Wow, has it really been since March that I last posted?  I find it difficult to wrap my head around the fact that it has been that long ago.

Time flies when you are having fun! Since then, a lot has happened.  Our oldest daughter, Nancy, was married to our wonderful son-in-law, Neil.  He is now in graduate school at UW Milwaukee and she is working.  She has applied to the same program and now is waiting to hear if she will be accepted.

Our middle child, Patrick, finished school with his Airframe and Powerplant license.  He now works on Jet engines.  He is happily employed and just had the joy and pleasure of filing his income taxes.

Then, there is our youngest child, Shanleigh.  She graduated high school and started college.  She successfully completed her first term and is now living in the Detroit area, working at her co-op job.  She will go to school a term and work a term for the duration of her college experience.  Thus, when she graduates from college, she will have 2.5 years of experience in her chosen field of computer science engineering.

And that is not all!  In June of this past summer, I attended the first annual Super Summer Knit Together, sponsored by The Knit Girllls, in Nashville, Tennessee.  Now I love Nashville, I love Tennessee and I had a blast with the knitting community gathered for that event.  What I had a little trouble with was the outside temperature of 110°.  One evening, when it was that hot, we went outside and I could smell food cooking.  All I could thing was, "Good Lord!  It smells and feels like I have fallen right into the Barbeque pit!"

In the fall, I was able to attend the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, Wisconsin.  That was another fabulous time!  I had more time to talk with Gale of Gales' Art, the fabulous provider of dyed fiber and yarn for The Super Summer Knit Together.  Then there was the road trip to Madison for dinner at Graze and dessert after.  My new friend and Nashville traveling companion, Ana was there and we were able to sit and relax for a while, catching up on news and events!

What a fun and busy year 2012 was!  It appears that 2013 has a lot more to add to the fun.

First of all, I have my reservation set for the first ever Zombie Knitpocalypse retreat in Rochester, Minnesota.  I met Amy and Megan at Super Summer Knit Together, this past summer.  The great thing is, this retreat is in a much cooler climate!  Another is the fact that I live just 4 hours from Rochester.  I look forward to starting the Mystery Shawl KAL being put together by Sword of a Knitter, who is also planning to attend the retreat.

In the fall, I am hoping, once again, to attend the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.  There are classes to take and much to see and buy....This past year I took a class on knitting thrummed mittens.  I made these beautiful mittens.  I look forward to enrolling in other classes and becoming a better knitter and spinner.

First, let's look at some recently completed projects.  This scarf is a simple drop stitch scarf I made from my handspun merino/silk from Unwind Yarn company in the Midnight Summer's Dream colorway.  You may find all of the details here, on my project page.

 This is a sweater I started almost a year ago.  I love the yarn- it is Rowan's Lima and is so soft and warm.  I followed the pattern until I got to the cowl neckline.  Then, I did my own thing.  For me, this scooped neckline works much better. More details are available here.

 I knit the Cablerimetry from more of my handspun.  I will talk a bit more about this yarn below.  Here is the link for more information.  I offered this to a coworker, who said she was looking for something like this.  She seemed to like it when I gave it to her.....The nice thing about knitting this in a gradient is, that you can turn it one way have brown next to your face and the other way you get more of the rusty orange.  It was a challenging spin and a fun knit.

This next picture shows my "Trifacta" project I completed for the Yarnivore Podcast sponsored Snuggle challenge.  I made these for the Highland Handmades Podcast, which means that I get to participate in drawings from both podcasts.  Each entry is only allowed 2 podcasts, one of which has to be Yarnivore.  The one on the left is crocheted from some Red Heart Acrylic yarn.  The one in the center is sewn from 2 layers of fleece.  The one on the right is knit in some KnitPicks Pallette- I held 4 strands together to get the weight I was looking for.  I found out that our local Humane Society in the Fox Valley is an official Snuggle donation site.  My friend Ellen, who volunteers there, is excited to take them in for me!  This was a fun charity project that I would like to do again.

 

Currently on my needles, I have the Maile Sweater by Nikki Van De Car.  I am using Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere.  This sweater is for a coworker whose baby is due in early March.  I have the sleeves attached to the sweater but I do not like the construction of this.  It is hard on my needles and I am thinking I may like to take the sleeves off and construct it a bit differently.  More on that, later.

My next project is to knit an afghan.  I am using The Great American Afghan book.  I skipped square number 1 as I did not have enough varied colors of yarn to start out with that one.  I am currently working on square number 5.  Number 4 is not completed only because I have not yet blocked the square so the crab, fish and shell may be attached.  All of the pieces are knit and ready to go.....  This is an enjoyable knit for me because the level of difficulty is presenting me with some challenge, but not an overwhelming challenge.  This will be a long-term project for me.

My last project on the needles is my Vintage Yarn Sweater.  This is 100% wool yarn I won in a drawing from Dramatic Knits Podcast.  I am making the Metro Sweater by Connie Chang Chinchio.  Here is a link to my project page.  I am at the point of picking up my stitches for the sleeves.

I have also been spinning more, lately.  I joined the Completely Twisted and Arbitrary Spinning group and have learned a new technique of spinning Fauxlags.  The headband I knit above, is made of fiber I spun using fauxlags.  The fiber was a bit felted in spots but this made it possible to knit and spin.  I am now working on some shetland from Highland Handmades in the Embers colorway.  The prep on this fiber is fabulous and I am spinning the fauxlags using the long-draw method. 

My knitting fantasy has an interesting inspiration, this week!  I cleaned out my closet, yesterday and I found this:  

It was much longer when I found it.  This is a project I had going when we moved to Appleton, 7 years ago.  The yarn is wonderfully soft!  It is Plymouth Yarn Indiecita Alpaca 4-ply Worsted yarn.  It is so weird, I don't know what I was thinking!  I was knitting a fisherman's sweater with US 3 needles.  I have 2 different lots of the same colorway- that would never work!  Especially since I can see the difference between to 2 dye lots.  I have 1600 yards of one dye lot and 1300 yards of the other.  So, I went through and found 2 different sweaters- The February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne and The Bobble Vine Jacket by Edie Eckman that I can make out of this yarn!  Maybe one day I will revisit that Fisherman's sweater, but when I do, I will make certain that my yarn is all from the same dye lot.

I hope to get back to a regular blog schedule.  Until next time, keep the fantasy alive!