My first felting attempt

I took the rest of the mitten yarn I had left (cascade 220) and knit a cylinder on 10.5 needles. I made a little flap from garter stitch and sewed up the bottom. I tucked the corners in. I then put it in my washer on heavy duty hot/hot. Every once in a while for the first little bit, I fished around with tongs. After a while, I got involved in the book I was reading and stopped checking on it. It's really, really felted. Kind of cool. I formed it into the shape I was looking for and let it dry. Now I have to figure out a closure (button or snap?).

The pictures of the finished sweater

I love it, but it is a little warmer than I had hoped. I wore it to work last Tuesday and was way hot. That and I really do have to block the bottom in so it doesn't flare. Besides that, it's great.

The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > Online Shopper: Fellowship for the Fiber-Fixated

5/27/04 by Jean Rutter (free registration required)
Finally a nice article about modern knitters.
Pointed out by Jane on KR.

Woo-hoo and oh no, almost finished the v-neck sweater

It's not too big, it fits perfectly, the shaping is great. I just need to weave under the arms and tuck in all the threads (which is no small feat because the #$^* yarn had knots in every skein). Woo-hoo because I totally went from scratch. And boo-hoo or oh no because I'm now completely out of yarn. Aaack.

I'm going to take a little of the leftover cascade 220 from the mittens and try a little felting. Gee that ought to take me about two days.

Maybe it's back to acrylic for me. : (

Progress on the v-neck, 3/4 sleeve, seed stitch trim sweater

I finished the body up to wear the arms join, and one arm to the same place. I'm now working on the other arm. The body seems to be magically growing so what was once fitted now may be quite large. Sigh. I swatched a bunch and carefully calculated.

My Fortissima Colori Socks

I finished these in time to wear them last week to MD S&W. Here's a picture from the top:

Knit Knite

A bunch of Marylanders from KR got together last night at the Columbia Border's. It was great. We did a little chatting and a little knitting and my dh was able to read to his hearts content in the car repair section. Here are links to some of the attendees:

• http://RoseByAny.blogspot.com
  
• http://EiKnit.typepad.com
  
• http://PixieStikzKnitz.blog-city.com
  

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

Wow! I can't believe how big this festival is. It was huge. I'm not sure I saw everything or felt every fiber but I sure tried. I got to pet some llamas, an alpaca, an angora bunny, and some sheep and goats. Baaaaa. Baaaa.
I want to learn to spin and buy one of each fiber. I want my own goat, too, and maybe a couple of fuzzy bunnies. You would think I was 5 years old.
My dh was funny-- at the sheep dog demonstration he said, "listen to how quiet the handlers are and think about all the people in our neighborhood running around and yelling at their dogs!" He's right. It was quite impressive.
BTW- it's raining big time now, I'm glad it started after I got home! I hope those poor sheep don't shrink!

Done the Socks

Now I have to photograph them. hmm. They fit pretty well, but I wish I had done them on my size 1s. I wanted to try 2s2c toe up with the Queen Kahuna cast on so that limited me to my size 2 Addis. The fabric isn't quite as tight as I would have hoped. I ended up frogging the bind off after it was way too tight on my rather voluptuous leg. I then tried Peggy's stretchy bind off and it worked like a charm.
I wore them all day today while I walked around the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival and they felt just fine.