It's Finished!

After almost 2 months, I have finally finished the lace shawl I was knitting.  It is the largest piece of small-scale work I've made - I've done blankets in bigger yarn, and baby hats and such in this same thread, but nothing this large with such small yarn.  I knit it on size 4 needles, although for baby hats or socks with this thread, I usually use 0 needles, or even 00.  This was openwork lace, so it wasn't as tight a fabric as other items I've made with it - otherwise I'd be working on this for years!  The stitch is called "Fir Cone", and the openwork really looks like little fir (or hemlock to me) cones, a row of little pairs of holes.  I was hoping to use up the huge cone of this yarn that I got years ago at a yardsale, but this only took maybe half of it, so I guess I can make another one!

Just this evening I finished a newscap that fits Liam (although hopefully you'll soon see it over in the Farm Stand!).  It's made from a llightweight (10 WPI) two-color yarn of gray and white that I spun from Carlyle and Toby.  I have a skein of thicker yarn in the same color, which I think would make an adult-size hat which is probably the next project I'll start on.  the pattern I have does have medium and large sizes, but they're not that much different, so for drastic size changes (2 yr-old, 4 yr-old, etc.) I have to change yarn weight and needle size. I've always had to do that, though - my knitting style is usually about 4 needles sizes off most patterns! I''m getting pretty decent at guesstimating the appropriate alterations to get the right end product. 

Last Saturday we took a family daytrip to the Tennessee Fiber Festival in Dickson, TN.  I think I definitely got more out of it that the other 3 of us :) but there were several things that fascinated the boys.  Malachi loved the rabbits - they had dozens of angora rabbits there for a show as well as for sale - and he also liked the sheep.  Liam was excited to see a sheep get sheared, and especially to watch someone work a loom, and someone else was throwing pottery on a wheel.  I left with only a knitting book - I didn't really have anything in mind so I wasn't shopping, just exploring.  Now that I know what to expect, I'll have a mental shopping list when I go to the next one in October!  

The one thing I really hoped to do I did accomplish - find someone to repair my new spinning wheel!  I asked around at a number of booths - a couple of them directed me to a man who said to check on the internet :(  I finally found a booth that knew a guy in Indiana, and one in Michigan, they'd get me the info by email.  Then, on the way out, I stopped and checked with one more booth.  She directed me across the aisle to a woman who said "Oh sure, I can do that!"  I  got the wheel from the car, and she confirmed that she can make a new flyer assembly.  It may take until October, so we'll meet up at the Murfreesboro fiber festival then.  Then, 3 days later at the farmers market, the fellow that originally gave it to me handed me the maidens - the upright posts that hold the flyer - so I mailed those off to the woodworker today.  That should help her a bit, and it's nice to have a little more of the original wheel back together.  I'm excited to actually be able to use it by fall!