Upping my Game

I am going to Vogue Knitting Live, as I explained it to the lab manager, basically it is a knitting conference.

However, there are a few details I need to iron out first.

I have been trying to find someone local who wants to drive up with me, and share a hotel room. Le sigh Normally the big knitting event is Stitches Midwest in August, so those who go to big knitting events are going to that, since it happens every year. The fact that it is in Chicago is special, since it moves around every year.

I still need to ask my Chicago friends, but it will be lame to drive up, crash, and then spend most of my time knitting. The DSLO was totally cool with it, as long as I didn't spend a small fortune on a hotel room.

I wanted to take a class with the Yarn Harlot, but the one I was interested in was full, the moment I clicked on the button, so the plan is to go to a lecture from her. I am taking a class from Cookie A, and 2 other classes. One about finishing, and the other about making sweaters that look good on you, and avoiding patterns that will look bad on you.

This will be the first time I have ever taken a knitting class. Much less from celebrities in the knitting community. I am not expecting Earth shattering revelations in three hour blocks, but I am super duper excited.

On the current knitting front, I have a fingering weight sweater, and a lace shawl. The next FO will be a long time coming. On the future knitting front, there is a lot coming. 3 pairs of socks anyone?

I even remembered to take photos of my WIPs this morning.

Everything is coming together, slowly. I am actually stalled on the Bohus, because I am waiting for the other yarn to come in.

Crap! I forgot to show the yarn that has already come in for that.

The Stash Elephant is still in an undisclosed box, but stashquitions continue unabated by the missing guardian.

I don't have anything in there for scale. They are 12, 30g balls, of many colors. A few will be going into my bohus.

The colorways are not all certain.
My guesses are:
12:00 Strohblume/Aurora?
1:00 Olio vergine
2:00 Farn
3:00 Pesto
4:00 Fritzi Frizzante/Neptune?
5:00 Vergissmeinnicht
6:00 MOBJ/Dora?
7:00 Grand Mere
8:00 Skandal um Rosi
9:00 Magnolie
10:00 Digitessa/Merlot?
11:00 Herzblut

Eh, it is confusing, and I don't have enough wollmeise to compare colors.

On the future knitting front, I am casting on two pairs of socks Friday for the ravellenic games.

I wound my balls, I still need to print the patterns. I should cast on the silver yarn for a pair of socks. It is the commission pair.

This picture is just silliness. when I did the provisional cast on, I made the pull here chain, and then secured the ball of waste yarn. I must have screwed up the provisional cast on, every stitch seemed to have an extra twist in it, which meant I had to pull the yarn out as I went.

The fractal as my desktop background  is this one.

It is a long time favorite. It has been living on the desktop for quite some time.

On the new fractal front:

This guy is for the apophysis challenge. The goal was to make a fractal that was ectopic ie displaced. So I turned a round one into a spiral. With a star in the center.

This fractal was just for fun. I hadn't made a rotational in awhile, and they can be fun to do. They have great movement.

I also met my nemesis again, but won. Russian Black Bread and I have been fighting a battle. My problem was that I was adding the butter/chocolate/molasses mixture when it was too hot. So I killed my yeast, it never rose, and there was great sadness in the land. Today however, I figured it out. I put the hot liquid in the freezer until it was below 115 F.

 It rose! Yea!

And I made bread that turned out like bread. This is very satisfying. It may result in more bread baking.