KnitVentures: Zombie Knitpocalypse 2016

Hi again all. Of course, as soon as I tell you all that I'll try to be around more I disappear for a few weeks. Rest assured that it was mostly because nothing interesting was happening in the crafting world because it turns out that adding eight stitches every row to a lace shawl eventually means it takes you half an hour to knit a row IF you don't screw it up and have to tink back. Good news is that the knitting is done and the bind off is done and I just have to muster the CAN to do the applied I-cord edging and then I will have another FO. I wouldn't count on that being this Friday, but it might be.

However! I have renewed crafting vigour (mainly for sewing, but also some new yarn colourways are floating through my head so perhaps we'll be seeing some of those soon as well) thanks to a delightful weekend in beautiful Rochester, MN with some lovely and amazing knitters.

This past weekend, Jonas and I found our way to Zombie Knitpocalypse, hosted by the lovely ladies of Stockinette Zombies. It's held only about an hour and a half south of Minneapolis, so it's hugely convenient for us. Last year was my first year attending and I met a lot of great people and learned a lot and knit a lot, so we decided to do it again, this time as a team!

Highlights include:

• Getting an in-person shawl lesson from PrairieGirlDanie (one half of the Prairie Girls Knit and Spin podcast) -- see PrairieGirlSusie's instagram for a cute photo. Jonas agreed that my shawl never looked better on me until I got professional help!
• Dinner and other shenanigans with PrairieGirlSusie and MrsShoo.
• My first ever podcast appearance (more on that once the episode drops)!
• Not spending too much money at the market.
• One Twisted Tree yarn!
• A super helpful class on blocking (if I'm going to keep knitting lace I'm going to need it)
• Great GF/DF/SF local, sustainable food here and here.
• The Dale of Norway store.

Here are my yarn purchases/acquisitions (not pictured is a sweater quantity from One Twisted Tree that I knew I had to have after I saw the mini-skeins of Hinkypunk and Knight Bus Escape next to one another.

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A sweater quantity of Yarn Geek Fibers in the "Sarah Guppy" colourway (part of her Super Geek yarns, which are named for women who made ground-breaking discoveries in the sciences). It's mainly grey with some turquoise and dark blue, and when I saw it swatches up I knew it needed to be a sweater. I chose the Corriedale/nylon fingering base.

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Two skeins of One Twisted Tree in the Outlander-inspired "Rare Woman Claire" colourway on the Lavish (sport/dk) base to make the Hellebore shawl by PrairieGirlSusie. Because of my purchase limit I had to choose between this or the "Miss Fisher's Pearl Handled Pistol" colourway to make the "Choice Bit of Calico" shawl by Sarah Shoo. As I said to Jonas, doubt not that if I have a purchase left in December, that will be mine. If not then... January 1.

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In addition, in our retreat bags (which I just realised I didn't take a photo of, but were sewn with fabric created from a photo of the mini-skeins below all knit up), we got a mini-skein set with colours from many of the dyers at the marketplace.

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I also won a mini-skein set by Fishknits.

 I guess it's time to figure out what one does with mini-skeins.

Al in all, a fun weekend. I walked a 5k, I made new friends, I did some crafting, and I was inspired to do a whole lot more! (and I'm using my Instagram more... at least for now. I'm still not sure I have anything relevant to contribute there on a regular basis, but we'll see.)

(Another) Triumphant Return

Hi again! It's been a while, I know, and I'm sad to say that although I took a pretty awesome trip just a few short days after the last time I posted that I want to tell you about, I think I'm going to push it to next week in the interest of getting the photos a bit more in order and once again trying to regroup my thoughts. So I guess for now I'll just check in quickly and re-establish a bit now that I'm officially done with classes. I know I always make promises about posting and then life gets in the way, and I'm not going to promise it won't this time, but I will say that I'm going to give it my best effort to maintain a regular MWF(ish) posting schedule. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into my crafting in earnest and the content will be there and I'll have something more interesting to show you than just the same thing week after week.

For now I'll pretty much leave it at that. I'm (pseudo???) participating in Stash Dash, so hopefully some big projects are in the works (and hopefully I can complete them.) I'll be heading to a knitting retreat in June, so look forward to hearing how hard I fall off the no purchases train at that point (we're almost at the end of May and I've made 4 purchases so far this year! Only one of them was yarn!). Jonas is building me yarn shelves (and he's basically unskilled labour, so that should be an adventure). Plus, you know, all the usual shenanigans. So here's hoping we'll be seeing more of one another (and there will be new shop content!) in the next few months.

Thanks to any of you who are still bothering to read this after a 3 month hiatus. I promise to do better this time!

Sari

Stash Confessional: Zombie Knitpocalypse 2015 (or, OOPS, FANDOM YARNS)

Let's pretend I told you about all the things I've been working on and finishing and giving and receiving for the past month (plus) and just skip to the more recent past. Grad school, it turns out, leaves me with just about enough free time to knit, but not at all enough free time to talk about knitting on the internet.

Suffice to say, my crafting productivity has slowed WAAAY down (but I did manage to fulfill my duties for the two swaps I needed to take care of and dye some yarn...all of which I will try to tell you about) and (as of the last two weekends) my yarn acquisition has sped way up. Which is all a nice way of saying that I completely fail at my "own less yarn" resolution and at this point there's probably no coming back from it unless I sell half my stash.

But enough of that. Let's talk about the knitting retreat I attended in Rochester, MN the last weekend in June: Zombie Knitpocalypse 2015.

For those of you unfamiliar with this event, it's run as part of the Stockinette Zombies videocast, which I highly recommend, and is basically a 200 person hangout for a weekend with super fun events and knitting in a super fun city. People come from all over the US (and the world) and there are informal classes, some swaps, many many prize drawings, a fashion show, a wine and yarn bus, and a 5k run/walk. And a whole lot of just hanging out and knitting and making friends. It's all pretty awesome, if you ask me.

I made many new friends and finished an entire (very tall) sock over the weekend. I also bought a lot of yarn (though not as much as I thought I did...but it was still a significant monetary expenditure, which I think is my bigger concern right now). Interestingly, all of my yarn purchasing was Jonas-enabled. He'd driven down from Minneapolis to visit for the weekend and joined me for the public market after I'd cruised the private market on my own and restricted myself to only purchasing things for swaps. Then Jonas came and I came home with three skeins from Dreams in Fibre and a Gilmore Girls yarn club. So there's that. Admittedly, Jonas also bought yarn, and he doesn't even know how to knit yet, so I guess his problem translates to all of us.

Here's the haul:

Sun Valley Fibers 80/20 Merino Nylon High Twist in the "Hangin With Friends" colourway. This came as part of my retreat goodie bag, so it was free and also it's really pretty.

Because I can never not buy yarn from Alisha Goes Around when I see her at an event AND I can never not buy yarn with bison in it... Alisha Goes Around Tracks (of bison) fingering. I'm not sure what the colourway is, but it's a brownish-purple and blue variegation that's super pretty.

And then...first up in the DAMN YOU FANDOMS section of my purchasing:

Dreams in Fiber Donegal Tweed Aran in the je suis Prest colourway inspired by Outlander. I liked it enough when it was in a sock yarn and then Jonas had to go and find the tweed and then it was all over. Because Scottish themed yarn in a tweed.

Same as above, only in the Lallybroch colourway.

Did I mention I want EVERYTHING in her shop. Because I want EVERYTHING in her shop.

Dreams in Fiber Merino/Nylon Superwash Sock in the "Merlin" colourway. It both looks like the actual bird the merlin and is accurate to the stupid terrible awful BBC show that owned my Friday nights for four years. It's also blue and brown. I HAVE A PROBLEM!!!

Gilmore Girls club from Spartickes Dyes is not pictured (because I don't have it) but coming soon. I think maybe you can still sign up for a bit longer (the form is still open), but signups are closing soon. I'll try to post the yarns as they arrive so you can see them.

I also won a bunch of mini skeins from Quaere fibres and five non-matching quarter skeins from Squoosh Fibre Arts, but I didn't picture them. I'm honestly not sure what to do with them. I don't really use minis.

In short, I have acquired a lot of yarn. Which would be perhaps okay had I not fallen headfirst into the Steven Be sale this past weekend as well. So... yep... no time for knitting, no money for daily life... tons of new yarns.

It keeps, right?