Archive for 2012 October

Rhinebeck Part 2: The Haul

This is the post where I get to show off my Rhinebeck purchases!

First up, two skeins of luscious Cephalopod Yarns Traveler in the Finger Lakes colorway. This colorway is hard to photograph, but it reminds me of fresh purple grapes:

I think those are going to grow up to be a hat and mitts set (or possibly a scarf).

Next up, two skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts BFL sport in colorway “Manly, yes, but I like it too!” (Really, that’s the name of the colorway.)

This yarn is squishy and delicious, but I made a mistake when I bought it. Although the name should have tipped me off that it was a sportweight yarn, an error in labeling printed a worsted gauge instead of a sportweight one. You can see it in this picture if you squint:

So instead of the 1300 yards of light-worsted weight yarn I thought I was getting, I actually have 1300 yards of sport. I really do like the yarn and the colorway, enough to keep it rather than go through the hassle of returning… but I have to psych myself up to tackle a sweater on size 4 needles (what should have been printed on the label, and the size the Blue Moon website recommends).

This next lovely skein wasn’t actually purchased for me. My husband took one look at the wall of Stonehedge Shepherd’s Wool and insisted on buying one so he could knit himself another hat. As you can imagine, I didn’t argue. This is the Berries colorway:

I also got a sachet of moth-repelling herbs and a book of stitch patterns:

Not pictured: the maple candy and half-sour pickles that were eaten before the weekend was over. Yum.

I think I did pretty well for my first Rhinebeck! I purposely didn’t decide I had to have any one type/brand of yarn, since I’d heard too many stories of people sprinting to booths the second the fairgrounds opened, or standing in lines for hours. We were there to see the sights, eat good food, and spend a little (but not too much) on yarny goodness.

I would say mission accomplished :-)

Rhinebeck 2012 in Pictures

Rhinebeck was AWESOME. Completely amazing. I’ll be going again next year for sure!

Warning: very photo-heavy post ahead.

Barn of amazing vendors

A shot of a small number of the people at the Ravelry meetup (it was huge!)

Mr. T the sheep

New sweater in action

Me with two lovely designers: Becky of Sugar Tree and Danielle of Makewise Designs

Angora bunnies!

Delicious maple cotton candy next to undyed roving. Can you tell which is which?

Hubby clowning around in the sweater I knit him last year–we got so many compliments! Of course, it helps that he's adorable.

Knitting in the (very long) line for lunch

Another barn full of amazing vendors

(Pardon the lens flare) A sighting of Chandail in the wild!!! I was so excited! This lovely lady is Amy, who sought me out at the meetup! :-D

I spotted another Chandail just walking around, which made me stop in my tracks and squeal to my husband like a little girl. And I had several people tell me they had been following the progress of my new sweater on Ravelry and were excited to see it in person! I passed out loads of business cards and (of course) bought some delicious yarn.

Rhinebeck Bound!

The Tosh sweater is done! It’s gorgeous. Unfortunately, it’s also unblocked, so the big reveal will have to wait a few days. But it will be done long before Friday, which is good because…

… that’s the day I’m leaving for Rhinebeck!

This pretty much sums up how I feel about that:

Although my sweater looks a teensy bit cooler than his.

It’ll be my first time at Rhinebeck, so I’m mostly just going to soak in the atmosphere. I’ve heard it can be pretty overwhelming for first-timers! I’ll be at the Ravelry meet-up on Saturday, so if you’ll be there, you might get to see my pretty Tosh sweater in person.

Hubby and I are driving out to New York and it’ll take about 10 hours, so of course my thoughts turn to projects for the car.

I’m thinking I’ll work on the matching hat for the Malabrigo scarf:

I might get through that one, though, so I’ll need another project too… hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

WIP Wednesday: Design Snag

I’m still working on the same sweater, but I’m not quite as lovey-dovey about it this week.

I finished the body and the neckband, which is good:

But the little jog where the neckband ribbing meets the placket ribbing is bothering me. Which is bad.

The stitch markers are standing in for buttons.

It’s especially bad because I wove in all the ends already… thinking that the main reason I didn’t like the look was because there were dangling ends everywhere. *facepalm*

I think I might have to unpick all the ends, rip it out, and try again… which doesn’t make me very happy. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my year + of designing, it’s that time spent re-doing something that isn’t quite perfect is time well-spent. That was true when I wasn’t designing, too, of course. I just didn’t want to hear it then.

Want to help me get psyched up for all that ripping? :-(

Same Sweater, Different Week

I’m still knitting away on my Tosh Merino Light sweater:

The placket part looks so weird before the buttonbands are added, doesn’t it? I have to keep reassuring myself that it’ll all look fine once the finishing is done.

Now that I’m past the part where the sweater is joined together, it’s smooth sailing (no more purl rows, yay!), so I should be able to make some good progress on it this week. I’m hoping to at least have the body and sleeves done by next Wednesday (the finishing would be great too, but I’m not sure if that’s a realistic goal).

I’m a few inches farther now than that picture–and I only just ran out of the first skein of TML! Knitting fingering weight on size #6 needles is definitely a good way to stretch out your yarn, that’s for sure. I’d be surprised if I used all of three skeins for the whole sweater, since I’m planning to do 3/4 sleeves anyway.

Back photo: