Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival

Alert! Alert! Mark your calendars, hitch up the horses, and head on out for the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival the 26th – 28th of September. Up here in beautiful Northern Michigan we are all joining again on the Ogemaw County fairgrounds.
The vendor booths are SOLD OUT so you know there will be new yarns and patterns, tools and toys jam packed into the buildings. Free parking and free admission, all you have to do is show up!
There will be spinning, knitting, felting, weaving, crochetting, dyeing classes (be sure to sign up for these early, they sell out quickly).
Do you want to learn to shear sheep? Come to the sheep shearing school and then join us for the sheep and pasture seminars and tours.

Here’s the informational brochure, see for yourself, you can’t miss this event!
http://www.lambandwoolfestival.com/brochurein.pdf
I have to tell you what happened to me last year. I was nonchalently wandering up and down isles, occasionally tripping over my jaw and slipping on my own drool when I came across a novelty yarn that “spoke” to me. (it said, “you must have me”, as it jumped into my arms. I don’t like novelty yarn, but still it persisted, almost attacking me viciously until I finally got out my charge card. I had no idea what to do with this stuff that already owned me. So, that night I fired up my trusty internet and searched for The Perfect Pattern! And this is what I came up with. From Jimmy Beans Wool, the Venus Openwork Diamond Cardigan. You have to pet, er I mean, see this yarn, it’s just awesome! And maybe I’ll have my sweater done and wearing it!

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

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