black bean festival

When I announced to Paul and our friend Andrea that I was going to the Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair this past weekend, they were stunned. Yeah... it turns out that regular people think of dietary fiber, not wool, when they hear "fiber." Paul then unofficially proclaimed it the Black Bean Festival. Muggles!

One of the highlights...
So cute! I went with a few girls from my knitting circle, and a great time was had by all, especially at the Briar Rose booth... talk about swoon-worthy fiber.

(L) Sea Pearl (merino/tencel), (R) Celebration (merino/bamboo), plus the After Hours Shawl pattern

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Kylie's in love with my now-complete Hap Blanket. See how she's cuddling up to it?
I've even seen her burrow under it and hide behind it. I haven't washed and blocked it yet, since I'm wondering if that's some of the cat appeal, and I'm enjoying the show too much.

Pattern: Hap Blanket, by Ysolda Teague (from Whimsical Little Knits)
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool, Natural (1.25 skeins) and Coffee (.25 skeins)
Needles: Clover US 11 bamboo circs

Notes:
Hmmm... I wish I liked this better. The yarn is great -- very lofty and soft, marvelous price and yardage, wonderful natural colors. I usually love Ysolda's patterns, but this one isn't my favorite. There are serious errata. Row 5 should be P (not K); more significantly, the last page of the pattern doesn't seem to be necessary and was ceremoniously disregarded by me. The written-out instructions are rather annoying -- they often refer back to other rows that themselves refer back to yet more rows.

Feather and fan is usually my absolute favorite stitch pattern to knit, but here it's a pain. Switching colors after YOs is nearly impossible to do well. I don't like knitting F&F in the round on those big needles, either.

The blanket is an odd size. It would make a great (if slightly large) baby blanket, but I knit it up in hand-wash-only wool. It kind of covers your lap. It would work best as a decorative item over the back of a chair. Or as a cat blanket, apparently.

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Finishing up the Hap Blanket (as well as a scarf that I'll save for another post) sparked a bout of cast-on-itis! First up, a Milkweed Shawl:
I'm using Impulse of Delight's Superwash Merino/Silk in "Aubergine." Ashley used this yarn for a beautiful Ishbel a while back, and I couldn't resist the allure of those gorgeous inky blues. Yes, yes... usually aubergine means purple, but the color makes me so happy that I won't complain. It has a lovely sheen, and it's a nice, springy 2-ply. I have found a few odd spots in this skein though.

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Also, since my friends are procreating at an alarming rate, a raglan baby sweater in Cashmerino, inspired by Lolly's two cute versions.
This needs to be done for an early August baby shower, which I don't think will be a problem. I'm subbing YO raglan increases:

knit to within 1 st of marker, YO, K1, slip marker, K1, YO

weekend update

I've been pleasantly surprised that SNL has actually been funny lately! It had been years since I had watched the show, and now Tina Fey's Sarah Palin has me rolling in the aisles, as did Anne Hathaway's Mary Poppins! Who knew that supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was actually a sexually-transmitted liver disease? What a bummer for poor Burt... I've always had a soft spot for Dick Van Dyke.
So... the weekend was nice. Busy, but nice. YarnCon was a fairly small but pleasant event. Leah and I had a yummy breakfast at Milk & Honey first. The highlight was meeting Franklin Habit from the Panopticon, chatting about the joys of Latin, and picking up some of his knitting gift cards. Alas, Dolores was nowhere in sight. I had hoped to meet up with Karen, too, but never wound up finding her. A pity...

My only other purchase was a skein of wonderfully pettable angora/merino from animals raised right here in Illinois via the Green Pastures Fiber Co-op and Esther's Place.
Sunday involved an excursion outside the city. We loaded up into a friend's minivan and headed out for a breakfast of Swedish pancakes and lingonberry smoothies and a trip to Edwards Apple Orchard. Rain came in patches, heavy at times, so no orchard photos. We brought home a bounty of apples, feasted on cider and apple donuts, and fell asleep in the minivan on the way home. Yes, it made me feel as if I were 5 again.

While I'm dying to try this decadent apple-almond braid recipe, I managed to resist this afternoon and instead whipped up some easy applesauce. No Foley food mill, blender, or food processor needed. While I'm not a big fan of kitchen gizmos (in a move that would shock many Kitchen-Aidophiles, I often just use a wooden spoon to mix up a batch of cookies), I was disappointed that I couldn't find my nifty apple corer and slicer. That actually does make this recipe even easier. I like to use a mixture of apple varieties for this recipe -- this time the mix includes Jonathan, Jonagold, Golden Delicious, and Autumn Beauty.

Easy Applesauce

10 medium cooking apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
1 C. water
1/8 C. brown sugar (if you really like it sweet, you could go up to 1/4 C.)
1/8 C. sugar (if you really like it sweet, you could go up to 1/4 C.)
1/2 - 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cardamom
1/8 tsp. nutmeg

Throw all ingredients into a big pot and stir. Bring it to a boil, then cover, turn it down to a simmer, and ignore it for about 25 minutes. Check to see if the apples are tender and falling apart. If not, stir it and give it a bit more time (covered). When everything's very tender, stir to break up the apples. You can use a potato masher to break up any larger chunks. That's it! It may seem a bit watery at first, but as it cools it solidifies to a good texture.

My minivan knitting included lots of garter stitch: the beginning of an EZ Tomten Jacket in wonderfully soft handspun wool. This is my first time knitting with handspun, and I love it. Now I just need to find a good source for handspun (or learn how to spin, but I don't see that happening right now).

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool was a lot of fun. It's not a huge festival, but there were some gorgeous sheep and marvelous vendors there. Connecting with sheep farmers, meeting the little woolie guys who provide me with yarn, petting a soft angora rabbit -- much better than Stitches Midwest. The highlights:

~ Shetland sheep - so little and fluffy!!!
~ angora rabbits - I can't believe I made it home without one
~ Briar Rose Fibers - so many beautiful, saturated colors

I'm doing a little test knitting for Sarah (AKA The Plucky Knitter), so I'll be posting FO pics of Saartje's booties knit up in a super-soft merino fingering weight very, very soon. It feels like fingering-weight Malabrigo.

Paul and I are heading back to Wisconsin for Saturday's Brewers game. This time I'm rooting for the Bratwurst! Hopefully we'll hit an apple orchard on the way home. I'm jonesing for some homemade applesauce.

Check out the fabulous horns on this guy!

smitten with mittens

Heat and humidity have hindered further progress on my Tapestry shawl. Lap full of wool in 90% humidity = not my cup of tea. A smaller project was in order:

Basic Mittens

Source: Knitting for Peace
Size: Adult Medium
Needles: US 6 Brittany birch DPNs
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool

An odd hole is created in the ribbing when you begin to increase for the thumb gusset in the first stockinette round. Next time I would knit one round plain before beginning the increases. These are for the Favorites Fall Swap! I'm in a frenzy over all the awesome mitten patterns out there.

More mittens in progress:

wonderfully whimsical Squirrel and Oak mittens from Hello Yarn
Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (snickerdoodle & chocolate)

Hopefully they'll be done by the time I'm home from the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend!

My computer had a minor meltdown, so blogging has been light and will be so for the next few days, too.