Fair entries

The beautiful pattern Odessa, in my humble homespun yarn:


Third place, baby! And now I see, a nice little gap center in the middle of the forehead. Ah, the flaws the camera reveals. I spun up the superwash merino from Fantasy Fibers bought at the Black Sheep Gathering a few years ago, I think I spun from the fold on this, but I can't quite remember. I knit up three hats, and since the yarn was not the most even, I ended up doubling the yarn in the middle of a hat since it had gotten a little thin.

Next time I knit an Odessa, I am going to put the beads on. I think they'll add fabulous sparkle.

I'm pretty sure I've posted pics of the Peace Fleece spun up before, but I couldn't find it. So here is the second place winner in wool blend category:

It's been a while since I've done anything competitive, so I think I'm taking an inordinate amount of pleasure in this winning phenomenon. It's somewhat tongue in cheek, as it is a county fair without a lot of entries.

I've got six skeins of this yarn, and I'm planning to make a few sets of hats and mittens. It's a nice cushy bouncy yarn. I knit the swatch up on size 8 needles, and it turned out very dense. I'll go up a needle size for the hats.

Liberty trim skirt

Last summer I sewed two skirts that turned out quite nicely. One was with a Kaffe Fasset print with a solid lower border,


And one was a black print with a black ribbon around the hips.



So to help repeat the success, I used the Kwik Sew pattern again, with a solid body and a Liberty of London lower border. I used an organic green cotton to line the border.



I left the green cotton edge serged and pinked the liberty print (after the picture above was taken)

(Nice port-a-potty, eh? Side effect of big home remodel.)

It was one of my first projects using the serger that I own half-interest in. I serged all of the raw edges of the pattern pieces before I sewed them. I felt very spiffy!


I often dive into sewing projects when I want some immediate gratification, and end up frustrated or cutting corners. This skirt was nice in that I was very process oriented, and I wanted to spend time working on it, rather than have a new skirt pronto.

I'm looking forward to wearing it to work tomorrow!

I won!

I entered four items in the Lane Co. Fair, and won first with the green two-ply wool, second with the peach three-ply wool blend, and third with the Odessa from maroon superwash merino handspun. Mini-quilt didn't place.

The judging was suspect on the wool two-ply, as one of the entries that didn't place was absolutely gorgeous and technically wowzers. And had placed very well at the Black Sheep Gathering. Oh well, their bad taste/poor judging is my gain!

Links to follow.

Noro Cash Iroha sweater back

It has not been a month since I last posted! Um, the poodle ate my blog posts.

Quick catch-up. For my birthday, Hans and I went on the Blackberry bRamble, a bike ride sponsored by GEARS. We did the 43 mile loop on our Burley tandem. The ride went out to the Crow-Applegate-Lorraine school, where there was a perfectly timed food stop, and then back to Eugene via the Fern Ridge bike path. And the crowning touch: blackberry pie and ice cream at the finish! Yum. Hans was captain (in the front) for the first 2/3rds, then I captained the rest of the way. I'm getting better at the captain position, learning how to relax while I'm steering so I can save my arm strength for when I need it. I'm the best stoker ever (stoker is the person in the back seat) , which requires balancing, pushing hard up hills, and being nice to the captain.



Megan and I went to the Eugene Emeralds Stitch 'n Pitch last night, it was fun to be at a ball game with oodles of knitters! 75 people bought tickets, not a shabby turnout.

I've actually made some knitting progress, and here to model it is my paper-tape dress form:

I've knit the back, and one half of the front. I'm planning on casting on the other half of the front on this lazy weekend.

And a progress shot of the bathrooms:


Oh, my aching back!