FO Friday - Java Sparrow

I started with this


and spun it really really thin and took, what feels like, forever. Really, I started in November or so. I then Navajo plied it into a 3 ply yarn and to keep the colors together.





There are a couple of sections that I'm not too happy about but I'm hoping it's not noticeable once knitted up.

Flash My Stash 2012

At the end of the year, I like to do a quick accounting of my yarn and fiber stash. This year, I went through and made sure everything was photographed and figured, why not, I'll take another Flash Your Stash picture. So here it is, year ending 2012. And it all fits on a queen size bed!

A Visit to Iceland

After Thanksgiving, I visited Iceland for the first time. I went with a friend that I used to work with. We had shared and office for a couple of years and she had always talked about how much she wanted to visit Iceland. We found a good deal that included air fare, hotel, and a day tour and booked our passage.

Iceland is a beautiful country! It is the "youngest" landmass on the Earth made from the lava flow of volcanoes. It straddles the European and the North American continental plate.

We could have gone in the summer time when most other people decide to visit but we also wanted to see the Northern Lights so we had to go when it was cold.

We left DC Sunday evening and arrived bright and early Monday morning around 7:30. Well, it wasn't really bright, it was pitch black and we were exhausted. So we took a quick nap at the hotel first before wandering out to Reykjavik. We grabbed some food and then headed for the Hallgrimskirkja church. Their church is the highest point in the city.

The second day was our pre-arranged tour to go on a glacier hike, see a couple of waterfalls, learn about their volcanoes, and maybe hunt for some Northern Lights. The glacier hike was amazing. We had crampons to help dig into the ice. It wasn't very cold, especially since we were moving. By the time we got out to the first water fall, it was dark (only 5 hours of daylight!) so we couldn't really see anything. After dinner, we visited another waterfall. This one was lit up so that we could see it.

Unfortunately, the conditions were not optimal to see any lights. We were there during a full moon and there were too many clouds

The third day found us touring the "Golden Circle".

This involved seeing Geysir





The Gulfoss waterfalls, stacked one right on top of the other



And Þingvellir National Park. It was too dark by the time we got here so we couldn't really see anything.

The fourth and final day was spent at the Blue Lagoon before heading to the air port. It was 32F outside and my bare feet were near frozen after a couple of minutes but the pool was a good 80-90F and felt really good!



Iceland, known from their sheep and yarn, did you think I could get out of the country without buying any? The day in Reykjavik, we stopped into the Handknitting Association of Iceland's shop and I bought 29 skeins of worsted weight Lopi. I had originally thought to buy an Icelandic sweater as a souvenir but being a knitter, I decided to buy the yarn to make my own. I did pack light with the intention of filling half of my suitcase with yarn for the trip back.

The full flickr set can be found here.

Stashes

Bead stash, yarn stash. I have them both. I recently left my job for sanity reasons and have been doing some traveling and working on my house. I had moved into the place a year ago but it had only been a glorified hotel for that amount of time. The big things have been unpacked but I just didn't have the energy to DO anything to the place. Well, I painted and I got a wardrobe from IKEA. The wardrobe from IKEA was a big puzzle that left me near tears and I finally had to call someone in to finish it. I know people have been wanting to know how I store things and what my stash looks like. At the end of 2011, I showed you all my yarn stash all laid out on my bed. Well, now you can see that from the bed, it went into these Rubbermaid containers


I can't hide these containers in a closet so it gives me extra motivation to work through the yarn because this just looks ugly.
As for the beads...I present the IKEA wardrobe of beads!


The top shelf is just storage of jewelry trays, extra stuff. The large shelf has my stem wire, beading work trays, a couple of containers of unfinished projects, and my container of all of the Swarovski crystals. Then we get to the drawers.

I have trays of focal beads, buttons, lampwork beads, a box of glass beads, findings


A drawer of my tubed seed beads. These are mostly the Japanese beads.


Then 3 drawers full of Czech seed beads

Continuing through the stash

A pair of socks finished. Another sock already on the needles. I've been good this month. I don't think I've purchased any yarn yet. And I won't be this weekend since in the past, when I've purchased yarn on game day, we've lost. Now...if Cornell is eliminated on Saturday, you may very well find me headed to a yarn store in Grand Rapids.





The socks are made with Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in the Red Rover colorway. Size 2 Addi Turbos used. The pattern is L-Bee Socks by wendyknits. It was an interesting knit. The front and back are each produced by 3 chart panels, 8 row repeat. Once you memorized the pattern, it goes quickly.

It's a toe up sock with a gusset and heel flap. I don't know why but the toe up version always looks weird to me. Anyways, more yarn being used!

2008 Maryland Sheep & Wool Haul

I finally got some pictures and loaded these into raverly. First, I got a basket:


My first purchased of the day, right at about 8am was from Persimmon Tree Farms. It's the Autumn Harvest Glitz blend. I saw this last year but I tried to hold off and by the time I decided to buy some, they were all out. So this year, I realized that I could spin this up in worsted weight and make Rowan's Cressida pattern.



At the Clover Hill Yarn Shop booth, I picked up some Spritely Goods Fey in the Manzanite in Bloom colorway.


And then I also drooled over Mama E's C*eye*ber Fiber in the Raspberry Ganache colorway.

While I was there talking to her, I was telling her how evil she was with the flashing of the Garnet colorway on her website and she mentioned that she had some in her warehouse...so of course, I had her bring me some on Sunday to be sent home with Amber.


And then I got some Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra to make Eunny Jang's Anemoi Mittens.



And finally, in the Woodchuck's going out of business sale, he was getting rid of some of his wife's yarn stash at a really good price. I picked up 10 skeins of this wool/viscose yarn:


All in all, I stayed in my budget and didn't touch my credit cards or go into my food money. Yay me! Lots of spinning and knitting ahead.

Maryland Sheep & Wool 2008

Well, it was MD S&W weekend. I was good this year. I only spent the cash I brought with me! All of my goodies are still in the car since I'm carting it all around for show and tell. I bought some yarn and some fiber and some Noni patterns (Tulip Tote, Cascading Fuschia Market Bag, Prism Bag). I'll have pictures once I have finished with show and tell. My pictures from Sheep and Wool are here. I did a bit of a scavenger hunt and tried to take pictures of everyone I knew that I ran into. Hmm...did not see Amber and Stephanie. I am missing a picture of Beth who I even chatted with for a bit. I am also missing a picture of Lauren who made a last minute trip down. She IMed me on Friday to say that her boyfriend had decided at the last minute to visit his brother who just happened to live in Columbia, MD. She sent the boys off to do boy things while she got herself all overwhelmed with all things wooly. She is actually my friend Josh's sister and when she first started knitting, she didn't know anyone else who knitted and I was the first person he thought of :). So overall, it was a good weekend with good loot and good friends.

Weekend in Philadelphia

My aunt normally resides in Switzerland but she usually makes it to the US on business at least once a year. This year, she was in Philly. Philly is 2 hours away so I took the train to visit. Pictures can be found here. At the end, you also see the new additions to my yarn stash. I got some GGH Silk (sport weight) for $4 a ball. It was originally $20 a ball, but it was on clearance at 80% off. Whoo hoo! I see some silk sleeveless tops in my future!