Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Queenie wave

It's essentially fall, dear readers, in case you were confused by the sharp ups and downs in temperature this week, and that means knitting is afoot.  Get ready for the updates:

First of all, the KW Knitters Fair was this weekend, in all it's woolly glory.  My camera was in my bag, but I was so busy being an awesome volunteer at the Fair, that I forgot to get any pictures.  I was on the fair planning committee this year (my attempt to be more involved with the Knitters Guild), and my task on fair day was to quietly sit behind the administration table (knitting, obviously) and help vendors with whatever they needed.  I received regular shopping and bathroom breaks, and I cataloged my purchases the next day.  These are the things I loved enough this year to bring home with me:

 A knitting bag from ZigZag Stitches, the boxy variety.  I've had my eye on one of these every year that I've gone to the fair, and this time I ran there first, right when the fair opened to get my pick of the litter.  Not super crazy about the liner fabric, but I adore the old-timey fabric on the outside.  It has already been put to use holding my current pair of yoga socks on the needles.
 
  More roving, to satisfy my insatiable spinning lust.  I bought two bags of the same variety of roving last year from Gemini Fibres, and I really liked how it turned out.  I spun and knitted a whole project with the roving from last year's fair, and I figured one more 100g bag would let me do a little more with the final product.   I bought three bags of this in "Pomegranate".


A pretty new drop spindle, also from Gemini Fibres.  My original drop spindle is clunky and makes me look like a newb - this one is pretty and delicate and worthy of my love.  I've been spinning mostly on my wheel lately, but this little beauty might bring me back to portable spinning.


  Allow me to introduce you to my new love, Viola Fibers.  I loved this booth at the fair, it was facing me from where I spent most of the day at the admin table, and it was easily the nicest looking booth there.  Her yarns are delicious.  So delicious even, I bought three of them, and blew most of my budget there.  Totally worth it.  This yarn is a fingering weight in "bruised plum", destined to become a lovely pair of fingerless mitts/gloves.


 This is sock weight yarn from Viola in "sea storm" for a lovely pair of socks for me.
 

My find of the day from Viola, a lace weight yarn in "wild rose".  This one will be a shawl for older sister thing, because she likes pink things but needs grown-up colours to match her almost-thirty-year-old self.

I want to take some/all of these yarns with me on my upcoming knitting retreat, where I'll be in South Hampton with my Monday night knitters for a few days away to knit and do nothing.  I will also be taking along my other current projects, including the cupcake mittens seen in my last post (I started the second mitten, and I weaved in the spaghetti mess inside the first mitten), and my current yoga socks project.  

Speaking of yoga socks, I finished another pair:


That makes two pairs now in my inventory of yoga socks to sell at the studio.  Just this week I received a message from someone on Ravelry about selling a pair of socks.  I've thought about opening an Etsy shop a few times, but I'm not 100% sold on it.  Etsy charges you 20 cents for every item you post, and if it doesn't sell in 4 months, you can re-post it for another 20 cents, or just let it expire.  I don't know how well my socks would sell, and if by some chance everyone and their chicken wanted a pair, I could never keep up with production.  It takes me about two weeks to make a pair - that's me picking up the needles 4 or 5 times a week while watching TV after work and the occasional all-day Saturday knit-a-thon.  Etsy also takes a cut of your sale when you do sell something, and PayPal gets their chunk since you need them to arrange for payment from strangers.  For the nice gal in Florida who contacted me through Ravelry, I'm sure we can work out some arrangement with a money order, but I'm wondering if there are other interested people out there who need a way to access my stuff.  Help me readers, you're my only hope.  Tell me what to do!

Onward,
vrock




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