Shepherd's Harvest Sheep & Wool Festival

Last weekend, I made my annual trek to the Washington County Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo, MN for the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep & Wool Festival with my knitting enabler, Jennifer.  As someone who doesn't make it to a ton of knitting events, this is basically the highlight of my knitting year.

While I didn't make as many purchases as I have in years past, I think I am far more excited about what I did come home with:

100% Pygora Goat yarn (undyed) from Amity Creek Pygora Goat Farm.  I can't wait to tell you all about this one.  Wow.  Just, wow.

Cultivated Silk Hankies Hand-Dyed from Goldfish Love Fibers.  I've never worked with silk hankies before, but, you know me, I'll try anything once.

100% Alpaca from Little Gidding Farm in Bachelor Button.  So soft and lovely.

I also came home with some smells-so-good-I-could-eat-it Almond Oatmeal hand lotion from All Things Herbal and some adorable ceramic buttons from Brickyard Pottery (I'll have to get some photos for you guys- they must be seen to be believed).

A trip to Shepherd's Harvest is never complete without some fried food for breakfast (GIANT egg roll) and a lamb burger.  YUM!  I usually come home with pounds and pounds of fudge from LARK Toys.  Unfortunately, this year I forgot to swing by until we were already on the road home.  It made my heart and stomach very, very sad.  Pretty much the tragedy of Shepherd's Harvest 2013.

Plus!  Animal barn!

I almost came home with this bunny.  This little Lionhead is 6 weeks old and snuggly as can be.  It took all my willpower to walk away.

What a great Mother's Day!  I topped it off with margaritas and a showing of The Great Gatsby.  FTW!

Milk

This next yarn is pretty much made of magic.  And science.  So, it’s doubly cool.  Milk yarn is made by first taking dehydrating milk.  Then, the dehydrated milk is skimmed and the milk proteins are extracted.  These proteins are mixed with chemicals to make a solid that is extruded and spun into yarn.  Sounds totally easy and like something you could do in your kitchen, right?  Maybe not…

It’s a crazy complex process.  If you want more information about how exactly it all goes from milk to mittens, here are some stellar articles I found:

• Wear milk if you can't drink milk
• Milk yarn?  How does that work? (Part 1)
• Milk yarn?  How does that work? (Part 2)
• What is milk fiber?

Cool Milk Facts:

• It takes about 100 pounds of skim milk to make 3 pounds of milk fiber.
• The amino acids present in the fiber make it antibacterial and antifungal.
• Easy to dye: good color fastness, can dye under normal temperature.
• It absorbs moisture very well.

My Milk Yarn:

This was one of those random internet finds (in the days before milk yarn was widely available).  I was drawn to it because of the fiber, but couldn't resist the purchase because of the color.  This is Kollage Yarns Creamy in Curacao Blue. 

Texture: It lives in this weird corn/cashmere/cotton world.  It's delightful.  Soft and shiny.  It feels great in your fingers.  4.5 Yarngasms.

Durability:  I've worn my garment a TON and it holds up like a dream.  4 Yarngasms.

Frogability: I frogged it a time or two, but I would be hesitant of any more than that.  After a couple rounds of being knit and unknit, the twist was opening up and it felt like I was flirting with irreparably damaging the yarn.  2.5 Yarngasms.

Drape: It's so light, one might think that getting a milk garment to drape would be a lesson in futility (*cough* corn yarn *cough*), but that's not the case at all.  This yarn drapes in all the right ways; it opens up stitch patterns, but isn't heavy..  5 Yarngasms.

My Project:

I knit Urban by Veera Välimäki (Ravelry Link).  I was looking for a project that was light and summery since this yarn is perfect for a summer garment.  This pattern is fab on its own, but in the milk, fuhgeddaboudit.  I would make a million of these and wear them all the time.

This was such a fun yarn to work (not to mention the amazeballs colors that milk yarn comes in) with and it came with the added bonus of a shirt that I wear a lot, I mean A LOT, in the summer.  Try it.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

The Final Countdown!

The Knitting Olympics are finally over.  Whew!  At final count, I knit 11 hats in 16 days.  Not too shabby.  The modified NFL beanies got me in a stash busting mood, so the last three are all plain ol' striped stockinette hats with a ribbed brim. 

#9:

#10:

#11:

These were all made with lots of odds and ends from my stash, so it's not worth it to mention yarns because it would be a laundry list of random yarn brands.  When putting my colors together, I started with a variegated yarn and then chose other ends that matched that yarn to help create a unified color palette.  I tried not to pick more than 5 colors because I carried them up instead of cutting the yarn at the end of every 2 row stripe.  Because I'm lazy and let's face it, we ALL hate weaving in ends. 

Now, to relax my poor joints for a day or two.  Next week, I'm talking about llama!  Stay tuned!

So many hats it hurts

It's official.  I've become obsessed with stash-busting hats.  I finished two more modified NFL Breast Cancer Awareness Beanie by Hermione J. Schwartz.  #6 in Cascade 220 (White & Tutu) and SameKnitDifferentDye's Gaia Organic Worsted in Thankful:

And #7 in Knit Picks Swish DK (Marble Heather), Wool of the Andes (Avocado) and SeeJayneKnitYarns Handpainted Superwash Merino Worsted in Blue Agate Beauty:

Hat #8 barely counts, but I'll take it.  It's a simple stockinette baby hat with garter stitch brim knit with My Friend London London's Handspun in Gracie.  A special shout-out to anatomyofaskirt for my model; he is by far my favorite knitting tool carrier.  So cute!

#9 in on the needles.  I should have it completed by tomorrow.  I can't believe this hatsanity will be over in a few days!

Hatathon, Part Deux

I've finished hats #4 & #5!  Only 5 more days until Closing Ceremony, and I'm really hoping to finish 3 more hats by then.

Hat #4:

Regina by Carina Spencer knit with Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted in Stonechat and Pearl Ten.  This hat knit up very quickly, but if I were to knit it again, I think I would do so with a lighter weight yarn.  The pattern is so refined that the chunkiness of the Malabrigo seems off somehow.

Hat #5:

This is a modified version of the NFL Breast Cancer Awareness Beanie by Hermione J. Schwartz knit with a ton of leftover Cascade 220 I had sitting about (White, Tutu, Flamingo, and Magenta).  I love the look of this hat!  And I love that I can do a little stash busting when I knit it.  I'm planning at least one more of these during the next 5 days.

Happy Knitting and my the purls be ever in your favor!

Hatathon!

I finished my third hat this morning and I just couldn't wait to share it!

Indian Summer by Kalurah (Ravelry Link) made with Blue Ridge Yarns Alpaca Delight Mini in Night Light.  I love this pattern, it's so lovely and light and delicate.  Not to mention it knits up SUPER fast!

I also cast on for hat #4!  It's by one of my favoritest designers of all time, Carina Spencer!

Happy Knitting!

In my heart it will always be the Knitting Olympics

This is a busy time for knitters.  Whether you call it the Knitting Olympics, Ravelympics, or the newly christened Ravellenic Games, it's all the same; we knitters try to push the boundaries of our craft and our skill over the course of two weeks (coinciding with The Olympics).  Of course, like any good competition, there are rules (thanks to Simply Stavish for summing this up):

1. Choose a project that will challenge your knitting skills in one of the 32 events and join a team.
2. Cast on during opening ceremonies.
3. Knit like crazy during the games.
4. Attempt to cast off before or during the closing ceremonies, earning your team points and hopefully a medal.

While I didn't join a team (it's been a crazy summer, y'all), I decided to compete in an event on my own.  I am competing in a hatathon, where I will knit all the hats I can in the two weeks of the London 2012 Olympics.  I've not been as productive as I hoped, but here are a couple of hats I have been able to finish in the last 6 days.

 Alaina Beanie by Jen Eastin (Ravelry Link) made with Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted in Buscando Azul

Here and There by Veera Välimäki (Ravelry Link) made with Ella Rae Latte in 02 & 07

I'll keep you posted as I finish projects in the next 8 days.  Until then, Happy Knitting Olympics to you!