celestial sweater

I feel like I have not been home.  Because I have not.  My Dad's surgeries are done but he is healing slowly.  I spent an extra week with him.  When I am there, I walk when I can but he needed someone just to be there.  I did run an errand for my Beloved's business, went to a museum exhibit, and looked for yarn.

I was running out of yarn to work with because I finished this sweater while I was there.  It is a Lion's Brand kit for the celestial sweater.  Arcylic yarn which I usually do not work in.  It was very splitty and I cannot compost it.  But this is a great sweater to travel in.  I flew in it home and was warm.  I also had silk on underneath it.

I will say I do not read crochet patterns well.  I do not think I pay attention enough.  But then I really do not follow patterns when I sew anymore.  I use the pattern shapes but do not read the process.  So this is the celestial pattern but it is not at the same time.  I used a different size hook.  I made up the counts.  It did make me realize I need to take out another sweater I am working on and make the arm holes smaller.  That sweater will then fit better and be more the length I want.  

I am at the point of leaving yarn at my Dad's.  I will put a lace weight shawl in my bag but I will always have a project there.  I took the extra yarn and started to play with granny squares.  I am going to make those into lined bags and put them on my Etsy site just for fun.  It has been awhile since I have done that.

I actually washed a bit of fleece today.  I want to make more ribbon.  I am coaching a friend once a week.  I just want to be home more.  Maybe soon.

I could breath for a week!

Since Harvey, my allergies have been horrible.  Gallivanting for the last week and a half made them better.  But I woke up this morning home but my face swelling again.  Oh well.  I would not mind being camping and traveling still!

The adventures started with the Taos Fiber Fair.  I went to this about two years ago and was not impressed.  But I enjoyed Taos.  I figured why not.  This time was much better.  The first positive was that it really felt like autumn there.  It does not feel like autumn in Houston!  I was taking pictures of seed pods and dryed grassses.

Then there was the fair!  I was surprised.  There were a few sheep to look at and I found a beautiful Turkish spindle.  The wood that was used made it too hard for me to pass up.  It is a little bit larger then most of mine but I always have a use for a Turkish spindle.  I can break it down flat, put a small bag of fiber in my pack, and be able to spin anywhere.  Yes, I am that person.

I came home with four fleeces.  One is an Icelandic lamb in black.  I want a black cardigan and I want to play with Icelandic fleece.  The other three are CVM crosses.  I got told it is much cheaper to buy a fleece then it is to raise a sheep.  And I get more variety.  I will take this logic.

I also bought yarn.  The earth tones here were picked by my Beloved.  I will make him a sweater.  The blues are going to become a shawl.  A shawl that has a knitted pattern but I am going to crochet.  

I also picked up two kits for the Taos Mountain shawl.  One with a pattern and one not.  I am changing the pattern from knit to crochet.  I am also making it a bit bigger so I use more of the extra yarn.  And I like large shawls.  

I got to thinking about why I buy yarn when I am traveling.  A lot of the yarn I purchase is truly not speciality yarn but yarn you are only going to find at a local yarn store and not a large craft store.  Most of the local yarn stores that were near where I live most of the time are no longer in business for a myriad of reasons.  I travel.  I find yarn.  I buy yarn.  In Houston, I make yarn.  It is an interesting conundrum.

I really enjoyed the Taos Fiber Fair this year.  Enough to go back next year whether it is just for itself or I am traveling on to somewhere else.  If nothing else, it is a grand way for me to experience a little bit of autumn.  And this week back already looks like it is going to be quite crazy to I will take a bit of peace as I go.

it takes as long as it takes

I think I have four sweaters in the works currently.  Five if you count the one that I have decided to take out the neck and do something different with the yarn.  I can already tell I will not wear it!  I have a red sweater, a yellow sweater, a lacy sweater, and this creamish sweater all being worked on.  Two of them I am making the yarn as I go.

This cream sweater makes me laugh.  I did pick up the yarn on my last gallivant.  I even picked up a pattern.  Yes, it was a knit pattern so I was going to have to change it to crochet but I do this.  

I have completely changed this sweater.  Instead of being crocheted from the top down like it would be knitted, I am crocheting from the bottom up.  There are still not going to be any true seams in it.  The fabric was of the sweater was supposed to be plainer with only a bit of lacy but I decided that I liked this stitch pattern so much that it was going to be over the whole sweater.  It reminds me of a thrifted sweater I bought in college that I completely wore out.  And the last change is the edge yarn.  Instead of going with the same yarn as the body but in a different color, I am going to use I yarn I am spinning.  

I am so not surprised by any of this.  But because of all these changes, I crochet, I rip out.  I crochet some more.  It was commented that I would not finish this sweater until I was 80.  I am thinking I may actually start the sleeves this coming week.  Maybe I will need to leave the house to look for buttons.  Or maybe I can just do that online.

Everything I am working on currently seems to be taking more time.  Or maybe I am just moving slower.  I could believe that.  But then I ponder things like, my pizza dough recipe is a baguette recipe which becomes a croissant recipe if you add layers of butter and flour which then becomes kouign amman when you add sugar.  Which is kind of like a palmier.  Yes.  My brain.  No drugs except copious amounts of caffeine due to tea.  It wanders all over the place.  But everything takes time.

indulgence

Leaving Washington, there was lunch with friends and then the decision to go to Tolt Yarn and Wool.  I have read about this yarn shop online.  Seen some of the workshops they have to offer.  One of those that I always thought might not be the best place for my wallet for me to go.  But I did.

They have a Makers Market that has sounded interesting.  Not large.  Just a few makers, dozen makers, in a yarn store.  What could go wrong?!  I picked up some interesting insect prints that I am going to put over my work bench.  A white hand thrown cup that I have been using for tea, even though today it is for hot ginger.  A smaller version for simple pours.  Yarn.  

They did have makers of yarn there.  The two blue skiens above were from one of those makers, Spincycle.  I could not pass them up.  I was thinking hats.  Maybe for me?  Maybe for gifts?  Maybe for presents?  I will see.

Tolt Yarn and Wool definitely caters to knitters, not hookers.  There are so many ways you can make crochet sound bad!  One of the Spincycle ladies made the comment she never knows what hole to use because there are too many holes.  It just came out so badly!  I did find a knitting pattern called Baern that I should be able to convert to crochet.  I am using the Yoth yarn I found there.  It is the cream and green skeins in the top picture.  It is an indulgence because it is large part cashmere.  The sweater will so soft.  I personally love the feel of cashmere sweaters but I always wear them out.  I am hoping this will be different.  I can hope.

It was nice.  I may go back to Carnation, WA just to wander.  I wil definitely go back to Tolt but they are online.  I like small towns and I like to look into windows.  When someone says window shopping, that is my favorite type of shopping.  Just looking into the windows.  

I have put down the sewing needle at night and put up my crochet hook.  I am hoping to have a sweater soon even though it is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit most of the time.  If it works, I may order more of this Yoth yarn.  Or maybe I will see how the sweater wears.  Or maybe I will spin some more.  

cozy shawl

Friday was not a good computer day.  I could not get anything started here.  The rest of the weekend was a lot of pain.  I just took care of myself and worked on things were I could sit.  I did not wish to talk, let alone write!  I keep feeling like more and more of a hermit.  Which I do not have a problem with.

I finished this shawl in Tahoe.  I had picked the fiber up at NW Yarns in April.  When I would get a chance, I would sit and spin.  Then the shawl started.

It is really soft and warm.  I finished it while it was raining and cold in Tahoe so it fit.  Now, I have to wonder.  I like the soft.  I like the warm.  I wish it was solid.  I have been drawn to more solids recently.  It is all I wish to wear.  But it could be a good thing under a waterproof. 

I will give it some time before I decide.  I may eventually gift it to someone because the colours are making me uncomfortable. Every colour in the shawl, I like.  It is just the multi-colour.  I am strange and know it.

Oh well.