Local Yarn Acquisition

Yummy Icelandic Worsted Weight. Soft. All natural. The color is actually a shade lighter than the photo looks here.

This is from a sheep that lives within 50 miles of Argyle, which is about 4 miles south of here, so the sheep and I are practically neighbors.














I like the fact that this is a heritage breed (help keep really cute sheep alive, buy their wool!). I like the fact that I am supporting a local farmer and a local small business. Makes me feel positively virtuous buying yarn.

It's lovely having the mill so close. Besides carrying the wool they spin themselves, they have a really wide color selection of Cascade 220, and a small but choice selection of sock yarns. And Elizabeth told me today that they will soon be spinning merino and Alpaca/Llama.

Argyle Fiber Mill Home

The rights for my Madison Scarf just reverted to me, so I am going to use this for a pattern sample in the Seaman's Scarf version.

WWMPD

By the umpteenth repeat of the shawl edging pattern, I have it half memorized. This is a dangerous place to be. It is the place where your mind can wander just a little bit, start to think of what you need to get done tomorrow, or roll around blog ideas, or half compose a letter to some idiot in government, when all of a sudden, Oops! missed a yarn over two rows back.

It's not a biggie. It's not going to be all that noticeable, really, now is it? And besides, I have already decided that this version of the shawl is really just a first draft...

I am not by nature a "detail oriented" person. I like to look at the big picture. (Which might help explain why my stint in the banking world was not an overwhelming success. Would you be willing to settle for a general overview of your account balance? No? You want specifics?)

So this is where I have to grit my teeth and ask myself the hard, fundamental question: "What Would Mouse Potato Do?"

Mouse is a knitting mentor par excellence over on the About.com knitting forum. She is a cheerleader, able teacher, source of unending knitting information, and I believe a perfectionist in regards to her own work. Sigh! It seems she has now become sort of my knitting conscience.

OK Mouse-who-now-lives-in-my-head. Tink, tink, tink, tink, tink.....

Where's Waldo?

Rounding the Bend

As I was working the Progressive Shawl edging around the bottom point I added in some extra "ease". For roughly two pattern repeats just before and after the corner, I ended every other incoming row with K1 instead of the K2tog that would join it to the edge. I say "roughly" because, kiddos, I was winging it here. I didn't chart it out, and I didn't write down exactly how many times I did this on each side of the point. I'm hoping the blocking fudge factor godesses will be good to me.

If I ever get to the point of writing the pattern up, I'll have to be more precise. But if I go there, I think I'll be changing the pick up ratio for the border. The garter center is a little scrunched where it joins the stockinette based border. I'm still reserving final judgement until after blocking. But if my suspicions prove to be well founded, and the border numbers have to change, there no point in calculating an absolutely precise edging repeat here. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

fichu border clarification

I had a question about the border for the lace fichu, so I've put up a chart and a little more explanation here: fichuborderclarification

Alas, the technical college was one student short, so they had to cancel the class. We'll try again next semester.

On the bright side, that gives me time I can put to use 1) making some progress on the Progressive Shawl, 2) using up some more of the eyelash stash making fuzzy wuzzy scarves to take to the River Valley Trading Co on consignment.

The prep work wasn't a total waste. I got the teaching materials organized, which I had been meaning to do ever since last spring. And I'll try offering it through the store in Oct. They have had a couple of inquiries, so we'll see if that translates to actual registrations. At least there I won't be looking at a minimum number to make it go.

Population 800 - Pig on the Loose

While I was upstairs writing my post about the parade, my husband was downstairs calling our "across the street" neighbor to offer her a ride to a wedding reception. In the middle of the conversation she says, "Steve, there's a pig coming down the street."
"What?"
"There's a pig coming down the street!"
Husband rushes to sunroom, where he can see LaVonne on her front step while a potbellied pig comes down the side street, across the road and up LaVonne's steps.

This is the point where I hear, "Cindy, come here, hnnnn, there's a hnnnn!"
"What?"
"There's a pig!"

So as Steve and LaVonne were still discussing whose pig it could possibly be, I headed out the door and across the street. And sure enough, there is a very cute, very clean little pig thoughtfully chewing on LaVonne's flowers.

Husband arrives. Discussion ensues. The pig came from the direction of Husie's house. His little girl has several pets. Was it hers? Call to Husie's place of business (bar full of Homecoming celebrants). Does Husie have a pig? No, but they think his friend does; they will let her know.

By this time, LeVonne's daughter & daughter's friend & friend's husband (all in town for Homecoming) have come out of the house. The pig is friendly, likes being scratched, snuffles endearingly at outstretched hands, but evades attempts to herd it into garage.

Pig starts running around the side yard, apparently playing a game & having great fun. Husband and self run up and down trying to keep it out of the street, as the game has just let out and traffic is picking up. One of husband's former 6th grade students comes by on bike. He knows who owns the pig. Pedals off in search of owner.

The pig makes a break for it and heads into the street. I leap after it, arms waving to stop traffic. Pig moseys, stops to consider options while 5 or 6 cars wait, then continues on in the direction from whence it originally came. More neighbors emerge from house as pig crosses their yard, pausing to poop.

Pig's owner & Husie's daughter appear. Owner profusely apologetic, "He's never done anything like this before!" (She didn't need to apologize. The pig was the highlight of our afternoon). Pig docilely and cheerfully follows owner home.

Steve says that without a doubt some first grader will come up to him on Monday to ask him about the pig. This is pretty much a given. The first (and thankfully only) time I skidded the car off a snow covered road, word got back to town before I did.

Alas, in all the excitement, I didn't grab my camera. So here's Baxter, showing exactly what he thinks of all the fuss. Pigs, indeed!