Woolfeast

Today was Woolfeast, the first large trading day with traders from all over NZ and a heck of a lot of knitters and spinners etc.  I popped in first thing this morning and there were tonnes of people already (it opened at 10am).  I went in with cash and came out with yarn and other things, no cash left and I might have used the card for a couple of items as well, which I now have to pay for from my spending money.   It was worth it though, we've never had one before, but I suspect it may become an annual thing; I certainly hope so.

I got to meet new people, some of whom I knew from Ravelry including Doe Arnott, one other parent from the boys primary school (that was cool), some I don't know at all, but it was easy to talk to everyone despite my normal reticence.  Also saw a lot of people I knew from guild.

And here's the haul:

Clockwise from top left:  Maniototo Wools Aran which will be knit into a coat for me, Chiao Goo Mini's (really wanted these), Knit Pro Blocking set (wanted these for some years), a Doe Arnott Corriedale batt, Zauberball which I'll use in weaving, Outlaw Yarns Bohemia Sport for knitting the Zelda Shawl by Truly Myrtle, Dark Harbour Merino in light fingering, Spinning a Yarn merino/silk fingering, Vintage Purls DK for socks for Dh, Hollyberry Yarns in a gradient for socks for me.

Next two pays my spending money will be going to pay for the final bits from this, I won't need much else though, just some silicon dots and a double boat shuttle.  Will be either taking lunches to guild or coming home early to eat.

Must start all the things!

This is how I'm feeling at the moment, I have (had) 3 projects on the needles and the loom was being slowly warped up plus one dress cut out (not the wrap one) but I've now had a case of wanting new things. 

The loom was easy, I finished warping it up and am now having fun weaving a brown cotton teatowel.  I looked at the instructions for the project and objected to the suggestion of cream and salmon, I remember what happens to white and cream teatowels when you dry an aluminium oven tray and it's not pretty.  Luckily my stash had most of a cone of brown cotton and I felt the dusty pink I also had would be a nice accent.

M's and O's in 8/2 cotton on my Bartlett Countermarche 4-shaft loom

I did have to take a break from this for a couple of days to get ready for youngest's party, he turns 12 this week and he invited a couple of friends from his old school (only one could make it), plus his Teacher Aide from last year (was overseas on holiday) and his teacher from this year (she came).  It went well, the kids enjoyed themselves and it meant Dh could meet the teacher for the first time.  This is the cake I made:

It's a snake cake, the duck and chook are doing a runner while the snakes slither through the undergrowth after them.  It went down well, there's one piece left for this year's TA.

I've also cast on for a new jersey for me in handspun, the pattern is Eased by Alicia Plummer and is going fairly well so far, though I'm not used to bulky yarn.  I spun the yarn especially for this pattern.

The jersey so far

The remaining yarn (my phone hates night photos), the yarn is on different bases so goes bright to dark muted.

I'm also working on ignoring my shawl as I'm just not in the mood for cobwebweight at the moment.  In the meantime I've done some work on two pairs of socks

Lucy in the Sky Socks.

Plain vanilla socks

And I've planned my next knitting project after all these are finished

This has been in the queue forever, but I have the yarn coming, Mary at Maniototo Wools has dyed me up 1kilo of Aran weight Merino in a good blue red; I get to pick it up at Woolfeast next Saturday; can't wait.  This is the same yarn I used for Strokkur which I loved knitting.

On the sewing front my next projects are:

The dress is already cut out, I'm doing view D again in the burgundy you can see under it.

And of course the Outlander pattern.  The pinstripe wool at the top is going to be the skirt and the jacket will be in the pinstriped cotton velvet at the bottom of the photo.  Luckily I already have all the underpinnings.  I wanted a plaid, but nothing to be had in my current pricerange.

My next weaving project?  Wavering between the next item in Anne Field's book (placemats) or a floor rug.   We don't really need placemats, but it says linen can be used (once you have more experience) so I really want to try that just cos it's supposed to be more challenging.   However I also need a floor rug and I've got all the yarn I need so it'll depend on what challenge I feel like once this one's done.

Oh, and I now am in the hospital system, I'm on the wait list to be seen within the next 3 months by neurology.

Sewing a Wrap

This is the Olivia Wrap Dress

I really like it, though I would have been happier if I'd finished it while there was still light outside

• Since this is the New to You Challenge I decided to go with one of the patterns from the Chill Out Capsule and since it’s winter here the Olivia Wrap Dress by Named  appealed.  I don’t have a wrap dress at the moment and I had the perfect fabric in my stash, so that was another point in its favour.
• The fabric was some merino/nylon from Levana Textiles bought off Trademe and in a perfect colour for me, I might have had to buy a little more as I'd used some for another dress and only had 2.4m left.
• The pattern was mostly good, the fit is good for me with no adjustments but I would do the pockets differently in future.  They are inset after the side seams are sewn, normally I put them in before that and the result would have been much smoother that way.  I stuffed up a little and cut the fronts out with the wrong side of the fabric so had to change which side the dress fastens to fix that as I didn’t have enough fabric to recut.  I also changed how the elastic in the waist was sewn in and just sewed it over the seam and through the dress rather than attaching it to the seam allowance; what can I say, I’m lazy and I figured it’ll be covered by the ties anyway.  Finally I made the opening for the ties smaller after seeing comments about that being too large on Pattern Review.
• I’m actually surprised at just how much I like this now that I’ve finished it and I think it’s going to be a staple in my winter wardrobe.  It fits well and is flattering too.  I want to wear it with my Caterpillar boots for some reason, and if it gets super cold I’ll wear a shawl to fill in the neckline.
• Overall this was a fairly straightforward make, but did have some tricky bits and the instructions while fairly good didn't always choose the best way to do things in my opinion.
  
  Next up for me is another dress, a pattern I've made in the past for a fit and flare style dress using some cotton knit that's been in my stash for aeons, plus finishing warping up the loom (almost done).

  I've also installed a new waste disposer as our one died and cast on a jersey in handspun; no photo yet as it's not far enough along but there should be one later this week all going well.

Finally I'm now waiting on a referral to a neurologist, my MRI has some areas of demylenation on it, MS was mentioned as a possibility.  I'm not worrying too much yet but am still working towards clean eating and adding some extra supplements after my next GP appointment.  Despite that news I've actually been feeling pretty good over the last week aside from the side pain which wont' go away; it's improved a little, but still there.  I'll take the little improvements I think.