Today they look like this, which is good, because this week has been rough.
I've been buried under a truck load of e-mails and meetings for a National Fiber Festival that I'm helping to organize. You can check out the blog for the festival, here. I haven't done any knitting since before Christmas. I haven't really felt like knitting. I don't know why, but I completely lost interest. Well, all of a sudden I'm feeling like picking up the sticks again, and I've picked out two new patterns to keep me motivated. Both of them are stranded. The first is a mitten kit from this company.
I took one look at her mittens and decided then and there that I must knit a pair. She dyes with mushrooms among other things. Her blog is fantastic. It inspired me to run out on an impromptu fungi hunt. That's the best kind of fungi hunt. You can check out my natural dyeing adventures, here. This is another reason I haven't had any time for knitting. Too many dorky hobbies, not enough dork time.
The mittens are coming along quickly. The Finn sheep wool is soft and rustic all at the same time. I'm a little at a loss to describe it. It has a nice shine, a sweet smell, a gentle drape, and it's hairy.....in a good way. The colors are indigo, Japanese knotweed, and woad. It's really fun to have all three plant dyed blues next to one another. The mitten knitting is keeping me sane for the moment. Try saying mitten knitting 5 times fast. Yup, that's the other way I'm staying sane.
The second project has hit a wall. The wool is from Blacker Yarns, and was a Christmas gift. The pattern is from Kate Davies and is called "Tortoise and Hare". I love the pattern, and I like the yarn, but as soon as I opened the bag of wool I realized I might have a problem. These two balls of yarn are supposed to be different colors.
They are different, but they aren't different enough. Just my luck, one "mid brown" sheep happened to have a fleece just like his "dark brown" cousin. I don't want my tortoises and my hares to be the same color, so I went stash diving for a substitute. I have a whole tub of Jamesons Shetland, but none of the colors were right. This is the best I could find and I'm still not thrilled with the combination.
I think a silver gray might be right.....I guess that means it's time for some yarn shopping!
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