Happy Dance

Welcome back Everyone,
you might have noticed that I skipped a week. At my work two sicknesses were making the rounds, either you got a head/chest cold or a bad and I mean BAD stomach bug. If my stomach hears the words stomach bug, I am guaranteed to catch it and I sure did. However, now I am all better and since I missed a week I will have a lot to talk about.
I started getting sick past Friday, but was a trooper and dragged myself and my Fiance to the Montpelier Fall Fiber Fest. I met up with my friend Lesley and we ended up doing a little bit of shopping together. At some point she had to go and demonstrate spinning with our local Spinning and Weavers guild, I went and did some more shopping. We didn't stay too long, since I didn't feel too great. Honestly I wasn't too impressed and decided that next year in spring I will once again go to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and then in fall I will do a spinning/knitting retreat with a semi-local yarn shop. This year I had to pick between the fall fiber fest or the retreat.
So, then Sunday I didn't leave my bed all day and I ended up calling in sick at work on Monday and also stayed in bed that day. Yesterday, the local Spinning and Weavers Guild held a charity event called "Let's Stitch." That's where I donated that pile of yarn I showed a couple weeks ago. Also, me and Lesley hung out together and knitted hats for the charity.
Today, was a pretty big day for my family. My sister and her husband are expecting their first child and today we had a reveal the gender party. My sister, mom, dad, her husband and all of his family live in Arizona, however I live in Virginia. So, what we did is I was on Skype via one Ipad, my birth-father from Germany was on another Ipad and that way we were able to experience the whole thing. When my sister had her last ultrasound they informed the doctor that they didn't want to know the sex of the baby, the doctor gave them an envelop, which they gave to a bakery. Today, they cut the cake and whatever color was the filling is the sex of the baby. We are happy to announce that I will have a nephew, named Micah Ryan. I took some pictures via Skype, that I will add underneath this.

Finished Objects - FO's
Nothing :(

Works in Progress - WIP's
First up is the Evenstar by Susan Pandorf out of Unique Sheep on the Ling base in the custom dyed colorway on size 3 (3.25 mm) Hiya Hiya sharp needles. I finished the 2nd chart and am currently doing the set up for chart #3. Taking pictures is really difficult, because right now I increased to 560 stitches and my cable isn't long enough to spread the shawl out.

New on the Needles is my 4th quarter Loopy Ewe challenge, which is to knit with 2 strands held double. I chose to knit the Under Cover of Midnight Hooded Cowl by Julie Turjoman, it was published in Vampire Knits book. I am knitting it out of Cascade 220 on the heather base on size 10.5 (6.5 mm) needles. While knitting this I taught myself how to knit cables without a cable needle, just to know it.

Next project is also new, it is the Charity hat. I am knitting just a plain knit hat with a rolled brim out of yarn I am donating as well.

Spinning
None, I didn't touch the wheel in two weeks.

Enabling
I won something else. Last week I won fiber of my choice from The First Draft, I chose Rambouillet in the "Quiet Contrary" colorway. I will attempt to navajo aka chain ply this.

Next, all the things I bought at the Fall Fiber Fest. Here is a picture of everything, including my Tshirt.

First thing I bought is from Wild Hare Fiber Studios I bought Faux Cashmere, it is just as soft as the real deal and is 100% Microfiber Nylon, in the "Friend or Faux" colorway.

Next up I bought to skeins from a Lady who is from Germany and the yarn she was selling is like the yarn my aunt sent to me from Germany, except the way it is dyed. I bought two, since I couldn't decide. Anyway, her store is called Wolle's Yarn Creations (wolle means yarn in German). It's 100% cotton, very soft for cotton and both are gradiants. The first colorway is called "New Vintage."

The second colorway is called "Capri 2."

The whole time I was looking for a heavy variegated sock yarn at least 500 yards for the My Hope by Laura Linneman. I just couldn't find one, well when we were just about to leave I saw one I really liked, but again not enough yards. The last skein I touched at that booth was the same colorway, but the skeins were bigger to be exact they were 510 yards and it was the last one in the colorway. It's from Creatively Dyed Yarns on the Calypso base in the "Queen" colorway.

Next week I have nothing planned and hopefully I get lots of knitting done.

Happy Knitting,
Courtney