Maryland Sheep and Wool here I come!!

So, this weekend was full of spending time with my family and my dad and planning my upcoming fiber adventure!!!

I decided last week that I wanted to go to Maryland Sheep n Wool...the next step was making it happen. In the end, it all just seems to be working out! My plan is I'll be flying up to NC on the Friday before the Festival and my friend will pick me up from the airport, then we'll drive up and meet another friend up in the Baltimore area and stay at a hotel for Friday and Saturday night! During those two days, we'll have plenty of meeting new people and fiber fumes!! I can't wait!

Saturday, I'll be joining a couple other podcasters, when I get the final details I'll let you know, for a meet n greet at the festival from 11-1pm! It should be tons of fun...and I'm sure I'll be just as big a fan girl with the other podcasters as the people coming to meet them! :)

Sunday after shopping a bit, we plan to head back to NC and then I'll be staying there for a couple days as I spend time with my best friend from high school!

I'm looking forward to the whole weekend! If you are going to be at the Festival please let me know!! I look forward to meeting everyone! I'll be wearing my barknknit shirt on Saturday so other than my latiness..hehe..that will be a way to recognize me. If you want to pick up some barknknit apparel you can to at www.zazzle.com/barknknit.

This is a picture of me in my shirt chatting away at SAFF.
Other than planning this weekend, we did manage to get our whole house spring cleaned! It took us several hours and lots of sneezing on my part but it's done! My MIL will be arriving LATE saturday night for a weekend of fun!! I can't wait for a five day weekend and enjoying family time!

A new toy, and some fleecy goodness!!

This weekend was pretty crazy! Special K had a friend from home in town for the weekend so we stayed out late! I also had lots of things that I had to do...such as helping out with the Pinellas Weavers Guild Auction. Every other year we do an auction and the other years we have a sale. The auction was a lot of fun but the best part was that I got a loom for $12!!! I was so flipping excited! It's missing the heddles and I need a shuttle and a reed threader but otherwise I can't wait to get it working!!

Look how pretty it is after I wiped it down with some wool oil.
If you know what kind of loom this is or have any advice...PLEASE...do share! Thank you so much!
Also this weekend I managed to scour some of the black Corriedale fleece I have. I separated them into locks and scoured in lock formation because I plan to comb them. They came out so pretty!

Here are all the yummy fleecy goodness laying to dry!
Well..I hope everyone is doing great! I hope you enjoyed this drive by posting! ;)

Padfoot Socks Pattern Design Published!

Barknknit Design's First Pattern!!

A couple months back, my friend Shelby, from Shelby B's Designs, was sending me a skein of yarn as a thank you and asked me what my favorite Harry Potter character was and naturally since he turns into a dog it's Sirius Black. She had not created a colorway for him yet and she decided to create one! She came up with this beauty...
After receiving this beautiful yarn and not being able to find a pattern to knit with it, the Padfoot socks pattern was born.
It's a top down cabled ribbed pattern with a seed stitch panel.
I think it's a great pattern for sock yarns that have many colors.The pattern includes both a chart and written instructions. It is now available for purchase on www.barknknit.com and Ravelry.

Last week while I was working on publishing this pattern, my friend's dog Scorpio was hit by a car. He had gotten out of her backyard and someone hit him and never stopped. As someone who has gone through this, I decided that I wanted to donate 30% of all proceeds from the sock pattern from now until March 15th to help her offset some of the costs of his vet expenses and surgery. I'm hoping this helps her even just a little bit with the un-expected cost an accident like this incurs.

Well, I hope you enjoy this pattern and please feel free to send me any feedback as this is hopefully the first design of many.

Thank you to all those who have already purchased the pattern and for all the support my friends have given me! I appreciate you all!

DOT of Abby.

Since Jackjack got a picture in yesterday's post. Here is my lovely Abbygirl...at her finest.

I love how she can make any position look so comfy. Sorry for the picture of the dirty couch...it's usually covered because it's mainly their couch.

Happy Dogs on Thursday!!

New Podcast, Knitting, Frogging, and a Gift.

After some inspiration from my podcast and some encouragement, my husband Special K and his brother have decided to start a podcast. Their podcast is about sports and it's called This Week in Sports Podcast and now can be found on Itunes!! If you are interested in sports and think you'd enjoy two brothers chatting about sports and their opinions please go over and check it out. Their language can be colorful at some points but overall I think you'll enjoy it.

This is a picture of Kenny and Jackjack while he podcasted. Jackjack looks so comfy! ;)
After spending most the day knitting and helping Kenny with his podcast on Saturday, Sunday was spent cleaning up and relaxing as well. My podcast listeners had a Virtual Knit Meet up on Stickam.com and while I was chatting with them I decided to finally tackle the mess I made by frogging a vest that I had knit a couple months back from my handspun Romney that I didn't like. Instead of being a good frogger and make sure I wrapped the yarn right while I was frogging the project...I just ripped the knitting apart and created a huge mess!!

Well...that caused lots of knots and frustration but I finally did get it all wound up in the end! YAY!
After I successfully finished all my Ravelympics projects which I'll post a picture of soon! I cast on a vanilla sock using the Knitmore Girls Vanilla pattern. Can I say Genius! It's a simple knit pattern but it goes so fast and I really am enjoying it. This was my progress on Saturday.

I have since finished the first sock and am well on my way knitting the 2nd. I'm hoping to be done by Friday...considering I'm already turning the heel. I think I might be able to get it done.

My sister Tammy who is always great at good little gifts, asked me to swing by this weekend because she had something for me. I've been working on knitting something for everyone in my immediate family by the end of the year and she got me these to put on my knitted items! How awesome is she!! I love them!! I can't wait to sew these into some of my projects!
Thank you Tammy!!

Well...I hope you've enjoyed the catching up. I have lots of plans in the works right now and I'm working on getting some of them out to you all soon. So, look for some new and fun things coming. I'm still working on keeping this blog updated. I do not plan on letting it go anytime soon. I hope you are still with me!

Natalie

Sharing Our Gifts Across America: Florida.

So, we all know how great a blogger I've been lately. I totally forgot to share that I'm this months host for Sharing Our Gifts Across America!

The project ends on March 12th so if you have time...please feel free to knit or make one of the following and send it my way.

What we are making for THIS PROJECT:
Hats
Scarves
Mittens
Cotton Washcloths

My address is:
Natalie Rush
PO Box 1035
St. Petersburg, FL 33731-1035

Check out more details on the main blog...as well as the next projects as well.

Thanks!