Discoveries

I've found out that Harvest Festival and the Knitter's Fair are on the same weekend!

VS.



THIS IS SO UPSETTING.

It makes me wonder if anyone else has this dilemma, though. I'm going to Harvest since I haven't been to a festival ALL SUMMER, plus I shouldn't be spending all my money on yarn (which I totally would).

Plus, I really want unspun fiber more than yarn at this point (though a nice large batch of white wool would not go amiss...) and apparently the vendors have been told to focus on knitting, not spinning (so sad).

PLUS, I found two more yarn/fiber/etc fairs coming up soon that DON'T conflict! The Woodstock Fleece Festival is in October, and the KW Weavers' and Spinners' Guild Show & Sale in November. So exciting!!!

I also found this wonderful site today, it maps yarn stores and has reviews of them. You can also save "crawls," mapping a set of stores you want to go visit. I've made one of the yarn stores in Ottawa, since I'm visiting there soon! I found a yarn store RIGHT around the corner from where I used to live. Such a waste, I didn't knit then! Heh.

I navajo plied my remade yarn:

Vacation and Neat Things

I've been on vacation with my family for a little now, another two weeks to go. Spending extended amounts of time with my parents always makes me a little crazy, and having little to no internet access doesn't help. I've gotten some spinning done, which is nice, and a little bit of knitting. Here's a ball I'm going to ply; it's Lion's Brand Homespun (I can't remember the colourway).

I'm planning on chain-plying it, since I've only tried that for a very short length of yarn (and also so I don't have to break the ball up). Next: recycled sari ends! (below) Oh, and I've plied the green handspun skeins (that I mentioned in my last post) together without redying...I quite like the pale green, I have to say. No pictures till I'm back home though.

I've only been knitting intermittently, when I can't spin easily (like when I'm in the car, or reading in bed, etc). I'm using up those annoying little balls that are always left over when you finish a project - I have SO MANY of them, and have no idea where half of them come from. But they are going to good use, I suppose...I'll probably send the tags I'm making with them in the Yarn Bombs Away! swap Kadie is hosting on swapbot. My partner is my new roommate, so I can make them as big as I like without worrying about shipping. Heh. Anyway, here's what I've done so far, rumpled up a bit:

I'm using my treasured glow-in-the-dark needles! They are so wonderful, I can knit in the dark! I embarrassed my father because I was knitting at the grocery store and dropped my ball of yarn in the parking lot, and it rolled away without me noticing. But a nice lady told me I'd dropped it, so it's ok!

My website really needs some work, particularly since I label my yarn bombs. I almost went to a seminar about how to use photoshop to make webpages, and now I'm regretting that I didn't, because that is pretty much what I want to do now. I'd like to learn site design, I think, but I'm not passionate enough about it to teach myself. Probably the thing to do is to decide what I want it to look like, sketch it, then talk to people who know what they are doing. For the mean time I guess I will just put some info about yarn bombing up?

Tonight I have learned to not listen to this mix right before going to bed. I like it, but it keeps me awake!

Here are some cool things:

• Dewey Decimal Crafts - "Crocheted skulls for all occasions. No two skulls are the same, and no skulls rival these." I feel this is an accurate description.
  
• plastic bag mushrooms yarn bomb - hot damn this is awesome!
  
• insubordiknit handspun - I want to make yarn like this one day! Though I think a lot of it requires a wheel. Sigh.
  
• yarn-holding coffee can cubbies - These are neat, but a) I don't drink coffee and b) I have too much yarn!