First of Fall Fantastic Foto Friday

How's that for alliteration? To celebrate the first official day of Autumn and my favorite season of the year (couldn't guess that from my blog skin could ya?), I took a picture of the sun rising over the mountains behind my house this morning.







I'm also submitting these to Sandy's sky photo contest. You can win some great swag. Hurry though, the contest ends today at 5 pm EST.

Alrighty then, back to all of those photos, etc. I promised ya on Hump Day. First up, NOSO Knit. I had the absolute best time. I'd originally planned to stop in for a few hours because I didn't know that many people. But how can you be in a room with over 100 knitters and not make new friends. I'd only had a quick chance to meet Emmy over at Knitter's Review and by visiting her blog. She quickly found me in the sea of fiber addicts and is one of the sweetest people I've had the pleasure to meet in ages. I really do hope that I can catch up with her again in the future. Maybe at the Fall Fiber Festival.

I only snapped a couple of pictures because I was too busy talking. Anybody who knows me wouldn't be surprised :)



This one is of the woman from Scarves of Hope telling us about how the knitted scarves that were donated are given to women who are diagnosed with breast cancer. Her story was quite compelling.





And here are a couple of shots of just how many people were crammed into one room. There were two other vendors there besides the Fuchia Fleece: Yarn Theory from Bedford and Orchardside Yarn Shop from Raphine. Wonderful yarns and wonderful people = TONS of fun!!!

Next up is my reclaimed fiber adventure. This is not for the faint of heart. Ripping any knitted project is such a disturbing process it can bring you to your knees. I did find it interesting to analyze how machine knits are constructed as I was taking them apart. Here are some before and after shots:





Overall, this knit cooperated very nicely as I took it apart. It yielded about 850 yards of great quality yarn. The great thing about reclaiming yarn from a knitted project is that you can see how it will look when completed, you have a swatch for gauge and some idea of how it will wear. Even though this yarn looks stripey, its beautiful when knit. I can't wait to find a project for it.

The second sweater that I started ripping, did not go so well (its the light brown yarn in the above photo). It has angora mixed in it. I test ripped one sleeve and the family room looked like I had blown a dandelion in the air. It got up my nose, in my eyes, in my lungs - what a nightmare! I finally got smart and sat in front of the air conditioner return which so happens to be at waist level. It sucked every last bit of fluff up before it could escape into the air. HOWEVER, words escape me to describe this yarn. It as soft as a whisper and is dying to be knit into an openwork sweater. I will plod ahead and hope to avoid coughing up a hairball in the process.

I'm truly in alpaca heaven. This stuff is what dreams are made of. It's worth repeating, Kiri is a wonderful pattern. Its really hard to capture the color of the yarn in the skein as you can see below.



You can kinda see the color when its knit up. Here's a shot of the shawl so far.



I'm up to the fifth pattern repeat. I honestly prefer projects that shrink, not grow but I love this so much that I don't mind.

I had a panic attack as I was about to block Kiri so that I could take the picture. I went to grab a couple of extra Denise cords and they were nowhere to be found. After 30 minutes of frantic thrashing, they were found in a couple of long forgotten projects. Phew! I hate when that happens.

I'm off to see some Hokie football up close and personal tomorrow as the 'Burg hosts Georgia Tech and ESPN Gameday. Will I bring my knitting? I have yet to decide. I'll let you know on Monday.

* Edited to add: Little Miss Zira arrived on Emy's Singapore doorstep earlier this week and I've been negligent in posting about her arrival. Check out Zira's blog or show Emy some blog love and see what she's been up to. I would love to have gone with her since it seems like Emy likes food as much as I do :) Thanks for being such a wonderful host!

Have a great weekend! For those of you in the Gulf, you're a constant in my thoughts and prayers.