Knitting!!

Since recovering from the frenzy that was the Knitters Fair I've managed to get quite a bit of knitting done.

I'm nearly finished my over the knee socks, and love them!






I haven't quite figured out just how I'm going to wear them, but I'm determined! They come up to mid-thigh area, so these are some serious socks! I've started into the ribbing on the second sock, so I'm in the home stretch now.

I whipped up a chickadee cowl in one of my new yarns, M/C/N worsted






And I have to say, I'm going bonkers for this yarn! It's a blend of 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon. It's amazingly soft and smooth with a beautiful sheen and great stitch definition. The colourway is new as well - Graphite. It was a really easy and fast project, and I love the way linen stitch shows off pretty hand dyed colours :)

I also knit up up a Boneyard Shawl in Fancy Sock. Another super quick and fun project!



But I'm so excited to show off my latest bit of spinning. It was so long ago now that I don't even remember if I mentioned this little 4 oz bump of Hedgehog fibres merino/silk...well take a look at it now...





...It is a single ply lace weight, and I just can't wait to cast on a great big stinking shawl!! I've no idea how much yardage I ended up with. I'm sure not about to count each tiny, frail little strand either! So my plan is to knit a simple triangular shawl and keep on going until I run out of yarn. Woo Hoo!

I have just one complaint with this lovely fiber; the colour TOTALLY ran when I soaked the yarn to set the twist. The I haven't taken pictures of the post-soak yarn, but most of the green and gold is overdyed with black-y/purple. Sad.

Knitter's Fair

Yippee, Hooray! the Knitter's Fair this past Saturday was not only loads of fun, but also a great success! My little booth was abuzz with yarn and fiber lovers; I was so happy to see familiar faces and to meet some new knitters as well. And can't wait to see some new Viola projects pop up on Ravelry :)

I took loads of pictures of my booth - sadly there are all under icky fluorescent light - but hopefully you'll get the idea...



My sister Sarah, adjusting something important, I'm sure...


Roasted Carrot sock kits (remember those?!) design by the lovely and talented Kate Atherley!





There's me, knitting away on my chickadee cowl (now finished :))



Cute! Socks supplied by my sweet friends who also helped out in the booth for the day!

This bittersweet was green in the morning, but the heat of the building caused it to pop and reveal these lovely orange berries! I love bittersweet so much that I'm planning a tattoo...details to follow...



...The booth design and layout was so much fun to come up with! My family and friends helped out so much, and we managed to get everything assembled quite quickly in the morning. All in all great fun, and I could not be happier with my first-trade-show-ever-experience!

a quick hello

As promised, I've been running around like a crazy person for the last couple of weeks. Preparing for my first trade show (Yay, Hooray!) has been quite a lot of work. The knitter's fair is less than a week away now, and I'm just finishing up little bits and bobs that I've forgotten/neglected up until this point.

I'm bringing 2 new yarns that I am quite excited about...

CASHMERE! who on earth doesn't get excited about cashmere?!





Because it rained this afternoon I found time to get some non-dyeing things scratched off my list. Amongst these was making my cashmere tags...I think they are just about the cutest things I've ever seen!

and a lovely and squishy merino/cashmere/nylon blend in a shiny soft worsted weight. I love this stuff! Just tonight I cast on a quick little cowl in it (the sun was already down, so no pictures...sorry). It's knitting up beautifully; can't wait to wear it! The colour pictured is new, and it's called graphite.



And take a look at this...A very sweet customer has offered her knitting as a sample for the show! It's the cedar leaf shawlette by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting





She knit it using just 1.5 skeins of Silky Dk in colour Marigold. I finally managed to grab a few photos tonight. Love it, thanks Jacqueline! Check out her Rav projects here .

And I've managed to finish something amongst all the chaos...my fingerless mitts (still nameless) are done and photographed, and I quite like them.







That's all for the moment. I'm heading to bed and hoping that tomorrow is a little less soggy :)