September flew right on by! A birthday, an anniversary (35 years!), a pattern in By Hand Serial #4, and Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival.
I had the great good fortune to be the knitting judge at OFFF, and it was challenging and fun. I worked with two scribes, and made my way through a vast number of knitted goods. You may wonder what gets submitted most, and the answer is “shawls!” Which is right in my wheelhouse. There were also sweaters, scarves, cowls, and some doll clothes. One small blanket and a couple toys. My job was to make categories, comment on all submissions (thank you, scribes!), and then choose the best in each category. The laceweight shawl above was the best (in my opinion) knitted item.
The crochet judge chose this filet crochet dragon shawl as the best crochet piece.
And the felting judge chose this piece as the best felted piece.
Our job after that was to confer and decide best overall. They were all stunningly beautiful pieces, but in the end we chose lace, partly because that was this year’s theme, and then it came down to “how does it wear?”
This was perfect. Light, airy, floaty, and the stitch pattern was well displayed when worn. Congratulations to the winner! (I don’t even know her name…)
I did a little shopping, and was astounded by the tiny Bee Hummingbird spindles Ed Jenkins is making, even smaller than his Kuchulus. I haven’t spun with the Kuchulu I picked up at Sock Summit 2011, so no new spindle for me! Good thing, because you had to enter a drawing to win the chance to puchase one. My friend Leigh got one, and she’s very pleased.
Chatted with Stacey at Fierce Fibers about an idea for another gradient shawl, inspired by some things I saw at OFFF that were NOT knitted. Cross-pollination of ideas, right?
And bought some notions from Maria from A Needle Runs Through It in the Knitted Wit booth. I love useful little things!
Don’t forget the animal barns! I never made it to the bunny barn, but my goddaughter E joined me in the main barn.
And I taught two classes, Fixing Lace Mistakes and Elongated Novelty Stitches. It was a very full weekend! Still trying to catch up.
Onward!
PDXKnitterati 
Looks like so much fun. Bjorn was there and did make it to the bunny barn! He sent me a pic of the dragon. He really liked it. Bummer he did not get me yarn!
What? No yarn? You need to work with him on that…
Are you still spinning on the drop spindle?
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I know right? Apparently, he went with some family friends who know Dana. I did some spinning for a few months and have not used it in over a year I think. Need it back? It is fun and addicting once you start!–D
Love that lace shawl – I’m a sucker for anything with leaves. But I mostly am chiming in because we’re anniversary “cousins” of a sort – our 35th was yesterday!
So great to catch up with you and it was such a wonderful time!
Thanks for the inspiration! Looking forward to a new fun project!
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Oh my goodness that dragon is amazing (says the person whos felting skills are rudimentary)!
it looks like you had an amazing time, and thanks for sharing the pictures with us!
You’re welcome! My needle felting skills include me poking my fingers, so this dragon was really impressive. It was a super busy weekend, but I enjoyed every minute.
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Thanks for the great class at OFFF! I am much braver with lace weight yarn!
Jill
Yay! You are the BOSS of your knitting!
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amazing work!