Sweatergirl's adventures at SOAR

The SOAR party roars on up in Bellaire, Michigan, but Sweatergirl has returned to her not-quite-normal life back in a town overtaken by football hype (big MSU-UM game tomorrow).

Pre-SOAR - I realized that I only had 2 handspun sweaters to wear. And no handspun knitting project. So I cast on for Into the Mystic about a week before SOAR. Here's what it looks like now. I am really happy with the color variation!

SOAR was a pretty fabulous experience. Everyone was really interesting and excited to be there. One thing - I didn't see any bad sweaters, a la Knitting Curmudgeon's photo tour of Stitches East. But - I think generally there were not nearly as many handknit items as you might see at a knitting convention. Of course, not all spinners are knitters, but even handwoven items were scarce. But they did have a fabulous gallery (pictures another day - too big!).

The first night, Carol Rhoades and Nancy Bush presented a program/slideshow of their trip to "Scandanavian Knitting Days" - this year held in Finland, but it's held in different countries in different years. Carol had made a bunch of samples with a bunch of techniques. And my new favorite designer is Sirkka Kononen. But I don't know anything about her (?) except that the slides of her work are beautiful! Anyone have any info?

One sample I was really intriqued by was the muti-color/fairisle-type crochet. Often this is used as a top/bottom band with a knitted sweater body. Here it is in a hat. More info in January 2004 Piecework!

So I was up in the front looking at the samples when it was about time to start the program, so I scooted into the second row. And who should scoot in next to me but Nancy Bush! Whoa. I was a little starstruck - my first "real" project was from Folk Socks, and I also have Folk Knitting in Estonia and Knitting on the Road. I brought none of them for her to sign. BTW, she was wearing a lovely little shoulder shawl and her class at SOAR was on Estonian lace.

SOAR is set up with 3-day workshops that you pre-register for, and then 3 days of half-day classes, which you sign up for on-site. Some of the half-day classes are mini-classes of the workshops, but some are totally different. I was only there for the first half, but kinda wished I had gone for the whole week. There was a really open, sharing kind of environment there (and a lot of interesting topics yet to come - Nalbinding, rug hooking, freeze-dried indigo dyeing, mohair, embroidery, lace, needle felting,...). After dinner one night, Andrea Mielke from Mielke's Farm taught me how to use my Hatchtown Lady Ann spindle much more effectively. Feedback on all the classes was good - but meeting Judith MacKenzie was a true highlight. She is an amazing person - and she let me spin on an ancient Peruvian spindle! Whoa. Someone later advised me, "If Judith teaches a class on boiling water, take it." Implying that she's such an amazing teacher, you would learn something fascinating no matter what the topic.

Other classes I would have liked to take - Robin Russo's combing class, Carol Rhoades's spinning for a purpose class, and Judith Mackenzie's/Nancy Bush's Spinning for and Knitting Estonian Lace (but that group had some late night homework...). Nancy Shroyer was teaching a color in Fair Isle knitting class, and all the samples coming out of that class were beautiful!

I was in a workshop called "Spinning 201", in which we sampled, sampled, sampled. We spun one wool in many different ways (combed, carded, long draw, short draw worsted style, short draw woolen style , and medium draw/attenuating against the advancing twist). So for two days we worked with Coopworth and similar medium wool. We Andean plied and Navajo plied and cable plied. On the third day, we tried all the same techniques with carded and combed fine wool (Polworth and Merino) and carded and combed long wool (Icelandic). I learned that I underply consistently. Good to know...

There were a lot of people from Michigan at SOAR - In class, I sat between a spinner from Belleville and a spinner/shepherd from Plainwell who raises Cotswolds. Cotswolds are a rare breed with relatively coarse wool, but it can be quite lovely! Carla was also in the same class. And ten others - we all clicked and had a good time in class! I also got to meet Sue from Wild Child Fibers - what a fun person. She has a great sense of color, and was taking a class on using hand-dyed roving.

Wheels - there were wheels of all kinds there. But lots of Lendrums (the wheel I spin on mostly). This might be a biased sample, since they fold and are fairly easy to transport. But there were at least a few of everything - Ashfords, Kromskis, Schachts, Reeves, Baynes, Jensens, and some that I didn't recognize. But I got to see some Timbertops being set up in the market, a wheel make I had never seen before. Lennox wheels were also to be there, but weren't set up before I left. Oh well!

I also had the chance to tour Stonehedge Fiber Mill in East Jordan, about 20 miles from the SOAR location. What a cool place - You can tell they care about and understand the fiber in each step of the process, and the family really works together well. Everything I have had processed by them has come out wonderfully, so it was a treat to see all the labor and equipment involved.

The market didn't open until Thursday, so I was already gone. They gave us a big goodie-bag (trick-or-treat!) filled with fiber smaples and catalogs and info. I did get to purchase some items informally...some Cotswold, some silk, some fun roving...I also did some pre-SOAR book acquisition - book reviews another day!

Lost and found

Found: a bunch of pointy sticks and some multicolored material in staircase B of NS building between 1st and 2nd floors.

Found: a weird ball of string with a label that says "Opal". Found on 4th floor NS building.

Ummm - I got some weird looks as I traced the string from one end to the other. Seems that my ball of yarn fell out of my bag near my 4th floor office, and the sock fell out somewhere down the stairs while I was on my way out to proctor an exam. When I finally realized I'd lost my sock, I panicked for a second. Then followed my mom's advice (from when I was little - I didn't call and ask her what to do!) and retraced my steps up the steps until I found the knitting in progress. The yarn was still attached, so I followed it up and around the staircase until I found the yarn. Gosh. How embarrassing. At least I wasn't late to the exam. Who would understand the explanation but another knitter?

I'm really excited to be off to SOAR on Sunday. The weather is looking a bit more favorable for driving. My new bobbins should have arrived today (if UPS tracking is correct), and I have a couple other goodies in the box, since I won't be able to stay for the SOAR market. I'm anxious to finish my entrelac bag (Sarah has some pictures up from class - good! 'Cause I didn't remember to take any!) to carry "wheel accessories" around in...

Chris - I'd love to do a knit-along on a KZ or KN pattern - yippee!! Which ones are you thinking of?

Congrats to Rob and Matt on the grand opening celebration at ThreadBear! Hope y'all have a great time!

Sweatergirl the slacker

I had planned to finish the knitting on my entrelac bag last night, but:

Entrelac bagging

So...since I have the final session of Sarah's entrelac class tomorrow - I've switched gears to entrelac knitting again. But - the bag actually looks very similar to my last picture:

But - Barb frow Western Michigan is working on a really cool entrelac project, and she said I could share her photos! It also uses some mitered diamonds - and check out those colors!

MMKG meeting was last night - lots of inspiring projects. Boy, have those knitters been busy making gorgeous stuff! All those great scarves made me itch to start one - but - gotta finish the bag.

I'm also starting to get excited about SOAR! Only a few days till I leave. I ordered a few extra bobbins for my wheel. Just in case. Beware, SOAR-goers - looks like a storm may be brewing for Sunday... a nice "Welcome to Michigan" storm for our out-of-state visitors.

Sweatergirl's steek advoidance techniques

The following methods were employed in this experiment:

Beware the speeding sleeve!

Ok - there will be some steeking action this weekend for sure. I got a lot of knitting done last night (Rupert must get my fingers racing - love him!).

I also hope to tie my quilt this weekend - the chill in the air is making me want to curl up with it. We heat nearly exclusively with wood, and this year's load has not arrived yet (getting anxious, I am), so we're trying to stretch out our leftover wood. Brr.

Anyway - I think this is the best Survivor since the first one, probably mainly due to Rupert. Voting off Michelle was a poor choice; I think that they need to boot Jon - he's not only useless but he's destructive. Grr.

Sweatergirl and the second sleeve

Thanks, all, for your kind wishes! I am sure I can break the pledge, but I am conflicted - I need to clean out/consolidate the yarn room so tht it can be the baby's room, so buying more yarn is slightly counter-productive. But I am sure I will be inspired at some point! Even just looking at Alison's bug sweaters is getting me thinking...And, Sarah, I thought about stopping by Tuesday Morning for that sale on white Wool-Ease for a blankie - but I don't think it actually washes all that well. I seem to remember it pilling badly. Thoughts/experiences? Recommendations for yarn for a blankie whhich will be washed seven billion times?

But for now, here's my Dale sleeve. That's sleeve number two, cruising right along (sleeve number one shown for scale).

The knitting might be done this weekend. I am slightly (illogically) terrified of the steeking. I mean, I have done it before! But not a Dale steek. And I can't even take EZ's advice of pouring a glass of wine (whine?) for the event. But I am looking forward to getting back to my entrelac bag and Aberlemno (my true love). One repeat down!

Sweatergirl jumps into the gene pool

Well, things are getting less stressful here - my report at work is almost done, my sister is married (and I won't have to wear heels again until ?Christmas?), and I can share some news - we're having a baby! Although, looking at the ultrasound yesterday, S and I turned to each other and said, "Congratulations! You're having an alien." We had agreed to call our parents after the ultrasound (which, conveniently, was after the wedding), so now the cat's out of the bag. And I'm going shopping for elastic-waist pants. Three months down, six to go.

Knitting-wise, this (and the completion of the Snail's Pace Sweater given a deadline) has inspired me to get to work on some projects that I might not be able to wear for long. I've been knitting on the Dale sweater sleeve and that's coming along fine. I'm thinking I will give myself a Thanksgiving (US) deadline for that. Not that I plan on changing out of my PJs that day. But it would be a fine day to embroider the trim.

I have been strangely uninspired to knit for the Bump. Maybe it is superstition, and maybe it's a LACK OF YARN....ok, a lack of suitable yarn. Ok, who am I kidding - I am just looking for an excuse to get out of the pledge for a day.

By the way, Blog City - come back! I miss Chris and Sandy! Wah!

No time to knit

Whew! Back from a whirlwind weekend in NYC for my little sister's wedding. Everything went well and was beautiful, and I was finally able to relax and have a good time after I gave my toast at 11:30 PM (whew! I am just not a good public speaker and not great at saying emotional stuff without a hint of sarcasm - not intended in this case!). Just FYI - we had started getting ready at 9 AM that morning and had been in costume since 2 PM! I got to meet my cousin's boyfriend (great guy, great sense of humor - much better than that frat boy she'd been hanging out with), my brother's girlfriend (wow! I hope she's the one - so friendly and funny, and she's gorgeous - go, little bro!), and spend some time with other relatives and such. Sunday brunch was great - for those that could wake up to be there!

So, for those who might be interested, here are some pictures from the photo session (I forgot to get pictures later!)...

Some champagne to celebrate with the girls (I'm seated next to the bride)...

The happy couple...

Aren't they cute?

And with my parents

Oh, and I did finish the Snail's Pace Sweater and I wore it to brunch (still wet on Friday night!). Looked great. Yay!

Sweatergirl looks mahvelous!

The Snail's Pace Sweater is going to be finished AND fabulous. I stayed up late last night to finish all the knitting - the seaming - well, that's tonight's project. But I tried it on and it's gonna be great. Yippeeeee!

Things have been a little stressful here lately, but I should get back to some real bona-fide knitting (and knitting picture-taking) after the weekend. For now, at least one stressor has been removed! The genius at Sandie Tailoring has made my bridesmaid's dress fit me! Thank goodness. When I first tried it on I cried. And I am not normally the type to have strong emotions about clothes. But after 4 fittings (yup - for a BRIDESMAID - I'm a tough fit) - it is absolutely fabulous. I picked it up today and tried it on with the shoes, and now I am not afraid of losing my dignity in the dress, or losing any parts out of the dress. Whew!

Several other unrelated stressors still around, but again - the confluence of stressors should, umm, come to a head by the 15th, so que sera, sera. At least I will get to spend Satuday being pampered and then changing into a fabulous silver dress! And then I will get back to some less whiny blogging!

PS - Congrats, Sarah! One month since last yarn purchase! Yay, pledge!!! It's kept me from buying a bunch of things already...

Knit, knit, knit...

I have been frantically working on the Snail's Pace Sweater. I would like to wear it Friday, and that seems to be coming soon! Side seams done, ties done, all pieces done...I am working on the shawl collar. I might have to - ack - skip the knit-in tonight to get it done!

Of course - I might get it done and not really like it. Ack! Mostly I hope it (with with my long black skirt and boots) counts as "New York Casual", which is the dress code for my sister's rehearsal dinner. Ummm. Not toally sure what that is, but am prepared to be dramatically underdressed no matter what I wear.

So besides obsessing about this sweater, my bridesmaid's dress alterations are not yet done. And I have to prepare a toast. Although I am really happy the are getting married, I will be so happy when this wedding is over.

In more interesting news, don't you wish you were at Stitches East?

Or perhaps you would like to go see Stitches that Heal.

But if you're in the Lansing area on Saturday, be sure to check out Knit Out & Crochet 2003 in Okemos...

Sweatergirl to the rescue

Barb had left a comment asking for some help with an entrelac project - it turns out, she was able to get to a yarn store before I got back to her, and is now entrelacking along. Yay for yarn stores!

But it turns out that she and I were confused by the same part of entrelac knitting - picking up stitches from the purl side. Luckily, I had a great teacher to show me how. And now that I've done it a bunch of times, it seems natural. But I took some pictures that I hope can help other first-timers. Click here - warning: lots of pictures! I admit these are NOT great - but it's something. I tried about 50 times to get something workable, with my husband thinking I was really off the deep-end THIS time. If you know of a good web resource for this, let me know! Otherwise, I will cast on in some high-contrast yarn for a better demo.

A good entrelac tutorial

Mare's entrelac Suki - wow!

Kathryn Alexander, Entrelac Artiste - I first wanted to do entrelac after seeing her Spin-Off Socks (now, I don't know if I would ever go through with it, but maybe here Christmas Stocking in Knitting in America...)