shock horror...some knitting content [ and quilt show photos]

The other night I really NEEDED to knit something... and not just anything. It'd been too long since my last hit and I needed a fix of something new. Now it just so happens that The Yarn Harlot chose Saturday to post a pattern for a new scarf. A scarf with only one pattern row to memorise and that row has only four stitches AND it's truly reversible.
Probably half the knitters in the world were reaching for their yarn with visions of harlotty goodness in their heads. Who was I to buck a trend?
So after some preparatory yarn fondling, and as I didn't have any handspun I cast on with Moda Vera Susan [ mohair blend boucle] but I couldn't see the pattern so I frogged it and tried again with Wendy Double Knit in a glorious cobalt/navy/purple combo. Can't really see the purple in the photo and the colour is much more intense than this. Yeah, ok it's acylic but it's a NICE soft, squooshy, not cheap acylic ...The original YH pattern is in worsted [ 12 ply] so this is a very narrow scarf and I'm obviously having to knit more rows but dayum this is a fast knit. But I do have a gizzle to report, a grump... a whinge even: I deliberately started with a ball containing 300 metres. More than enough to do it without joining. I'm not fond of darning in ends. Anyway that was the master plan.
If you look at the photo with the blue knitting you might notice something significant up near the needle.
Yup
10 1/2" in, there was a knot.
I HATE it when this happens. If I buy a reputable and not-cheap brand, it shouldn't have nasty, sneaky, bloody little knots in the middle of the ball.
The one consolation I guess was that I wasn't knitting something on circulars.
Currently I'm up to about 53" and I think I'll probably go to about 60". Given that today's forecast was for 30 degrees, probably NOT peak knitting weather ... pfft... I scoff at such things. Nadie may not wear this for another 7 or 8 months but it will look pretty .

Now the rest of the post's about quilts so you can surf on if you're only after the knitting.

The raffle quilt with Sylvia on the left and yours truly. As you can tell neither of us were expecting to have our picture taken.
Next we have an amish quilt by Kay Smith and a quirky little belly dancer by Janine Clark which was her entry in the Golden Dreams Challenge.

This drunkards Path variation with the curves appliqued in place rather than pieced.
the blue quilt is by Jan Lynch and made from a scrumptious collection of japanese prints. Jan is spoilt rotten... she has family in Japan that send her care packages. Shame I didn't take a close up of some of the kasuri fabrics.
and the hexagon quilt is Brenda Bidgood's first quilt- made entirely by hand. I don't know that she actually owns a machine come to think of it.
Don't know why, but a large number of the girls up here are committed hand piecers.
I certainly used to be but I haven't seen such a concentration for a LOOOOOONG time. I might be Corliss' at Threadbare's influence maybe?
I certainly still hand quilt some but rarely piece that way these days.

Finally, and after talking about it constantly for the last 2 weeks... drumroll please.... this is the finished Challenge quilt. Click on the photo to get a bigger view.


Anyway, I've had a frantically busy day so I'm off to put the feet up and have a chai.