Knitting at the Los Angeles County Fair 2011

The Los Angeles County Fair is in full operation this month.  I entered 7 items to the Knitting category and one item to spinning.  Here is what I submitted and what they won.
I'll start with the best awards first.
Here is a sock pattern named Chuncho. I knit it in BMFA Socks-that-Rock wool yarn.
I won the Judges Award of Merit and a Blue Ribbon 1st place.



Here they are at home after I finished them.


Next: This pattern is called Rimefrost by Anne Hanson. She is one of my favorite designers. The lace pattern is like snowflakes. I knit it in BMFA Socks-that-Rock wool yarn.  I knit my sister Susan a  pair in this pattern but in pink.
I won a Blue Ribbon 1st place.

See them there by my boob?

Here they are at home.


Next: This pattern is called Tree of Life Mittens.  The purple yarn here is BMFA Socks-that-Rock wool and The Woolen Rabbit Harmony merino wool in gold.  This is a fun pattern.
I won a Red Ribbon 2nd place.

Here they are at home.


Next: are my NMH#3 Selbuvotter Mittens by Terri Shea.  They are knit in blue/green Noro Silk Garden Sock, and in Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift color Rye.  This was my first stranded knitting project. Ever.
I won a White Ribbon 3rd place.

At home:  The front side

At home:  the palm side.


Next: This pattern is called Cadence. It was the ravelry group SKA 2010-2011 July Sockdown mystery sock by VeryBusyMonkey.  She asked all of us for suggestions for the name of the sock. I knew that she had horses and she did dressage.  So the term Cadence was just right. Of all the suggestions she picked mine.  The yarn is The Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga. It is merino wool and cashmere. Very soft.
I won a White Ribbon 3rd. place.

Here they are at home:


Next: This sock pattern is called Winnie.  They are by designer Carrie of IrishGirlieKnits. They are named after her beautiful aunt Winnie who they called Mimi. She just went to be with Jesus this week. Bless her heart.
The socks are knit in The Sanguine Gryphon's Skinny Bugga merino wool and cashmere.
I won the White Ribbon 3rd place.


Here is Winnie at home:


Next: And then some handspun yarn.  This is YAK from Crown Mountain Farms. I spun it to a light worsted weight. It is a 3 ply, navajo plied.  It is so soft. The top is from Tibet and then Klaus of CMF dyed it to these beautiful colors.  This Yak was a contest gift from Klaus. It was my very first time to spin yak. I spun it from the fold because the fibers were rather short and downy soft.
I won a White Ribbon 3rd place.

At home:

And at home in the roving/Top stage:


Next:  The last item I entered into the L. A. County Fair knitting competition was a sweater. I thought it would do very well and I will tell you why in a moment. This sweater won NOTHING.  I'm not being greedy.  Or snobby.  I just know that I worked harder and longer on this project than any of the others.  I can see that the judges love stranded color-work knitted items.
First before my rant I will show you my sweater.








This pattern is named Sprossling by Anne Hanson. Anne writes a great pattern, precise, with diagrams and all the math you need. Very clear directions.  I used a beautiful yarn. The Sanguine Gryphon's Bugga of merino wool and cashmere.  Here is what Anne says about this sweater on Ravelry:
A close-fitting, ribbed lace cardigan in seven sizes (XS, S, M, L, 1X, 2X, 3X), with set-in sleeves, jewel neck, and offset body shaping. All pieces are knit flat, bottom up, and seamed.


This sweater took me 9 months to knit. There are 5 pieces, 2 fronts, 2 sleeves, 1 back. Then you knit the button bands including buttonholes. You then knit the neck.  There are 4 vertical darts knit into the lace for waist shaping.  This is not an easy task.  I kept the lace pattern going at the same time I decreased the stitches in a column to the waist and then I increased back to the original stitch count to make the dart. 
Every piece is steamed blocked. Then seamed with the mattress stitch so it looks like it was knitted at the seams.  The sleeves are set in like when you are sewing a jacket.  After seaming the sleeves, sides and shoulders you knit the button bands. I wove in every dangly yarn end. 
The sweater takes some time to finish but the result is lovely.  


I added some grosgrain ribbon behind the buttons. I wanted a sturdy band to sew the buttons onto. I didn't want any sagging or stretching of the knitted fabric.  
I steamed the whole sweater with a damp towel laid over it and holding the steam iron above the towel. The sweater came out really lovely. 

A nice lady on the Ravelry Knitspot group told me that this sweater looks deceivingly simple.  But still I just don't understand why a mitten knit in all stockinette stitch (my color-work mittens) wins a ribbon but a lace sweater with vertical darts, lace, seaming and massive work does not. 


End of rant. 


 I really am totally surprised that I did win as many ribbons as I did. I had to enter this Fair in June 2011, then take my knitting to the fairground in July 2011 and then wait to see what won in September 2011. A long process so my mind was thinking of what would do well. I guess going off of what other knitters think and commented on my Ravelry page I thought my only hope was my sweater and my chuncho color-work socks.  Go figure.


So that is the blog of my very first fair experience in all of my life.
This fair, L.A. County Fair is the largest fair in North America according to the Los Angeles Times newspaper.  So I am pretty thankful.


Have a great day and Happy knitting!!!!
Carol

Paintings from the Past-#1

I want to start showing some of my paintings that I did in the past. So now and then I will put up an old one and tell you something about it.

Here is a painting I did when I was taking painting in college.  

This is a cactus flower. I don't now what type it is. I was inspired by my grandfather. Grandpa chickens.  We called him that because he had chickens. He had a farm in the San Fernando Valley, Ca. back during the depression. It was there until the Northridge earthquake which was a huge story in the news. It took down freeways and the new Olive View hospital where my Grandma Jane worked.

So we would go visit my grandpa a lot. He always had us eat outside at the picnic table. There was a big umbrella tree. I don't know if that is a real name or just the name he gave it.  He also had a grove of olive trees.  I can remember that he was always raking up olives so that we would not step on them, then track them into the house.

Well next to the picnic table he had this big pot with a cactus. The branches were flat like a christmas cactus and the flowers were similar. But his flowers were about the size of a large rose. My grandpa was so proud of his cactus flowers.

So here is my painting. I was working on shadows. Also I was trying to make the color of the flower pop.  I did this by mixing the complementary color of the orange, which is blue into the background color. The background was started with blue then I added burnt umber and black till I achieved the color I wanted.

A blackish color is so much more interesting to look at if you make it with other colors. Also one doesn't really know why the flower sings unless they understand the concept of color placement.

I will write about color in another post. 

I worked on fading the green branch into the distance. 

The painting is 18" X 24"

The paint is gouache and watercolor. I used the gouache where I needed it to be opaque. I used the watercolor for the rest. 

So that is the painting from the past. Grandpa's cactus flower. 

Bugga Sweater, a Scarf and Whatnot

Hahahaha  Whatnot.  That is a funny word. Well I have been busy knitting lately. I had finished up some projects which means I cast on for a couple new projects. Gotta keep that balance going.
Here is my favorite right now. It is a sweater called Sprössling . I am knitting it with Bugga yarn in the color Northern Purple Gold Beetle.


I put a lot of stitch markers for every lace repeat. It works for me.

The other project that I am doing is a Farrow Rib Scarf. It is really a common pattern.
Here's Farrow Rib:
Multiple of 3 sts +1.
Row 1: *k2, p1* repeat across ending k1
Row 2: p1 *k2, p1* repeat across
I put it here because it has been put out there by many people even my local yarn store.
My scarf is being done in Malabrigo Silky Merino which is 51% Silk and 49% Merino wool. The color is natural.


The cute knitting bag in both photos above was from my sister Susan. I hope that she doesn't regret giving it to me because it makes a great project bag.

Here is a finished project.  This is yarn from my own handspun fiber. The fiber is Targhee and the color is called Lord of the Mountains.  It is from the Fiber Club at Crown Mountain .  I think that the club is closed for this year but the Exotic Club is still open for some of the months.  The fiber is excellent. We get TOP which is very soft and well prepared.

The hat is my own pattern.  I did a large cable around and then I picked up stitches at the top and knit till it closed up.  The hat was too small for me so Peanut will have it.


It's hard to see the cable because my flash was too bright I guess.


So now the WHATNOT.  I wanted to share some photos of my garden.  This was taken about a month ago.  After that bounty the garden took a nap.



I think the weather affected my garden. We had very very hot temps and then the weather went to foggy and cool.  So I may be ripping out the garden and planning a winter garden.
I have to wait because we always get an Indian summer where it will be very hot in Oct.

Here I made some chicken pita's with my homegrown tomatoes.  Oh how I LOVE homegrown tomatoes.


Here are my lettuce Taco Boats.  The white stuff is sour cream. There is chicken, cilantro, tomatoes and the lettuce. YUM


I've lost some weight with my healthier eating.  I will make a separate post on that subject.

Right now I am worried about Oli.  Aka Oliver Cat.  He went outside last week. I don't know if a bug bit him or if he is just allergic to a plant outside. He had a little spot under his chin where it looked like a scab. But lately he has been scratching it. Now it is a big boo boo. I cut his back feet toe nails.  I can't put a lampshade on him because it would ride on the boo boo.  I put neosproin on it too.  Poor baby.  No more outside for Oli.


So that is all I have for now.  Have a great weekend and HAPPY KNITTING & GARDENING.
LUV YA

Socks in the Summer?

They are done!  I finished some pretty spring colored socks this week. 

Isn't this a pretty pattern?

It is by Carrie or on Ravelry she is Irishgirlieknits

The pattern's name is Winnie .

The yarn is from The Sanguine Gryphon

The color is called Orchid Mantis.The bugga yarns are named after bugs. Like this:

Orchid Mantis

I'm really trying to finish up all my started projects.

The sweater finished last week and these socks last Tuesday.

I already started an new pair of socks in purple.

I was digging in my sock drawer and I realized that I didn't have a pair of all purple socks.  I do have one pair in the repair basket with a hole in the heel. That doesn't count so I am knitting a new pair in Merino and 25% nylon. I'm sick of holes.

I work too have on these socks to get holes in them.

Here is the yarn for the new socks.

This is Austermann Step yarn with Aloe Vera and Jojoba oil in the yarn. Your feet become soft with every step you take.  At least for 40 washes it will be there.

German yarn. They have a good idea here.

Project #2 is a small shawl made out of Bugga in a pretty blue color. 

I will post these socks and the Bugga shawl next month. These are my vacation knitting. We are on Summer vacation here.

Look at Peanut in the pool.

My sister Susan hung out with us yesterday at the pool too.

I think they were having fun.  Wow look at Peanuts hair.  That is one to keep for the future to share with future BF.  LOL

Look at this swimming Peanut Fish.  She is swimming so much better than she did last year.

If you look real hard you can see Peanuts profile underwater. She is so tickled that this year she doesn't need to wear her "gog-lers".

So back to knitting...LOL....I plan to have another shawl going this summer. I want to make another Shawl That Jazz. I really liked my last one. It is so cozy to have here on the couch to throw over my shoulders. I love the garter stitch to squish. 

Here is the first Shawl That Jazz

I love the shawl but I really don't like the color.

The color is called Count Cluck-u-la.  Look at my chicken lurking on the right.

So here is my new choice of color. Same yarn base but different color.

Introducing Atomic-6 (much darker in person)

So here is a parting shot of a Peanut, an Alligator and a pool.

I tried to ride the alligator....twice but he bucked me off.

I'll try again tomorrow.  

Good night, Buenas Noches, nos vemos pronto

Happy knitting & swimming!!!

The Chicken Bath.......

I'm really tired today. This morning at 5:40 am the alarm went off in Peanuts room. I went to see what's up and she said that she changed it so that she could get up to make her lunch.  I turned it off and told her to go back to sleep. 
Well that didn't help me. I couldn't sleep after that. The cats were awake and playing all over the house.  So I feel tired and grumpy.  Peanut got home from school all grumpy too.  We need to go to bed early tonight.  I wish I could put a lock on the settings of her alarm clock because this is about the 3rd time she has changed the settings.


Well on a more interesting subject I have a few photos of the Chicken Bath.  Yesterday we were outside and Peanut was playing in the pool. It has been warm here.  Then she decided that Pepper hen needed a bath.


Here is the chase.....

Now we have entry

Pepper gets her drumsticks wet

Peanut seems to enjoy the bath more than Pepper hen.

                                    The Escape

Pepper checking out the drippy feathers

                                      "So now what is there to do Grandma?"

While all this bathing stuff was going on I was planting the garden.  

This is DAY #1 of the seedlings being outside. The bigger plants on the right are pumpkins that came up wild outside.  I'm not sure that they will make the transplanting.

I plan to go to Home Depot and buy some larger vegetables for the garden. And soon another planter box will join this one.  

Knitting is coming along fine. The cardigan sleeve isn't growing because I am enjoying knitting the Winnie  sock so much. I am almost done with the leg on sock #1.  Photos soon.

Have a great evening.  Luv ya