Knit Camp Recap

I'm sorry for the long silence blog-friends. I sort of flamed out on re-entry.

I was camping. Well, it was more like glam-ping. A knitting friend and I headed out to our third round of what we call Knit Camp. We rented a cabin at a Minnesota State Park. It's pretty comfortable actually with electricity and heat. You just have to walk to the bathroom. Which is a vault toilet. (Think mini biff in a solid little shed building.)

Here's a look at the outside of the cabin. We were in Maple at Lake Bemidji State Park. Even though it's a drive to get there we like the quiet atmosphere and being surrounded by the trees. So peaceful. 

Can you see George Fredrick IX there? 

He had a grand old time hanging out with the spider who lived on the porch, Milicent. 

William preferred to hang out with the drum carder though.

That's my friend's lovely Romney going onto the carder. Isn't it gorgeous? It has a lovely sort of shiny quality in real life. Since it was just the two of us this time we had plenty of space in the cabin so we both brought our spinning wheels and got so much done! It's lovely having no interruptions. 

I finally finished the singles of my Ashburton and even plied it but I will save those pictures for spinning Tuesday as it is still waiting for a soak and twack. 

We ate excellent food, relaxed and had a grand old time. We even slept really well thanks to the memory foam mattress pads we ordered and brought (the provided beds are a little hard for our taste).

We even had our Camp Knit-Til-U-Drop sign in our window. I'm not sure what the neighboring cabin thought!
Of course all too soon it was time to pack up and leave.

The cabin always looks sort of sad when it's cleaned up and we are leaving.
Despite all the relaxation and the great sleep, it was somehow still hard to come back to real life and get back into my usual routine. I was exhausted Monday, Tuesday was struggling with some anxiety which wore me out all over again and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. 

I definitely recommend camping with knitting friend though. It was a blast as usual. 

October Projects

As October winds to a close, I find myself pretty happy with progress I have made in my knitting. I've been a bit of a slacker at actually working on projects and at having a project to turn in for Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC).

This month I decided to change that. I set a goal for myself to turn in two classes and a detention. Detention is a project started before the beginning of the month that you finish during the month. 

I admit that even last week if you had asked me if I would hit my goal I would probably have said it was unlikely. But I went camping with my knitter friends (well, two of them, not all of them this time) and I made some great progress.

I had finished this hat last week. 

It's just a simple ribbed hat knit from some hand spun English Shetland from Zarzuela's Fiber (sadly no longer in business) I started it last month but had the wrong stitch count so I ended up ripping it out, starting over and I got it right this time.

As happy as I am with how it turned out, I'm not a big stocking hat person so this will probably just go to my dear husband. Especially since I have a much cooler new hat that I didn't have to knit! Maybe I will make another post about that.

Anyway, a friend asked me knit a cowl for her sister-in-law. She agreed to pay me and I agreed to knit it. I was plugging along being completely monogamous, which is very unlike me (in my knitting! Get your mind out of the gutter!) But the monogamy paid off and I finished it while we were at the cabin! 

It's called the manic panic cowl and it's completely linen stitch. It turned out great! It was a little hard to hand it over. I would like to knit one for myself but I can't face that much linen stitch again. At least not for awhile.

Just look at the color play on this fingering Malabrigo yarn. 

So, I will be turning both of these projects in for HPKCHC! Very exciting. I'm also working hard on a pair of socks that will be perfect for my detention project. I'm getting close so I'm off to work on them.

June Wrapup

June was a busy month, full of lots of family activities. There was some crafting but not nearly as much as it could have been. I managed to turn in one class for Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup with a handspun blanket square. This is the Mitered Crosses blanket pattern and while I don't love all the ends you have to weave in, I do love the pattern.

I really love how this one turned out with the purple at the edges. This makes the sixth total square and as always when I finish a square, it makes me want to get on the knitting and finish this, I think it will be really beautiful.

You can't really see them all here but you can check out my Ravelry project page if you want more pictures.

I also finished a lovely skein of handspun.

I really love how it turned out. A nice, squishy sport weight. I turned this in for Detention which is a project you start before the month begins. 

Hopefully these will bring some more crafting into focus for me. I'm also participating in a challenge called One Book July for my planner which will simplify my setup and hopefully allow more time for knitting and spinning during the Tour de Fleece. I'm still finalizing my goals for the tour. Next post I'll talk about the wheel spa day, which is cleaning and tuning up I do before a big spin, usually right before the Tour de Fleece, and my goals, as well as go into more information about my setup for One Book July.