got the thumbs finished on the mittens today (well, one today, one yesterday). just need to weave in the ends now. the first thumb went pretty well - the gap at the join is minimal. the second one had a huge whole there. I wish I knew what I’d done differently. I did get it stitched closed pretty well, I think.

I went to the Twin Cities Knitters PicKnit yesterday. I finished the Garterlac dishcloth while there.

Let’s see, who was there? Chris, Knittymama, Nancy, Rina, Tipper, Melissa, Catherine, and lots more people who’s names/blog connections are escaping me at the moment. I did find two new (to me) MNKnitBloggers, so I’ll have to add their links to the sidebar after I get some work done (before the secretary comes back begging for a client’s check that I need to get printed right about now). And I got a couple tips on yarn shops to visit while in Kansas City (though I’m still waiting on an email from one of them.)

Pics are in the gallery at the moment, I’ll add them to the post after some work gets done.

so I’m poking around the Harlot’s On Tour page, wondering yet again why the Twin Cities are not listed (hello, Harlot, LOADS of LYSs here. which would also mean loads of knitters queueing up to see you). anywho, turns out she’ll be in Eau Claire. which is about 2 hours away. on Sept 10. which is the weekend I was planning to go down to kidnap my sister and the kids to take them to Jefferson’s Sheepy Fest (that’d be in Jefferson WI, in case that wasn’t clear). most excellent. it shall be a very woolly weekend. added bonus is that I’ve been meaning to visit the LYS the Harlot will be at but my travels never seem to take me thru armpit (Eau Claire for those not in the know) during the hours they’re actually open. I am officially excited.

Now, to plan what LYS to hit practice my dancing for the Labor Day trek to Kansas City for the feis and Festival. (more Gaelic Storm can only be a good thing. I’ll be avoiding the f&c, however)

in knitting news, I jumped on the warshcloth bandwagon and pulled out the luverly purply-green SnC cotton sent by my wonderful CASP (the Frugal Filene) and started knitting the Garterlac Dishcloth. Entrelac isn’t so bad, though I don’t know that I’d want to make a sweater or anything huge out of it.

yeah, so Irish Fair went well enough. Saturday apparently was a bit warm and we cut our first show early cuz I was dying (overheating - apparently I need to work on stamina), and someone else was close to joining me. we took a dance out of the second show as a result. since I was dancing Friday & Saturday, we got to eat & drink for free in the hospitality tent. Saturday night I was hanging out with my dance school backstage at Gaelic Storm. It was weird really, cuz I know who they are and all but wasn’t really a superfan, ya know? but there I was backstage (well, sidestage, behind the gates and all) for the whole show. kinda cool really. I decided I needed to become a bit of a fan.

Sunday the Fair got hammered with rain. I had just grabbed my lunch (fish & chips, for oh, the 4th time in 3 days) when I felt a few drops fall - I darted into the nearest tent for cover, and just in time too, as it really started coming down. it died down a bit around the time we needed to head over to the showboat for the final performance of the Chilren of Lir (our Fringe show), so that was nice and dry. ;) after that, the dancers raced off to Gaelic Storm to dance again. I headed back to the dance stage to see the Cooney school. one of the earlier dance schools ended their show early cuz the dancers were slipping and falling more than dancing. our school’s parents put together a great team effort and cleaned off the stage and our afternoon show went great!

(obligatory knitting content - in fear of the rain, I stopped at Michael’s and Amazing Threads on the way down. found a few balls of yarn on clearance at Michael’s that will become yet another curly scarf for mom and fringe on another project in the planning stages)

I headed down to WI for Milwaukee’s Irish Fest on Wednesday and stopped to hang out with my sister and her kids. Irish Fest was fun. Friday I took a bit of time before heading down to check out a new-to-me yarn shop - Kro-Sha. It’s a really cute shop with a nice mix of yarns and a couple resident cats. I found some Kroy & Lion sock yarns in the clearance section, so had to grap them (cuz they were colors I needed). The owner there is really nice too. We had a nice chat about Irish Fest. Then it was out to Elm Grove and a quick poke into The Yarn House. I could live in that shop’s bookroom - if you need some Alice Starmore (excluding Aran & Fair Isle - I looked) or Kilt Hose books, head there. Lots of older books mixed in with the newer ones. I ended up buying a ball of Noro Kureyon there to make the Kureyon Karp. On to the Fest, where it dripped again (it had Thursday as well) - it was nothing compared to last Sunday though. I ended up seeing Gaelic Storm twice during the weekend (and bought one of their CDs) and had a pretty good time.

I will, however, try to refrain from eating fish & chips at any upcoming fairs and festivals. (We had fish at home a couple times before I headed to the Fest, and then that was pretty much the staple of my diet for the weekend).

oh, and Eli’s sweater is now a few rows from putting the sleeves onto the stitch holders. progress is a bit slow, but it’s going good.

and if anyone’s heading to the TCKnit picnic on Sunday, I’ll see you there!

so, on the bus ride home, I pulled out the Eli’s sweater yarn and my Denise set and set about swatching for the sweater remake. perfectly on gauge (why does that only work with worsted and thicker yarns? why can’t my gauge be spot on on dk or smaller yarns? I digress. after getting gauge, I propmtly ribbed it out and cast on. I’m only a few rows in, but I think it’ll get done a lot quicker since I won’t have to seam it at the end!

after I got home, I realized I’d need more yarn and set about ripping out the old sweater pieces. apparently my weaving in ends skills are better than I thought - I couldn’t find them for the life of me, which resulted in a few snippings in the wrong places. ah, well. I have a full unused ball of yarn, so I’m not too worried.

a couple pics of the progress and post-carnage: