Sunday, May 02, 2010

2010 MDSW


2010 MDSW
Originally uploaded by shannanstitches.

Yesterday I went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. It was hot but I had a great time. This pic has notes at Flickr, so click over for the details.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

About Me

Since I've been absent from blogging for a while, I thought I'd officially 'return' with an about me post.

I learned to crochet as a child, probably when I was 8 or 9 years old. I crocheted off and on making mostly granny squares and sewing them together till I was a senior in high school. Then I branched out and started crocheting afghans using patterns. I didn't take pictures or keep track of my earlier projects. I mostly crocheted afghans, but would make other types of projects here and there.

My youngest son was born in September of 2001. I got the knitting bug then and successfully taught myself the knitting basics from a book, but quickly lost interest. I found knitting slow and tedious and I was deathly afraid of dropping stitches. I resumed crocheting and participated in lots of swaps for crocheted items. This was also about the time that my doily fascination took hold. I've made quite a few.

Irish Rose

My interest in knitting returned in 2005. I made lots of fun fur scarves, which was great for making me more comfortable with knitting. In late 2005, I took a sock knitting class at my LYS. I finished my first pair of socks in January 2006. And I've basically been knitting socks ever since. I completed my 100th pair of socks in February 2010.

Heartstone Socks

I'm also a spinner. I purchased my wheel, a Schacht Matchless single treadle in 2007. I did a lot of spinning when I first got my wheel, but my interest in spinning has decreased some. I blame lack of time and too many great things to knit. I do still spin (more so now than 6 months ago) and I have a stack of yarns that need to be washed.

Handspun

My most recent love is knitting lace. More specifically, knitting lace shawls. I started shawl knitting in 2009 and pretty much haven't looked back. In fact, I'm so smitten with shawls that I'm thinking of unofficially retiring as a sock knitter.

Shawl Pile

My current projects are:
Crew Socks
Arabella Shawl
Blackberry Brambles Socks
Mandala II Shawl

Returning to Blogland

I haven't blogged since late last summer. I've been thinking about returning to the blog lately. So, there may be some activity here periodically. I need to do some work on my template. Haloscan is still installed for comments, and I need to switch to something else.