One of the many joys of going to Sheep and Wool festivals is to find yarns that are from local sheep farms and wool mills.

New Book

Just got my copy of a new book out by Peace Books:

American Spun: 20 Classic Projects Exploring Homegrown Yarn, a new book out by Anna Sudo is a very personal tour of 15 U.S. yarn producers and 20 knitted projects using these domestic yarns.

Conceptually, I really love the idea of this book and the photos and aesthetics are simply beautiful.

Since it’s difficult to assess yarns that I can’t find at my local yarn stores, Ms. Sudo’s book gives me a great sense about how various yarns will knit up, and would allow me to confidently purchase these yarns on-line.  A perfect example would be the Woolful Mercantile Shetland blend yarns she uses in her Harriman Hat project.

The soft, furry halo of this yarn would be beautiful on some projects and just wrong on some others.

Most of the patterns in this book are smaller projects, like cowls, fingerless gloves, hats, etc.  There are two sweater patterns and one is a beautiful women’s design called Coeur d’Alene.

The shaping and the stitch patterning work extremely well with the Targhee yarn she uses from Lakes Yarn and Fiber.

All in all, this book will be a great reference guide for the 15 yarn companies she documents.  I personally think this book, along with yarn for one of the projects would make for a great gift for a knitter you love.

Current Knitting

I’ve been enjoying that last few inches of the current niece blanket I’m working on (which is unusual…by this time, I’m usually ready for a project to be finished), and I also started a new sweater project.

The new sweater, I’ve really only started the ribbing (as you can see) and the blanket has just a few more inches before binding off.