That Was Fun!

Look who came to town! On a recent beautiful spring day, Stephen West and Ragga Eiriksdotter visited the D.C. area. I had just met Ragga at Vogue Knitting Live and Stephen West had me at Clockwork! Lol. So, I just couldn't miss the opportunity to learn from such amazing designers. It was super fun sharing the day with Kate of Gourmet Stash. We learned new techniques as well as improving on old ones. We also translated inspiration into design. So fun. Lots of one on one, too, which makes for a good class. These two are a lot of fun! Not sure why Blogger cut Stephen off in the posting of this picture...just click on it or head on over to Flickr for all the cuteness! Translating all I learned into real life has been a little trickier. 'Cuz you know, my real life is oh so full. I've been fiddling with my design that I took away from that class in between knitting thousands of yards of lace on my Albers Shawl and poking along on my Central Park Hoodie. Even knitting has taken a back seat to what is front and center right now... this little guy and his baseball obsession. Here he is on Opening Day. Look at that ball go right into the square on the net!!! Here they are lining up for the parade- This one makes me smile (hey, batter batter!). Look at him all baseball ready! I will never, ever tire of seeing life through the eyes of a 5 year old. Everything is so new and magical. Life is beautiful! Ok, friends, see you on the other side of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Can you believe it's next week?

Celebrations

I thought that might grab your attention! It is what you think it is. Yes, it is. A Moosie! I can scarcely believe it myself. There it was at Maryland Sheep and Wool all innocent-like. I mean, really...how could I not give this beauty a home when there is a 2 ish year waiting list on these one of a kind spindles made from moose antlers? Of course, no animals are harmed in the harvesting of the materials. It spins wonderfully with its elegant Cochin Rosewood shaft. It's 34 grams of pure heaven. One of the highlights of my festival purchases. Yup, I bought lots of practical things like a 5 dent reed for my Cricket and a nostepinne to wind little minis for hexipuff knitting. Knitter's pride square dpn needles joined my hexipuff supplies. Nice and sharp! Pretty, too. Such a joy to knit with that I've added a few puffs to this long term project. My goal was just to make a wee pillow with the ones I was sent from my Bohoknitterchic group swap on Ravelry, but as any hexipuffer will tell ya, these babies are addictive!

Of course I couldn't leave Maryland Sheep and Wool without fleece. I put my request in the trusty hands of my friend Kate, who selected this beauty.

It's indescribably lovely Corriedale fleece. I wish you could feel it.
MDSW weekend is always a blast, reconnecting with fiber friends from around the globe. We did have fun.
There was another celebration in the works kicking off the month of May. This little guy made his First Communion.

Then, to keep the party rolling, these four graduated:

Preschool

Graduate School

High School

Grade School

So, there were parties! Big ones!
And there were birthdays...

My babylove, I mean BIG boy, turned 5!!! Five!

#5 turned 11!

Lucky girl got her ears pierced!

Even I had a birthday.

But who's counting!?

Whoa! I needed a vacation after all that.

So we crashed my husband's business trip to Hilton Head. This is an actual photograph from our balcony. Looks like a postcard, doesn't it? Then we took a sidetrip to Savannah. Sweet little town full of southern charm.

Despite all the busy, I'm never far from the yarn. Here are some gratuitous yarn pics.

Here's what's on the needles:

Hand dyed with Kate and Ann for a triangle shawl

Dragonfly Fibers yarn for an Albers Cowl

A combo of Dragonfly yarn in the Ode to Sock Summit colorway and the product that came out of my dyepot when the three of us set out to create a deviant yellow. This is the start of a square shawl.

All the influence of this designer

Ann Weaver

who has officially joined our pack and unofficially made her second home in MD/DC/VA because we keep recruiting her to teach! We've all been having some fun times. Check her out. You'll love her designs and fabulous workshops.

Speaking of workshops, here's where you can find me this summer:

*Studio E June 25-June29 Boredom Buster Get Hooked Crochet Camp for Kids *Dragonfly Fibers Studio June 30 Spin Lab Beginner Art Yarn workshop *Spin U July 28 Liberation Spin Art Yarn Workshop *Michigan Fiber Festival August 18-19 in the Dragonfly Fibers booth. Stop by and say hi! We'll make it a celebration!

February

I love February. To me, it's the promise of Spring. In 3 weeks our crocus will be peeking their fresh beginnings out from under the winter soil. Also, I had a beautiful baby girl one February, 17 years ago. I cannot even put into words what this child means to me. All goodness, this one.

Happy Birthday, #3!!!

I have big fiber goals for February. I have already warped my loom for the Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club's second kit, Spaced. This kit was shipped last spring! But, hey, now... we're not on REAL world time here, remember? We lovingly refer to it as "Stover time" around here. That's mama-of-7 time. That's youhavemorefreetimethanmebutwhosecounting time.

Speaking of weaving club, I'm looking forward to the next shipment coming in mid February. Yet another reason to love February! It's fun to receive surprises in the mail. I love that my awesome husband is so supportive. My YES man. I went with the neutral colorways this round. I chose the wild colorways last time. Here's my first kit. It's Houndstooth in the wild colorway.

Wanna see my first ever scarf? I used some cotton for the warp and Sanguine Gryphon Traveller for the weft. I fulled it a bit during finishing. Soooo soft.

So, yeah, the weaving bug has bitten. I go to sleep at night dreaming of possibilities! I just got a steal on a Cricket to add to my loom collection and I ordered a new custom built peg loom from daisyhillhandiworks!
I'm thinking a warp per month is a reasonable weaving goal.

Hoping for more spinning time, too. I recently spun the December Hello Yarn club, Kitsune (Polwarth/silk) into a 3 ply. It's roughly 450 yards. Here's the whole fiber story.

Look at that cute little Andean 2 ply leftover. Hexipuff, anyone?

In other spinning, here's what's fresh off my spindles this week:

I've finished a simple crochet shawl of my own design. This is handspun 2 ply lace weight yarn from Dragonflyfibers. It's luscious merino/silk, but I can't even tell you the name of the colorway because it belonged to me before Kate even had a name for it. In fact, she gave it to me while it was still wet from the dyepot! She's very good to me, that Kate. I love her so.

Oh, and check out the gifts I won from listening to The Yarn Thing Podcast! These are from the Kara Gott Warner episode.

So special! These books are amazing and it is such a treat to win them! It's a wonderful life, I tell you! So much to be grateful for. I'm so glad to be sharing the journey with you!