Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival 2009--Big Fun Despite the Rain

On Saturday I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. This is my fifth year in a row attending this festival. It's my way of celebrating my birthday in a big way. It's a hug collection of some of my favorite things all in one place. I also enjoy catching up with friends that I rarely get to see.

This year was fun because I met a new friend. Loren and I met online on Ravlery.com and we've been emailing back and forth because we found that we share a lot in common. She caught a bus from Philadelphia to come down to the festival and we met at the front gate. We walked around the festival grounds shopping and chatting and having a great time despite the off and on drizzle and overcast sky.

We stopped at the Ravelry.com meetup at the Rabbit Barn and caught up with our Ravelry peeps. For some reason I did not really take any pictures on Saturday, but when I got home I took pictures of the hand-dyed, fingering weight Merino yarn from Maple Creek Farm. I will use it to make a small summer lacy shawl. The greens, yellows and blues just reminded me of spring, so I had to have it.

The last thing that we did was watch the sheepdog trials, which was just fascinating. Those little dogs are so smart the sheep just don't stand a chance.

Meeting up with Loren was just delightful, and the festival was a fun way to lead up to my birthday. Once again, CiCi took some awesome pictures of both me and Loren and all the other cool Ravelry peeps and posted them on their blog, 2Sistahs Knit Together.

I'm Dreaming About Flower Child

It all started very innocently. I am halfway through knitting a Brea bag for my mom for Mother's day. I misplaced the pattern and went to the Berrocco site to print off another copy when something caught my little eye. There was a snippet of a photo of Norah Gaughan's Flower Child knit top and it took my breath away. I clicked on the button and saw the full photo of this lovely sweater. This is going to be my Spring into summer knitting project. I just love Norah Gaughan's designs and this one's a peach. I do love the soft green color, but I might choose one of the pinks or coral colors. The Pure Pima cotton yarn from Berrocco is $6. per skein at Webs, so this will be a $60-70. little top. Quite a splurge, but I can tell already that this is going to be a favorite project.

Countdown to Maryland Sheep and Wool!!!

As a knitter living in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., nothing (um, not many things) thrills me more than the anticipation leading up to the annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. The MD Sheep and Wool is the largest fiber festival in the eastern U.S. On the first weekend in May each year vendors, farmers and crafts people all gather at the Howard County Fairgrounds and collectively celebrate our love for all things related to wool (and other fibers), knitting, spinning, crochet and other fiber-related crafty pursuits. This will be my sixth consecutive year of attending this festival. Obsessed knitter and yarn addict that I am, these are my high holy days--especially because the fest usually ends up being on my birthday--as it is this year. I am already squirreling away some cash so that I will be able to buy some new yarn. I need to go through my queue in ravelry.com to see which projects I will look for yarn for.

One of my favorite parts of my annual pilgrimage to the festival is the impromptu picnic lunch that we have on the lawn. A group of us local D.C. knitters usually all meet together at that spot and eat our lunches, rest form the morning's excitement and show and share the purchases we've made, and plan our strategy for going after the other items on our 'must have' lists.

Last year I attended the Ravelry and met up with a bunch of peeps that I've only ever corresponded with online. Cici took pics and you can see them on her blog.

I live a pretty chilled-out life that's largely devoid of excitement, but I am excited about driving up to Howard county, getting stuck in the looooong line of traffic, hanging out with my peeps--and oh yeah, buying lots and lots of yarn. See you there!

Making More Mittens!

When this current cold snap courtesy of an Alberta Clipper was forecast and I heard that we'd be enjoying temps close to zero, when our typical temps here in the D.C. area are usually in the mid to upper 30's to low 40's in the winter, I knew that my girls would be needing some mittens to keep their little fingers warm.

For Jordan, I found a small amount of pretty purple wool, which was enough for the cuffs, and a ball of leftover Noro Kureyon in pinks and purples for the hand. I held a strand of Baby Ull to add extra warmth and softness to the Noro, which tends to be a bit scratchy. I knit her up a pair of basic mittens and they came out cute. Here she is showing them off:



For Leila, I used some leftover Knitpicks worsted superwash Merino the Camel Heather colorway, and some random green worsted yarn to add stripes to the cuff. In my hurry to finish them in time for her to wear them to school (don't ask me why I didn't make her mittens as well) I've not yet taken a picture of her gloves, so I'll add one later.

Now I'm working on a pair of mittens using Norah Gaughn's Target Wave Mittens pattern that was included as a book excerpt in the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. I'm using Lemongrass Heather Swish Superwash from Knitpicks, and some chocolate brown Lion Brand worsted weight wool.

I have enough of the Noro left over to make another pair of these mittens, so I'll cast on for them when I'm done with the second mitten. These will both be donated along with some scarves and hats that I have made to a homeless shelter.

Saturday Knitting Club

This past Saturday afternoon was the first meeting of the Saturday knitting group at the Eastern Market branch of the library. We began because the librarian is a knitter, and one afternoon a few weeks back a knitter friend of mine and I ran into each other in Eastern Market and decided to go sit and knit at the library while we waited until it was time to pick our girls up from school. The librarian brought her knitting and came over and sat with us and we cooked up the idea to have a regular group on Saturday afternoons.

Today when I arrived there was already a mom there with her daughter knitting a scarf for her doll, and an older woman working on an afghan square. Jordan was still trying to get the hang of the knit stitch, and Leila was browsing through the 'One Skein Wonders' book trying to decide what to knit. She settled on a ruffled scarf and went to work. I was working on a "Sweet Mary Jane' lacy bed jacket using lace weight yarn and size 6 circular needles. When the ladies saw me knitting and noticed that I was using the continental style or method of forming the stitches, they asked me to do an impromptu continental knitting lesson.

One of the reasons that I sort of drifted away from the knitting groups that I used attend regularly, is because I usually ended up teaching for most of the time and I did not get to work on my project. I like attending knitting groups for the fellowship of gathering together with other who share my love of knitting. But when I end up in essence becoming the teacher--fixing people's mistakes, teaching new techniques, answering questions it begins to feel too much like work. Even as I write this it sound whiney because I really love teaching. If it were a structured class and I had the intention of teaching, then of course it would not bother me at all.

We had a lovely time knitting and laughing and chatting inside while the cold rain and wind blew outside. We all talked about our plans for inauguration weekend--a time that will change all of our lives here in D.C. and around the country. We mostly agreed that we were both nervous and excited about what was going to happen. I'm thinking that change is definitely coming to D.C. and I can't wait to see it.

A Proud Auntie Moment

Guess who this is??? ;-)

My sister Angela and her family live in Los Angeles, so I don't get to see them very often. On one of my visits there a few years ago, I taught my niece Olivia how to knit. Over the years she has knit up wonderful hats and scarves and sent them to me and my girls as gifts.

Now she has become a business woman and has opened her very own etsy shop to sell her lovely handknits. What a proud auntie I was to visit her etsy shop. She's made up some scarves, neckwarmers and legwarmers. Visit her shop and be sure to read her artist's profile. It's really pretty exciting, and I think she is inspiring me to open up an etsy shop of my own.

Knit One Save One: Knit a Tiny Hat & Save a Life

Knit One Save One is a project of Save the Children. They are looking to collect 100,000 little hats to help keep newborns born around the world warm and save their lives. I was thrilled to take part in this project two years ago when it was called 'Caps to the Capitol.'

These tiny caps are quick, easy and fun to make. You can go the the Save the Children web site and download the free action kit, which includes patterns for knitters and crocheters of every skill level from just learning to expert.

I made a little video about it to help spread the word about the Knit One Save One project:





In these days of economic uncertainty around the world, here is a very simple thing that we can do to have a positive impact in the lives of precious newborns around the world.

So go to Knit One Save One and download the kit, make some caps and send in your letters and donations. It's a very easy thing to do, but it feels really good, and you will be doing your part to make this world a better place one tiny hat at a time.