The Wicked Stitch

Woolfest Whoo Hoo!

 
 

 

Winter Woolfest 2011 was awesome fun!   We had great crowds and a lovely, warm venue in the Columbian Theater (thank you Columbian!).

There were fun and informative classes....

And oodles of lovely yarns and fibers from the vendors!

 
 

Oh, and there was some knitting, spinning and other fibery stuff going on too (...just a little...) ...

 
 

  
 
 
I must thank my volunteer teachers - Laura Mead, Nikol Lohr, Stephanie Powers and Heather Wilkie: my kid table helpers - Grace Beck and Lucy Schermerhorn: my do anything needed helper - Jen Beck: and my right hand lady in the shop - Denise Wyrick!  I am also grateful to all the vendors - Laura's Pygoras, The Thrifty Knitter, Two Windows Dye Company, Kansas Alpaca and Fiber Farms, Alpacas of Wildcat Hollow, Designs by Anna, The Yarn Peddler, Tightly Wound Yarns, Meadow Spirit Alpacas, Teri for The Treasure Goddess, and Parideza Organic Farm!  And last, but oh so not least, Britt Nichols and Poppyfield Gallery/VinVivante Winery for being our enthusiastic host for the two years prior!!

 Don't forget to join us again next year!  Go put Jan. 7th, 2012 on your calendar right now!

  
The Wicked Stitch

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

The quick, brown fox...has jumped my queue!

I'm usually not someone who knits many toys.  I usually have a long queue of mittens, hats, cowls and (my favorite) sweaters to work on.  And I do have a really long list of mittens, hats, cowls and sweaters right now, but.....then I picked up the newest Knit Simple magazine and saw these....

What suckered me in was the fox.  A fox!  So awesome.  I have to have one.  And since bribing my daughter into knitting things for me isn't going so well, I am shoving all those mittens, hats, cowls and sweaters down the line a little bit and I'm diving into...a toy.  A toy for me, yay!

 

I've found the perfect fox colors in Classic Worsted (the shop's got over 26 different colors to choose from by the way!).

And am rather entranced by the owls as well.  But instead of following the designers stripes and fair isle pattern I think I will use the Classic Worsted Tapestry.  It fair isle patterns all on it's own and will make for a super quick project.

And quick is good (remember that long queue...), plus there is a rather impatient, small, but incredibly demanding person waiting for his owl! :) 

For more wonderful pictures of these super cute toys, (the squirrel magically turns into a hedgehog!) check out the designer's blog  Susan B. Anderson .

 

A little R&B summer Batik

What the Fair Isle? Is it just me or has Kansas totally skipped it's early summer weather?  We went from wearing sweaters (Well, I was wearing sweaters this spring, but I don't take much arm twisting to pop one on.) to hot, steamy, better off nekid weather in a matter of days.  My ancestors must have been from far northern places where humidity is expressed mainly in inches of snowfall.  Because this hair of mine reacts quite violently with crazy, frizzy curls to this weather. (I am not taking a picture.)  So when you stop by the shop, I am the shrubby looking thing behind the desk that really needs to get her roots done. 

So enough about the weather, lets get to the knitting...

I am doing the Frock Camisole (great free pattern by the way) in Cotton Supreme Batik.  I need to start by saying, in general,  I HATE KNITTING COTTON!(There... now I feel better.)  It doesn't stretch in your hands, it's totally unspringy, and it kind of squeaks on your needles.  {shudder}  BUT...this Batik is like butter. 

 Seriously. 

And the colors are gorgeous.  Batik is like the really pretty girl in back in high school, that should have been a stuck-up pig so you could hate her with a good conscience, but actually  she raised money for orphans and walked dogs at the shelter and played piano at nursing homes.  She was even an honor student, so you couldn't even make dumb jokes. 

 Batik even self patterns for gosh sakes... 

 At the risk of sounding like a bad 80's song...I have never (never) knew cotton like this before - What a surprise - Never (never) knew cotton like this before - Opened my eyes!    Yeah, Baby!

Oh, come on...you know the words...