Bah Bah Black Sheep

It's not my fault: it was a fiber festival. It was probably inevitable that my head would start singing "Bah Bah Black Sheep, have you any wool?" at me after the fifteenth bulging bag of fleece went by. Even if the fleece wasn't black, and there weren't three bags full. I'm just hoping if I stick this song in your head, maybe it will finally leave mine!

Sunday was much quieter than Saturday, what with the rain and the lack of a bus full of shopping knitters from the Windy City Knitting Guild. But we had people at our West Michigan Lace Group table anyway.

I was signed up for the 9-11am time slot both days, but I spent more time at the table yesterday after I had spent all my money.

My mom bought me the t-shirt as an early birthday present, but I thought it made a great background for this year's loot.

Although I'm not stash-dieting this year, I do have a lot of yarn and thread at home, so I was fairly moderate in my yarn-buying. I found the Jagger spun Zephyr, the same color as I used in Galina Khmeleva's Orenburg class, at Old Mill Yarn, a 550-yard cone for only $8!

I couldn't resist a bar of mint goat's-milk soap from Kinderhaven Farm, a skein of nice blue wool yarn (already wound into a center-pull ball with my ball winder), and yes, a second 437-yard skein of the Misti Alpaca, just like the one I bought in July. Because you never know when you'll need 800+ yards of lace-weight alpaca yarn. And it is so soft to pet!

Tools: I bought a purple "Sew Mate" tatting shuttle. I didn't have a purple one yet. I got two packages of 12" dpns and another Silverado circular: at half price, I couldn't resist. And I looked all over for metric-sized needles, because I wanted 3mm ones.

So often I end up knitting socks on four needles using two 2.75 mm needles, and two 3.25 mm needles. I thought a set of 3mm ones ought to be perfect. So I looked all over the festival for metric Inox or Skacel needles, and only found these at Skaska (yes, Galina's booth) after a friend bought some. Then, of course, after I bought one set, I found others over at the Mielke Farm Booth.

Mom also bought me a copy of the Knitter's magazine from Galina's booth. (Is she hinting for something?)

After the money was gone, I settled down at our demo table and tried to swatch the "Stitches for Purses" on pages 40-43 of The Ladies' Knitting and Netting Book: First Series. I got as far as No. 6.

All of these purse stitches are what I would call lace knitting stitches. Very open, airy and lacy.

After we cleared off our table, I put everything in the car (even the camera -- sorry!) and went out and looked at Shetland sheep until closing time.

When I got home, I pulled out a pair of 12" dpns and started swatching the basic Orenburg elements that I hadn't had time to try in Galina's class. I thought I was tired, but somehow ended up going to bed at 11:30pm.

12-inch dpns. I love it.