Good Morning Everyone!
I barely know where to start, I've been having so much fun!! The Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival returned after a two year hiatus, Mother Nature certainly did her part. What started out as a chilly, gray morning, with low hanging clouds in the valleys, soon morphed into Bluebird skies as the festival was getting underway. I could feel the energy and excitement as the crowds made their way in, so many smiling faces, so many familiar faces! I always hesitate to name names and list those that I saw for fear of forgetting someone, so I won't. But it's worth mentioning that I had a bit of a thrill when a complete stranger came up to me, called me by name and asked if I was wearing my Efa sweater. I lifted up my Bergere de France cabled poncho to proudly display my recently completed sweater. I had no idea who this woman was so I asked where she was from hoping I could jog my memory and make the connection. She told me she was from Massachusetts, she follows me on Instagram, loves my videos, and knew I was going to be in Tunbridge. Well shit, doesn't that feel pretty good? I couldn't wait to tell Carrie, afterall, it's her fault for putting me in front of the camera, may as well give her the credit.
As exciting as that encounter was, my mission for the day was to find yarn for my next two projects. I was only going to buy for one, the Venia by Isabell Kraemer, but I stupidly started looking through my Contrasts book and down the rabbit hole I went. Ok, two more projects, it's only fair, I had to make up for lost time, there's been no festival the last two years, that's one project per year that was missed. Technically, I should have bought three projects but instead I bought pottery, yep the lady at Brown Bunny Pottery was back and I just couldn't resist. I now have an adorable soup bowl that goes with my favorite Sheep mug. I was so excited to use the bowl, I made Curried, Roasted Cauliflower soup yesterday, it tastes better in a pretty bowl, especially a black sheep bowl.
Sunday morning I packed up a box of goodies and headed south to go north to the Georgia Rest Area. I will say, the one thing I miss about my shop downtown is decorating the windows, it was always so much fun to do. My shop doesn't allow for a ton of merchandising, thankfully Carrie has a great eye and can completely change the most mundane into something beautiful. Sunday morning I put my decorating skills to work and created an adorable display at the northbound I-89 rest area in Georgia. It's the perfect month for me too, that rest area was super busy in the 30 minutes I was there, got to love the leaf peepers!! I did take pictures and posted them on Social, many of you have seen them, but if you get a chance, stop by!
Now the part you've all been waiting for, how much tinking and swearing have I done on my current sweater? It was a shaky start, we all know that reading and following directions presents a challenge, simply because I think I already know what to do. A steeked sweater is knit in the round and cut up the front, why aren't the directions telling me to join in the round? Why? Why? Why? Oh...in the fine print it says that the Welt is worked flat, no idea why they didn't say ribbing because that's what it is, ugh this is going to be fun. Welt is complete, we're successfully joined in the round, we've increased the correct number of stitches AND the stitch count is correct. What could possibly go wrong? Let me tell you, the stupid number of stitches in the repeat of Chart 1 IS NOT DIVISIBLE BY THE NUMBER OF STITCHES ON THE NEEDLE. BIG EFFING PROBLEM!!! I'll walk you through it, cast on 170 stitches, work welt, join, increase 20 stitches evenly, 190 stitches. 2 of those stitches will be used for the steek, so 188 are left to work the 20 stitch repeat. Do the math....8 stitches leftover. Time to get creative, I'll just use 4 before I start the chart and 4 afterwards, easy peasy lemon squeezy. Unfortunately it took several affirmations of, (it's the pattern, not you) from about 5 other knitters before I came up with this AMAZING solution. All the while I was looking at the picture of the completed sweater getting more and more pissed off. My Mimi always said there was more than one way to skin a cat, I skinned it backwards and it worked.
If you want to see my amazingly beautiful sweater in progress, I will be working on it during Stitch and Bitch Wednesday evening from 6-7:30, I hope you can join in the fun. Make it a great day and I'll see you soon!
Katy