Photos!
I forgot I had some (not as many as some) Rhinebeck photos. So here they are.
There are some goats, who didn’t seem all that interested in me.
One goat who was very interested in playing with the clipboard hanging on the stall, and was quite cute because of it.
And finally one who seemed somewhat interested in me.
I did get to watch some shearing, but the pictures of that aren’t very clear good.
And finally I leave you with pumpkin catapulting. Photos courtesy of my father.
Much, much to do
So this might be a short post, but I’ll see what I can squeeze in.
First up, Rhinebeck. Rhinebeck, as always, was a whole lot of fun. I bought some yarn, and some fiber, but I was really nice to my wallet and only bought 2 skeins of yarn, and 6 total ounces of fiber. I’m quite impressed with myself.
The first skein is from the Oasis Farm Fiber Mill booth. It’s a lovely 3 ply, two of the plys are a dark (almost navy, but not quite) shade of blue, with the third ply dyed a very light blue. It didn’t come with a tag, and I can’t find it on their website, but from what I can remember it is around 200 yards, 100% wool, and it seems to be about a worsted weight. I’m thinking that this is destined to become a hat and mitt set for me.
The second skein is 665 yards of 100% sport weight alpaca, from Times Remembered. They don’t seem to have a website, but from what I can gather off a quick google search they have a store in Slate Hill, NY. So, if anyone is around there, it might be worth looking into. That is also a blue, but this time an ice blue, almost white/extremely light grey in color. Destined to become a large and cozy lace wrap/stole, probably designed around a winter theme, possibly ice or snow.
The temperature has plummeted in the past few days. Making it very hard to get out of bed in the mornings, and making me wish I had a few more large warm shawls to wrap up in.
The first ball of roving came from Hatchtown Farm. It is 2 oz of 100% Coopworth in a blend of what seems to be a natural dark brown, and a natural cream, just a few shades darker than white. I’ve never tried Coopworth before, so I’m excited to try this, but it’ll have to wait until I get my current project off my spindle, the wool/silk blend that I last talked about at the very end of this post. For now though I’m very content squishing it every now and then.
The last of the purchases was 4 oz of wool fiber from Spinners Hill. 2 oz were in a blend of browns and greens with some reds and yellows sprinkled here and there (much prettier than it sounds). This I spun into a thick n thin two ply, mostly ranging from light worsted to fingering weight, if I had to guess. I’m thinking I want to knit a toy out of this, but I’m not quite sure. The second 2 oz are a very deep and dark, but still slightly, slightly variegated purple. I think I’ll spin this finer and possibly make a hat or some gloves from it.
Well, that’s all I’ve got time for now, but the text post will include what I’m currently knitting, and what I’m finished knitting. Plus some more stash enhancement, and maybe (it depends how soon I get to posting) the announcement of a new set of patterns. Yes, set of patterns (I’m excited). The Crisscross caps booklet (talked more in depth about here) has gone into testing, and is turning out very well so far. Fingers crossed that it continues to be smooth sailing.
Hey Look! It hasn’t been a month!
Only a week. But it’s been a very busy week.
Last week I had 5 projects on the needles. This week I have 6, and lots of progress on lots of fronts.
Liesl has seen the majority of my time this past week. I’ve had lots of “I need to sit and think” moments, and lots of “I need a few minutes to decompress before I…” chunks of time. Those stolen moments, combined with my boycott of yesterday, means that Liesl is currently 9 inches past where you set aside stitches for the sleeves. I’m hoping to have this sweater hit mid-hip-ish, so that means I’m going to work for another 6 inches or so before binding off.
I found out yesterday that I’m going to be at Rhinebeck this coming weekend, for Sunday only. But this means that Liesl has become my Rhinebeck sweater, along with being my first wearable sweater, fingers crossed. (I felted the first sweater I ever knit for myself before getting to wear it. We don’t talk about it very often) So Liesl has been receiving almost all my attention lately.
But only almost, I have worked on other things. (Told you this week was busy).
Bella is past the garter stitch base, and I’m only a row and a half away from being done with the first section of the ruffle. I think I’m going to take this to Rhinebeck as walking around knitting, and hopefully make lots and lots of progress.
That scarf I mentioned in the last post? The one that only needed a few tweaks before casting on? I also needed to buy needles for it.
So I bought the needles, I tweaked the charts, I cast on.
Then I ripped it out, tweaked it some more, and cast on again.
Lather, rinse, repeat a few times.
I’m finally through the first repeat and a bit, and I’m going to rip it out and cast it on once more. I’ll probably do that before this weekend so that I can take it for car knitting on the way to and from Rhinebeck (I’m not driving).
At the moment I’m calling it Gothic Spires, as it’s got some interesting lacy columns and spire action going on in it, but if you’ve got any suggestions I’d love to hear.
Even Icy Fields got another round and a half added to it. While this doesn’t seem like a lot, please keep in mind that as of right now each round is about 1,000 stitches long and takes forever. On the plus side I’m about 12 rounds from the end. Next is some sort of crochet loopy bind off, and I’ll be done.
After I’m done I’ll probably hid the rest of this yarn for the next few years, or maybe just trade it (or give it) away. There’s nothing wrong with the yarn (Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud), I’ve just had it in my life since 2007, and will have knit 2 completed shawls, (and one ripped out shawl) from it. There is also only so much grey lace that one person needs.
Now that I’ve said all that, right after I bind off Icy Fields I’m going to cast on some more grey lace. Just watch.
Walk in the Woods, and Celtic Forest haven’t seen any progress at all. Celtic Forest is still sitting in the closet as of this writing. I need a good block of time to work out the kinks in this pattern, and I just haven’t had the time yet. Maybe this week. Maybe.
There’s no reason I haven’t worked on Walk in the Woods other than I’ve been distracted by my new and shinier projects. But I’m planning on taking this along to Rhinebeck for car knitting as well.
Once I get a few of my current projects off the needles I have two more projects waiting in the wings to be thought out and swatched. The cowl that I mentioned in the last post, and another pair of fingerless mitts.
I’m hoping to have the pattern for Bird of a Feather released soon (tomorrow???). I just need to tweak a few things to make one of the charts easier to follow, but after that it’ll be ready to go.
This has already gotten longer than planned and I feel Liesl calling, so I’m going to go work on her, and hopefully have a new sweater soon. Fingers crossed.
