The Knitting Pirate

Here’s some more pictures from last weekend’s Maryland Sheep and Wool festival.

This spinning wheel seems to have two drive wheels. I wish I’d gotten more details about it.

There was a demonstration of a great wheel going on.

And lots of other wheels too.

Of course, the usual fairground crowds and foods.

Silk cocoons to unwind and spin:

I was tempted by the natural dyes.

In a quiet moment, I spotted this little flower between the barns.

The riot of colour and texture at any Sheep and Wool festival is just beautiful. My thought was that taking a lot of pictures would have to be a substitute for buying all the things. At least this way get to take a little bit of them home with me.

Baskets of roving…

Overdyed BFL…

Shelves of combed top…

Bags and bags and bags of fleece…

Piles of yarn…

The camera doesn’t even begin to capture how bright and saturated that yellow-green is.

And of course, it’s Friday, so here’s one who did come home with me, my best laundry helper ever. At least, he claims to be helping. Who wants clothes without fur on them, anyway?

I got some good pictures of sheep and goats. (You can click each thumbnail for a larger view.)

One of the best parts about these festivals is the amazing work on display.

From hooked rugs…

…to woven pieces…

…to detailed colourwork in natural and dyed shades.

There were even some things that weren’t really sheep or wool at all.

The sock in front is called Oktoberfest. I think it’s pretty cool to have a sock that looks like a beer! When the kits are available, they come in this yellow colour, and also in “Irish Red” and “Stout”.

I always find the displays so inspiring. Even if it’s not a craft or project that I’m into, just being around work that was made with so much care and enthusiasm is a special treat. It motivates me to improve my own skills, to be able to create something that will bring similar inspiration to others.

Now, the things I didn’t buy at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this past weekend…

Looms. Tempting, but I’m not ready to get into weaving yet. I looked at the little Schacht Cricket too. Maybe someday, but not now.

Dream in Color Starry. I love this yarn, and one day I will buy some and knit the most beautiful shawl that ever existed. Those sparkles aren’t the usual firestar or angelina. They’re real silver.

Speaking of the most beautiful shawls that ever existed, these were hanging over the Fiber Optic booth. Everyone was stopping to stare and take pictures. They were really spectacular.

I had a doctor’s appointment on Thursday that took me right by a Jo-ann, and so of course I stopped in, and of course I had a 50% off coupon with me, and of course I had to buy some sock yarn. Darn it. The Kroy line has such good colourways!

On Saturday I went to MD Sheep and Wool intending to buy only one or two things, and I was able to keep to that goal. I wandered around for much of the day without buying anything. When I was about ready to head home, I walked past the Fold’s booth and was surprised to find it empty-ish… and doubly surprised to find a skein of Socks that Rock that I wanted to bring home with me. It’s called “Smokey Mountain Morn,” and looks very much like the view from my front window on a foggy day.

Then I was convinced to buy this rainbow-y braid of superfine merino from Woolgatherings. I don’t yet know what I’m going to make with it, but it sure is pretty!

I took lots more pictures of the festival and will be sharing them throughout the week. Hooray for the new camera!

The third annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week was so much fun! I read a ton of new-to-me blogs, got lots of ideas and inspiration, and learned about stitches and patterns that I might have otherwise missed. Plus I’ve jumped to nearly a hundred RSS subscribers (through Google Reader; I don’t have stats for other RSS readers) and almost 250 followers on the Knitting Pirate’s page on Google+! (I think some of them might not be real accounts, but whatever…) Eskimimi is truly marvelous for organizing and arranging the event, and I know I’m not the only grateful blogger out there.

While Blog Week was going on, I was making slow progress on a washcloth. It was slow going because I seem to have sprained my wrist. How, I’m not sure. But it hurts when I move it in certain ways, so I’m being careful to take lots of stretch breaks, and I’m trying not to work too fast, which causes me to have a death grip on the hook and can add to the strain.

This is the second time I’ve crocheted the “Bumpy Not Lumpy” pattern, which you can find for free on Chocolate Mints in a Jar. I started off by chaining 37 as per the pattern instructions, but after only a few rows I realized that I was going to have a much bigger cloth than I wanted, so I ripped back and began again with a chain of 29. This gave me a 9.5″ square cloth and a pretty nifty pooling pattern. I made sure to note this on the project page so that if I make this pattern again, I’ll know how many stitches to start with.

I like to hang my washcloths from the shower caddy to dry, rather than draping them over the towel bar – not to mention that I’d rather have water drip into the shower than onto the floor! I think they dry faster that way and are less likely to smell funny. I made the loop by chaining a dozen or so stitches, then single crocheting the length of the chain beginning from its base and working around, then working the last row of the pattern. Since the last row is a single crochet top edge, it worked in quite nicely and doesn’t feel as if it’s going to pull loose. I didn’t do the edging all the way around, but I think on my next fully-edged cloth I’ll work the loop before the edging. I like the way it gets incorporated in.

Washcloths are fun and quick, but I have to get my focus back to the Dancing Cranes stole now. Sure, it’s only the beginning of May, but I’d like to have it checked off my list well before its October deadline. I’m into the second pattern repeat and there’s no reason for me to be frantically knitting at the last minute, other than my own tendency to procrastinate – which I’m trying to overcome. Here goes! Hold me to it!

3KCBWDAY7 – Crafting Balance
Are you a knitter or a crocheter, or are you a bit of both? If you are monogamous in your yarn-based crafting, is it because you do not enjoy the other craft or have you simply never given yourself the push to learn it? Is it because the items that you best enjoy crafting are more suited to the needles or the hook? Do you plan on ever trying to take up and fully learn the other craft? If you are equally comfortable knitting as you are crocheting, how do you balance both crafts? Do you always have projects of each on the go, or do you go through periods of favouring one over the other? How did you come to learn and love your craft(s)?

For six years, I was a knitter only. In January of 2005 I began my love affair with knitting with this basketweave scarf that was a gift to Grandma and in less than two years I’d moved on from scarves and hats to a thorough addiction to sock yarn. Crochet confounded me; I couldn’t understand what it was for or why anyone would want to do it. The crochet projects that I saw just looked silly. Who needs a half a sweater that looks like a net or a poncho that looks like an escapee from an early 1970s thrift shop dropoff? Knitting, I thought, should be good enough for anyone. Crochet just isn’t necessary. Right? Wrong.

In early 2009 I began work on the Napramach bag (which is embarrassingly unfinished, still, and will look much better after blocking). The instructions called for the sides of the bag to be crocheted together, and for the first time I considered that perhaps I should learn to do this. But then I put that out of my mind and got to knitting the stranded colourwork, figuring that if I ever finished the darned thing I’d just get one of my crocheting friends to help me out with the finishing. Right? Wrong.

It makes me happy to think that if I ever do finish knitting this darned thing, I’ll be able to do the finishing myself now!

For my birthday in 2011 I gave myself the present of learning a new skill, and decided it would be crochet. I spent a weekend morning in a sunbeam reading my copy of “The Happy Hooker” and decided that my first crochet project would be a baby blanket for friend Marjie, who was then expecting Baby Sam. After lots of searching around on Ravelry I decided to go big instead of going home, and chose the Hexagon Blanket instead of something simple like a bunch of single crochet with five strands at once, which would have been really quick and easy. And now to go along with my addiction to sock yarn, I find myself drawn to the kitchen cotton in artsycrafts stores, thinking “Hmm, I could use another washcloth…” Right? Right.

To read what other people are writing for today’s prompt in Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, search Google for 3KCBWDAY7 or click here.

3KCBWDAY6 – Improving Your Skillset
How far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be? Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base? Take a look at a few knitting or crochet books and have a look at some of the skills mentioned in the patterns. Can you start your amigurumi pieces with a magic circle, have you ever tried double knitting, how’s your intarsia? If you are feeling brave, make a list of some of the skills which you have not yet tried but would like to have a go at, and perhaps even set yourself a deadline of when you’d like to have tried them by.

It’s a strange question for me, because while I can definitely get behind the idea of learning as a road, I don’t think of it as a journey with a destination. I’ve been knitting for seven years, spinning for four years, and crocheting for one, and in general I can do the things I set out to do.

There are most certainly new techniques and skills that I’d like to learn. I want to make a sweater that fits properly, I want to design more patterns. But then I’m comfortable with what I do know, and could probably be happy cranking out armwarmers, washcloths, and plain socks like the one here for a really long time. I don’t generally try new things just for the sake of trying them; they have to be attached to the desire for a specific project.

Spinning is a little different. My default yarn, the stuff that just comes out of my hands most naturally, is a fine single. I want to be able to spin deliberately, to pull off a beautiful woollen long-draw or to get the rhythm of chain-plying down. When I’m knitting, I can choose the yarn and needle size for the project I’m making. Spinning seems like something different altogether. I don’t have any kind of learning plan in place, but I am going to take part in this year’s Tour de Fleece and see what I learn from spinning every day for three weeks.

As for deadlines, I try not to bring them into my hobby. Every time I have, I start resenting the project. It’s not a matter of bravery for me, but of being relaxed and enjoying working with yarn for its own sake.

To read what other people are writing for today’s prompt in Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, search Google for 3KCBWDAY6or click here.

3KCBWDAY5 – Something A Bit Different
This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.There are no rules of a topic to blog about but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog.

What’s this, mama? Yarn! You’re playing with yarn! …what do you mean, I can’t play with you? You’re a yarn-hog. Look at you sitting there keeping all the lovely yarn to yourself. Come on, let me play too! Let me at it! Won’t you drag it around for me to chase? Pleeeease? Not even a little bit? Hey, why are you pushing me away?

You know I love yarn. All strings, really. I can’t resist it. How about I play with your shoelace instead? …Fine. You’re no fun. Never let me do anything I want. Hrmph. See if I care. I’m going to sulk right here in front of you so you can feel bad. I don’t care if you say you’re making the best thing ever, you’re not sharing and that’s not right. I heard you tell the other cat just the other day that he needed to share with me. You should take your own advice, mama. Sharing is caring.

Totally not looking at you. That’s what you get for not sharing the yarn. I don’t care if you say that it’s bad for me, all I know is that you’re not sharing. Do you think I care that loose fibres could give me a stomachache? No. Not at all. It’s *yarn*, mama. Why are you being so mean to me? What did I do to deserve this?

You just wait. When you go to bed tonight I’m going to figure out how to get at this ‘intar net‘ you keep talking about, in the warm box with all the buttons I’m not allowed to touch when you can see me. I’ve been watching you and I think I know how it’s done – and you thought I was just sleeping next to you the whole time. I’m going to paw at all the buttons until I get to ‘rowvr ree‘, and then I’ll tell everyone just how mean you are.

…Can I have some yarn *now*? Look, it’s just the littlest bit of yarn left. Hey, where are you going? Come back here with that yarn! I hate you forever! Or until dinnertime, whichever comes first!

(Happy Feline Friday!)

To read what other people are writing for today’s prompt in Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, search Google for 3KCBWDAY5 or click here.