VÄV 2014 i Umeå

I've been to Umeå, Sweden last month. VÄV 2014 was taken place there from 18 to 20 September.
 

 Though I don't weave at all, it was such a great and fun opporunity to go to VÄV 2014.

There I met many knitters and I bought some yarns to knit at a booth of Östergötlands Ullspinneri.
I saw a lot of booths selling knitting yanrs there. Wool yarns, silk yarns, cotton yarns, and so on.

  

Also, I saw some huge crochet mats. They were made of very thick yarns and if you make same things with lace yarn, they would be dainty doilies. Interesting.

So, if you are a knitter or a crochetter and thinking of going to VÄV 2017 but hasitating, you must go.

My friend and I had a hard time to collect information of VÄV 2014 and it would be same for VÄV 2017, but we would be there again.

Stash-Enhancement

Stash-Enhancement, a photo by Garyou on Flickr.

I went to see Spamalot.
And on the way home from the theatre, I did some stash-enhancement. I've bought 11 balls of Felted Tweed and 2 balls of Scottish Tweed DK. The latter was a real bargain.

I am going to knit a vest with Felted Tweed. I was thinking of dense fabric, but the shop owner showed me a floppy vest with the same yarn. He said it was knitted with size 10 (5.1mm) needle. He also said it doesn't become elongated so much because it is light.

I got home and knitted samples with size 5 (3.6mm) and 9 (4.8mm) needles. Both swatches look fine with me. I usually prefer floppy fabric.
I just sleep on it tonight and maybe decide which to make tomorrow.

Shetland Yarn

Shetland Yarn
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

Things get better little by little at least around me. I go to work on weekdays. Often I can't buy what I want to because of supplies are not enough.
But, just as Dickens wrote, "it is the best of times and it is the worst of times. In short, this period is so far like the others."

I've found my Bossie FeatherWeight was broken on the next day of the earthquake. Something heavy might hit it. The whorl was split in half. I sobbed.
But, other Bossies of mine are all fine. I just didn't feel like to spin after the earthquake for a while.

Today, suddenly spinning mojo has been back to me. I just picked up some Shetland top and blended with a handcarder.
I had white, light brown, and brown fiber. In the picture, the largest skein is made of almost the same amount of white and light brown. Other small ones are made of different proportion of three colours.

I'm not very good at carding. Fiber is in fine condition so the result are not so bad.
Blending fiber is such a fun. I've learned it from Knitty. I've tried it some time and found that I love to blend natural colour fiber. A little bit of dark colour, such as bordeaux or dark navy blue would be nice to add.

Life is Too Short to Untangle Yarn

And I mean it.

Oh, how I hate skeins! Skeins, skeins, skeins!
Here comes John Cleese in my mind. "I hate it! Oh, I hate it! I hate it!"

Well, I do have a ball winder and a swift. Even if I use them, once in a while, I end up with a messed up skein.
Why? I don't know.

This morning, again, I had to deal with a skein of yarn, ClassicElite's Alpaca Sox.
It is wonderful yarn. I really love it.
Still it came here as a skein.

I know some shops offer service winding up yarn into a ball or two.
I heared skein makes yarn relaxed and that is good for yarn. And I believe it.
So, I wind yarn up just before I start to knit.

Anyway, I finished winding the yarn up and it is over. It took me more than an hour. What a waste of time! Life is too short to do the things like that. There's no time, you know.

By the way, I'm going to knit socks for my father with Alpaca Sox. I searched for the pattern in Ravelry and queued so many sock patterns. I make a queue not to forget. If I really want to knit (or crochet) that pattern, immediately I cast on or start crochetting.
Ravelry queue is more or less a memo to me.

Oh, I'm "Chihiro" at Ravelry.