I was fully prepared to post about my slow progress on my sock, but decided instead to post about a happy, unexpected event this week. Thursday evening, I attended the reopening party for fibre space™. Danielle moved the store (around the corner) last week to a larger space. They had a drawing for prizes, and I slipped my name in without any expectation. I checked out the new spaced, and settled in to knit for a while (there may have also been cheese consumption, but I digress).
There I am, relaxing and knitting, when Cat starts yelling my name. My initial reaction was wondering what did I do, but that wasn’t the case. I won a prize. They are glass, which means that I’ll probably never use them. I’m such a tight knitter, that I’d be worried that I’d break them. They are pretty. They also gave me an excuse to play with my camera and watch an enormous number of YouTube videos to learn how to photograph glass.
They are currently on display on my mantle, hopefully safe from the cats.
When last we spoke, I was on my way over to 
Sunday was the big day. I drove up to Howard County Fairgrounds to attend the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I met Susie and her friend Brigit after discovering that texting in the main exhibition hall leads to delays, and we wandered the barns. What you see to the left is the one and only photograph that I took. Look, sheep on a leash. I couldn’t actually see the screen on my phone, so I wasn’t motivated to take more photos. Susie has a couple of pictures on her 
As far as yarn acquisitions go, well, there were some. In no particular order, I picked up some Skinny Bugga!, Socks that Rock, wüllenstudio, Miss Babs, Persimmon Tree Farm, into the wirled, and Gnomespun. My friend Natalie tells me that now that I design socks, yarn acquisitions are a legitimate business expense, so I’m going with that when I look at these piles & then look at my stash. I don’t think my stash will outlast me, but it’s a little intimidating.
Speaking of sock designs, Whitegate is now available to the general public. I’ve updated the patterns page with the purchase button. The pattern is US $5.50 and should automagically appear in your ravelry library if you have a ravelry account. Do not be intimidated by the length of the pattern (13 pages). I was a bit thorough with this pattern, and have received feedback from the club members that they really appreciated it. There is a blog post about the pattern 
I’ve cast on for a new pair of socks using a skein of Skein. It’s BFL Sock from Skein, which is 100% Bluefaced Leicester, and sadly discontinued according to ravelry. The colorway is Savannah, and can best be described as a brownish purply color. I lacked the good sense to take a photograph before I wound it into a ball. This is a 100g ball yielding 437 yards, which means this is very lightweight fingering yarn. I’d love to go down a needle size, but there is going to be a heavy amount of cabling on this sock, so I think it’s best to stick with the US 1.5 (2.5mm).
I’m usually hesitant to set knitting goals. There are so many things that I want to try, and only so much time. I think my real resistance to goal setting is that I do so much of it at my day job. Knitting is a creative outlet for me, and part of the appeal is having the flexibility to take a turn in an unexpected direction.
Isn’t it pretty? I found this on etsy a couple of months ago, and decided to splurge. I do, after all, live with cats, so a cat themed yarn accessory makes some degree of sense. I’ve actually used it, and it has proven it’s worth. I wouldn’t call it an essential tool, but it does help when the ball of yarn loses its structural integrity. It also looks pretty sitting on the mantle.