Billions of Blistering Blue Barnacles

Dudes...I have so much to post it's not even funny...I have been putting it off and now it's kicking me in the ass and I have to take a large chunk of time away from spinning and knitting...I hope you have a few minutes, I think this is my longest post yet!

First things first...today in the mail I got my first ever etsy order. If you don't know what etsy is your life is horribly empty and superficial. Etsy is ebay for crafters. It is heaven. Check it out here. But be warned, it can seriously suck away hours and dollars.

The awesome part of my etsy order is that while it was my first, it was the 100th sale for the person I bought from. So she sent me goodies in addition to my order. I was super impressed with this since my order was not a high priced order. The fibre she sent me is beautiful.
I bought this in the colourway called Sunrise
Which I plan on blending with this 50/50 wool/silk (got it at Fibres West, more on that later...)
I also bought this beautiful Natural French Angora that was seriously discounted because of moulting/shearing issues, but it is still very beautiful and eminently suited for blending.
And because I was her 100th customer (which was SO cool because it was my 1st ever Etsy purchase) she gave me some wonderful bath salts and THIS
Good GOD look at the staple on this AMAZING Angora!! She doesn't share it with anyone, but because I was her 100th customer (or perhaps because of my incredible psychic persuasive abilities) she felt compelled to share it with me. Jordan you ROCK! Seriously, her stuff is lovely, check her out on Etsy under the seller name punkjordane and if you love angora you will love her stuff! She sells seeds too, but I can't buy those because she is in the States and terrorists grow out of seeds so they don't allow them to cross the border...

OK Next on the docket...FIBRES WEST!! I went there and I didn't want to come home. A whole weekend of fibrey knitty people hanging out together in perfect, blissful, crafting, harmony. I was there with my friends store Twist of Fate. We had TONNES of product, and we sold a lot. But most importantly I got to meet a whoel bunch of truly wonderufl people (or maybe I just assumed they were wonderful because of their spinny knitterliness) I saw so many amazing fibres and I wanted to buy them ALL. I did get a few nifty things, such as the aforementioned. Handmaiden 50/50 wool/silk. I also got this:
It is is hemp fibre that is fairly fine-a whole 227 grams of it! Half a pound of hippy goodness. I am going to use it for blending. Some is slated for sock yarn and the rest is going to sit in my stash being all potential and stuff.

Also bought 117 grams of merino/tencel from Knitopia, it is so beautiful and is this fantastic black/purple with white tencel. I am spinning it to a laceweight or slightly heavier and plan to knit a shawl with it. The weird thing is I HATE wearing shawls. I like the way they look on other people but you would have to hogtie me and then drape it over my struggling body to get me to wear one...and then I saw the merino/tencel...and I started imagining myself wearing really gothic lacey shawl looking all mysterious and stuff...so ashawlknitting I will go!

I bought this China Grass Ramie...I don't really know what it is...which I think may have been the deciding factor in my choice to purchase it...
I also knit this during the slow times at the festival-it's that sweater in ridiculously chunky wool for my stepdaughter-I think it may have taken all of 5 hours to knit.I started knitting thisIt's the Assymetrical Cardi. The yarn is lovely and from Custom Woolen Mills, I got the yarn from Twist of Fate.

My Aunt came to Fibres West and that was so cool!! She brought muffins, and I have to admit I was a little leery of them at first because she told me they had tofu in them...but I will eat anything so I gave them a whirl and they were SO good!! Yummy banana tofu muffins, which is perfect for me with my insanely high protein requirement (I think it's because I am an ogre). I MUST remember to ask for the recipe! I like it when healthy food tastes good. It makes me think "Thank God I can't eat well and not want to sand off my tastebuds."
I also saw 2 other people I that I know there which was neat because I thought I would not know anyone. Sharon from Armstong taught me Bobbin Lace and she is such a cool lady so it was nice to see her again. I also saw Cheryl from Saltspring. Every year I volunteer at the Fall Fair on Saltspring and Cheryl does the fleece judging. 2 years ago I was her Judging assistant and I learned at TONNE from her. It was really neat to see her there, she was there with Jane Stafford Textiles.

One last thing about Fibres West that I thought was SO cool: I was wandering around looking at booths and I got a compliment on my sweater from one lady in a spinning circle and one of the other ladies said "Is that the Wrenna?" I just about died. It was so cool that someone recognized it and asked about it by name!
I know the pic is terrible, but don't you think my shower curtain is cool?

Sans Camera

So I have one sleeve left to do on my sweater! I would prove it to you but it appears that I have misplaced my camera...but really, I am not lying.
A couple things about this sweater-if I did it again I would change the sleeve decreases-they are super visible and not particularly attractive. One of the things I did with this sweater is rather than change the needles to make gauge, I knit a larger size. This ended in more knitting for me (I had to go 2 sizes up) but I think I like it better because if I had done it to gauge it would have been knit really loose. However...apparently when I knit with dpn's for the sleeves, rather than the circular for the body...well...apparently then I got gauge exactly...which means the sleeves are rather large...I can't quite bring myself to rip it out and do smaller sleeves-but I think it might look OK with the style of the sweater to have large flowy sleeve-and I am trying really hard to make sure I am not just saying that to make it less work for me...
I always have a million things for my "next project" and one of them is a top down raglan cardigan in a bulky yarn. The sweater is called Wrenna from "French Girl Knits" by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes. Check it out here if you have a Ravelry account. It is a super awesome pattern book. It's all lady like stuff that even a butch tom-boy like me would wear! I love the book and plan on knitting several of the patterns in it. The sweater is only 400 yards. Did you hear that? FOUR HUNDRED! I am labouring under the misconception that I could knit 400 yards in like 2 days. After all the sweater I am knitting now is 1200 yards and it will take me about 20 days...hold the phone...the math doesn't really work for that does it? I am pretty sure I will find some crazy rift in the space time continuum that will allow me to knit a sweater in 2 days... OK maybe that's crazy. Lets try for 4 days...I can knit a pair of socks out of 200 yards in 2 days easy so maybe 4 days isn't crazy...even if the sock was stocking stitch and the sweater is lace.
So that's my challenge. A sweater in 4 days, barring any huge complications. Here's the plan. I will start the sweater when I know I will have some good solid knitting time. I will knit and knit like a mofo. If something crazy comes up and I miss a whole day of knitting I am going to minus that day off my total knitting days (and I don't give a damn if that's cheating-it's my challenge, I can do what I want *this is me sticking out my tongue*). I will try to write a note every day of the 4 day challenge outlining my progress (or declaring it a dead day). If I succeed I will make a certificate for myself and put it on my wall next to my University degree. It will say something like "Let it forever be known that Caroline the Great succeeded in knitting a sweater in 4 days. I also expect a whole bunch of praise from my readers (all 2 or 3 of you).
So that's my challenge, what do you think?

...I don't even want to think about what will happen if I fail-I would lose all credibility, I would lose the respect from my readers, I would quit knitting and fall in to an ever decreasing spiral of depression and loneliness...I might take up crocheting...than as the slow spirals sinks down I wouldl ose my jobs and be forced to live on the streets going by clever hobo monikers such Dumpster Dick and my life would be over as I know it...but let's not even think about that...