I finished (read: finally wove the ends in) two projects this weekend - Curly-Q scarf #3 at Melanie’s Saturday morning and Fetching at mom’s house that night. much progress was made on Eli’s sweater (more on that during the Harlot sement). and I’ve got yarn for two more gifts - Amelia’s birthday socks and the girls’ xmas mittens (more on that in the sheep fest segment). and I have hand tracings for mitten making. but I forgot to get foot sizing for the socks. (Melanie, what size shoes does she wear? and is she about to grow out of them?)

ok, so to the good stuff…
I took the girls to the Sheep Fest. They were quite helpful in picking out yarn. anything orange was for me to make socks for my sister (their mom). they did pick out yarn for their mittens (a thin curly boucle. why did I say yes to that? I’m going to see how it knits up doubled. maybe it won’t be as bad as I think). Amelia also kept picking out yarn for her socks. I finally caved and decided I’d make some for her birthday.

Sunday I went back to the sheep fest with my sister. she ended up being drawn to a lot of the same booths as the girls. was kinda funny. I ended up buying some angora/wool fingering weight yarn for myself before leaving.

then came the fun part … driving. no not really. MapQuest gave me stupid directions and I got lost trying to find downtown Eau Claire. finally sorted myself out and made it to Yellow Dog Knitting. I poked around the shop a bit and then joined some other knitters knitting in the back room while we waited. I knit til my fingers hurt (which really wasn’t that long. I must be out of practice.) then we wandered over to the Masonic building where the talking was going to happen. it was pretty eventful before Stephanie got there. when asked at the beginning how many Minnesotans were there, I think close to 2/3 of the audience’s hands went up. it was a great time. (and I continued to knit on the sweater til my fingers hurt even more. I think I have about 1/2″ of the body to go before I start the ribbing. good thing I didn’t get to that point last night, cuz my ribbing needles got left at home. doh!)

it was great seeing all the Twin Cities knitters I met at the picnic there.

the internet is not cooperating, I can’t find the pics (I think they’re buried under knitting in my bag) and I need to catch the bus home, so we’ll add pics tomorrow.

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, the other night when I broke the challenge, I went to Needlework Unlimited to use the gift card and work on filling up the punch card. I got 4 skeins of Rowan Denim for Tasha, Barbara Walker’s 3rd stitch dictionary, and a legwarmers pattern by Oat Couture.

Saturday, dh & I went to see Bodyworlds at the Science Museum. it was a really interesting exhibit. (the veins/arteries only ones were really bizarre, but cool at the same time).

anywho, on the trip to the museum, I swatched the Denim. and, like the Svale, I’m getting the required sts in about 3 1/2″ instead of the 4″ it should be. *sigh* let the math begin.

in sock news, I finished the heel of sock #2 this morning on the bus. and it looks TONS better than the first heel. I didn’t really remember what I’d been shown in the class, so I followed the instructions in Sensational Knitted Socks. it turned out wonderful - no holes! so I’m thinking I’ll frog the first heel and make it bee-yoo-ti-ful too. and then I’ll start the cuffs on both of them (well, I’ll probably start the cuff on the 2nd one tonight, cuz there’s nothing else to knit on the bus home).

tonight, I’m going to do one arm/side seam on Eli’s sweater. and maybe the other one too, depending on how things go.

I also need to figure out what I’m doing for my trip down to Madison June 3rd.

I caved. I need to reset the counter (after work, but I thought I’d better document this before I forget). I bought yarn after using my free day for the month. I had to though. Bo Peep’s Wool has Kidsilk Spray in the color I need and exactly the number of balls I needed on sale. so I had to buy it. while I was at it, I bought a few balls of Dale Dalletta on clearance as well. I’ll probably by more when I go book shopping at one of the LYS tonight. Might as well take advantage of the screw up, eh?

the red socks are making some nice progress. I’m finally working the short-row heel on the second sock. and I’ve decided to use one of the cable patterns from Sensational Knit Socks for the cuff on them.

I’ve also started swatching for Calla. I got the Dale Svale in a sort of brown color (I think one site calls the it ‘carmel’), in an attempt to have something that goes with an orange skirt I have. my gauge is off though - I’m trying to decide if I’m better off switching needle size (I like the way it looks on the 5s I’ve used) or trying to rework the pattern to my gauge. I’m also planning to alter it a bit - I want to leave the back plain and make the straps a bit wider (I’m thinking maintain the cable width), and I’m going to try and knit it in the round. seaming is not my friend.

although, I did finally persevere and attached the first sleeve on Eli’s sweater. I think it’s off by a wee bit, but I don’t think it’ll be noticeable once the side seam is finished. yay! I’m hoping to have it done by the end of the week so I can mail it off along with Lilin’s birthday present (and Melanie’s soaps).

in other news, I had a lot of fun at MN Sheep & Wool this weekend, despite the rain. there was lots that I wanted to buy, but it kept ending up in the “but what would I make with it?” category, so I ended up not buying. I did get some handspun sock yarn - one’s a nice solid green and the other is natural with lots of color speckled thru it (as Nancy says, it looks like the inside of a crayon box). should I ever learn to spin, I think the fest will be truly dangerous (I petted some camel ‘wool’ - SO soft). I also got a book on knitted tams that I’d seen and fallen for at one of the LYS - it was on sale, couldn’t pass that up! (Knit Picks palette sampler box is in my future for working those, I think). I also stopped at Sheepy Yarn Shop to check out their anniversary sale. I was again tempted by a lot of yarns, but didn’t end up buying any. I did see a nice lacy cardigan in a brown yarn on display - I think it’s what I’ve been thinking I want to make for wearing over tanks and stuff for work (when the AC gets to be a bit much). so I need to go back and figure that out. I also went to Three Kittens and got the above mentioned Svale and something from Ironridge? and to All About Yarn where I picked up some Malabrigo for the felted basket pattern and some Cascade 220 for the felted snowmen patterns that I bought at Yarnover. (I got a gift card from my boss for my one-year anniversary, I had to put my free-day to good use!)

so many projects - I need to get knitting!