I have a problem. Not quite an AA style problem but it might get there soon. I have a problem with a color way. Holi Festival by MadlineTosh. I mean I have only purchased 2 skins in the 80/10/10 Sport which is amazing, but I just got a skein of the Pashmina which is epic.

What amazes me is the difference in the color ways. All of MadlineTosh is hand dyed and when you get more than one skein, you can see it. It looks like like a painting. Each stroke is different. Painting with dye on fiber, the skeins all tell a different story. Its beautiful.

I'm not sure what I am going to do with all this loveliness, but I am going to guess that the pashmina will become a shawl and the DK might be a cowl or wrap. Only time will tell.

That Time I Won A Blue Ribbon

A very exciting thing happened this weekend. I got to go to brunch.

Well, besides that.

After months of planning, swatching, frogging, knitting, purling, and charting. I won the Blue Ribbon at the DC State Fair.

Let me tell you, I went a little nuts with this entry, but I had a goal of doing a color work mitten with some sort of iconic DC image on the front. I went though ideas with the Capitol and White House. Or the constitution or an image of the Lincoln Memorial.

I need up going with the Capitol and I used the DC Flag for the cuff of the mitten. The palms use a traditional Nordic pattern. And some stars and stripes on the thumb for, you know, America!

The pattern will be up on Raverly when I get it together for anyone who might want a pair of their own.

Getting the Fire Under Me

Like any other seasoned knitter, I have rampent knitting ADD. I usally have at least 3 projects going and last month I put a pair of mittens on hairpins so I could use the set of double points for, you guessed it, more mittens.

Clearly, I have a problem.

As refrenced in my last post, I have a goal of enterting the DC State Fair Knit and Crochet Contest this year. I also had been disguraged that I hadn't seen anything up on the website until I recieved a google alert (and before you ask, all of my alerts have to do with knittng or my favorite bands) I finally had the fire under my ass to start working on this for real.

I have about a month to get my mittens ready. I am hopefully going to start swatching out the pattern this week.

I just need a mantra. Or a chant, or a motivational montage of me getting this thing started!!!!!



My life isn't a movie, but it is sometimes set to killer soundtrack.

Get by with a little help from my Ravelers.

This is a gratuitous pool side knitting shot.

I have been on Ravelry for several years. Since I learned to crochet over 5 years ago as one of my coworkers told me to check it out for patterns I have learned what the site can really because for.

I hit a block with my Fine Vine Shawl. After emailing with the designer and not hearing back I contacted on of the Ravelers about her project. She was lovely. She got right back to me and helped me though the problem! I am not on my way again and it wouldn't have happened without her help.

So thank you, hsteward37! 

Our Nation's Mittens

Hello from our Nation's Capitol.

Well, that is if you are American, if not, please, lets pretend I am lucky enough to live in Rome or London. I would rather be knitting by a fountain in either of those cities.  

The moral of the story is, that is my vacation life, not real life, in real life, I enjoy on a not-to-hot summers evening to walk over to a fountain near to the Capitol building and knit in the shade. Its fun to people watch (I always have to remind myself what I must look like as a tourist) and enjoy some down time.

I was contemplating what I wanted to do for the upcoming DC State Fair. If you didn't go last year, do it this year. It was great. They had a petting zoo for the kiddies, or the more whimsical adults. Pie baking contest, but the prize that I've got my eye on in the Arts and Crafts Ribbons. I am determined to win for knitting and crocheting

I have had this goal since last year, and let me tell you, the competition is fierce. Honey badger fierce.

So after I finished my Death Flake Mitts, I knew what I had to do. DC inspire mittens. Color-work no less.  In the flags colors.

Right now I am working on my chart and I am hoping to start swatching the design out by the end of the week.

The project page is up on Ravelry.com, if anyone wants to take a gander.

That Time Where I Went on Vacation and Bought a Bunch of Yarn

 I had the amazing, astounding, and another word starting with 'A' that would possibly convey my rapture- opportunity to visit the Stongehedge Fiber Mill in East Jordan, MI this past week. I met my yarn. I gleefully shrieked at the fluffy lambs with their winter wool still on in the surprisingly warm northern Michigan sun. I almost had a moment with the farms camel, but I was ultimately refused. The alpacas where, not surprisingly, aloof.
We saw the carding and spinning machines and let me tell you it was everything I had not to dive into the trash cans full of batt and just stay there.


I got to the store and I was basically just high on yarn, sheep, and vacation that I started a massive pile near the cash register. When it came time to check out, my mother who had been watching my dart around the store molesting yarn and trying to explain yarn weights paid for my whole stash.

After my complaining she turned, handed me the bag and told to me to "Go ahead and knit your feelings."

Folks, let me tell you, I have had a rough 6 months. I have been knitting like mad though them. My father and mother are usually a great source of wisdom, but on my vacation, soaking in the Michigan sunshine, eating deliciously-horrible-for-me-food, and sitting, reading, and drinking beer, these words seemed like a mantra. So I am going to take my mothers advice. Not just for my glorious pile of Stonehedge yarn, but for all of it. I am going try and stop worrying about things I can't control.

She told me to knit my feelings, so I am.

We also bought some pie.