WIP a Week: Two

You can find more details about my week two knit on Ravelry.

I am Kieristhefastest and my project page is Knitted by science!

 

 

 

Aptly Named

I am getting ready to cast-on a new project!

Delicately slides an abandoned pile of in-progress projects out of sight.

A new-to-me designer, Cindy Garland, is having a KAL (knit-a-long) in her Ravelry group Wild Prairie Knits, for a beautiful two-color stole pattern called Vacillate.

I feel like the name has jinxed me. I have been sorting through my abundant stash for days trying to choose two colors with adequate yardage. Cast-on is September 1st, so I need to make a decision soon.

Vacillate [vas-uh-leyt]
verb (used without object), vacillated, vacillating

1. to waver in mind or opinion; be indecisive or irresolute:

Her tendency to vacillate was making yarn selection take a very long time.

 

Help me choose, will you?

Posh Yarn

 

Tinctured String

 

Jade Sapphire

WIP a Week: One

You can find more details about my week one knit on Ravelry.

I am Kieristhefastest and my project page is Daughter.

 

 

People in Michigan Know the Size of My Stash

Over the weekend Newfangled Dad and I took the kiddos to the Allegan County Fairgrounds for the Michigan Fiber Festival. The tiny people love a car trip (Happy Meals!) and Newfangled Dad and I love sheep, so it seemed like a double win.

We saw the alpacas, the goats and the sheep. The little dude thought everything smelled. The Tiny Dictator thought everything was a reason to cry.

I would like to tell you that this is the point in our getaway where we enjoyed an idyllic picnic lunch in the grass laughing and teaching the children about the importance of sustainably raised livestock. In reality lunch was a shouty affair where very little was eaten. Both kids took their shoes off and had tantrums about putting them back on. I left with ketchup on the back of my shirt. Newfangled Dad had to carry around two cups of lemonade for the rest of the day because the munchkins would neither drink it nor allow him to throw it away.



We decided to divide and conquer. Newfangled Dad took the kids to a herding dog demonstration while I shopped the vendors. Well, mostly I waged war with my burning desire to buy a loom, dance gleefully with most of the Briar Rose booth and purchase everything grey at Bare Naked Wool.

In the end, I left having purchased only some dyed Border Leicester locks. Don't worry though, unnecessary stash enhancement karma found me by way of the little dude. As I hurriedly tried to dig cash out of my purse he waxed poetic about the obscene size of my yarn stash, regaling the bemused vendor with tales of "boxes are stacked as high as mama full of yarn and she has a lot of fiber too and two spinning wheels and we just took her to buy yarn recently so she just got some."

Hurmpf!

A WIP A Week

I love the excitement of starting a new project. Choosing a pattern, selecting a yarn, dreaming about my beautiful new knitted thing.

And then I start another. And another. And another.

I have a stack of WIPs that could keep an army of knitters stitching furiously for months. I still love the pattern, appreciate the beauty of the yarn and want the beautiful new knitted thing yet there they sit in their sad pile scolding my lapsed attention.

How do WIPs happen?

1. Vacation knitting! I. Should. Cast-on. Something. New.
2. Haircut knitting. Hat.
3. Ummm... this yarn was on sale?
4. Mystery knit-a-long. Just say no.
5. I'm going to knit holiday gifts for the whole family this year. hysterical laughter
6. People knit things at knit night. And I want them. A lot.
7. People knit things online. And I want them. A lot.
8. Ummm... this yarn is a limited edition colorway?
9. Stripes.
10. I just don't have anything to knit. shifty eyes

But how to get them done? A WIP a week.

This is a very (VERY!) small sampling. I'll work on them, a WIP each week.

Speed Shopping Stitches

Stitches Midwest was August 6-9, 2015. I didn't decide until the very last minute that I wanted to go. The family already had a jam-packed weekend of activities (read, something other than sitting on the patio spinning) and so I had to use some creative problem solving to fit my fibery fix into our family schedule.

Stitches Midwest is held at the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel & Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Our other big agenda item for Saturday was taking The Tiny Dictator to see the Shaun the Sheep Movie. Lucky for me, Schaumburg is awash in malls, restaurants and movie theatres. I was able to negotiate an hour and 15 minutes at Stitches while Newfangled Dad took the kids to frolic amidst the wonders at Dicks Sporting Goods.

I made a plan to speed shop through the Stitches marketplace. I used my handy-dandy WEBS 50% off coupon to get in for $5 (I get very resentful when I have to pay to shop) and I made the most of my time. I was there just after the marketplace opened, but even just an hour and 15 minutes later as I left, it was much more crowded.

I made some lovely purchases.

 

I came out with two skeins of Verdant Gryphon Traveller, the brightest Canon Hand Dyes I could find (squeeeeee!) and a set of blueish grey gradient mini-skeins from a new-to-me-dyer A Hundred Ravens.