Maryland on my mind
Sunday was My Day at MSW (for the uninitiated, that's "Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival"). I saw more gorgeous, hand-dyed, handspun yarn than I could take in, fleece in gazillions of eye-popping colors, and live critters that couldn't be any cuter. Who knew that Merino sheep have wrinkly snouts?! AND that even big, huge, grown-up sheepies shnugle like these two?
Oh, you want to know what I bought? Not much, actually...more on that in a moment.
First, a thank-you to my friend, J, who accompanied me with great enthusiasm, and even got sucked into buying yarn for a garter stitch stole.
I, of course, have abandoned the wedding project that's time-sensitive, and have started a garter stitch stole with no particular recipient in mind, or anything. Hm. Wonder where I got that idea...
Actually, I'm playing with a variation on the lap blanket in Weekend Knitting, you know, the one with the "ruching" (I think that's the word)...I'm doing "stripes" of different gauges. (The original pattern uses different colors and different gauges.) I did 2-3" of size 11 needles in garter stitch (it's fuzzy boucle), and now I'm doing a section of reverse stockinette on size 7 needles. My intention is to create areas where the fabric is "gathered" in and then it will be wider when I got back to my garter stitch, size 11 stripe. I'm excited--this is the first time I've even remotely played with doing something on my own. Granted, I wouldn't have thought of it if I hadn't dreamed of making the lap blanket in Weekend Knits, but still--I'm making it up as I go, which is new for me. Yahoo! Stay tuned for details...
Why is it that I'm always tempted to buy colors that don't suit my coloring?! This purchse you see here is not remotely in my "cool" color family, but I love it. It might become a gift if my experiment goes well. We'll see about that.
What else did I buy, you ask?
Not too much...a skein of absolutely wonderful teal boucle for my friend to use to make her garter stitch stole (also from Mohair in Motion); a kit for a blue/white fair isle hat from another not-on-the-web store; a kit for a hat from Shelridge Farm (I love their wools...the way they dye them makes the fabric look like it has been painted with watercolors!); and a few (3 or 4) patterns...one (#241) is a duplicate of one I already had--I have such good taste that I recognize a beautiful sweater when I see one...but it takes more than one purchase for my brain to retain the whereabouts of the patterns, I guess. So, someone in my life might be receiving the pattern for a wonderful cardigan. Aren't they lucky?
It's funny--the reason I HAD to have the pattern was I saw a sample hanging on the vendor's wall, and it looked so nice and simple and wearable that I thought it was something practical to make, and very stylish. If I hadn't seen it in real life, I don't know how long it would have taken me to get around to noticing the pattern in my library, and to decide I should make it. I'm such a visual person--seeing makes me believe!
posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 1:41 PM
1 Comments:
I bought the teal boucle from Mohair in Motion too! Gorgeous isn't it?
Tina
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