Wool Piggery, Portuguese Knitting, and A Container Garden

So last weekend was the All Missouri Spin-In in Chillicothe, it was a lot of fun. I was able to see other spinners! But, it was wet and rainy and I didn't get my spinning wheel out, so I just watched others spin. I also watched a fashion show, and did a lot of shopping. I also took a class on Portuguese knitting. I got a bunch of wool, four batts (one is already spun up, and I'm spinning the second one) and four braids, and I am going to spin three of them together into a three ply, so I'm hoping that the colors will play well with each other for that.

I am spinning the pink and purple batt as we speak, and here is a shot of the bobbin that I'm working on. I'm thinking that I'm going to ply it with a sparkly metallic thread and that will give it another dimension of interest rather than just a flat yarn. It's spinning up thick and thin, so it would be really irregular if I just plied it back on itself.

And then I took a class on Portuguese knitting. It's where you have the yarn tensioned either around your neck or through a pin that you clip on your shoulder. I liked working with the pin better than having it looped around my neck. I am working on making a Reike hat, or something close to it. I didn't look up the pattern and just cast on using my normal number of stitches, I think it was around 90, on size US8 needles. I am knitting up the first batt that I spun up. It was an art batt that had yellow, red and grey in it, and then had little bits of yarn dispersed throughout, so there will be texture to the finished product. I am liking how it is knitting up so far. It is hanging on a mixed media canvas that I made on a Girl's Night Out craft night through my church. It was pretty neat.

Up close, and far away, you can't tell any difference between Portuguese knitting and my regular knitting. I think that it is just an interesting skill to add to my repertoire.

And finally there is my container garden, that it fully established. Many of the plants have been replanted, and most of them have transferred well. I think that they are all happy, and that they are all going to be able to make it. I hope that they are happy outside. There were a few leaves that were turning brown and crinkly around the edges, so I'm hoping that they will be happier outside. I haven't worried about insects or disease a whole lot since they have been inside up until now.

I'm still working on socks using the small circular, and am on the toe of the first sock of a second pair. And then I am also working on the Curl that I was working on, and it is coming along. That and I've started a hat that I am hoping to wear during the summer, so I'm not doing any colorwork on it, and just letting the colors in the yarn sing out.