Fiber Fests, Knitting Nest and Spinning Wheels

Well, I survived the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival. It was exhilarating. It was exhausting. It was really really hard on my checkbook.

And I signed up to go to another one. Am I crazy?

Don’t answer that!

I did manage to score quite a bit of knitting time as well as spinning time. What handy little tool did I choose to hold my knitting, yarn and accessories while I was knitting? The Knitter’s Nest by Circular Solutions. Very heavy duty canvas, with 4 divided pockets. Also trimmed in a very cool purple! And… this is the grabber… it has a handle! People! Seriously! A Handle! I could pick it up and deposit it into my festival tote with no problems. I could pick it up and take it out of my festival tote with no problems. Very very portable, but.. if it’s not quite portable enough for you…..

Ta..dah…..Circular Solution’s Port A Pocket. Same durable canvas, same ultra cool purple trim, and this one has a velcro attached strap to hang from a belt, belt loop or wrist, it’s also big enough for a ball of yarn and has pockets on the outside for your ‘ccessories.

Too cool!

Now I know people knit while riding, walking, and waiting, but I wanna hear from someone who knits while they are on the treadmill, because that one, well, that one didn’t really end all that well!

On the WIP front, Sunrise Circle is done, well the knitting is done anyway, just have to block it, and sew it together. My current project is Jane Thornley’s Feather and Fan KAL in the Mossy Roving’s variety. I love it!

Gotta go knit…..

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette.

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up).

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley.

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design.

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like.

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going.

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]

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