Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Surprises

I drove over to Mim's today to pick up my stuff from the fair and to take her the dowels from her loom that got left in our garage. I was surprised that my skeins got ribbons at all since I forgot to make swatches. Amy just rolls her eyes at me. It's not the first time I've forgotten - it's embarrassing. My Navajo-plied silk got a blue ribbon and I didn't even have the required fiber sample to go with it. I couldn't attend the judging so don't know if that was the only skein in the category or what. She said nice things about it in the notes.

This was the most compe-
tition in the knitting category in years. I was a little anxious for my sweater. Best in division went to a lace scarf, knit by our shearer, a 23-year-old young man who has fallen in love with all things fiber. Cool! I've been cleaning house, but I love the fit of the sweater so this is the look for today - guess I could have cropped the photo.
This is all the yarn that I had left over. The closer I got to the end of the sweater, the more nervous I got. I cut the sleeves short by a couple of rows, and I would have safe knitting the pattern as written. I had something like nine yards of the brown merino leftover - thanks Benita!
I'm especially thrilled with the button. Since there's only one, I was anxious to find a perfect button. After KIP coffee Saturday, Amy met me at Junkees to sift through their mammoth vintage button collection. There were two of this button and she encouraged me to buy them both for insurance. It's perfect, stripes and all.
We had an unex-
pected surprise - I suppose that's redundant. We ordered our wood months ago but poor Alan was having mechanical problems on all his equipment. He sells hay and wood and couldn't deliver either. Finally Sunday morning he called to say he was coming. I passed him on my way to church. He brought it on pallets in his dump truck, and when he dumped it, the wood stayed on the pallets. We don't have to stack!! Isn't that the greatest of surprises??!
I've been knitting a cucumber this evening from the Amigu-
rumi Knits book. The patterns were intimi-
dating to me at first, but the instructions in the front of the book are completely clear and now I've started to have fun. I've started with the most simple project. I just learned that amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. Now we both know.

7 comments:

Marion B. said...

Gratulations with your ribbons! I suppose there were at least twenty other skeins :-)
Your sweather is perfect, you look great in it. Lucky you having enough yarn. I ripped out 12 cm of scarf I wanted to knit for christmas for my mother. Not enough yarn.... not enough at all.
I just keep on smiling and start something different.
Happy knitting.

Annie said...

Nice sweater.

Theresa said...

Oh beautiful sweater! It looks great too. Congrats on all the ribbons for the beautiful knitting and spinning. And that is one happy surprise the wood staying stacked on pallets. How nice.

Judy said...

What a nice sweater! Maybe I missed it, but did you mention what pattern you used? Don't crop the photos-I like seeing the area where you live. I think that's why I enjoy reading blogs so much, because it gives me the chance to find out more about other parts of the world/U.S.

Congrats on the ribbons!!

Nina said...

Lucky you with the wood! Ours is ready but we get to both pick it up and stack it. However it is much cheaper to get it ourselves, so that is nice.
Congrats on the good showing at the fair! You've some lovely fibrey stuff there and it's nice they were recognized.

Leigh said...

Sharon congratulations! Like everyone else, I just love the sweater. You are so productive.

Benita said...

Wow! Your silk and merino sweater is beautiful!!

And ribbons! You won ribbons! I hope you show them off to everyone over the weekend. You know, when there is a lull in the conversation, just hand someone the ribbon and skein and say, "Look at what I won!" :)

And best present yet - no wood stacking! Woohoo!!