Madrona, Days the Others

Well, I really thought I'd get back to this sooner.  I think I was overwhelmed by fumes of wool and chocolate.

I spent nearly $400 in the market; had been telling myself $275-300, but in my heart, I knew that was wrong.

I did have a few things that were specifically on my list (wooden swift)

And possibly some shawl yarn.

I did get the Advanced Domino Knitting book, even though the primary language is Japanese.  There are enough photos w/translations, and I'm familiar enough with her earlier books, that it shouldn't be a problem.

 
Finally saw in real life, some of the mini mochi slow-color change yarn.  It is a single ply and can be really splitty.  That's a common complaint on it in Ravelry.  So far, I have noticed that a bit, not too much of a problem.  I started a Swallowtail shawl with it and love the intense colors.  Now that I am to the point of adding beads with a tiny tiny crochet hook, the splitty business IS a little frustrating, but so far, it's worth it.

The focus for the next couple of weeks will be finishing up some of the bits on house for remodel, for a party on the 20th.  But, I'll try to get a little better about checking in here.

Here's a few pix from classes.  I took the EEKS - STEEKS class by Mary Scott Huff.  There was this huge bit of homework that ideally was to be done before class.

The instructor had a lot of homework too.  She made 70+ swatches for the class.  Each student got 3 swatches and the whole purpose was to cut up all her work.

I did cut mine open and I've knit up the edgings on 3 of 4 sides, but small black-on-black stitches need GOOD light so I've been putting this off.

I took a class on knitting beaded jewelry. For some reason, I expected we would be knitting with wire. This was an interesting class and I can see making more of these.  However, the loop to connect very strong magnet closures has a sharp edge and has sliced through the stitching to join it twice.  Yesterday, I got some beading thread with a lot of nylon and we'll see if that works better.

This is a project I'm looking forward to. Black Water Abbey yarn and a pattern with 3 Aran hats.  Haven't decided yet which one to make, but it should be a good commute project.  It will also be a test run for whether I should buy a sweater's worth of this for a vest for DH.

Madrona, Day 1

Well, in case there's any doubt why any of us are here...

but enough about what my hotel room looks like.  This is my version of Room Service.

 I requested a microwave, but there are only a limited number of them available, so once I confirmed that there wasn't one, I bought accordingly. And most of it is pretty d**n healthy for being on vacation.

I did the first pass through the market, which seems smaller than in recent years.  Still not a struggle with 35 instead of 50 vendors LOL.  I only bought one thing, a card (see above) but took several dozen photos.  I did not see any sweater kits for $250+ that I had to have.  I had a rough time passing one up last year, but pass it up I did.

A few things that I will definitely pick up.  I am particularly camera-stupid.  I can't find the white balance on this camera and I have seen it before, except when I'm looking for it.  Everything is coming up yellow-green. The lighting in the vendor area is just terrible.  Pix of these IN MY ROOM will be much better.  This is Minimochi yarn, long color transitions like Noro, but lighter weight and soft.  I've seen many projects on Rav with this stuff and I can't wait to try it out.

Another thing is this:

 

I've taken classes with Vivian Hoxbro, made a couple projects from her books, corresponded with her via email.  This book is designed for the Japanese market, but is loaded with photos.  Since I've done a lot of her stuff already, I think I can fumble my way through.  Wait til you see some of the images inside this book.

OK, that's the first of the yummy bits.  Need to collect needles etc for first class. More tonight, maybe.

OK, so it's been a while....

Well, there is this phenomen called Ravelry and I seem to be spending my knitting-related computer time over there. God knows, I haven't stopped knitting; it's just all over there. There's a lot of hats and baby stuff and for some reason, I got into a lace period. You can see my projects and junk here.

Then, there's this other thing. Starting about the same time as the last post here (hmm - coincidence, I think not), we broke ground to go from this:

to this:

18 months later, we are almost done, and you can see the entire journey here. THAT'S where my blogging time has gone.

As far as knitting, well, I'm headed out in a couple days to Madrona for the 4-day retreat / classes / shopping / drinking wine in the lobby til the horse cuts you off.

Hopefully, later I'll post the hats I've just completed while stalling (ha ha) on my homework for Madrona.