Folk Festival and New Guild

Over the weekend, Rockingham County Weavers and Fiber Artists Guild which is in the process of organizing had a booth at our local folk festival at the community college. My new friend, Beth, who is a weaver, set up the booth and did a beautiful job. Here's a picture of Beth at her loom in the booth.This young man is checking out a rug woven from plastic shopping bags (plarn) by Beth. Isn't it interesting?Also my friend, Liese, was there. Liese is a spinner, weaver, dyer, knitter and fiber-producing animal "farmer." She and her husband own and operated Little Meadows Farm which is located in a neighboring county and about 20 minutes drive from my home. Here she is at her wheel giving a demonstration.
I basically gave a knitting demonstration by working on my TLE Family Frolic Sock on Saturday and my Orchid Lace Scarf on Sunday. I made some contacts for knitting group as well as the guild. The sock is interesting. The designer suggested stranding the sheep but my stranding caused sock to be too tight to go over my heel so I frogged and worked it using intarsia technique which as Cat Bordhi said is "mind-boggling." After about 3/4 finished, I did a head-slap doh and will work sock 2 in slightly different manner. Here's a picture of sock 1.
Of course, my friend, Liese, had some of her handspun/handdyed there. She had some of her corriedale Bettie's yarn in fingerweight so I had to have it to make some socks. I'll probably use stockinette toe-up pattern. They'll be known as Bettie socks. Here's a picture of it.
I didn't finish any projects since last post that I photographed. Still on the needles in addition to socks above are Allspice Vest, Orchid Lace Scarf, prayer shawl and newly-cast-on market bag. I'm still spinning the Creatively Dyed Fairy Dust which I hope to finish soon.

I'll be venturing over to Rising Meadow for a small fiber festival over the upcoming weekend. I'll try to take pictures for Monday.

Birthday Loot and Last SoS 08 Socks

Several weeks ago I had my last 50-something birthday. Several friends and relatives gave me cash and, of course, yarn addict that I am I had to buy myself a present also. Here's what I bought:This is Keegan Lane Yarns En Pointe Sock Yarn in Mint Chocolate Chip.This is also Keegan Lane Yarns En Pointe in Princess and the Pea.This is Penny Rose Emily Laceweight in Seaspray. Game plan for it is to become a Creatures of the Sea Shawl.I got lucky and scored a skein of the elusive Wollmeise in Suzanne. This is the superwash. While this yarn is slightly difficult to work with, the colors and the fabric it makes is awesome. Izzy thought this was hers and shredded the tissue paper it came in (bad kitty). Fortunately, I rescued it before she damaged the yarn. (She loves to shred tissue paper and Debit (the dog) likes to eat it.)
This is Sophie's Toes Christmas Cactus. This is new yarn to me but colors are beautiful and it is very pettable.
This is also Sophie's Toes in State Fair.

I spent most of my long Labor Day weekend finishing up my Asparagus Cable Socks designed by Wendy D Johnson. These are in Dream in Color Smooshy Spring Tickle. I bought enough Classy in the same colorway to make a sweater with an asparagus cable panel up the front. It's in the queue but have some other stuff that is ahead of it. These are my last Summer of Socks project so am now waking up my hibernating Allspice vest. I'll also be working more on my Orchid Lace Scarf.
I'm still spinning my Creatively Dyed Fairy Dust. I'm on the last bobbin. I'm still only spinning about 30 minutes a day. On the needles I also have a prayer throw for Al who has MCL, the aforementioned vest and scarf. I'll be casting on Family Frolic socks tonight and Sunday will start another market bag.

I enjoyed Summer of Socks but found that having deadlines and goals (even self-imposed ones) was a little frustrating at times. I've been knitting-a-long for a couple of years now and don't know why this was more frustrating. I seemed to spend a lot of time at the frog pond or tinking instead of knitting.