Rhinebeck 2: Rhinebeckier

Caution: Picture Heavy Post Ahead!


Rhinebeck this year was seriously wonderful, though how it could be anything else is beyond me. You put enough sheepy things in one place and I'm fairly certain you're guaranteed a good time. Knitting Jenn from DC and I drove up Friday night and made a late arrival at our b&b, the lovely Creek Locks B&B in Rosendale. We slept like babies on one of the most comfy beds I've ever had the pleasure of sleeping in, in a completely adorable renovated 1860s farmhouse. Breakfast was delish! So they've got both the B's in that equation totally down.

We got an early start but to Jenn's infinite dismay were parked further away from the entrance gate than we were last year when we were practically at the gate. I don't know that we will ever be able to rival that spot ever again. I get out of the car, and immediately hear my name. It's our parking spot neighbor who happens to be Shameka from my Sit'n'Knit meetup group. She knit me the crofter's cowl I got at the neckwarmer swap a couple weeks ago which I happened to be wearing over my Enid cardigan (she also made me the best stitch markers ever)! How very fortuitous! Perfect timing turned out to be the theme of the weekend.

After picking up coffee, Jenn and I went about our business at a fairly leisurely pace. Having two days to do it all definitely allowed us to meander and take our time. I was less camera happy this year in the booths, but I made sure to snap shots of some of the funny signs that were posted here and there.

We spent plenty of time visiting the animals and happened upon the "Best Fleece" judging for both the white wool on Saturday and colored wool sheep on Sunday. Both were won by the same farm Pitchfork Farm in Michigan. Definitely looked like some quality fleece to me.
































1. 100_2230, 2. Photogenic, 3. Sleepy Sheepy, 4. What great big horns you have, 5. 100_2200, 6. 100_2203, 7. Holy crap! There's a dog!, 8. 100_2148, 9. Sheep with Bandanas, 10. 100_2108, 11. 100_2171, 12. Itty bitty diva sheep



I spent what I am coming to understand is a simply obscene amount of money. I would actually prefer not to think about it. Instead, I will think of it thus:

Now that's an economic plan I can get behind!

We happened upon the Llama and Alpaca parade with BeBop and Dewitt.


We chronicled our rapidly expanding stashes by photographing the car every time we went to drop stuff off. Trip 1:


End of Day 1:



Towards the end of the day I made a major purchase:



I wanted to compare the single treadle Hitchhiker wheel with the double treadle folding Ashford Kiwi but the two that were in stock were already sold by the time I got to the Merlin Tree booth! Once I got the hang of the single treadle though it was a piece of cake. Now we'll see what I'm able to do with it.

We left the fairgrounds at the end of the day and headed to the Ravelry party where I stared stalkerishly at Ann and Kay of Mason Dixon Knitting fame for most of the night. We froze our butts off but had a great time and I'm glad we hung around for the whole evening because I actually won an awesome raffle prize: A spindle kit from Spunky Eclectic! !

The cupcakes were pretty sweet too.


Day 2 dawned cold and sunny. I had sewn the buttons on my Briar Rose Brompton Cardigan the night before so I actually had a new sweater to wear. I'm quite proud of myself for having finished two sweaters made with yarn I purchased at last Rhinebeck. Not so proud that I didn't actually photograph myself in them in all their finished glory.

The first stop of Day 2 was Briar Rose Fibers and we got there just as sale baskets were being put out so we got some amazing deals on cone remnants. Unfortunately I have no idea which yarns they are or how much yardage but they'll make some great small items.

We bought Jenn a birthday gift: two prints from this booth.


End of Day 2:



Luckily by lunctime on Sunday we had stopped purchasing and didn't need to make more trips to the car. Instead, we ate some lamb chili and watched the sheep dog trials for a while before taking a last spin through the vendor and barn areas where we happened upon these fellas:




















We didn't hit any of the lunchtime meetups but managed to see a lot of people in our travels. A whole lot of people from my local sit n knit groups made it. I bumped (literally) into Maggie at Brooks Farm. Saw Kathe at lunch while waiting in line for lamb kabobs and lamb ravioli. Then there were the various knitting celebs we happened upon. Saw Franklin, Ann & Kay, Amy Singer and the Yarn Harlot.

The weather was chilly but perfect for sweaters. The trees were beautiful and it was just generally a lovely weekend. Can't wait to come back next year!


And just when you got into the traffic leaving and thought you were safe from temptation, there were these ladies hocking bunnies on the side of Route 9.


I don't really want to contemplate the enormity of what I bought, but if you do check it out:

Click to see notes

Stick a fork in'er!

Miss Enid is done and I couldn't be happier. Ok, I'll admit I haven't put on the buttons yet, but I don't really care, I still think of it as finished. And I now have a pretty sweet alpaca cardigan. Jealous?


Enid Cardigan by Veronik Avery
From Interweave Knits, Winter 2006

Yarn: A Touch of Twist Alpaca, sport weight in Black (from Rhinebeck) approx.1200 yards? I didn't quite use up all of the two hanks.
Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light 3 colors (wool/alpaca blend)
Blue Sky Alpaca Sport Weight (3 colors) (both yarns bought at Yarntopia)

I didn't quite go with the color scheme that I had laid out in an earlier post. But I like the way this turned out anyway. It's a modified bohus-style colorwork and I think the black sets off the colors very nicely. They really pop. The alpaca feels wonderful and while there are areas where gauge issues are apparent, for the most part the fabric looks really good. I was a bit worried about how it would hold up to steeking, but there doesn't seem to have been any problems.

This is my first steeked project, but I liked it so much that I quickly cast on for another from the same issue of Interweave. The crocheted reinforcement was probably a bit excessive on my part, but I really wanted to be sure. So the button bands tend to be a bit bulky where they cover the steek reinforcement.

2 True Things and 1 False

1. Enid is almost ready for steeking.
2. I'm totally ready for my presentation tomorrow at the paint research conference.
3. I have not cast on for the Venezia Pullover.

Can you guess which one of those statements is false? Because I'm certainly in denial about it.

It's true. Enid is almost ready for steeking.


I picked up a small crochet hook on my way back to the office this afternoon (after a fascinating site visit to a townhouse on the UES which served to confirm my belief that I would be the best rich person ever). But I plan on crocheting the steek edges just as soon as I finish the bottom hem. Unfortunately, that will have to wait until after I do my presentation for the conference tomorrow. Nothing like leaving things til the last minute, eh Jen?

But that means I've been good and I haven't cast on for Venezia. Hopefully I won't decide in a fit of last minute procrastination tonight that it sounds like a good idea.

I'm excited for the conference but also concerned that these international paint researchers will find my presentation a) boring or -worse- b) common knowledge. Luckily, I'll only be a few blocks from Yarntopia so if it's a total snoozefest I can head over there on my breaks and get a knitting fix instead of making polite conversation with total strangers.

Ok. Off to gather images and write about the infiltration of the Modernist decorating aesthetic into commercial paint catalogs in the 1930s!

Correction:

Ok I know I said several months ago that I had the best weekend ever, but I was wrong. This weekend totally topped it in terms of scope and diversity of enjoyment. I had a delicious dinner on Friday night at Community Food (& Juice) followed by a delicious brunch (French Toast, carmelized bananas and white rum caramel? hell yes!) the next day at The Smith with some energy expended strolling around the East and West Village and browsing at The Strand. There was football and knitting and I was simply flying through the colorwork on Enid. It was unbelievably enjoyable.

Then Sunday dawned and I was out of bed early for a matinee of There Will Be Blood. I really should do these early $6 movies more often. Especially if it's a movie like this one where I literally couldn't take my eyes of Daniel Day-Lewis. Give the man the Oscar now and let's be done with it. I cannot say enough good things about this movie.

After that I finally got my butt in gear and joined a new gym, paid a visit to Target and managed to get home in time to see the Colts lose and the G-men pull out a win over Dallas. A very productive day! And on top of that Enid is progressing very nicely. I'm doing the collar bind off now and then I plan on adding more length to the body before doing the hem and prepping for the steeks.

Knitting with Scissors?

I hope that there was a really good reason that Enid was given that name because honestly, I don't think it does her justice. (Maybe it was someone's favorite aunt? I certainly hope so.) I'm sitting here, looking at pictures of the work in progress just marvelling at how beautiful the stockinette stitch looks on the sleeves. Do I credit the yarn or my own not insubstantial innate abilities^? I don't know, but either way I'm beginning to understand what the Harlot talks about when she describes how beautiful knitting can make her fear she's becoming simple. I mean, look at this:


click for BIG

I just want to curl up on the couch with this sweater and never move from my seat. I'm a half inch away from starting the colorwork and I swore I would hold off posting until I had something that was not a big black blob to show, but the sight of those neat little v's just made it impossible. I mean look at them! Precious! The yarn is a delight to work with but, as is typical with alpaca, it shows up mistakes pretty glaringly. There have been a few mistakes, mainly of the tension variety, and even though I've tried to fix them, it doesn't look quite right. Also, I have to confess that I'm a bit worried about the prospect of steeking. But Dona promised to hold my hand through the entire process, and it's still a ways off yet so we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.

As if the prospect of taking scissors to one big knitting project wasn't enough, this arrived today (or possibly yesterday. The box was sitting in the conference room and someone neglected to inform me that a big box of yarn had showed up with my name on it until I saw it there at lunch):



It's the Kauni yarn from Webs. That'll be turned into Venezia (Ravelry link).

Yeah, I'm out of my mind.

^sarcasm indicator

Christmas Recap

Wow. That was fun. Let's get to the goods, shall we?


Pattern: Voyager Lace Stole from Elann.com
Yarn: School Products Supergeelong Coned Yarn
Needle: umm... 7?
Yardage: Goodness knows, but I've still got plenty left.

This project, a Christmas gift for my Aunt Judy, was my first real experiment with lace and my first experiment with coned yarns.

In my naivete, I thought it might be fun to just knit right off the cone. And then I read this post by the Yarn Harlot way back before Rhinebeck and all that changed. The yarn is a coned wool yarn from School Products and this is how it looked before I washed it:


Pretty much like straw

And on the left is the yarn after:


Washed vs. Unwashed

Pretty amazing, really. Plus, it was a heck of a lot more fun to knit when it was this soft. And once the stole was washed and blocked it was even softer. Very nice. I still have a bunch left over and used some of it to make a balaclava for my bro.

This towel rack was the best model ever.

One yarn, two Christmas gifts: can't beat that. (Although Dad kept asking why I knit everything in black. Ugh!)

There were these little guys:

I learned to crochet for real. How about that?

There was also a clutch for Cousin Jess that I had intended to line with fabric. I found some bonding web in the sewing kit and thought I'd use that. I grabbed the iron and discovered it wouldn't turn on. I tried several outlets, no luck. Dad tells me "Jiggle the wire." I do this and a flame shoots out of the cord and nearly singes my hand.

Singe marks are never a good sign.


It is quite possibly the oldest iron in the history of the world, a Sunbeam Jewel series, (with a fabric covered cord!) so I don't know why I was surprised. I'm pretty sure I've seen this iron in house museums where they replicate the way a room would've looked in a given time period. Pity it had to happen on Christmas Eve after all the gifts had been purchased and wrapped.

The gifting in general turned out very nice, but I still have one item that is in severe need of help. It's a felted Giants pillow I made for Dad.


I tried stranding at first, but that got way too messy and complicated so I switched to intarsia which was a vast improvement. Only problem was, I continued stranding the white and without the aid of a swatch (yes, my own damn fault) I was completely unaware of how much the fabric would shrink on the horizontal relative to the vertical (or whatever) so there's a fair bit of pulling across the center which not even I can rationalize as a "design feature." The pillow further suffered the indignity of having an insert that was too small (I opted for a 12x12 pillow insert, should've gone for 12x16, but again that whole vertical vs. horizontal shrinkage differential took me by surprise) and a lack of adequate buttons. I could not find a SINGLE button in Michaels this week and I'm extremely irritated that I had to raid my mom's old sewing basket for buttons - but for some reason I actually found a set of 4 that match! Oh yeah, and I also completely forgot to do the i-cord border before I felted the damn thing. EZ didn't call it the idiot cord for nothing.

As for me, thanks to the wonder that is my Amazon wishlist and the not-so-subtle hints I dropped to Dad and my brothers, I wound up with some things I completely love this year. Only one item had to be returned and that was because I got two of them! Thankfully they have accepted that, yes, I actually knit and, no, it's not funny. I got Inspired Fair Isle Knits by Fiona Ellis although Jenn from DC thinks I should've requested a spinning wheel ;) heh. I also got some books about art theft that I've been eyeing which led to some interesting questions and (2 copies) of the My So-Called Life DVD (Dad says he didn't think anyone watched that show. I asked him if he completely forgot my hypersensitive, moody teenage phase and thinks I've always been this well-adjusted?).

There has been knitting on Enid, yes. But I seem to have strained my neck and shoulders which makes knitting slightly painful right now. I'm very unhappy about that :(

On Sweaters

I've progressed to the point on Enid where the time comes to divide for the front and back and start on sleeves. It is at this point that I have an epiphany: This is so not fun. This is essentially the same point I stalled on the Blaze sweater but luckily instead of way too many cables, I have the prospect of some awesome stranded color knitting to encourage me through some dull sleeve knitting. I'll definitely be doing both sleeves at the same time on two circs rather than even attempting to do them on dpns. Never again!

What is the appeal of sweaters with all these pieces? Why didn't I try to do this top down and seamless? (oh yeah, because I still think I'm a n00b and have no desire to muck up this project due to my own inadequacies rather than something I can blame on things that are not my fault like pattern errors or yarn inadequacies)

I'm also stalled a bit in the holiday gift department. The clutch for Cousin Jess has been knit and felted and is now in need of some trim and fabric lining (I'm thinking Hula girls). I washed another hank of the yarn for Aunt Judy's stole last night so once that's done drying I can resume with the knitting. But the rest of the gifts are at a standstill. So I feel I have no choice but to revert to that favorite organizational tool of mine: the numbered list. This is however complicated by the fact that secret holiday gift knitting is not the kind of thing that benefits from being publicized in blog format.

1. Clutch for Jess
2. Stole for Aunt Judy
3. Giants Pillow for Dad
4. ____ for JN
5. ____ for TF
6. ____ for MC
7. ____ for LW
8. Socks for Ryan
9. Socks for Dad
10. Balaclava for Chris
11. ___ for TA
12. ___ for KH

heh. see?

I May Have Cheated

and cast on for the selfish sweater.



I know the poll wasn't over yet but it was clear that Enid was in the lead and I haven't worked on a colorwork project in ages (hello! look at the blog title!) that I really couldn't resist.

So Enid is being made using black sport weight baby alpaca from A Touch of Twist, a vendor at Rhinebeck. I'm currently about 4 inches in on the body of the sweater and the baby alpaca is definitely the kind of yarn I just want to rub my face in.

So last night at my Yarntopia SnB I made some purchases (I'll admit that's another reason I was excited for this project). I was hoping the Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light would have more colors, but the reds are just a bit too bright for what I want to do with this sweater. I still managed to pick out three colors for the bottom and top tiers of color and then browsed a bit this morning to find something in another yarn that will go well with those original three colors. My decision is made easier because the main color is black, but it's still quite a challenge. I finally decided to use Blue Sky Alpacas Melange.

So at left is what I've come up with. From the top it's UAL 4283 (Lavender Mix), 4287 (Denim Mix), and 4294 (Turquoise Mix). In the middle, Melange 809 (Toasted Almond) 800 (Cornflower) and 811 (Bubblegum). And then at the bottom the top colors are mixed up a bit with 4294 on top, 4283 in the middle and 4287 at the bottom. I'm liking the digital version and just hope that the colors are true enough that it'll really reflect what I'm getting.

I think it's a really good sign that, for a project that is made up of a lot of stockinette, I'm so excited to get home and knit on it. This will definitely encourage me to buy really wonderful yarn for plain projects. The prospect of steeking makes me feel a little sick to my stomach, but I'm game.