Summer!

Summer's here!! School's out, and has been for a few weeks. So far, I've been busy with stash enhancement, dying roving, carding batts, and doing some knitting and spinning. At the end of May, Threadbear had a Summer Stimulus Sale. We went up because it was also the last weekend they had the Cookie A trunk show. I ended up walking away with two sock patterns, a braid from Interlacements, and a skein of Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in the color Ruby River.



I love the colors in the braid and I had a really hard time deciding which one to get.

Then, that next Friday, we went up again for their Friday night spinning group. Elizabeth had never gone and they were having the same sale as the weekend before, so it was the perfect time to go. We sat, knitted, I spun a little, and also bought more yarn.



This time I got Pagewood Farm's Chugiak sock yarn in the color Meadow. It's really soft and the base reminds me of Cherry Tree Hill's Supersock.

On the last week of school, I started another shawl.



It doesn't look like much right now, but it's the Icarus shawl from Interweave Knits Summer 2006. I'm knitting it in an alpaca lace weight that I bought from a booth at the Fiber Expo last fall. It's fairly easy mindless lace right now, but I can't wait to get past the first chart.

The first week we were out of school, I didn't do much but dye. That's about all I did for a couple of days in a row, getting ready for the Fiber Arts and Animal Festival in Marshall on the 14th. It was a small event with only a few booths in the parking lot of an ice cream place.



I dyed all of those rovings, save one or two, in a few days. We didn't sell a ton, but it was fun and I got to sit and spin all day.

A few weeks before that, Mom had listed some of the batts I had carded and a couple of rovings I dyed in her store so I could pay her back for some shoes. Now, she made me my own section on her etsy site. Everything that didn't sell at the thing in Marshall has been listed on there.

Last Wednesday, I started another shawl.



This is the Janet Lace Shawl from Knit Picks. I really like knitting circular shawls, it's all knit stitches with no purls. I started it at knit night at Barnes and Noble that night.

We went there hoping we could snag Elizabeth and head over to a new yarn/fabric shop, Fabrications, in Richland. They were open later that day because there was a farmer's market in the parking lot of the shop complex. We were slightly rude to our knitting group, but hopefully they understood the call of yarn. It took forever to find (who knew 33rd turned into 32nd if you drive on it long enough), and we got there right after they were supposed to close. Fortunately for us, they stayed open longer than they were supposed to and we could buy yarn.



I got more lace yarn, two skeins of Elegant Yarn's Daphne. I love looking at this yarn. I always end up peeling back the sides of the skeins to see the gradual color changes that go through it. I have no idea what these skeins are going to grow up to be, but I'm sure that I'll find the right pattern, eventually.

Seeing as this is probably the longest post in history, I'm going to end it now. What to expect next time: pictures of the Alpine Knit Scarf, handspun, and probably a new project.