In tough economic times such as these it seems as though bartering is coming back into vogue in a lot of places. It’s certainly fine by me! With one steady income right now we certainly aren’t rolling in the dough (not that we ever were really). Sometimes though, someone just knows the joy of hand knit socks and doesn’t have the skills to make them themselves so they know the right person to come to.

Summer Spirals

Pattern: Summer Spirals by Ina Isobe
Yarn: Panda Cotton Print
Needles: US1.5
Knit: 6.21-7.18.11

My friend Maria is an AMAZING asian bodywork practitioner and I am happy to avail myself of her services every year at bassoon camp (and routinely wish to pack her in my suitcase and bring her back with me so that I might partake for more than just 10 days a year). This year she asked if she could be paid in socks and I was more than happy to oblige! It also didn’t hurt that the first pattern for SOS this year was knit in a cotton yarn as Maria is sadly allergic to wool.

While the variegation does obscure the patterning a bit, I still like the look of these. The pattern is EXTREMELY well written giving lots of options for modification. I’ve actually taken the time to link to the pattern on Ravelry so you can check it out because you really NEED to have this pattern! And if cotton yarns aren’t your thing you can absolutely knit this in wool as well.

I’m happy to report that they are already with the recipient and apparently fit well and are warm and comfortable. I’ve got at least 4 more pairs worth of yarn for her so you’ll be seeing more of these wool-free socks in the future!

(Sorry again for the radio silence. Life has just been busy! Hope to be here more now that things are beginning to calm down. More soon!)

Not much progress but after the first pair of needles coming apart at both ends & several false starts, it’s better than nothing!! Happy Summer of Socks y’all!!

We’ve actually been back home for over a week (well, mostly) but we’re finally getting back to business around here. Bassoon camp was fantastic as usual although it was a bit on the quiet side this year because several regulars couldn’t make it. It was kind of nice to be so low key though. As always, we made new friends (one of them even fairly local!) and had a fantastic time.

HWJF did quite a bit of playing this year. Both solo…

And with friends! The pic above was part of the final performance where some of the selections that the quartet played at our wedding were performed. HWJF sat in for the principle player who sadly was one of those people that couldn’t make it this year.

For the first year in quite a few, the weather was cooperative enough to make it safe to have a bonfire!

And as always there was a good deal of silliness.

I did a lot of teaching yoga. Three classes a day! 2 classes on the mat and one on the chair. It was a really great time and I felt like I was really starting to roll by the time we were getting ready to go home. I’m hoping to carry that momentum with me as I begin to look for work as a yoga teacher at home and start bringing some other ideas to life.

My heavy teaching schedule (and being too dumb to go the heck to bed before midnight) made it tough for me to get out and do much outside of camp this year. I felt like if I wasn’t teaching, preparing to teach or eating I was taking a nap! One day I did get to run out with a couple of friends to check out a lavender farm called Mountain Farm.

A lot of places in this particular area of NC have created quilt blocks to display on their buildings and this was no exception. They also had goats

and a bunny!

and a kitty!

I picked a out a few things from the store (they had yarn but I restrained myself) that I will enjoy throughout the year.

Far too quickly, it was time to head home.

Some of us maybe didn’t want to go!

Reality always has to rear it’s ugly head sooner or later though. I somehow managed to throw my back out the day after we left camp. I’m just now getting to the point where I can lift something of fairly significant weight again (hence the shops not opening until today). I also came down with a cold (that whole not going to bed thing obviously caught up with me). Then we had to run up to Maine for a memorial service for HWJF’s grandfather. It was a nice tribute and very fitting for a retired military man.

So honestly, our “vacation” was more like work for me in a lot of ways. But good work! Not much knitting or spinning happened but I do have a few things to show you. They’ll have to wait a bit though because tomorrow is a big day!

Summer of Socks 2011 kicks off tomorrow at 10am EST! What will you be casting on??

I have so many things to share with you right now that I’m just going to have to break it up into several blog posts or y’all will be snoring by the end. So! Let’s start with a couple of big announcements!!

First, Zarzuela’s Fibers is now on Artfire! I’ll be maintaining both the etsy and Artfire shops simultaneously now. Why Artfire? I’ve been hearing very good things about it, especially from Our JessaLu, and decided to take the plunge. What it offers shoppers is more ways to pay (I can now take Amazon payments in addition to PayPal and hope to be adding another option soon) and some interesting features. What it offers me is another venue for exposure, some new options and some great functionality. I hope you’ll head over there and have a look!

Second, I’ve announced the next Zarzuela’s Fibers SAL/KAL! We’ll be spinning up yarn and knitting up the Dahlia cowl by Jesh!

Dahlia is a beautiful little cowl using 4 oz. of Polworth fiber spun up at a worsted-ish gauge to give you a soft and lovely cowl that shows off handspun beautifully! You can reserve the pattern in a digital download as well as the fiber for just $17 + shipping if you do so by May 5th! You have two choices for colorway. There is, of course, Dahlia:

And there’s also Flora:

You’ll find full details and links to order yours from either Artfire or Etsy in the Ravelry group thread. If you aren’t a spinner and would like to join us for the KAL part I have a lovely worsted weight superwash merino yarn that I can dye in either colorway for you. Send me a message or leave me a comment and let me know!

Here’s a peek at my cowl in the Flora colorway:

I hope you’ll join us!

And speaking of joining us, the news that I know some of you have been waiting for is finally here. Summer of Socks 2011 will begin on June 21st!

We’ll be keeping it fairly low key again this year as many people seem to have appreciated that (myself included!). One little twist will be that we are hoping to feature a different pattern and designer for each month of the KAL. No one will be required to knit the pattern that we selected, but those that wish to knit all three featured patterns and post pictures of their finished pairs will be entered into a drawing for a prize at the end of the KAL.

If you’d like to join us, want to have your pattern considered for being featured and/or could make a new button and banner for us (the one above is just something I whipped up quickly) please head over to the announcement thread in the Ravelry group for full details. Here’s to another fun summer of sock knitting! And please spread the word!

And now it’s time for me to get ready to go to an alpaca sheering at a local farm! Who wants to place bets on how much fiber I’ll be coming home with?