One step closer

I forgot to mention that my ability to knit short-row heels brings me that much closer to someday replicating my favorite pair of socks:

Yum

My haul

The first three hanks are superwash merino, and the last two are cotton with a bit of elastic (so they say, I can't tell). I haven't knit in days because it's been too hot and I've been busy, but I have something I'd like to get back to now that it's a reasonable temperature.

More Black Sheep

To see another blogger's visit to (and haul from) the booth I liked so much, click here.

Black Sheep Gathering

This is the only photo I took yesterday at the Black Sheep Gathering. It shows some, but by no means all, of the sock yarn for sale at the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth. What I bought you will see in a future post.

We saw lots of hot sheep, hot goats, and hot bunnies. 100% of our sample of bunnies (2) did not want their noses touched. Poor things.

My husband was most interested in the wooden items, commenting on the complex, beautiful $600 and $700 spinning wheels and digging through a container of niddy noddies, none of which looked like the ones I'm finding on the web.

It's currently 99 degrees with 24% humidity and a breeze, making it feel like 97. In Williamsburg, Virginia, it is currently 88 degrees with 66% humidity, making it feel like 97. Huh. Of course our temperature is still climbing. The house is about 20 degrees cooler than the outside temp. Tomorrow, more of the same.

Screw that

Tomorrow	Sun	Mon
Sunny High: 95° Low: 62°	Sunny High: 101° Low: 68°	Sunny High: 101° Low: 67°

The highs forecast for this weekend and beyond keep going up and up. But it's Oregon, so the lows are still bearable and the humidity won't be a killer. I would like to go to the Black Sheep Gathering, which I believe is held indoors, but I may not. We don't have air conditioning, so this will be our first big test of how cool the house stays. AC wasn't too common an option in our price range. It's not as necessary here as it is elsewhere. In August, the warmest month, the average high is 82 and the average low is 52. In July in Falls Church, Virginia, the average high is 89 and the average low is 66 and there's humidity. But for this weekend I think I'll check out the matinees. Mmm, dark and cool theater.

And it's the longest day of the year

Here are cotton/ lycra socks I made for my mother.

Yarn: Greenwood Fiberworks in Genola Sunset
Pattern: Came with the yarn
Needles: Size 1 DPNs

This was my first time doing a short-row heel. I had wanted to learn how for a while and I didn't think I had much choice with this yarn, because of the lycra. I thought it would be too difficult to pick up stitches for the gusset if I did the flap.

I think this heel is more mental work than the flap/ pickup heel, and I am not sure I could ever do it without a cheat sheet. And there's the sometimes-awful purl 3 together through the back maneuver. But it does look nice and now I know two ways to make a heel. (This heel uses YOs and reverse YOs, not wrapping.)

Unexpected loot!

All this came in the mail the other day courtesy of my parents. They stopped by Baadeck Yarns while on vacation. The yarn is sequestered in an extra bedroom until I feel like testing the blue yarn for allergies. I had some symptoms after opening the box, but it could have been something else. I know I like Opal and am excited to get to try out a new sock yarn, the Fleece Artist. It's fun enough when you get a package of yarn that you ordered yourself, but one you didn't know was coming is the best. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Don't ask

Don't ask about the lawn. The situation is angering me, to say the least.

Here is a swatch of sorts: