Rhinebeck Bingo

I'm pretty sure I signed up to play Rhinebeck Bingo. I'll be there both days. Most of Saturday I'll be helping out at the Bijou Basin Ranch (Yak yarn) booth - the benefits of being a yarn rep...otherwise you might find me wandering through the animal barns giving out samples of Unicorn Fibre Wash and Fibre Rinse (another benefit of being a yarn rep). If not there, then fondling fiber and yarn!

See you at Rhinebeck!

A Tale of Two Sweaters

At just about the same time last year (2008), I was putting the finishing touches on my 'Rhinebeck' sweater - the fabulous "Wisteria" designed by Kate Gilbert and available at http://www.twistcollective.com/

I love, love, love this sweater. It fits. It's comfortable. It knit up so quickly that I was amazed. The yarn I used, Steadfast Fibers Wonderful Wool in 'Columbine,' is an Aran weight, so the sweater is a little denser, which made all the difference between warm and cold at Rhinebeck, because it was a chilly, windy weekend. I also fell in love with what I considered the opalescent qualities of the color, and kept going back to Windsor Button Shop in Boston and buying a skein or two at a time, until I saw Wisteria on the Twist Collective website, and I knew immediately, what I had been buying the yarn for!

I must admit that I enjoyed all the nice comments about the sweater that I got, and I was thrilled to run into Kate Gilbert wearing her Wisteria, not once, but twice!

Now it's 2009, and I have a new 'Rhinebeck' sweater. This one is a stranded pattern based on Andean motifs, and knit in Plymouth Paca Tweed. It is a sample knit for Donna Druchunas' upcoming book, "Ethnic Knitting Discoveries." She provides the ethnic motifs and worksheets and then the reader gets to design their own sweater! It works! Really well. The sweater is steeked at the neck and armholes. I was a little concerned about alpaca being a little more slippery than wool, so before I sewed and cut the steeks, I hand-felted them a little. I had no problem with the steeks or with picking up stitches for the armhole and around the neck.



Once again I happily report that the sweater fits nicely (I am very short-waisted), is extremely comfortable, and since the weather report for the weekend sounds like it will be even colder, and perhaps wetter, than last year, I'll let you know how well a double layer of alpaca works.

I've Been Busy

Who am I to be picky? I kept waiting to blog until I had some good pictures, but in the meantime LOTS of good stuff happened. I went to Rhinebeck - what a blast! The Knit-A-Yarn crew went to film and interview, so we were there for three days, and I still didn't get to see everything! I did manage to get some shopping in, of course. I feel like a bought a little of everything. The one thing I kept missing was hooking up with the Ravelry people. It took me over a week to recover from that trip.

I got two skeins of boucle yarn at half price because they were dyeing misadventures. I knit up one into a shawl.

It has a collar because I sort of mitered it by increasing down the center, as well as increasing at the edge. The actual color of the skein can be seen in the small hank of left-over yarn. I overdyed the shawl with blue food coloring. I'm much happier with the new color.

I love the ball band dishcloth pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting, so a bunch of people will be getting dishcloths/washcloths paired with a fabulous bar of soap from Frost Fish Cove Soaps. I've already given this set away to a good friend.

I'm trying to confine my knitting to promised items with a deadline (like the Aran sweater) and holiday gifts. I have finished one major gift for my niece - an entrelac hat (my design) and scarf knit in Nashua Wooly Stripes. I have a pinwheel sweater on the needles for another niece, and several sets of cabled wrist-warmers laying about that just need to have the thumbs knitted in. What is it about knitting thumbs that leads to procrastination?

Being this disciplined is extremely hard, since I have the yarn for two sweaters for me that I'm itching to get started on: a lovely entrelac jacket by Sarah James to be done in Noro yarn, and a pullover sweater by Ella Rae (details eventually).