A Fibery Finish to the Month

The last week of May was great! Lots of fiber fun.

Last Sunday, a whole group of us got together for lunch and knitting at Panera - it was fabulous! Elizabeth, Lisa, Susan, Sue, Karen, Catherine, Jill, Pamela, and me. The cashier, Eric, even joined us when he got off shift. His girlfriend is a knitter and taught him....so he had his project in the car and joined us! The weather and the company were absolutely perfect.

Elizabeth's latest felted bag was fabulous! Jill and I both loved it, so Elizabeth graciously jotted down her pattern/design for us. Now we too can make an "Elizabeth Original"! I wish I'd taken a picture....how did I forget that?

When I first got there, Elizabeth and I quickly celebrated our birthdays by exchanging presents. Yeah, I know, its not the correct month, but we had such a hard time coordinating our get-together that we decided to celebrate between our birthdays. She found the cutest hedge-hog goodies for me and created one for me as well! (Missing from the picture - the patterns she gave me...they're already filed in my pattern notebook.)



This little hedgie doubles as a pin cushion - specifically for pins needed for sewing garments together - which she also crafted! Isn't he absolutely adorable? I love him!



And that's not all! All the gifts were contained within a hand-crafted bag - in the perfect color way - purples! It's crocheted in #10 cotton...yes, the tiny stuff. The stitches are so small - definitely a labor of love. Thanks so much Elizabeth!


On Memorial Day, several of us went to Uniquities for their annual sale. Wow! Talk about a fabulous sale - nearly every skein of yarn was on sale - anywhere from 10% to 50% off! It was definitely a knitter's and crocheter's heaven. Needless to say, I did find several items that I just HAD to have. I promised DH that I would only purchase yarn for specific projects....and I kept my promise! You would not believe how many projects I found I needed to do - LOL! Seriously, though, I found a number of great deals on yarn for felted bags and for Christmas scarves, so I do have specific projects slated for all the yarns I purchased.


Wednesday was our monthly knitting guild meeting. That was a lot of fun as well - it always is. Everyone is so enthusiastic and has such wonderful projects. The inspirations are endless! My friend, Jo Anne, just finished this fabulous vest out of Twizzle - it's gorgeous! The pattern is the "Now and Then Vest" from Mountain Colors and the colorway is appropriately names, "Firestorm" - I LOVE the vibrant colors!



I even managed to work in some spinning this past week! I finished spinning the first of 4 bags of some roving I purchased at the Montpelier Fiber Fest last fall. The roving is a gorgeous mix of purples and greys. After plying it, I found that the colors blend together very nicely and create a lot of depth in the yarn - this picture doesn't quite capture all of the subtle contrasts, but it still shows the general effect.

I've started a shawl in "Loopy" from Dalis at Dancing Leaf Farm. It's just the basic triangular shawl in stockinette stitch. The yarn is a hand dyed loopy mohair in an absolutely gorgeous colorway - created by Dalis, of course! The deep purples and greens remind me of Irises from my mom's garden. My friend Lynn says it reminds her of Martha's Vineyard. Either way, the colors are beautiful and bring to mind the beauty of nature itself. The closeup of the yarn ball and the edge of the shawl really shows off the sheen of the mohair.