Social Networking Comes Through

My post from last night came through for me.  I got a reply on FaceBook about the fiber.
According the the amazing Rachel of Counting Sheep Farm, and Ewe Hottie, I was right.  The fiber was from her booth.  I think I got it from her rapidly dwindling supply over a year ago at the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan. 

The fiber is her cormo, plus alpaca and silk from my friend and shetland source, Sheila.  It is almost scary how I guessed the fiber content of that.
On the knitting front, I am on the home stretch on the Leftover Pi shawl, shown below.

I am probably three quarters through the border.  Last night at Knit Nite I had a great chance to spread it out on one of the round tables.  The colors are blacker than shown here.  I am beginning I will need to block this either folded in half, with the fan on, or else first one half and then the other.  But the eyelet rows will need the blocking to fully bring them out.
Warm and toasty.  I look forward to using this, whether as a shawl, or afghan.  If to awkward to wear, it will still use as lap robe or afghan.  But I have to wear it enough to show people how to wear it.  I still have people asking where is the hole to put over my head.

Anyone Know What This Is?

Getting readily for spin guild yesterday I decided to grab something new to spin fo a change.  I have seven full bobbins ready to ply of Jacob wool.  There are also two finished skeins.  Plus most to the original nine pounds of Jacob roving still in the bag.  (I think there is a sweater hiding in there somewhere.)
But back to the current spinning.
I love this roving!  But I don't know exactly what it is or who/where it is from.  The white I am pretty sure is silk.  Contrasts nicely and is slightly stubby, it spinns like a dream.  The black though is the puzzle.  Is it merino?  Maybe super soft cormo?  It could even be alpaca.
And where did I find it?  I am vaguely remembering a heavenly mix from Counting Sheep Farm.  But with no receipt in the bag, I am at a loss.
Does anyone recognize this fiber?

Edging Along

I am plodding along on the border for my Leftover Pi shawl. 
I am very happy with the way it looks so far.  I think I mentioned I purchased an extra skein of yarn, so the border would be all the same colors.  That yarn, Knit-Picks Stroll Handpaint in the County Fair colorway is delightful.  The colors are clear but subdued and I really like it.
But the border is still only about half done.
Eight stitches out, seven stitches back, then knit the last stitch with a body stitch for each body stitch.  That's sixteen stitches for each body stitche.    Hmmm.  There are 576 body stitches, so that means 9216 total stitches to complete the border..
Gulp.
Excuse me while I go ponder that revelation.

Borderline

That's right.  The main body of my Leftover Pi Shawl is finished and the stretchy sideways border is begun.
A garter band is one of my favorite edgings.  It is neat, doesn't roll, has body and goes around curves and corners nicely.
Only problem? The unseasonably warm weather.  But it promises to improve tonight, with highs in the 50s and 40s for the nest week.
Definitely good knitting weather.

Nearing the End

No, I'm not exactly on the home stretch, but I am getting closer.  That small black ball shown sitting in the center of the Leftover Pi in the picture below is my last black ball before starting the border.
With a bit of stretching, like what would be done while blocking, it has a 34 inch radius.  The border will add about another two inches to that radius.  This may end up being a throw or lap-robe, it may be too warm to wear as a shawl!

Crazy Cat Lady

I guess that is me.  Below you can see the picture my the newest addition to the family.
I met him yesterday when in Muskegon.  After thinking about it all last night, I went back today after church with Lizzie, and brought him home.
At the pet rescue, they called him DaVinci.  But I wanted an L name, to go with Lizzie.  So meet Leonardo DaVinci.  Or maybe Louie DeVinci.  I do like the ring of that better.  But either way, he thinks he has been appointed emperor of the house.
Officially though, he is a 3 month old flame point Siamese.  He is creamy white, with light yellow tail and ears, ice blue eyes and a buzz-saw of a purr.  And he loves to play and torment Lizzie. 

WIP Wrestling Time

I was gazing over the vast collection of WIPs, (Works In Progress) the other day and I came to an epiphany.  Well a couple of them actually. 
The first was that I should probably not start any more projects for a while.  A brief glance at my Ravelry projects page shows 18 unfinished projects.  And I will not swear that everything is listed there.  Then I remembered that I do have a project that I want to cast on and finish before the end of the year.  (Baby Surprise Jacket, with yarn purchased and waiting.)
Oops.  And I wanted to knit myself a pair of Pick a Boo fingerless mitts out of the stash.
But I guess they will have to wait.  I can make my mitts my inaugural 2013 project.  And I can wait at least until mid December to start the BSJ.  It shouldn't take me very long to finish that.
The second epiphany has to do with the fact that I need more sweaters, specifically cardigans.

Not that I am going to abandon the the current Leftover Pi Shawl.  I am loving that project.  The colors are much brighter and intense than shown here.  I am on ball 5 of the black Gloss and my leftover sock yarn stash is much diminished.  I did break down, while Knit Picks was having a brief sale on black and orange yarn and bought 2 more skeins of the black plus another full skein of Stroll Hand Paint.  I am saving this to use just on the sideways garter border bind off rows.  So that gives me this ball, plus one more that I can use on the body of the shawl.  So far I have managed to knit this far, a nearly 30 inch radius without knowingly repeating colors.
While I love my shawls though, I decided that sweaters are more practical for my more casual farmmom life style.  I have been mentally going though patterns, and stash.  Luckily I should have plenty of both on hand in the wool room to keep me knitting merrily on for quite some time.

As for the shawl, with the previously mentioned 576 stitches, I have found myself on the edge of the black hole phase of knitting.  I can still feel that I am making progress, thanks to the eyelet rows, but it is now taking MUCH longer to get to each one.

The light from my phone camera doesn't make the inside look quite like a black hole, but it seems like it while knitting.
Here is hoping I can hold out and finish this soon, and then turn to the Red Rover Shrug/vest, my Duchess of Cambridge Featherweight, resolable socks for Hubby, Paisley shawl, and at least one or two of the other pairs of socks I have in progress.  
All by the end of the year. 
Don't hold your breath.

Slow Going

After the Open House at the history center, I came home too pooped to knit. 
Who knew such a thing was possible?
Anyway, having recovered from that I am back at it, stitching away on my Leftover Pi shawl.  The rounds are going very slowly.
So slowly that I spent some thought in why.  Then I realized that after the last doubling of my stitches I now have 576 stitches in each round. 
With another 40 or so rounds before the border.  Yikes!  I won't be done quickly with this project.

Offically Open

 At long last, we had the Grand Opening/Open House at my place of work yesterday.  From the starting of the Open House until a while after the Ribbon Cutting, we were packed.  Even after the main crush of people thinned out, we had people coming until closing.

 We had much more food than this.  Once it all came in, you could hardly see the table cloth!  And there was another table of cookies up by my desk.  I tried to avoid that one though. 

 A great contingent from my church were here, as well as family members from both my family and Sandy's family.  She is my fearless leader, boss lady, and partner in crime.  

 We had a lot of positive feedback, and a lot of people came who had not been here before. 

I think we all went home and to bed, happy and excited.

Thanks, boss lady for the job.  We are going to take Fremont by storm.

More Leftover Pi

Yesterday, Farmmom went to an Alpaca Open House and Fiber Event at White Cloud Alpacas, co-hosted by The Old Farm Girl.  Animals, fiber, yarn, friends and food.  What could be better?
Well, maybe the weather.  That was a cool-ish 40's to maybe 50.  Sun, then sleet, mist, clouds, some occasional breezes.  But it was a good day to wear wool, spin and knit.
You can see in the picture below that my Leftover Pi is zooming along.  I am almost ready for the next and probably last increase, doubling the stitches again.  It is about a 22 inch radius now.  I may need to break down and buy more black Knit Picks Gloss before I can finish.
And somehow yesterday, when the wool fumes lifted and I got home, I found a sweater's worth of Nature Spun (in scarlet), and a pound of pinkish and brown roving in my hands.
Now, how did that happen?

If Fall is Here...

The ivy on the trees is turning red.  The frost helped the start corn drying to golden brown.  Down the side road, the maples are turning red and the poplars yellow.
Fall is here.
And that means it is time to wear wool.  Time to plan big heavy knitting.
Maybe I can dig out the gansey to work on again.
The snow will be here soon!

Happy October

For the fourth year, my community is celebrating fall with a Harvest Festival.  There will be footlong hotdogs available in the city park.  A parade down Main Street with hay wagons full of people throwing candy and with huge pieces of farm machinery.  One year the combine with its corn head barely made it between some cars foolishly parked along  Main.
And, of course, we have hay sculptures.  There are hay bale spiders, a  bride, cornucopia, lumberjack, hair dryer and more.  All made of hay bales.  One of my favorites is a big John Deere tractor at the fairgrounds, complete with a very real looking driver.  But I think my favorite is the bi-polar combine at the co-op.  One side is John Deere green and yellow, while the other, shown below, is International Harvester red and black.
I think they were trying to be politically correct, not taking sides on that highly charged question of which is better.
I won't say which I favor, but....well just look at the picture and guess.

Completed!

A while back I was working on Evelyn's Misty Blue Cardigan.  The deal was I would knit it and she would do the sewing up. 
Knowing that she had told me she once gave away a sweater rather than sewing it together, I was rather worried about a repeat of that episode.  To prevent a repeat, I occasionally asked her how it was coming after I had turned all the pieces over to her.
****
Ok, I was frankly a nag.
****
Finally, (to shut me up I'm sure), a couple weeks ago she came to spinning guild armed with yarn, all the pieces, and a blunt needle.
And a couple days layer, I got the picture below.  I think between the two of us we did a bang-up job.