I have some finished objects and new projects to show off, plus the results of a Dye Day at Nicole's house.

First, I finished my Ianto socks this week. I love handspun socks. I mean really. It's getting to be an addiction. I love the colors of these socks. I've ordered another Ianto-inspired from YummyYarn, this one called "Bordering on the Avant Garde" that I plan on spinning up on my Lendrum when I get it soon! But anyway, let's look at the socks I knit.

I finished spinning my "Brooding" roving, and changed the nameo f it to "Black Magic." Because I must have a pair of handspun socks on the needles, I've cast on the Pomatomas socks from knitty.

I've also started on the Cable Net socks from knitty, that I'm making with Crystal Palace's Panda Silk. It's a gorgeous yarn and a gorgeous pattern. I think it's a prefect match.

As I mentioned earlier, Nicole hosted Dye Day at her house on September 27th. I brought roving to dye, the others had ordered yarn from KnitPicks. The weather was perfect and I think a good time was had by all. Of course, Nicole ended up dying NOTHING that day since I'd brought my drum carder for her to play with. Who wants to dye when you can play with a new toy? I lent her my drum carder for a few days and in return Nicole surprised me with 4 oz of Ramboulet roving. Yum!

In the end, I had the following rovings:

I also did a bit of dying yesterday, and while it's still drying, I'm too in love not to share it.

And to pimp myself just a bit, my fair knitting got a mention in issue 30 of This Week in Ravelry!

Two posts in one day... the world as you know it may be ending.

The morning before I went, I'd finished plying my second yarn from some of Creatively Dyed's roving. This time it was 60% merino/20% seasilk/20% milk protien/100% YUM! I don't have a creative name for the roving yet, but wow, it's just delicious. I ended up with about 260 yards/ just under 4 oz. I should have pre drafted better for a finer yarn, but it'll still make squishy warm socks. I don't have a cool name for the colorway at this point, but oh well, it's beautiful.

I spun up over a third of the BFL I dyed and named Brooding. I posted a pic of it a few months ago about 3 posts ago.

I was going to post more pictures of us all spinning and knitting, I need to make the bed and straighten around my apartment before work. I've made myself a deal. If I keep my apartment clean for 3 months (I'm past the 1 month mark! W00T!) then I get to buy a new spinning wheel. I'm going to get the Lendrum Original, double treadle, with carrying bag, fast flyer and very fast flyer (plus a few extra very fast bobbins). I'm looking at about $750.00 for everything I want, but I'll have a bonus coming in around that time. Plus... it'll make me feel better about my upcoming 30th birthday.

For the record... this beats my fair ribbons, hands down!

Let's start with the Ravelympics. The point was to start and complete a project during the Olympics. I decided to spin and knit a hat for Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto from Torchwood) and give it to him at Dragon*Con. Before the Ravelympics began, I prepared the spinning batts.

Once the Olympics began, I could start spinning my yarn.

Then I knit the hat.

At the Con, I met up with Susi (AKA Sushi the Great, who's blog I've been reading for a few years. We decide to go to the Torchwood panel on Friday. I get in line early and save a spot for her and her boyfriend. We end up in the second row, and I tell Susi that I have the hat with me. I had also bought two very dark chocolate candy bars for him since I'd read on his website that he loves extremely dark chocolate.

Anyway, Susi tells me I should give it to him during Q and A. I tell her no way, since I hate getting in front of people. She gently prods and tells me everyone will love it. I mull it over. Half way through, it's time for questions. Susi tells me to get up and do it! I take a deep breath, wish to myself I could take a shot of something strong, and I get in the line.

My question was lame. "What was the most fun episode to shoot?" He answers, and I'm only half listening, because I'm FREAKING OUT! So I tell him I had a gift for him. I walk up to the table and hand it to him.

He kind of teases and says "Do I want to open this?" Peeks in. "Anthony? You look for me." (Anthony is Anthony Lewis who played Tommy in an episode. Anthony's brother plays Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies.) Then Gareth opens the bag. The first thing he pulls out is the notecard in its envelope

He says he'll read it later. I make a lame attempt to say "I swear it's not dirty pictures or anything." It's not. It's a thank you and washing instructions for the hat. Gareth pulls the hat out.

And he puts it on. He says something during this and I remember "Rock and Roll!" being exclaimed. I don't know why, because I barely remember any or this. I'm convinced now that Gareth wanted me dead and tried to make my fangirl brain explode in front of everyone.

I tell him that I knit the hat out of yarn I'd spun up. His jaw drops. "You SPUN it?" I nod or something. The audience and everyone else at the panel table claps for me. He says something about "It's a good thing everyone likes it!"

Finally, he pulls the last two gifts out of the bag. Two bars of extremely dark chocolate. "Just like I like it" he says. Again, I nearly die.

He then wears the hat for the rest of the panel. And for at least an hour or so on the Walk of Fame. I hear on Sunday morning that he wore it most of the day Saturday, and to the special dinner that James Marsters had for fans.

Once again, the Rona shawl/tablecloth did not win (this time it was entered in the Misc. catagory). Whatever. I'm over it, or so I keep telling myself.

My hat and scarf didn't get a ribbon either. Nor did my Bar Harbor bag. But someone with different colors and the same pattern did get a 3rd place ribbon. Here's my bag.

I did get 5 ribbons though.

My booties came in 4th.

My Dickinson Pullover also got a 4th place ribbon.

I ended up with THREE blue ribbons!!

First, for my Twisted Flower socks.

Then for my baby sweater.

And finally for the damn shawl. Mom and Nana came over to help me block it the day before I turned it in. This bastard is BIG.

Now I'm in the process of picking out next year's entries. Guess I better start getting to work!!

I've been to two spin-ins on the river and had another bar knitting adventure at Starbase Q since my last update. I really can't say enough times how much I love Ravelry as I've made so many new friends through it. I also got the hook-up on some great patterns through a person on Ravelry. If you are a lace knitter, you've probably heard of Herbert Niebling. He's the godfather of lace knitting. He's been dead for forty years, but people are still crazy about his patterns. Most of them are out of print and only available through old issues of Burda magazine. The most popular pattern, Lyra, is really expensive. I have now obtained a copy of that pattern (and numerous others) though absolutely, 100% legit means * cough, cough *. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Say what you will about copyright, if the pattern is out of print and the holders refuse to republish, then I'm not opposed to obtaining it through sketchy means. The only person losing is the eBay seller. Trust me, I won't lose sleep over this. If you want the link to the patterns, leave a comment and I'll email it to you.

On the stash-y front I have some pretties from Greencastle and some more recent items to show off.

Have I said I love Creatively Dyed? I bought 8 oz. of her merino/seacell and I've spun 4 oz of it.

It spun up to a 3ply fingering weight yarn, approx 18-20 wraps per inch, 350 yards in all.

I also bought 4 oz of merino/bamboo that I haven't spun yet.

From etsy seller YummyYarn, I bought 4 oz of BFL in the colorway Ianto. It's inspired by our favorite character from Torchwood, and it's so pretty, I had to have it. I plan on spinning it up to a sock weight yarn. I'm currently working on a Ianto-inspired sock (and yes, I used proper grammar as it's pronounced Yan-toe).

From etsy seller allspunup, I about this merino/alpaca blend.

I ordered 4 oz of Targhee fiber in the colorway Northern Lights.

I dyed up some BFL myself and came up with this happy accident. It was supposed to be very bright with some dark spots. Whoops. But I LOVE this far more than the roving I'd originally envisioned. I call it 'Brooding.'

I've done quite a bit of knitting at work too. I've now finished three pairs of socks in the past month. Two came from handspun yarn.

The first are my Fancy Vines clog socks. The pattern is my own, and the motif is from Barbara Walker's 3 treasury.

The next are my Green Lake socks. The pattern is from a recent Spin Off. The yarn is a 4 ply cabled superwash merino.

Finally, there are my Fallish socks. These were knit with my merino/silk Head Over Heels kit. I utterly love this socks. The striping made it so interesting to knit up, as I had no idea what was coming next.

I've been working the late shift for almost 2 months now, so I haven't been able to knit with the Quills ladies. That's not to say I haven't been knitting though. I've been knitting with Ally (Knittin' Baby) on Wednesdays at Eureka Joe's. We started knitting together after she posted on Ravelry. This past Sunday, I went out and knit with two more Ravelers and a third knitter. I'd met Debbie once at the Rav meet up at Grinny Possum, but just met Sharri for the first time. They are both on the River City Knitters group, but we all came to each others attention from other boards we are all members of.

We ended up knitting at Starbase Q, this really cool gay bar on Main St. Sundays are movie night, so were were able to knit, then watch Juno. There were other wacky antics, but I try to keep my blog fairly inoffensive, so you'll have to ask for the story.

In some knerdy-knitter knews, I'm going to DragonCon this Labor Day weekend. Kirstie goes every year, and I've want to go but haven't. I found the one thing that sold me on it though for this year - my favorite actor on Torchwood, Gareth David-Lloyd is going to be there. I'm going to bled up some fiber, spin it, and knit him a hat. I'm such a nerd.

I went to the Fiber Event in Greencastle with Nicole where we played co-enablers. Then next day, was the alpaca show with Nicole, Sonya, Becka, and Cheryl. Since I'd come in under budget at the Fiber Event, it was justification to buy at the show.

Now to the knitting and fiber-y portion... I'm not going to go into too much detail, because I'm lazy and there's LOTS to post.

First, I'm done with the body of the damn shawl, and I'm on the border! I have one side done so far!

Close up!

I finished the body of the baby sweater and the sleeves. I cut the steeks as well, not I just have to seem everything up and knit the edging and button band.

Some before steeking images...

Now a grainy video of me cutting the front steek...

And the steeks cut.

Okay, that's it for now. I'm going to post some fibery stuff this weekend for you all to see.

What does that rant have to do with knitting and productivity? I busted my ass and finished the scarf and hat set (except for weaving in). I'm really happy with it and glad it's over.

I've since started on this cardigan. It's being knit with Knit Picks Palette. If you notice the stripes between the pattern, that is my steek panel. This will be my first real steeked project, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

I'm mainly working on that at work (love the freedom I have on my new schedule). At home, it's back to the damn shawl. In two days, I've completed more than half of the 6th chart repeat. One to go after this, and then I do the outer chart and the border. I'm figuring about another month.

See how much I've progressed since the last pic? What? It looks the same? What do you mean? Oh that's right! IT'S A GIANT BLOB!!!

I've worked this week also on charting out colorwork patterns. One for the fair isle sweater I'm going to spin and knit, the other for my felted project.

So what do you think? Have I been productive despite my TV addiction?

I guess first, what's new in Holly's world? I'm finally getting that promotion at work, I just have to wait until a position opens up to move into it. Until then I'm working the late shift on a dedicated line where I take about 10 calls a day. My goal is to get about 1 - 2 hours of knitting in at the end of my shift. That'll help with my fair projects.

Mom and I were discussing spinning wheels the other day, and I told her once I had three grand in my savings, I was getting a Schact Matchless double treadle. She told me that if I waited until a birthday or Christmas, she'd give money on it. I pointed out that this year is my 30th birthday, and money toward the wheel would be a great gift. She's promised $500, and I'll be asking my family not to buy any gifts, but to give money towards it. I plan on ordering the High speed and Super High Speed whorls and bobbins. It's just such a pretty wheel. I don't want to wait 9 months for it! It truly is a spinster's gift!

I've been knitting a lot the past few weeks. The damn shawl is on hiatus as I really needed a break from it, but it's getting big!

Right now, I'm working on a scarf and hat set from the Raumagarn book Selbustrikk. I'm nearing the half way point on the scarf now. It's knit in the round with the color scheme inversed. The yarn is Knitpicks Palette in Ivy and White.

A week and a half ago, I went to the 2nd annual Grinny Possum Retreat where we ate, drank, spun, knit, and laughed. Especially laughed. I took some pictures, but I'm lazy, so look at Sonya's blog. I notice she did leave out the 'blackmail picture.' If you don't know the story, it's probably better that way. Suffice to say, the incident was so funny, Sonya nearly peed herself. Literally.

I finally finished the sock yarn that had been on my bobbin. I'm so in love with this hank!

Ive also been dying again. This is my latest roving(a 50% wool/25% mohair/25% silk blend). It also wants to be a sock yarn.

So what else is on my plate?

Once I have the scarf and hat done, I'm going to be working a baby sweater (again for the State Fair). It's cute and requires steeks. I'm really excited by it, ever though cutting your knitting seems so masochistic! Once all my fair knitting is done, I intend to knit the infamous Rogue hoodie with this yarn:

I also want to start the Knitting Guild of America's Master Knitter program. Like I said, I'm a masochist. Oh, and start the Princess shawl. At this point, I can never die... there's too much stuff left to knit.

Enough of that, and on to knitting. What have I been working on? That damn shawl. It's getting mind numbly boring and I desperately need a break from it. It's pretty though. Too bad it just looks like a blob right now.

I received a great gift from my Secret Swap Pal: wool and silk rolags, stitch markers, a shawl pattern and more!

One of my aunts gave me a Grinny Possum gift certificate, so I've ordered the yarn for my Rogue hoodie. I've had my eye on this pattern for a long time, and I'm going to make it soon! I ordered Cascade 220 in a teal heather. The color number is 2433, but I don't think Cascade's color card on the web does it justice. It's really gorgeous.

So that's all I've been up to. I promise another update soon, but I'm going to bed soon. Work's been very long lately.

I was recouped enough to see Tori Amos last night at the Palace. WOW. Keep in mind, this was my 9th Tori show, but I have to say it was the best! Kirstie treated Arida and me to 3rd row center seats. It was just awesome!

But now I guess I should talk about knitting. Like that sweater. The one that I've been working on forever! The one that is DONE! (excluding some minor ends that need to be woven in.) I'm so proud of it. The sleeves are a bit long, but it fits and looks awesome.

I'll take a better pic while wearing it once the swelling goes down. I'm so proud of it. I really am. And if you love it, and are on Ravelry, so me some love and add it to your favorites. Please? Now I've cast on the Frost Flower and Leaves shawl from A Gathering of Lace. It's knit on size 6 needles and I'm using KnitPicks Shadow in the color Sunset. NINE skeins of Sunset. It's going to be HUGE, I know. And it's going to take forever to knit. Here's what I've done so far:

In other lace related news, I ordered The Princess Shawl pattern. With shipping, it was $51.00 but it's going to be so worth it. I'll get years of knitting joy and frustration from that purchase. I also ordered two sock spinning kits from Dyepot.com. I'd admired the colors for a while and once there were on sale, I had to jump at the chance. They include about 5 oz of superwash wool and 2.5 oz of tussah silk.

The first is called Science Fiction.

The other is Fallish.

That's about all I have for now. Lexington was a blast, and if you want to read about it, check out Dana's blog and see what sort of trouble we got ourselves into!

I'll let you see what I'm planning when we reach that point. Until then, here is more sweater yumminess:

Can I say again how much I love this pattern? I just think it's beautiful. I'm getting so many compliments on it. Even from a guy that I have a bit of a crush on. I mean really, how can you not adore a guy who appreciates the work it takes to create a hand knit item? Sigh...

I also received a gift from my secret swap pal. Yummy (using that word a lot today) hand combed Wensleydale in green and purple. I'm thinking of spinning it up and plying with a black merino for a Halloween sock yarn (for next year of course!). Along with that, I received little Halloween cookie cutters, Knitpicks Harmony DPNs (so pretty!) and a little Halloween box with candy that I've already consumed. Thank you so much! I LOVE Wensleydale and the colors!!

And I was wrong about the Southern In Fiber Fair. It's actually the 20th, which is the weekend I'll be in Lexington being kidnapped by Dana and Christine again. As much as I love fiber fairs, going to the track and knitting will be more fun!

As you can see, I'm already working on the V neck. Once I finish the front, I'm going to cast on and knit both arms at the same time so I know the decreases are starting at the same point on both.

This next month is going to be a busy one! This weekend I'll be going to the Southern Indiana Fiber Fest. I'm going to be good and not buy too much, since I already know I'm placing a knitpicks order soon. The weekend of the 19th, Dana is coming into Lexington, so I'll be hanging with her, Christine, and Dana's boyfriend. Then the next weekend is going to be good and bad. Good because Kirstie is coming in town and we are going to see Tori Amos in concert. This will by my 9th time seeing her, but my first since '99. It''ll be a bad weekend though because I'm getting my wisdom teeth out. I've been putting it off for a while, and I really just need to do it soon.

Okay, that's about all I have for now. Don't worry, You'll see more sweater progress later!

That night, I immediately cast on my Dickinson Pullover. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I knit with anything bigger than a 3, so suddenly 9's felt huge and awkward, but I've adjusted. I started with the back, and I'm already at the arm decreases, so I think good progress is being made. The only thing is, I'm already getting bred with the never ending cables. But I'm not going to stop! I'm going to keep stitching my way to a sweater. I've even been taking it to work and knitting during breaks in my training. A number of people are really impressed with it and with knitting in general. Don't you love the way two sticks and string are suddenly "magical"?

On the spinning front, I received a new batt and tussah silk from Abby's Fiber Club. I think I'm going to spin the batt and silk separately and then ply together. I'm not really sure what I'm going to make out of it yet, but I know I'll come up with something!

First off, my Twisted Flower socks are nearly complete. I'm almost to the toe decreases on the second sock. I'm very happy with how they are looking in the CTH Supersock.

I've also received the yarn for my Dickenson Pull over. I must say, I'm very happy with how Wool of the Andes feels, as I've never worked with it before. I have to be honest, since I'm trying to be a monogamous knitter (only one project at a time). I cast on the sweater last night since I knew I'd get the socks finished today. It can't hurt, right? Wrong. I knit four rows and realized I'd knit something wrong. I had to rip out. Just a word of advice... when you make a vow to the knitting gods, do not take it back. They will inevitably reach down and bitch slap your project.

Just to show you the colorway I bought, enjoy the Dove Grey yarn.

In spinning news, my lace flyer came in this weekend. Oh how I love it. I put it on my wheel and played with it. I can spin lace with little effort now. This weekend I'll be taking the flyer back off to lacquer it. The only bad thing is I have to switch out my maidens every time I want to switch from the lace flyer to the regular or jumbo. It's worth it though and really very little effort.

Hopefully, I can spin enough for a good sized shawl for the fair next year.

Well it's time for me to start getting dressed for work, but I'll post the finished socks by weeks end, I promise!