spreding the good word, especially to knitters who have very little "pattern" experience, this is all knit... and a few tweaks! I am hoping to get a few people knitting these little jackets, even if they are feeling like they don't have enough experience..... nonsense. They are fantastic!

I decided that I wanted to understand a bit more about the stripes that I have seen on various scrap, leftover BSJ's I wanted to understand how the striping would travel if I knit two strips of colour at the begining and one near the end. The results were the front

and the back.

I have this one on the needles now, where I began with one colour and I am obviously using some leftovers from another colour to finish up. These two experiments have been fun, and still quick to knit.... I do have a bit more to weave in however....

I have a progress shot of the back of the Central Park Hoodie. I think it is going very well, but because it is supposed to be a KAL and the others are not begun, or knitting as much as I am. I have only been knitting this on Knit nights. I think that I will have to speed this up though, as much as I am intrested in KALing with them, I do want to wear this sweater... that is the goal for me. I may have to knit a bit more during this weekend. Maybe finish the back, and begin a front. Who knows, I may not even get to it...

I do enjoy the way this is looking though, and I think that the others will too... I do know that it is knitting up fast for me, and that is always a bonus.

I guess I am just to impaitent to be knitting for me, and I do like the product at the end!

I am very close to being complete the hunters vest, I will be re-measuring for length tomorrow (or tonight) and hopefully binding off so that I may steek..... I think I really just have to bite the bullet and do it. I am knitting with wool, and some people don't even re-inforce the knitting with wool, as the fibers grab naturally. We shall see, I promise pics and a report.

Fibres West was this weekend, a few girlfriends, and my Mom went with me on Friday night. I picked up some fantastic New Zealand wool, at a great price from Twist of Fate. It is a chocolate brown colour, so now all I have to do is decide what pattern I want to use with it.

The festival was smaller this year than in years past, but as this is the first year that it has a new group at the helm, that is totally to be expected. I still enjoyed the booths, and obviously found some goodies. In this economy I really feel that supporting the local vendors is important! Hopefully next year there will be more, I wonder if they will need a planning comittee, I should try to volunteer!

So here are some fur baby shots.....

Sam

and Simon....

they are so cute, and still growing! awwwww....

good weekend gang, can't wait to give a better update with more FO's!

Wow, thanks gang!! Contest winner and info from Fiberfest!

Hey there, thanks! I appreciate you stopping by and taking time to comment on my 100th post, those of you who did. It is Sunday and I have pulled all the names, The contest is over.

LOL I know everyone loves a good contest, but I hope you will pop back in from time to time to see what I am up to and let me know what you think! I am going to do my best to check out everyone's blog too!

So I know what you want to know.... but I think I have a trick or two up my sleeve first!

Yummy Alpalca Sock yarn! mmmmmmmm my Fiberfest indulgence! Georgeous no?

LOL, okay so that was a bit odd, but hey... I am lacking sleep today. Totally forgot about the time change and we were out late last night (like 3:30am) and we had to be up and out of the house for 8:30. Not much sleep! Forgive my over the top-oddness! LOL Besides I am super excited to announce it, and I will tell you about Fiberfest once it is over! LOL

The winner of the hand-knit purse is sharon rose of Needlegrrl and because so many people responded, I puled a runner up too! kathy of Irisheyes come on down..... LOL

So if you can both send me an e-mail to tiggertoo50(at symbol)hotmail(dot)com So that I can get these goodies off to you. That would be great! or if you would prefer, I am Silverilix on Ravelry too. YAY!

So I did go to Fiberfest in Abbotsford this weekend. Yesterday was a fun one with my frined Aime and Tiz. We had a great time, fondled tons of yarn and actually all stayed within our goals and guidelines! YAY! I am so proud of us! So I guess you may want to know what idea I took in with me to prevent me from maxing my cards out...... okay.

I decided to make a plan, this was it.

Take two patterns that I am intrested in making for spring/summer tops.
Purchase only yarns that my LYS (as awesome as it is) does not have available at the moment.

Stick to lighter weight, renewable resource fibers like bamboo, hemp, linen, and (*organic) cotton. (*if possible) This way the top will be light and weather appropriate.

Buy sock yarn only if you have no way of obtaining that type, or handyed in the next year.

Check out how I did!

So you have seen a bit of the gorgeous sock yarn from Wild Geese Fibers (I think I can see my skein from here............) , and here is a larger image it is amazing, Barb was kind enough to spend some time with us and explain all the lovely things she had! As I said this is Alpalca Socks and the reason that it is a more subtle colour than many of the ones she shows in her own images, is this starts out as a grey fiber and she dyes over that natual grey tone. This make the colours more heathered. She had some fantastic colours in the sock yarn made with merino and mohair! Super vibrant! Only one skien of each colourway, I had to snap it up.

I also picked up some Spun Bamboo by "Bamboo Textiles" from the fantastic Langley Yarns & Craft Thanks Barbara. She was so kind as to let me know that if I really enjoyed it and wanted more, she would be happy to order more of the colour I wanted in! YAY! This stuff is super soft and subtly shiny. I can't wait to make Rusted Root out of it! It was really affordable and each ball has 280yards! So four allows me enough for either top that I considered.

Yes, it really is that blue! I adore it!

My final purchase was for some cotton from Twist of Fate Thanks to Erynn the proprietor! I was suprised to see that she didn't have much on her website, because her booth was probably the second or third most full at the Fiberfest! She has intresting fibers, and amazing colours all over the place!Illuminating Soul's Aime bought some fantastic rayon that se picked up using the gift certificate she won! I hope she posts it is a beautiful subtly verrigated terra cotta colour.... the colours of pots that have been out in the garden all summer. It was beautifully soft, I can't wait to see what she makes out of it.

I picked up some lighter weight cotton for a great price! No seriously these are major cakes! The yardage is aprox. 600 yards each! I could knit it double stranded or single and I would be happy!

So either I can make another top or I can change my plan and go for a shawl. YAY!

So that was my adventure at Fiberfest I have more to share about my weekend, but I will stop here.............. no reason to get overly wordy! LOL

Thanks again for all the attention, it does a body good! Have a great week, and I hope your weekend was as productive as you wanted!