NC State Fair Update

If you've wondered why I haven't posted anything for several weeks, it's because I've been busy working on my North Carolina State Fair entries. Crazy me, I registered 11 fiber-related entries this year. This morning I finished the last of 9 out of the 11. Of the 2 that I'm not entering, one, a filet crochet table runner, is larger than the rules require (I should have read the rules more closely on that one), and the other (a tatted edging on a handkerchief) is because I just ran out of the time and momentum to finish it (maybe I should start on next year's entries next month 😊). Even though I'm retired apparently I still can't stop creating pressure and stress for myself by setting strict deadlines and then procrastinating until the last minute.

I'll be dropping everything off tomorrow morning, and then spending the rest of the day baking my 2 cookie entries.

I'll post photos of everything after October 10th, the day entries are judged, and then photos of any ribbon winners I might have. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Another shawl made from one skein of yarn I bought at the 2017 Carolina Fiber Fest. The yarn is hand-dyed 100% superwash merino wool in 1-ply fingering weight from Iria Yarn Company out of Raleigh, NC. The colorway is "Boho."

The pattern is "Close to You" by Justyna Lorkowska. It's available as a free download on Ravelry at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/close-to-you

Keeping Busy

Not much to post these days as I am busy working on my ELEVEN! North Carolina State Fair fiber entries, and I don't like to post photos of them until they've been entered in the fair. It remains to be seen if I will be able to complete pieces for all the categories in time, but with several weeks before the fair opens in October, I'm working hard to get things done.

I got a happy surprise this week when I visited the Lace Knitting Facebook group. One of the photos of my butterfly scarf was used as the group's page banner. I had no idea that they would feature the scarf since it is not as lacy as most of the pieces on the page.

Despite all the activity devoted to the fair, I've also signed up to participate in a gigantic art installation Love Across the USA - Raleigh. Dozens of participants will be crocheting 2' by 2' squares that will be assembled into a huge mural that will be installed on the Raleigh convention center in October. It will be the third mural in the series planned by Olek, the artist designing and managing the project.

The design (portrait and quotation) will not be revealed until the mural is installed. The first two murals were Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony in Rochester, NY. I finished my assigned square quickly so I could get back to my fair projects.

June 2017 Knitting: "Butterfly" Scarf

This was an interesting and, for me, a challenging project: each ruffle is knitted on top of the previous ruffle. The last row of stitches of the previous ruffle are knit together with the next ruffle that has been formed...and so on till one side of the scarf is finished. After the second half is finished, the halves are joined together. 

The yarn is Jojoland Melody Superwash in 100% wool in colorway "Lilac Rose." The pattern is "Butterflies Are Free" from Lace One-Skein Wonders edited by Judith Durant (Storey Publishing, 2013, ISBN: 978-1612120584). 

The pattern calls for 700 yards of yarn, but I didn't have that much in my stash. After a bit of measuring and weighing I made some adjustments to accommodate the amount of yarn I did have. Each ruffle is supposed to have 3 repeats of the charted pattern, but I did only 2 repeats. Each side is supposed to have 9 ruffles, but I only have 8 ruffles per side. With these changes I did not run out of yarn, and I think the final result looks fine.

June 2017 Knitting: Lacy Hand-dyed Yarn Shawl

Another shawl made with yarn I bought at the 2017 Carolina Fiber Fest. The yarn is hand-dyed from Iria Yarn Company out of Raleigh, NC. The fiber is a 2-ply lace weight, 60% suri alpaca, 40% merino wool in colorway "Raspberry."

The pattern is "Magenta Mohair Lace Stole" from Lace One-Skein Wonders edited by Judith Durant (Storey Publishing, 2013, ISBN: 978-1612120584).

Latest Blinged Tatting Shuttles

Here's what I've been playing with lately: Bling on a Roll. The "jewels" are attached to a clear strip of sticky tape. You just cut the length you need and attach to the shuttle. I then applied clear protective coats to secure everything.

I bought Bling on a Roll at AC Moore in the scrapbooking department. For a person who does not scrapbook, I sure buy a lot of supplies there.

Here's some closer views of the shuttles

It was hard to get a good shot of the pink one; it looks much better in real life.

June Knitting 2017: Tote Bags

I've been knitting up a storm this summer and neglecting recording the results here in my blog. So I'll try to remedy this in a series of postings. First are two tote bags I knitted, one for myself and one for my sister after she saw the first one.

The one on the left is knit from yarn I bought at Downtown Knits in Apex, NC, at the Spring Yarn Crawl. After my sister said she'd love one I went back for another cone. As you can see they're both black and white (the colorway is called "TV Static"), but due to the source of the yarn there are always variations. 

The yarn is Wool and the Gang's "Jersey Be Good" T-shirt yarn made from factory offcuts. 

The pattern is called "Zigzag Shopper" and is also from Wool and the Gang. It's knit on size 19 needles so it knits up very fast. The resulting piece is rather heavy so I don't think it would be comfortable in a garment. Years ago I knit my daughter a T-shirt out of T-shirt yarn and she found it much too bulky and heavy to wear. (It probably ended up as a charity shop donation.)

Because of the source for this yarn, it apparently does not have the uniformity of most yarns. One thing I noticed when I started the second bag was that the yarn on that cone was wider than the yarn on the first cone, making a much thicker fabric. I was concerned that I would run out of yarn because the cones are measured by weight, not yardage. Rather than risk having to buy yet another cone to finish what is supposed to be a one-cone project, I took scissors to the yarn and split it into two narrower bands. As a result, I have the equivalent of a third cone still in my stash for a later project.