The votes are in and it’s a win!

While I have been traveling to Kansas (there’s no place like home…), swamped at work, and not posting on my blog, many of you have been VOTING - and for that I sincerely thank you.  My Fjordland socks won the Summer of Color contest!  Check out Allison’s post to see all the winners! I really have my mother to thank for this win.  While in Kansas, I mentioned to her that I entered this contest and wanted her to vote for me.  She said “oh, email me the info and I’ll have the members of my quilting group vote. Lots of them admire the socks you knit for me.”  I’m not sure if she contacted just quilters or the whole Fabric & Fiber crowd at Sun City Texas….but I think every single one of them voted – plus a few bridge and bunko players, to boot.  If only my father was a big emailer, we could have engaged the golf contingent, too!  In fact, when it became clear to me how many votes Mom was rustling up, I got off my duff and emailed everyone who might possibly be not annoyed by an email asking for a vote.  It was pretty fun, actually.So fun, in fact, that I’m moved to sponsor my own contest.  If you voted for Socks 12 in the Summer of Color contest (be honest, folks, you know who you are!), leave a comment on this post to enter to win a pair of socks handknit by me for you.  I’ll conduct a sock interview (putting my reference librarian skills to use) and we’ll come up with a yarn/pattern combo that is to your liking.  Enter by midnight on Tuesday, August 17 – I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner.  Make sure your comment leaves me enough info so I know how to reach you (shoutout to Sun City)!

In other knitting news, I think I doubled the length of the butternut scarf (this was my airplane knitting).  This isn’t a great photo because it’s hard to take good photos of scarves in progress, but here it is:I also started a new plain vanilla sock in a self-striping yarn, suitable for knitting while chatting with family.  I made it to the heel by the time I arrived home (it’s almost done now but I have no visual documentation!): I also scored a beautiful skein of sock yarn at Wildflower Yarns in Manhattan – this is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine (50% wool, 20% alpaca, 30% nylon) in color 1275, which has the most wonderful name: Pea Soup Mix.  I haven’t worked with Ultra Alpaca Fine before: I hardly knit a stitch this past weekend, though, because it’s berry season (my favorite farm).  When berries are in, you pick:  And when the berries are picked, you make jam: I branched out some this year.  In addition to the usual raspberry-blackberry jam, I also did a blackberry-peach combo (with cinnamon and lime) and something called Peach Melba jam (which is 4 parts peach to 1 part raspberry and results in the most amazing pinkish orange color).  The peaches this year are so good, one of the few benefits of a too-dry summer (my favorite peach place).  I got on a roll on Sunday and finished about 3 dozen jars.  Mmmmmm.

And that’s enough for today!  Now, I’m going to settle in with my Simply Sock Yarn colorcards and think about which 4 colors might work best in the Mad for Plaid socks.

Thanks again to the 114 people who voted for Socks 12.  If I ever run for public office, I’m hiring my mom to be my campaign manager!

Mo Finn

I started a new spinning project this past weekend.  I chose some roving I purchased at MDSW just a few months ago, a 50/50 blend of Finn and Mohair in natural brown from Misty Mountain Farm in Virginia. The Finn breed was recommended for spinning sock yarn, and we all know that mohair is “Nature’s Nylon,” so I have high hopes that I might actually be able to make sock yarn with this.

I bought 8 oz.  4 oz should be enough for a pair of socks, if spun finely enough.  Is mine?  We shall see!  I divided the bag into 4 2-oz sections.  I’ll spin two of them onto two bobbins, ply, and evaluate.  Then I’ll probably repeat with the remaining fiber.

So far I have one 2-oz bobbin done:

And look what else I made yesterday: raspberry-blackberry jam from berries we picked at Yellow Hill Farm near Biglerville.  Mmmmmm.  Steven, I had to take off a Black Dog label to reuse a jar.  I’d been hanging onto it for a while, but it’s time for a new life.Currently we have 11 8-oz jars of this yumminess.  I need to make more.  Those berries are taking up freezer space that will need to reallocated to applesauce soon.  Of course, we keep some frozen berries for smoothies and baking… but we have a LOT of berries stored right now.  Enough for more jam!

Labor Day Knitting

Labor Day was meant to be the kickoff date for another Knitalong with knitting buddy Kmart. Back at MDSW 08, we decided to tackle another runaway knit, the Must Have Cardigan (made famous by the Harlot herself). K bought yarn at the festival and I bought some later in the summer.

Actually, I bought 6 single balls of various yarns and knit a bunch of swatches (one didn't even make the swatching cut). Here are some of them. I am always drawn to blue (my favorite color), but I also tried a couple of greens:
In the end, the winning swatch won for three reasons:

1. I thought a lighter color would show off the cables better than a darker color.
2. This yarn (Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in color"lake ice heather") is neutral enough to go with a number of other colors. This is a cardigan, after all, so we need to consider the shirt that goes under it. I don't know if the photographs really show it, but this is a light icy grey with a hint of bluish-purple in it. It's not truly grey. I don't think I could have endured a whole sweater out of plain grey.
3. This yarn is heathered. I think the heathered yarns result in even more versatile garments, and I wanted to try a heathered yarn for this project. Here is the winning swatch with the pattern:

While I was swatching, I figured out my gauge and decided I would be knitting on a US 5 for the bulk of this project (US 4 for the ribbing). I'm getting exactly 5 st/in on that needle, and I like the resulting fabric. I knit the Rogue on this same yarn, but on a size 7 needle, and the fabric is a little loose.

So... Labor Day dawned beautiful, and I could have knit all day. Except... my son thought it would be a great idea to "go berry picking and make jam!" So, we did. There is a great U-Pick place near here called Yellow Hill Farm, and the raspberries were plentiful and delicious. We made a double batch of raspberry-blackberry jam (YUM) and have enough berries left to make another double batch of plain raspberry jam.


Finally, after the jam was made and the kids were in bed, I cast on for the Must Have Cardigan. Here she is, just out of the gate. It's a slow start, but I think this will be a wonderful fall knitting project this season.