We arrived at the Hallockville Museum and as we got off the bus we all received goodies from Vogue Knitting, which included two of their recent magazines, and a very useful bag for holding squishy yarn shaped things. Even though it was a small fair as far as many fiber festivals go, there was more to do than we had time for. Maria and I took a first look through all of the vendors before catching Tabbethia, from the Long Island Livestock Company, doing the first shearing of the day. Tabbethia explained to us about shearing sheep, and her particular specialty, sheering llamas. She spent significantly more time explaining how she does it and how she got into her business than it actually took her to shear the sheep, she’s quick!

We met so many adorable animals, including angora bunnies, softest velvety rabbit, sheep, llamas, alpacas.

Baby bunny

Angora rabbit

Rex rabbit – softest in all the land

If they say they don’t like chin rubs, they’re lying.

If Maria and I hadn’t been on a budget, we probably would have found a way to smuggle one of the alpacas that was for sale back onto the bus with us.

Stylin’ haircuts

Baby twins

We also got to see Tabbethia’s husband Christopher, a farrier, shape and finnish a horseshoe  from a standard iron bar. He travels to the farms that he shoes horses at, so his truck was set up to do everything he needed, complete with a propane oven that could reach exceedingly hot temperatures.

I managed to limit myself to two skeins, a gorgeous BFL sock yarn from Hampton Artistic Yarns, and the squishiest of Alpaca/Cormo yarns from Flatland Alpacas. I also got the Knit Notes designers notebook, which I saw on Sweatshop of Love a few weeks ago and fell in love with. I nearly got a braid of roving, because there were some truly gorgeous ones there, but I decided that I would save myself from falling down that slippery slope until after Maria teaches me how to spin, which she has promised to do this summer.

I hear that there’s going to be another bus next year, so I hope some of you decide to come with us, it was such a great trip!

Tangent aside, I’m also looking forward to focusing more on designing. I’m in the process of revitalizing some of my previously published patterns, and I’ve been sketching new ideas as quickly as they come. I even submitted for the Holla Knits Fall/Winter 2013 collection, and though I didn’t get chosen, it means that I’ve overcome the barrier of submitting a design for the first time. Now, the more I do it, the better I’ll get, and the more chances I’ll have to be chosen for publication.

Huh, I started out this post planning on just showing you some pictures of the newly completed socks and making a few comments about them. I guess I really did miss blogging!

I started these socks in January, and I listed them (rebelliously) in ravelry as “Not January Socks” after completing the year of the sock. They’ve mostly sat in their cute project bag, being taken out only when I wanted that project bag for something else. I should probably get more project bags, or make some. Anyone have a sewing machine they don’t want?

The moral of this sock story is this: Things get completed faster when you actually work on them. These simple ribbed socks were the perfect thing to study with, and as I can’t seem to focus on studying without knitting in my hands, I finished the second sock in no time.

I think there’s a bigger point here, about working hard, finishing what you start, and that there are no magic elves that will work on your projects, knitting or otherwise, in the middle of the night while you sleep, but my head’s too much of a mess to write it out in eloquent terms. Is it Thursday or Friday today?

Happy Knitting!

P.S. I meant to mention this a week ago, but if you’ve been going through withdrawal from the details of my life due to less than frequent blogging, go ahead and follow me on twitter, you’ll get more than your fill of the goings on in my life, including pictures of food and cats, tweets about weather, random things in my day, and occasionally knitting related stuff. You can also follow me on Instagram for just the pictures.

I hope your weekend is full of sunshine and happy things, and not studying, like mine.

However I am quite excited to block my newly finished Vitamin D sweater, so I guess that will take place of my sunshine this weekend!

I’d say for the last four years or so, my knitting book purchases have been of a single mind, which is just further demonstrated by the ones I recently bought.

Most of my knitting books have been purchased with the idea of becoming a knitwear designer in mind. And even when I was just learning to knit I was designing more than following patterns. The most used books in my library have definitely been the Harmony stitch dictionaries. You might not be able to see it, but they each have at least 20 sticky notes in them.

I haven’t read them all, but I know that part of doing anything well is having good resources. The new books are some of the books I’ve seen recommended for designers over and over again. I know that my library will continue to grow, but I think I’ve got a pretty good foundation to start on. I hope that with these books at my back, I’ll have the knowledge, motivation, and inspiration to do what I love: design.

Now excuse me, but I’ve got some reading to do.