New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival

Yesterday I dragged the BF to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival. It was only semi dragging, he was actually quite willing and a good sport and had a good time. He's such a keeper. Here is the disclaimer for this post: My digital camera was sadly out of batteries and so I took my big beautiful print camera and therefore pictures will have to wait until I can get to CVS and back for a CD of my pictures. Then, in about a week, there will be lots of pictures for this, way later than everyone else who went (woo hoo!)

It was a pretty nice day, sunny and high in the 60s even for the fairgrounds in Coontoocock?sp NH. We woke up pretty early for people attempting to recover from three years of law school related sleep deprivation thanks to my alarm and got ready and were on the road pretty quickly. We were a little rushed the entire day because the fairgrounds were 1.5 hours away and we wanted to be back by 2 or 3 for an event for upcoming grads of our law school going from 2-5 (Bowling at Jillian's-we like to bowl a lot). Therefore, we were a little conscious of time the entire day, but we ended up not rushing ourselves through the incredible amount of yarn and fleece and roving and animals to see!

We got there and entered through the gate with less stuff right by it, the blue gate (I think). The advantage of this gate was that it had you enter the fairgrounds through a beautiful little forested area with a babbling brook. It was picturesque.

The first building we went in was filled with goodies. There was natural honey, there was tea (what a good combination). M spent most of the time in the tea area and I could look around and pet the soft yarn. There was some seriously soft yarn. The softest alpaca I have ever touched. It was glorious and I wanted to just wrap it around me and rub it on my face because it was so soft. I got her color card so I could order from her when I have need of super soft alpaca and I am sure it will be soon. It's all in natural colors and it is heavenly.

Here is one of those color cards:This picture does not do justice to the gorgeousness of this woman's alpaca.

The tea was really interesting too and we tried about 6 varieties, inlcuding some very good green tea and some yucky spinachy green tea. I am all for eating spinach, I love it and it gives me (a lactose intolerant person-I know I shouldn't be so judgmental, but what can you do) much needed calcium but it does not do well in tea. The tea company was pretty fantastic and had these awesome infusers. I will have to get the info from M, who spent the most time there.

From there we spent the rest of the time wandering through the 5 or so other big barnlike buildings and the small individual tents for vendors that were all over the place. There was just so much to see! I wish we could have spent more time there.

The highlights of the day for me were many but these definately stand out: there was buffalo yarn and yarn made from sled dogs at the same booth! It was really soft and nice yarn! If it hadn't been way out of my price range I would have taken some home with me. Other than this none of the yarn really jumped out at me. There was nice yarn to be sure, but nothing I had to have except for the alpaca above I plan on ordering. (There will be a picture of this booth to come)

The real standouts were the rovings and spinning going on. There were some beautiful wheels and some beautiful things being made on them. So much so that it made me act on my desire to learn how to spin with a drop spindle (a full on spinning wheel is an investment I am not ready to make). I found a likely looking booth with some nice people towards the end of the day and got a lesson and purchased some gorgeous roving in a lovely very deep magenta/red/ purple color and a drop spindle. It has the remanants on it still from my lesson.
Here are those two things I got at this booth:


The roving is wool, and it is soft and so pretty. Such a gorgeous wine color.

From there on I was looking for rovings I wanted that I had admired earlier and I didn't want to go overboard (because what if spinning is just not for me?) so I headed to a place that had lots of it set up in a hammock for display and found a ball I wanted and liked and luckily for me the one woman had another ball of it! It was grey wool dyed to get this subtle effect. Yummy.

I also got some pretty soaps for a present for someone who I think will appreciate them.

That is the end of my haul for the day. We did have some yummy lamb sausages for lunch in the sun, but that was the extent of our indulging in the fair food. The vendors were busy throughout the day however.

M did buy a whole lot more than I did. He bought a garbage bag full of bulky wool yarn in Tufts colors to make a blanket for himself. He got an amazing half price deal from someone who wanted to clear out the yarn. Yay for him! Last night I showed him how to make a ball from the skein and do a guage swatch to determine how many stitches he would need for the blanket size he wants (this is going to be a one person for the couch blanket size) and we determined how many stitches he needs to cast on. He'll probably end up doing it today. I think it is great he is willing to learn to do this with me. He was sitting at a spinning wheel yesterday but I missed getting a picture of him learning how to spin because I was getting my own drop spindle lesson. I did get a picture of him with the bag full of yarn. He also bought a tie pattern and some yarn to make it with.

We came back and went bowling. On the way back from Jillian's, we stopped at Game On to watch the last half of the 9th inning when the Sox were down 5-0., It didn't look good. However, they came back to score 6 runs in the 9th to win! Take that Orioles fan at Jillian's who was going on how a three hitter against the Red Sox was soooo incredible. I think 6 runs in the 9th inning to win is pretty incredible.

Then M went to play poker and then he came over after to do all the swatching for his blanket.

That was our day on Sunday.

Our day on Saturday was filled with a long Red Sox game in which the Sox crushed the Orioles 13-4 (I think that was the final score) where we sat 6 rows behind home plate. Thanks Dad! I love going to games with M and my dad. They are just great baseball fans to watch a game with.

Our view from our seats.



It was pretty fun! Go Sox!

After that we went to our respective homes, ate and dressed like madmen (very quickly, not in insane combinations or jumpsuits) to go to a surprise birthday party for one of our closest friends in law school. It was worth the rush and tiredness and missing a nap after the game to see how happy he was the party surprise.

Charity Knitting done!!!

I finished my work on the Oddball Blanket last night! Yay! Here it is in all its knit completeness( at least my section.) I'll send it off to the next knitter today. Now that it is done I can concentrate on my sweater, the scarves I have going for my brother and little sister, and on something for my mom and stepmom, since I am not so sure I want to use the recycled sari silk for their scarves. I think I need to do a test knit to see how it knits up since I am liking it but not loving it in the skeins and balls.

Here is the blanket! It's in the package, ready to be sealed and shipped!


This is how much yarn I had left from the second ball! I am so glad that I ordered two.



I did go to the Sheep and Wool festival in Coontoocock(that's a pretty funny naame for a place-no offense to anyone meant, just fun to say!), NH yesterday and there will be more posting about that in the next post and a few more to come.

Knitting Progress

I have been doing some charity knitting. I am participating in the Oddball Blanket Knit-A-Long from Knittinghelp.com's forums. I am the first knitter to get it after the starting knitter and I decided to do garter stitch because if people want to do more fancy stitches that will curl later the blanket will have more of a border.

It's coming along well, but the first ball of yarn I got was definately not enough. I am so glad I got two. I am sure I will use the second one completely up. It will be a little more than 3 inches, but I think that is ok. The KP Swish Superwash is soft and knits up nicely. The Dublin green color is very pretty. I wish it was more than 110 yards, but the price is still right for 110 yards.

Here is what I got out of one ball, 300 stitches in garter stitch.

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From another blog...Knitting Progress later today...

I will post about knitting progress later today.

Yesterday I went to turn in my Massachusetts bar exam application. It's so nice to have both my bar applications for the July MA and NH bars taken care of. My BF is done as well(finally) and is home relaxing until we can celebrate tonight.

I found this test on another blog and I think the card is perfect for me, a soon to be attorney and public defender.

You are Justice

Equity, rightness, probity, executive; triumph of the observing side in law.

Justice is about cold, objective balance through reason or natural force. You can't keep smoking and drinking without consequences to your health. It is the card that advises cutting out waste and insists that you make adjustments, do whatever is necessary to bring things back into balance, physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually. It is a card of balance and harmony; if there is imbalance, the correction may
require recourse to the law.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Knitting Content and a fun day trip!

I did a lot of knitting in the last few days to recover from frog pond. I frogged the entire sweater progress because I could not live with the off ribbing for that tiny little bit. I have now recovered the one ball of knitting I lost and am now on my third ball and have a little over 6 inches done! Yay! Here is that progress so far. I love how this is looking.



I also got the yarn in for my stepbrother's kid's baby blanket in. They are not due until 5 months from now, so I should have plenty of time to finish a baby blanket. I also ordered some of the same yarn for some charity knitting on the odd-ball blanket. You can find information on it here. http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30799
The green is for the oddball blanket and the yellow is for the baby blanket. I am going gender neutral because they are not planning on finding out the sex and the yelllow is just so sunny. It's KP's Swish Superwash.



Then there is this: It was acquired today and is likely meant for a wide felted tote bag in that order of colors. It was 40% off! The BF and I decided to enjoy this beautiful 80 degree weather we are having for two days in Massachusetts and took a day trip to Salem, MA, which is about 45 minutes away from Boston. In between wax museums focusing on the witch trials and strolling along pretty streets to visit the House of Seven Gables (Hawthorne) we discovered a yarn store. Almost all the store was 40% off, including this gorgeous hand dyed Cascade Pastaza. It was the one thing that I wanted and I got it. I have been pretty bad lately with this whole not stash increasing thing, but this will be the reward for my charity knitting. I love the colors, they are much richer than the picture shows.


Salem was so much fun. We also found a used bookstore liquidating their stock and so I got the Friday Night Knitting Club. I am excited to read it. We had lunch overlooking the water as well, and it was so nice out. I loved actually being able to spend time with him that wasn't regimented because of school.

I finished law school and i had to frog my sweater progress!!

Well, I finished my paper on Friday, e-mailed it off and then went and had lunch with my boyfriend who took his last school exam that morning in order to celebrate. Then I went downtown to run some errands and got stuck on the T on the way back. The metro in Boston is run by semi trained monkeys. Then my BF and I went to a really nice dinner that was law school related.

Today I decided that I had to frog my sweater process because some of the ribbings were off by one stitch at times making an interesting pattern that was not perfect. It wasn't so bad to frog it as the ribbing goes so quickly and I give myself one complete do-over every project. It was only one ball as well. Here's hoping I don't have to do it again!

I have actual knitting content of my own to show you!!!

I know I have been a busy girl these last few weeks/three years of my life, with law school and all. It's almost over however. I graduate on May 20 and as soon as I finish this last page of a ten page paper talking about assisted suicide and fix all the cites for hte footnotes and e-mail it off I will be officially done. Talk about a weird feeling. It's like having three years of your life and what seemed like incredible and impossible effort at times condensed into one moment. My BF is taking his last ever law school exam right now, which is where I was two mornings ago. It's a scary and exhiliarating three plus hours and the time when you are done is one of those epic what know moments. For me, I knew. I was going downtown to pick up some more yarn for Tempting from Knitty (I already had six balls but I want the sleeves longer) at Windsor Button and then home for food and rest and Zelda on the Wii before going downtown for a wine tasting for alumni from my undergraduate college. I did that, had some fun, returned home and wanted to CRASH. I did not therefore, get any knitting done that day. Yesterday, after working on my paper for as long as I could take it, I swatched.

Here is that result.



It turned out to be the right guage! Stitch and pretty much row! Row doesn't matter for this because the pattern for this is written in inches, bu it was so nice to get it right!

Then, I cast on and knit like crazy for me:



I got all this done! It;s 2X2 ribbing in the round for about 14 inches. I have 2-3 done and am almost done with one ball. I think I will have plenty left over for the sleeves. I'll leave one ball for the area after the sleeves are joined at least. It's such a pretty color. It's Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran color 607 or is it 907? and is a more plum/wine color than my horrible at getting the right color photography shows. This one is too light and the next one is closer but is too dark.




All I know is that it is breautiful, I have time to knit and the yarn is very soft and pleasant to work with.

I should be getting an Oddball Blanket in the mail soon as well as some yarn for it. There will be knitting on that and pictures, I promise!