Keep On Knitting!

Do you remember the 2015 Soper Creek Yarn "Annual Yarn Challenge"? I sure do! It haunts me, plagues me, and continues to taunt me from my project basket. I don't blame anyone but myself for my predicament. My story starts like this: Estelle Yarns sent me the original sample ball of their Eco Andean DK Wool to evaluate last year, causing me to fall madly in love with it, and Tina not only brought in a selection of colours, she chose ones that play ever so nicely together, which caused me to muse aloud and often about creating this monster of a knit. But then Tina goes and picks it for the yarn challenge. It is the Year of the Sheep after all, and this yarn fit the bill nicely, but to top it all off, she waves the proverbial carrot on a stick in front of my nose by choosing the very three colours that I was contemplating. I was in trouble, I knew it. I also knew that there was no way that I was going to finish this project by the Challenge deadline, but I stubbornly wound up one ball of each colour (oh, there was a Challenge yarn package with about 33 grams of each colour in it, but who was I trying to kid? This beastie would require a full ball of each!) I took my yarn home. I sketched and did math (no small feat, thank you very much!). I cast on and took the plunge. I (wait for it) unpicked single moss from the cast on edge back ten rows to tweak an uncooperative edge. I soldiered on. When it came time for the voting and all the entries were on display in the shop window, my work in progress visited in the window across the way with sample skeins of the yarn and Tina's not one, but two (and later to become three) knitted items. Back in my project basket, the "WIP" languished. I was distracted by other projects (and yes, most were design projects for Estelle). Now the contest is over, the prizes have been handed out, and I'm still at it. I won't give up though, I promise, and in actual fact I am almost half way done and the math suggests I am still (thankfully) on track. I weigh my remaining yarn faithfully and have high hopes that I will make it to the other side with enough yarn. I am crossing my fingers and my toes and knitting on! There may be additional posts on this subject, but don't hold your breath in anticipation, because I refuse to commit to a deadline. All I can do is keep on knitting......

Breaking Dormancy (sort of)

Well, it being the first day of spring and all I thought I would resurrect the old blog I used to keep (thus the title of this post). Sadly, my sleeping (comatose?) creation seems to have disappeared off the face of the internet, so I am forced to create something brand new!

Okay fine, Internet. Have it your way! Welcome to the new blog. If it's any consolation, the old blog wasn't all that anyway, but I will miss it.....

So here are a couple of spring-ish pics related to what I'm all about: sheep (and other fibre-bearing critters) and knitting. There's some spinning in there somewhere too, but I think it's safe to lump it in with the "sheep" category.

These days I find myself with something to say every once and a while, often accompanied by some self-serving show and tell, usually involving the "knitting" category, so if this sort of thing floats your boat, stay tuned!