Checking In

Well, my bags are packed and I sent all my bedding and other things to furnish our room at Shakerag and make it comfortable.  The box arrived on Tuesday in Sewanee, TN, at the St. Andrews-Sewanee School.  Tomorrow morning, Margie and I will take off from John Wayne Airport and fly off to Atlanta.  Fingers are crossed that tropical storm Andrea will be long gone and we'll have good weather for our drive to Chattanooga where we will spend the night at a B&B at the Bluff Arts District.  We'll head up to Sewanee mid-day on Sunday for our natural dye workshop with Rebecca Burgess, author of Harvesting Color. 

I have been working hard to finish my third Sierra Aspens Capelet, taking scrupulous notes along the way so that I can finally write up the pattern.  Here's the finished project:

The handspun yarns I used, all two-ply fingering weight.

 And the rovings I used to spin the yarns.

Second from the top is "Cinco de Mayo", which is the colorway that runs through the capelet.  I plied that colorway with "Indian Paintbrush" (at the top) and used that for the body.  The blue/rust/gold of "North Woods" was plied with "Cinco de Mayo" for the lace edge.  And "Blood Orange" at the bottom was plied with "Cinco de Mayo" for the ruffled edge.  I liked the idea of having one colorway that predominates and changes depending on what it is plied with.  All of the rovings were 100% Blueface Leicester except "Indian Paintbrush" which was a blend of merino/cashmere (80/20).  And I used a US3 needle to knit this project. I ended up using about 500 yards total and spun about 1100 yards, so I actually have enough yarn to make another capelet.  Hmmm . . . . project for my trip! although I was looking forward to knitting socks.

Will check in again at the end of June.  After my trip to Tennessee for Shakerag, I will be off to Eugene, OR, to attend Black Sheep Gathering.  After two weeks on the road, I plan on settling down for a month or so before my next trip. Hope everyone is having a great Summer!