Wolkig on the Needles

Sometimes a new project is just the thing to get you out of a knitting funk. Well, I decided that was just what I was going to do and a beautiful skein of yarn lying around with my stash happened to catch my eye.

It's a beautiful skein of Ella Rae Lace Merino. I realized I  hadn't uploaded it into my Ravelry stash yet so I did that first. That's something I'm trying so hard to keep updated and this was purchased in 2015 so that's pretty sad. Then, I wound it into a beautiful cake.

I just love how the colors look together and working with it reminded me why I love this yarn so much! It's round and bouncy and beautiful.
I decided to cast on Wolkig by Martina Behm. When I first saw the pattern I wasn't immediately called to it but seeing one in person at Knit Night that a friend was knitting convinced me.
So I cast on and got going. I knit what felt like a ton of rounds on it and it still didn't look like much.

Just a loop. But if I straightened it out, you could start to see how it was shaping up.

I think the way it curls really hides the amount of work you've put into it. Add that to the fact that the simple pattern is repeated 4 times around and it makes you feel like you've knit much more than you actually have.
I decided I wanted to make some serious progress on it so I sat down and really worked on it. Then it looked like this.

Now you can really see what's happening with it. Of course, after this I dropped a stitch and because of where it was and how far it went down, I couldn't get it picked back up and I had to take it off the needle and pull out about 5 rounds to get it back to a point where I could pick up the stitch. Super annoying but I've got it on again and I'm going again.
The pattern is really fun. I love how simple it is so you don't have to think about it too much but yet it isn't so simple that you get bored either. I hope I still feel that way in 100 yards.

Niggling Things

Oh hello there. I seem to have allowed my little blog to fall by the wayside once more. I'm sorry about that. Things have been so crazy and I've been struggling to hold everything together. Then our bunny died. Then our Guinea pig died. It's been rough. 

Honestly I often find myself coming home and just sitting there or playing with my phone rather than crafting. But I miss it. Just like I miss my little blog. So I'm going to try once more to pick this up again.

Since today is Tuesday, let's talk spinning. 

I recently went to a Knitting event put on by some of my local Knitter friends and sat next to a friend who was spinning the most beautiful fiber. It was from Pigeonroof studios and I just loved how the white spaces blended into the singles. It reminded me of some yarn another friend had spun that I adored. It had similar white spaces on the Superwash merino. The yarn came out mottled gray and beautiful with just a few spots of brighter color. I loved it.

Well, then an opportunity presented itself to buy some Pigeonroof studios fiber from a destash. I jumped on it. 

I got this one: whirligig and

This one. It's called Collusion and with the pops of purple I thought it would blend and smooth into a beautiful grayish yarn with pops of color. 

So, of course, I had to start spinning it right away. I chose to use my electric spinner because I know Superwash Merino can be slippery and I thought the even tension and intake would help me be consistent. It seems to be working, although it does want to spin very fine so I have had several breaks. 

I finished the first bobbin two weeks ago. 

I am loving how it turned out and I can't wait to see how it looks plied up. I've been trying to make an effort to spin the second half of the fiber. Now that Tour de Fleece is coming up fast, I'm hoping to get it done and plied before that starts so I can have the bobbins back.

I have 3 for my electric spinner and I would like to take it to our all day spin-a-thon kickoff party so I would like to have the bobbins cleared off and ready for it. 

I haven't set any specific goals yet but I'm planning to dig through my fiber stash and make some plans on what I would like to spin at least. 

I made a concerted effort to log in all my new yarn and fiber today too so that is all caught up and not niggling in the back of my brain. It feels good to get these things going again. Here's hoping I can keep it up. 

Necessity and Invention

I'm sure you've heard the expression "necessity is the mother of invention" right? Well, this week I experienced both. 

I decided to make something in the most scientific way (not even close). I started with a cardboard box I had to wrestle away from my cats. They were trying to jump in it as I was taking it.

I also used some very old aluminum knitting needles that I never use anymore. (Why are these still in my house?) 

Here it is about halfway through. Any ideas yet? 

Very hopeful! I think it will work.

See, what I didn't tell you and probably should have, is about my new tool. 

I've been thinking for some time about an electronic spinning wheel or e-spinner. Not for any reason other than I like to sit with my feet up either in bed (my favorite snuggly spot) or on our couch which reclines. Especially in the winter when our floor is cold, I find myself not spinning much at all and I miss it so much! So I started doing some looking around and found some very nice but spendy e-spinners. That slowed me down quite a bit, imagining trying to save up for one for ages. Well, then my husband mentioned that he would like to get me a "really nice" birthday gift to make up for the lean years when I barely got any gifts. He mentioned jewelry which, don't get me wrong, I love jewelry but I don't need anything too fancy. I still have nightmares about losing my wedding ring! Just about that time I found a reasonably priced e-spinner that seemed like it would be perfect. 

With a little persuasion (and ordering it myself) I ended up with a lovely new tool for my fiber crafting.

Isn't she beautiful? This is the Heavenly Handspinning Vespera with the hand control. 

Well, to keep the cost down and also thinking I could make something else work, I decided to order just the spinner and not the lazy Kate. The trouble was, once the e-spinner arrived I realized just how big the bobbins are and just how much they would not fit on my Schacht Lazy Kate. 

So I resolved to work out some sort of makeshift Kate until I can purchase a nicer one. (I think I would like to get an Akerworks Kate, they seem really nice and would be so portable and work with my Schacht bobbins too.) 

Well, time passed, as it's been known to do and I hadn't set anything up. Which means I was kind of stuck. It came with 3 bobbins which is a good amount but I spun up some quick fiber just to get a feel for it, intending to do one of my quick and dirty 2-ply yarns with it but then I started a new spin on the third bobbin. The first two just sat there. It was high time to at least wind them off so they could be plied right? But I still hadn't set up a Kate. 

That leads me to today.

Hooray! A very unscientific and temporary solution. But a very good example of necessity being the mother of invention! Now I'm off to wind these singles off and get these bobbins back.

Onward I Knit

I managed to finish my Disco Superfly socks the other night at Knit Night.
I really love how they turned out.

They're just plain socks knit on size 0 needles with 80 stitches around. The fun is in the yarn which was a special Knitterly Things anniversary colorway with 12 stripes! It's sparkly too. I actually reversed the order of the yarn so it would stripe opposite on the second sock but I found that it has so many colors it's not noticeable at all. I love them though and I can't wait to actually wear my new sparkly socks!
I've been loving the plain socks lately and especially the plain, stripey socks so as I was getting close to finished with my Disco Superfly socks, I wound up a nice, springy skein of Vesper in the Iris in Bloom colorway. I finished the Disco Superfly socks on Tuesday evening at Knit Night and cast on the Iris in Bloom socks on Wednesday afternoon.

These will be my plain purse socks that I drag around with me and work on when I'm out and about and have a few minutes so they won't get a lot of action but will eventually be some lovely socks.
Same details on these as on the others. Size 0 needles, 80 stitches around, 15 rounds of 2x2 rib at the top, probably the same slip stitch heel as well.
I kinda feel like I'm in a knitting rut since I just keep knitting plain stripey socks but since I also keep buying stripey yarn, I don't see that changing any time soon. So, I'll just keep knitting onward! At least the colorways are different right?

Deterrent Question

I have a quick question for you. I know, I know, I don't normally post on Sundays. But since I've been slacking on getting anything out there, I thought I should get to it.

What is the one major deterrent for you when starting a new project. I know some people really struggle with picking yarn from their stash or choosing a pattern. So what is it for you?

For me it's this:

Trying to turn a beautiful skein of yarn like this:

Into a useable cake and I get yarn barf that needs to be untangled. So frustrating. It makes me want to just take a scissors to it. 

Casting On

I made it to the new month without casting on a new project so I'm very excited to start something new today! I chose this partial skein leftover from a gift knitting project to knit something for myself.

It's a nice, soft blue. Almost a Tiffany blue but muted with speckles in soft brown. As its a smaller skein since I used part of it already, my plan is to knit some shortie socks for the summer.

I'm thinking this is begging to become Rose City Rollers. I have 80 g of yarn remaining which should mean I have 347 yards remaining. That's IF I did the math right and it's entirely possible I did not. But that should mean I have plenty of yarn to knit some shortie socks. 

Here's to hoping that I will get some knitting mojo back with a fun, quick project like this.

Super Slacking

I feel like it has been a ridiculous amount of time since I wrote a blog post (which it has) as well as a ridiculous amount of time since I actually completed a project. That's pretty true too.

Normally after the rush of gift knitting at Christmas, I am so excited to cast on something new for myself and I will knit happily away until something is done. That doesn't seem to be the case this year. I'm not sure if it's that I didn't do much Christmas knitting at all or if I didn't really get that excited cast on immediately following. Either way I am seriously slacking in the knitting department lately.

Let me show you my one and only turn-in for Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup this month.

Yup, that's it. A lonely little hexipuff. I have been slacking big time in the knitting department lately and it doesn't seem to be lack of time or lack of desire to knit so what gives?

I'm not sure why but I have been finding myself just sitting lately. Even in the evening when I'm watching TV with my husband sometimes I just sit and that is very unusual for me. 

I'm within an afternoon's worth of knitting from finishing the first in a pair of socks and I think I have another pair that just needs a toe (on the second sock so it's so close to being done!) so I will try to stick to those for today and tomorrow but maybe on Wednesday (start of a new month so new items can count for the House cup) I should find something just for me that I'm really excited to knit and get it started. Hopefully that will mean more progress and actual finished items. And possibly getting rid of the slacker status.

Christmas Is In The Air

I've been struggling a little with the motivation to actually finish anything. Although I have managed to finish the mittens for my mom. I really love how these turned out. The yarn itself is so pretty! 

I'm really glad I decided to just go for it and knit nice, plain mittens. 

Of course the motivation to finish things is gone but the motivation to start them isn't! 

I started another pair of socks, my Bride of Socktober Spooktacular socks. 

I'm knitting the Skew pattern again because I just adore how it fits my feet. They're kind of a wiggle to get your foot in them but once you do, they fit so incredibly well. They don't twist or slide around at all and they definitely don't slip down like some of my other hand knit socks do.

It hasn't slowed down my yarn purchasing either. I bought two skeins of Copper Canyon from Yarn Love when it was her featured color and they came in last week. 

I absolutely love the color but it does remind me a bit of some other yarn I already have now that I have it in hand. Oh well, apparently I love the blue and brown combo. Although on this yarn (her Juliet base) it definitely looks more coppery. So gorgeous! I even picked up 2 skeins so I can do some big, epic project with it. Maybe after Christmas. 

I'm holding off since this just came in today!

It's so Christmassy I can't stand it! I realized recently that I don't have any Christmas socks so I had to pick some up when Vesper had a sale. I got this one and 2 others. Which means I also got the cutest tote bag! 

I'm not really sure what I will use it for, maybe trucking back and forth to knit nights. I sure hope I can get to one again soon! I miss my Knitters!!! 

Meanwhile this happened. 

Now I just need to decide if it should be plain socks or Skew again. Plain requires less attention but come on, this would look amazing as Skew socks too! 

When The Yarn Calls You

Sometimes, when you have an awesome mom like I do you think of her when you're doing something. Even something like yarn shopping. This summer when I was at the Zombie Knitpocalypse I found a skein of yarn that I just couldn't seem to leave alone. I just kept going back to it over and over again. It was like it was calling to me; "Sarah, come knit me."

I'm not usually one for really speckled yarn but I just loved it. The gray with the pops of brighter colors, it just sang. But since I already had a similar one I also wanted to purchase, I was trying to justify buying this one too. That's when the idea came to me to use this lovely skein, with its pops of pink to knit something for my mom for Christmas. Her favorite color is pink and I thought this with its subtler pink and lots of other colors would be so fun. So, the skein ended up coming home with me. 

I showed it to my mom and asked her what she wanted it to be. She's a crocheter but doesn't know too much about things involving fingering weight yarn so I made a few suggestions. This skein is Superwash Corriedale and nylon, which isn't a fiber you see a whole lot, so I was excited to try it and I knew it would make some great options, socks, mittens, a cowl. There are a lot of things this skein could become.

She chose mittens. I wound up the yarn right away of course, intending to get started immediately but as usual, time slipped away from me until I was looking around for something to start this month for HPKCHC and I found this skein. 

I'm so glad I did because I am loving the way it's knitting up!

I've got a few more ideas for Christmas gifts but if I want any of them to come to fruition, I had better get a move on!

In the meantime, back to the needles.

Time Just Keeps on Slipping

Wow, somehow an entire month got away from me there.
I guess I've just be struggling with focusing on what I want to say and getting it out there.
I've been knitting away though and participating in the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC) again this term. This is the third month of term so next month is break month.
That means I am trying to focus on whether I will do any crafts for Christmas gifts this year. I have one project done and ready and another on the needles but I really think I will keep it minimal again this year. It just gets to be too much pressure.
So I'm still here and hope to keep on blogging. Hopefully more regularly.

Friday Shenanigans

I swear I am so glad this week is done that I could cry. It was filled with some fun times but also a great deal of being so tired I could barely function and it was capped off with today. Let me give you a little example of how my day has gone so far.
8:00 am Half an hour before I am normally going to leave for work I frantically rush to the bathroom to semi tidy my hair since I need to leave immediately to handle a "work emergency" there is a spider. I am not a big fan of spiders. They have too many legs and move too fast. Normally we have one or two daddy long legs style spiders in the bathroom and I leave them alone. I figure they are pest control. This one though, this one looks like an Aragog wannabe (Harry Potter giant spider in case you don't get the reference and if you don't I'm not sure why you're reading this blog). It is on the corner where the ceiling meets the wall. Since I'm rushing out the door I decide to leave it. I run off to deal with a stressful day at work.

2:00 pm The husband is home and I briefly think that perhaps I should locate the Aragog spider so he can squish it (or remove it humanely, I don't really care. I just want it gone!) before he leaves for the weekend. It is nowhere in the bathroom. I decide I have more pressing things to deal with (like getting the husband to actually finish packing and get out the door!) so I decide it can wait.

6:20 pm Finally get the energy together to start doing the dishes. Go to the kitchen to start sorting things. Plates, bowls, etc. There's a few days worth since I've been so busy (no judging, I don't have a dishwasher and it's not my favorite chore) as I'm scooping the last of the silverware out what do I see? Freaking Aragog! Thankfully he appears to be dead. Wash him down the drain with scalding hot water and go knit instead.

Yup, glad this week is over. 

Freyja Start

Tuesdays are for spinning and thankfully the Tour de Fleece reminded me how much I love spinning and made me decide to make a point of taking the time to actually spin more often!

I was a little disappointed with how much I got done this year but with no set goals and then a back injury, that's to be expected. 

Once I had finished with the few things I had set aside, hoping I would get them spun, I was pretty wide open though. I didn't have anything specific planned. Well, a little stash diving always solves that problem so that's what I did. And I came up with something heartbreakingly beautiful.

This is Freyja from Cloudlover on (brace yourself for this) 60% Superwash Merino/20% Cashmere/20% Silk. It is amazing! It feels so soft and fluffy but with amazing shine. I've really been wanting to try spinning this fiber so I was extremely happy to find this in her booth at Shepherd's Harvest this year. 

It had been a special custom blend she ordered and I don't know that she regularly carries it anymore. 

But I loved it so much that I went scouring people's stashes on Ravelry and scored a braid of the same fiber in one of my all-time favorite colorways of hers as well. (Poison Arrow if you're wondering. You can check my stash page if you'd like to see it.) 

Since I'm not really sure what I would like to do with the finished yarn and this is more of a spinning experiment than anything else, I decided to go for a chain-plied yarn so I didn't split the braid the long way at all. I simply pulled off a piece of the roving and drafted it into a fine, soft little strand. 

It looks like this when its ready to spin. Then I just started spinning it up.

I love how fine it is, although I'm not too sure I like how the white is blending right now (leading me to consider splitting the roving lengthwise now in the hopes of changing that a bit).

I'm guessing this is going to be a pretty long-term project but one I'm really enjoying. 

So for today you just get to see the start but what a start. Right? 

Summer Sock Conundrum

Summer is a great time to knit socks. They don't sit heavily on your lap, overheating you. They will be very useful when the cold weather in fall and winter comes and many sock patterns are easy to memorize. 

All that has led me to my current conundrum. 

Three pairs of socks in various states. This is just the active ones. I'm sure there's at least a couple of pairs tucked away somewhere. So, let's examine them.

First there's these lovely socks. Knitterly Things Vesper sock yarn in Twitterpated. On her 100% Superwash Merino base being knit into plain old top-down vanilla socks. These are my "purse socks" so they get shoved into my purse and worked on whenever I have a quick minute. They really aren't a priority since they don't have a deadline and they're just for fun. Plus I'm knitting this super fine yarn on US 0s so progress is pretty slow even when I do work on them. Honestly this one is about ready for its heel flap though so I should get through that so it can be mindless knitting again.

Next up there's these beauties.

Knitterly Things Vesper again but on her Superwash Merino and Nylon base. The colorway is Sesame Cha Cha and I actually purchased it from a seconds sale about a month ago. One strand of the yarn didn't take the dye the same as the others so it has a sort of swirled effect. It's still gorgeous and I am loving the semi-solid look of each color. These are being knit into the Skew pattern and are now at the heel gusset increases. If you've ever knit this pattern (or even read through the many pages of it) you know that it's pretty simple but you do have to pay attention and keep looking at the pattern. Honestly these socks fit my feet so well that the attention-paying is worth it though! This is my first time knitting the Superwash Merino with Nylon into this pattern so I'm excited to see how it wears. 

Lastly there's these socks.

These are plain old toe-up socks on Knit Picks Felici in Baker Street. They will have an afterthought heel when they're done. I really have no excuse for not working on these more except maybe that they're boring. I think the colors of the stripes are too similar in real life. And the dark blue is right next to the light blue and all the grays are together and look pretty much exactly the same. Yawn.

I don't really like this method of knitting a sock but I thought since it's in 2 balls that it would allow me to use most of the yarn with the least effort. As you can see I already wound the remains of the first ball into a hand-wound ball. Partly because it was getting tangled and partly so I could estimate the amount for the heel and the ribbing so I could figure out how far to knit the leg. I know they'll be nice socks when they're done, it's just a matter of getting to that point.

So there it is. The summer sock conundrum. Three pairs of socks all waiting to be finished. (Did anyone notice they're all striped too?) 

I've been working on nothing else lately too so they should be getting much more progress. Here's hoping that our car trip this weekend will allow for some knitting time which will mean some things can get done! (More about the car trip later)

500

Oh hello.
Here I am once again, back after an absence. This time I really don't know what happened. I've been doing quite a bit of knitting (and spinning as it was the Tour de Fleece), not to even mention my paper crafting and planning lately but I seemed to have been stuck in my writing. Maybe partly it was the realization that if I posted something it would be my 500th post to this blog (yes, it's true!) and I wanted something special and fun but I couldn't come up with anything great. A giveaway could be fun but it doesn't need to be a giveaway, or something else. I just didn't know what that something else should be.
Plus, I've just been feeling a little overwhelmed with life in general lately. It's a combination of the busyness of summer with graduation parties, weddings, family reunions and the fact that I'm not always doing the right things when it comes to taking care of myself. I'm not talking just eating right and exercising (although that has fallen to the wayside a bit too) but doing the things I know are useful for my mental health like having some quiet time, allowing daydreaming and reading silly books just for fun.
I'm starting to realize that I need all those things though and starting to work them back into my routine without making them something I stress over (meaning something on my to do list that MUST get done).
And since I'm starting to do those things again, it's making me come back into my own brain and realize that the way out of this block I've been in is to just get it out.
Just keep writing.
Even if it's silly gibberish.
So, here I am, trying to get motivated again.
I know sometimes I get held back by the belief that  no one wants to see a post with no great photos. Or maybe no photos at all. But is a written post better than no post at all? Probably.
So I'm going to let it go. I'm going to write when I feel like writing, whatever it may be about and sometimes it will include crafts and wool and sometimes it might not. Hopefully.
But ultimately it will probably be a peek into my very crazy brain.
Welcome to the ride.

A Tale of Two Socks

Sometimes you can try something and it just doesn't work out. I think as a knitter you have to be okay with that to a point. Sometimes, even if you gauge swatch, it isn't going to come out right.

This is a tale that does not involve gauge swatching though. This is a tale of two socks.

Once upon a time there was a knitter who loved to knit socks. She especially loved self-striping sock yarn and the way you could knit and knit and it would do the work with the colors. Her all-time favorite self-striping sock yarn was Vesper. It was heart-breakingly beautiful and came in so many colors! Plus, it softened so wonderfully once it was washed. After she tried it she started hoarding the yarn like a dragon. Although, she did often knit with it and soon had a lovely collection of socks knit from this magical yarn. Since the socks were so beautiful and comfortable she continued to knit with the yarn even though it was very fine. So fine in fact that she thought perhaps rather than her usual 1s to knit these socks, she should try to go down to 0s to make a firmer fabric that would hold up to wear. This was after her first pair of these socks developed a sad hole. They had, of course, been in service for over 2 years and were worn often as they were some of the knitter's favorites. 

She decided that since she was going down in needle size she should also go up in stitch count so rather than knitting the socks at her usual 72 stitches she went up to 80 stitches. She cast on and happily knit her first sock. Soon after she cast on her second sock, remembering that she was knitting on size 0 needles she somehow got caught up in the yarn fumes and forgot the larger stitch count. Where did she realize her mistake? 

Turning the heel. A whole foot knit incorrectly. On size 0 needles. Now, if it fit properly and seemed to work the knitter would probably have just kept going but with striped yarn, it makes an odd sort of sock if they don't line up stripe-wise. The knitter specifically didn't start on the same color but rather the next so they would line up just right in a little different way. Off just one stripe, that plan was now foiled. That means; it's time to frog. So now the two socks in this tale are down to one. 

In other news, since the knitter will not be working on these socks for a bit since they're so frustrating, take a look at the shawl that's being knit instead. 

It began as this gorgeous ball of yarn purchased at the Zombie Knitpocalypse it's from Penguin Soup. (It doesn't look like her shop is complete yet. Keep an eye on it if you're interested though.) I just purchased it on Saturday and it's already becoming

This. Isn't it the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? Well, it is to me at least. The pattern is Castra and its part of a Yarn Love knit along. We only started on Tuesday so there's still time to join if you're interested, check out the Yarn Love group on Ravelry for more details. 

Get it Started

I've been feeling a little blocked lately. Unable to express myself in writing, even though I had things to say. To be honest, I think I've been feeling a little burned out. Work and life have been so busy lately that I feel I am not myself. But last weekend was just as busy and it energized me instead of tiring me out. It was just what I needed.
So now I'm back and writing again. I hope you'll forgive the absence.
I had a skein of Knit Picks Hawthorne around. I had tried to knit it several times and I just wasn't happy with how it was knitting up. But I wanted to knit it so much! To really give the Hawthorne a try. So I finally decided to get it working as socks for a Christmas gift. That's right, the Christmas knitting has already begun!
I started these earlier in the year actually, as toe-up socks but they just weren't working. So last month I started again, this time from the top down. 

I actually finished them Saturday night at knit night. It was a bit of a yarn chicken situation. Here's the yarn that was left.

I'm hoping it's enough to to knit one hexipuff. But at least the knitting is going again and the first Christmas gift is ready to go! 

Passport Flip Through

Hi planner friends. I know it's Sunday and not Midori Monday but I moved into my passport size Midori to try it out for May and I did a quick flip through on Periscope. 

You can find me there under the name Kalkette and the broadcast will only be up for 24 hours.

If you watch it let me know what you think! 

Ashburton Beauty

As I've talked about before I had been working on spinning some Merino wool from Gritty Knits called Ashburton. I absolutely loved the colors which remind me of a rich, bold sunset so I handled the fiber in a way to keep those colors as they are, separate and beautiful. 

I spilt it the long way into smaller pieces then individually drafted each of them. I then spun them fine end to end. 

The roving split into pieces. 

On the bobbin.

This bobbin picture is when it was finished. It took a lot of spinning hours to spin it this way. I knew I wanted to chain ply it so I just kept going, spinning fine. 

I let it rest overnight and plied the next day. It's a good thing I was camping and had lots of spinning time because it took about 7 hours to ply!!

That is plied yarn going onto the bobbin! Doesn't it look great?! I love it.

The finished skein is a little overpriced, which is normal for me and I prefer that to under plied so I'm good with it.

I absolutely love the look of it though and the ply-twist did relax a bit in washing.

Here's a look at how fine it really is. 

These skeined pictures are from before washing, I wanted to show pictures of it washed as well but it was washed on Sunday morning and still isn't totally dry! The hazards of the spring rainy season, I guess. It's been so dark anyway that I don't know that I could get it to photograph well anyway. 

It really didn't change much in washing except the ply-twist softening a bit as I said and I'm very happy with the skein which is about 650 yards!! 

I can't wait to knit something amazing with it!

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.