One Crazy Fiber Lady

Time for the weekly update.  Sadly, I have no photos of knitting to show right about now.  I’ve been too busy doing stuff and forgetting about the camera.  There has been progress on multiple fronts though beyond the wheeling and dealing. 

Speaking of wheeling an dealing, the Victoria will have a new home and she will be shipped out imminently.  I am replacing her with another highly portable wheel that makes more sense when the other wheels in the collection are taken into account.  I’ve ordered a Majacraft Little Gem 2.  As I already have a cache of standard bobbins ( Suzie and the Fricke E-spinner) and a Woolee Winder (Suzie) to fit it, as well as the skein winder, it just made more sense than a lone Louet. After I told mom that I was selling the Victoria, she asked which wheel I would use to spin on the boat?!  The Hitchhiker had served that role, but she too was in a new home. Not that I spin on the boat all that much, um only once if I recall correctly, but it was enough to put the bug in my head.  Add in I had just seen Deb’s little Gem on Saturday, the seed was planted (btw she has an excellent recap of the day).  So I went for it.  Tax refund and yearly raise time   It should be here before MD$W, fingers crossed! 

So yes, there’s been knitting going on.  Evenings have been devoted to finishing up Setesdal.  Sunday saw the end of the button bands, Monday I finished the collar and last night I got the sleeves sewed in.  Tonight I sew on the buttons and call this baby done.  I have some small round buttons from the button box that go perfectly with it.  I’ll most definitely be taking pictures of it this evening.  Good timing too as the shower is Saturday.  I have to admit, I did not enjoy knitting the bands on this thing.  The Baby Ull was very splitty on the US0 needles, especially on the purl rows.  I was never so glad as to bind off the last one.

Speaking of splitty, I finished the Vesper Neapolitan socks.  The colors are gorgeous and I managed to get identical twin socks out of it, but honestly, it is too softly spun for my preferences.  I had major issues with splitting and had to watch each and every stitch.  Since socks are predominantly my mindless commuting knitting, I don’t want to focus so very much on them.  The yarn required me to do so.  I finished the last one at the SnB Thursday night.  Friday morning I started the next pair.  This time using the discontinued and returned to production Trekking XXL 126.  I picked it up on eBay a couple of weeks ago (right around when I finally got my hands on the Vesper Neapolitan).  I finished the first one this morning.  For a change, I’m working cuff down, short row heel and grafted the toe.  I cast on for the second while standing on the PATH platform waiting for the train.  They’re definitely going to be fraternal twins (unlike the Vesper pair).  I’m rather partial to frats for some reason

Thursday night I also restarted Spring Things.  I wasn’t thrilled with how it was coming out in the KSH.  While the KSH is a lovely yarn and definitely crack-worthy, I just wasn’t feeling the love with this pattern, not to mention the less than spring color I had picked (though with the way the spring weather has been in this area lately it is appropriate if not gloomy).  So Thursday I wandered around MY when I spotted the right yarn.  Enter more Claudia Handpaint Silk.  The color is "Pink Posey" and if that doesn’t shout SPRING I don’t know what does.  And Dorre, after I got home, I did restart it with the smaller US4 needles   I like it much better and have gotten through I think 4 of the 13 repeats of chart 1.

Other than that, I’ve been doing a little spinning.  About an arm’s length of Spunky Eclectics beautiful BFL roving in the Rocky Mountain High is left on the Suzie.  It is spinning up at my standard sockweight.  Sunday night I started the Big Yellow Taxi roving from Crown Mountain on the Lendrum Upright.  Also spinning up at my standard weight of sock.  It goes without saying that the 8oz will take me just shy of forever to spin.  Now you know why I have so many wheels!  Its the only way I can get some spinning variety without mucking around with settings and changing bobbins.  New colorful rovings are on my list for MD$W purchases.

That’s about it for the moment.  Pictures of actual knitting soon!

Craft on!

I expect that most of you are now used to my rather sporadic posting.  I have to admit, I’m not.  I liked posting more often and well, miss it.  But then there’s the whole time crunch thing.  There’s a secondary problem that if I don’t post for a while, I want to write about so much that I expect it will take forever to get that one out of me that I don’t actually do it, compounding the short absence to a longer and longer one.  Someday I’ll have it all figured out.   

This week has been rather crappy at work, but at least going rather well outside the office.  Which is good.  The kids finally went back to school yesterday.  The daycare center director apologized profusely for the length of the "spring break" and thanked us for our patience.  She’s have a "parent appreciation dinner" next week and has changed the remaining vacation schedule to make up for the additional 6 days that they took now.  Nice lady.  Excellent center.   Miss Kat went wearing big girl panties yesterday for the first time.  She did rather well, with only a small accident.  Naturally I sent extra clothes for such emergencies.  She was so excited this morning that she announced she would hold it until she got to school.  Mom and I convinced her otherwise.   She’s an odd duck

This weekend another one of the wheels went off to a new home.  The cute little hitchhiker is now living with new spinner, Dorre.  I have to come clean now and announce publicly (beyond the comments dropped around blogosphere over the last day or two and in emails) that I ordered its replacement.  I ordered a Schacht Matchless ST from WoollyManor.  I’ve been looking at this wheel for a while and know that is quite popular around the blogosphere.  It just seemed the right time, what with tax refunds on their way.  Sadly, it won’t arrive in time for the trip to MD$W (I booked my hotel on Monday – woot! – staying in the same place as 2 years ago.  Kim and Dorre are staying there too!)  According to the email I got yesterday, it is expected to ship from the factory around May 7. 

In preparation, I’ve been doing a little spinning recently.  I sat down at the Lendrum Saxony Sunday night and was finally motivated to see if I could figure out why the hell the thing squeaked so badly.  I knew it was coming from the front edge of the treadles where a metal bar went through and fit into the front legs.  After oiling and otherwise lubricating the heck out of it, mom sat and watched as I spun (and cringed listening to the squeak).  Result?  The metal bar flexes as I treadle.  It flexes enough that it rubs against one side of the treadle because while the metal is bending, the wood is not.  Little I can do to lubricate for that.  No wonder I oiled the hell out of it for naught.  I had a bit of a brainstorm and pulled a pole out of the closet that I use to get hangers up to the upper rod.  I put the pole against the block between the treadles, out back under the wheel with the other end jammed against a table leg to prevent the bar from flexing.  It worked!  I was able to spin without any squeaking!  Now I have to come up with some kind of permanent rigging, like a piece of wood from the bar to the back leg.  But at least I can use this wheel without the frustrating noise.

I finished knitting the body for Setesdal.  Sunday morning the sewing machine came out and I seamed and the cut the steeks.  Instead of knitting the neck area flat as the pattern suggested, I steeked there too.  I’d much rather do that than knit two color flat.  Bleh.  Unfortunately, while I was picking up the stitches for the first button band, some of the white ends slipped out of the machine sewing.  I grabbed them before they could unravel too far and hand sewed them into place.  I think I’m going to reinforce with some iron-on interfacing.  I have until next weekend (4/21) to finish and might just make it.

Because I’m really lacking in projects, I started a new one at the SnB last week.  It is the Susan’s new pattern, Spring Things.  I’m using crack Kidsilk Haze in a color number I don’t quite remember and can’t check as it is at home.  The Vesper Neapolitan socks are the current commuter project.  I purchased silver lined crystal beads from EarthFaire, which arrived yesterday.  I’m up to a little over 100 stitches per row at this point, but it has taken a back seat to the socks, Setesdal and the Mitered Squares.

I found another sock yarn accidentally last week that I just had to order.  Pretty colors and I love the idea that it is packaged with a coordinating heel/toe color.  I went a little nutsy though and have 6 different skeins.  Two arrived after this picture was taken.  It is Duet Sock and I look forward to trying it out.  I’ll probably hit one of these after the Vesper socks are done of which I’m well into the second sock now.  Unlike my standard, this yarn is DK weight so it should make for some fast socks. 

That’s about it for now, hopefully another post sooner than later.

Craft on!

I can’t believe the amount of time that elapses between posts these days.  Between work and the kids, it really comes down to knitting or blogging.  Recently, unfortunately, the blogging has been given the short shrift.  I’ve composed a dozen posts in my head, but actually sitting down and typing doesn’t always happen. 

While I was in NYC on Thursday, I wasn’t able to represent.  Damn.  Judging by all the posts, I missed some good fun.  Looking forward to MDSW all the more now.  Especially since the folks have already agreed that they’ll watch the children for the weekend enabling me to go unencumbered.  I’ve been debating between staying with my sister in Lancaster area or getting a room near the fairgrounds again.  I’m leaning towards the hotel, probably the same one I stayed in two years ago with the twins.  It was a nice place and convenient to the grounds.  Oh wait, I think I’ve got the answer.  I head out to sister’s house Friday night and use that as my launch base Saturday late morning.  Hit the fairgrounds Sat afternoon and then to the hotel for the night with the fair the main event on Sunday.  There we go.  Sounds like a plan to me

While potty training has, in the past, been less than successful around here, we’ve finally made a breakthrough with Kat.  I took Kristen’s suggestion of M&M’s for potty success.  Though the bag sat unopened for close to a month, it has finally worked.  That’s not to say that we’re down to periodic accidents, not by a long shot, and the boy doesn’t even try, but at least Kat is starting to get it.  I got the first "I have to go potty" out while shopping yesterday!  We’re close and maybe this week’s vacation will do the trick. 

Speaking of which, due to the sale of the school building probably, they’ve had to reschedule their spring break from the first week of April to next week.  Fortunately my work is flexible enough that this isn’t a problem, I can’t imagine what someone with a less flex job has to face.  I’ll be home thru Wednesday so I’ll probably be scarce but you never now.

In all that, I have been knitting.  Icarus is now halfway through Chart 2.  Love it, but it comes out of the bag and can’t be commuting knitting any more.  Its no longer the mindless knit it was.  It is a pain to photograph and is certainly at the shapeless lump of floss stage so any further photos will be at the finish line.

I finally cast on for the second STR sock yesterday morning.  I knit on sporadically during the day.

Friday night I finished the second sleeve for Setesdal.  Yesterday during nap, I cast on for the body.  I had some serious brain farts in trying to get 154 sts into a 2×2 rib.  Took me three tries, but now I have 3/4" of ribbing done.  Geez…

I managed to actually finish something too.  On Monday (3/19) I finally got to the end of the Swallowtail Shawl in the Sea Silk that I started a while ago.  Its now sitting in the pile of lace that needs to be blocked.  Someday.  Maybe today if the twins cooperate.  Ha ha ha.

Having seen a lot of links to Loopy Ewe, I finally went and bought something myself.  I had to get the German Stocking pattern and some Louet to knit them.  High in the queue these babies are.  Service was super fast.  I’ll definitely be shopping there again.

 
The pattern indicates 3-5 skeins are necessary, but I figure with my little skinny feet that I should be able to get by with the 3.  I seriously hope so, I only bought 3

I have a few other projects in the prep stages too.  I’d like very much to knit the Mitered Square blanket from Mason-Dixon.  I ordered Mission Falls Cotton from Purl in a variety of colors.  It was on sale cheap and currently winging its way to me.   Its a cute blanket and I like the idea that each block doesn’t get larger as in the Log Cabin.  I’ll probably supplement with some other yarn I have in stash.  I recently did a little spelunking and came up with forgotten packs of Rowans All-Season Cotton, some Cotton-Ease, and quite the cache of TLC Cotton Plus.  Put together, it should make for a good blanket. 

Time for more coffee and a little knitting…

Craft on!

This past Saturday was the big day.  In an exhausting day of schlepping furniture, books, yarn and other necessities of daily life, I moved down the hall to the former master bedroom. 

A little odd if I might say so, though it was different enough with my own furniture and carpet-less floor that I wasn’t totally creeped out being in my parents’ room   The painters started yesterday converting the two tone brown walls into sunny yellow and white for me.  The second coat goes on today, which should bring an end to work in my new room.  Tomorrow, what will be Kat’s room gets a new coat to tone down the pepto-pink (all four walls, ceiling and trim in the same shade!) to something that shouldn’t make the kid sick living there.  There’s pink and then there’s PINK.   Alex’s room is being finished today too.  He got my parents’ old beige carpeting that I ripped in favor of the oak instead of the rose carpet.   Anyway, the end is definitely in sight and I believe this week marks the end of this whole process, which, other than Sara’s foot (fully healed) and her coat (growing back) was pretty much painless.

Needless to say that in the hub-bub that was this weekend, knitting was very much minimal.  That doesn’t mean that there was no knitting.  I still have the train and lunch to contend with.  I finished off the first of the Decadence socks last night during 24.

(Yes, that is my newly yellow wall with the white chair rail, and my Ikea dresser).  I’m using the lace pattern from Hedera on this sock.  I love it.  Kristen at Modern Yarn was knitting a pair of Hedera’s in Lorna’s or maybe Claudia Handpaint (short term memory is rather weak) this past Thursday at the SnB.  It really is a cute pattern and she thought it would look stunning in the solid yarn.  She’s absolutely right.  I cast on for the second sock immediately after finishing this one.  I have a lot of sock yarn to burn through

I might have mentioned a little sock yarn shopping last week.  I was a bit bummed by events at work and what does a girl do when she gets down?  The tough go shopping!  The two skeins at the bottom are Lornas Laces Shepherd Sock in Mineshaft (bottom)and I think Gold Hill.  They were in trade for the second skeins of the Black Purl and the Jeans.  Having discovered I only need one skein, MY was excellent enough to let me swap the second skeins for alternate colorways. 

The others, from left to right are, STR Lightweight in Lucy (which not so coincidentally is the same colors as my late and beloved Baron ), a lovely hand dyed merino sock yarn from fibersnthreads, Chocolate Pink Cherry from Fearless Fibers, and Neopolitan from Yarn Pirate.  Why yes, I spent some time on Etsy.  Nice.  Must knit faster!

Tomorrow is the hop-a-thon at the twins’ school (provided they aren’t snowed out!).  I want to thank everyone for their kind donations.  If anyone was thinking of donating and hadn’t, today is the last day I can take it.  I need to write a check out to send to school with them tomorrow.  As a reminder (and I don’t think I made this very clear in the initial posts), it is a flat donation.  Not a per hop pledge.  No way would I ask that!  Two hyper 3 year olds?  Who could count that! 

Time to go off and code something.

Craft on!

First I hope that everyone had a happy and healthy Christmas.  I was a busy little knitter whilst trying to avoid the last minute crush at the mall and finding something to do while the whole area shut down

Thursday night was the Knit n Nog at Modern Yarn.  What a serious blast that was!  The place was packed with all the regulars PLUS I finally got to meet Deborah in person!  I did the finish work on Ariann but left the buttons for Friday night and moved onto STS edging for the remainder of the evening.  Wasn’t much that got done thanks to the NOG and  shopping as I finally made use of my 25% discount and picked up enough Cascade 220 to knit two sweaters, including a second Ariann.

After getting home, I had to quickly wrap up the teacher gifts as they needed to go to school the next day.  Ain’t nothing like leaving it to the last minute, huh?  Here they are all lined up with the supervisor looking on.

Friday night was devoted to finishing off Ariann, which got blocked on Saturday.  I need to do a little touchup work on the buttonholes.  Either the buttons are too small, or the holes are too big, whatever it is, the darn things don’t stay closed.  As I love the buttons with the yarn, I’m going to sew the hole a tad smaller.  Right now though, I’ve taken to wearing it open!

Sorry.  None of the head shots are even remotely presentable so you’ll have to live with the Ichibod Crane versions.

After blocking out Ariann, I went back to work on the Shetland Tea Shawl.  I finally finished the bugger around lunch time on Sunday.  Dad had taken the shorties out for hotdogs and a trip to the park.  That allowed me to finish it off and get it blocked out.  Whew.  Glad this anniversary shawl didn’t hit the anniversary mark!  I fell about a month short of that date.  Lovely shawl and I’m so glad it is finally done.

Here she is hanging on the door to my desk armoire.

As an aside, the color in the second picture is true (at least on my monitor).  That picture is also courtesy of the Rebel.  Man that camera takes some lovely pictures. 

Now that I’ve finished off a couple of projects, that meant I could start something new!   As STS was drying, I had pulled out the yarn for the next one.  This time it is the Forest Canopy Shawl in Claudia’s Handpaint, Plumicious colorway.  What a great project this one is.  I think it would be fabulous for a newbie lace knitter.  It isn’t terribly difficult and very easy to memorize.  Par for the course though, it is terrible to photograph under way!

I found a sunny spot in the house this afternoon!  My new bedroom to be has a west facing window and this sun patch was on the folks’ bed.  I quickly took advantage of it as my current room only has north facing windows.  The Rebel ate this one up!

Having spent a day playing with the new shawl, I started a new sweater yesterday.  I joined Julia in an informal KAL of Celtic Dreams.  I’ve been intrigued by this sweater forever.  So when she mentioned it as a possibility, I joined up, ordering Blackwater Abbey Yarn in Bracken, as well as, the pattern.  I’m pretty sure I mentioned this before.  Well before the others go too terribly ahead of me, and since I had promised to join as soon as Ariann was done, there was no time like the present.  I cast on yesterday!

It took me a little longer than I expected to get really underway.  Deb, you’ll be amused to know that I had gauge issues with the shoulder saddles too.  The suggested needles are a US7/4.5mm.  Using that needle, my saddle was a 3" wide rather than the 2.5" the pattern indicated.  Ugh.  I dropped down in size and finally wound up with a 3mm Addi Natura.  Aran weight yarn on essentially a US2?  Oy.  I’m surprisingly far into it now.  Even further than this picture indicates.  I’m two rows from putting the back on hold and starting the front and have finished the second of the 24 row pattern repeats.

I’m off this week entertaining the monkeys during their school holiday so I’m hoping to get some bonus knitting time.  Tomorrow we’re heading down to visit my sister and her boys.  Thursday we’re hoping to get together with Lisa and her daughter for some ceramic painting and lunch. 

Today Mom and I keep them busy with a trip to Montclair looking for 32" wood circs in a 3mm.  Modern Yarn was closed, but I did get Naturas at Stix-n-Stitches.   I’m also incapable of leaving a yarn store with just needles.  I had to get the methadone of knitters:  sock yarn.  This time a skein of Austermann Step in Color 8.  I’m intrigued by that whole Aloe Vera/Jojoba Oil in the yarn.  It was one of those great mail days as well!  My Frangipani arrived today, as well as the next in the Sundara Petals collection (which puts me 3 behind now   Also sitting in the mailbox was the skein of SeaSilk in Pumpkin that I bought from Knit-Purl last week earmarked to be Eunny’s Print of the Wave scarf.

I’m pretty well set for stash knitting

Craft on!

I am seriously weak in the whole willpower arena.  I made a vow not to buy any more yarn.   Well that was right after ordering the Galway to make the Drive-Thru for Alex.  Is it a truly bad thing that I just bought this?

Maybe it is a serious case of wheel envy.  I’m sure that’s a part of it.  But more likely, I’m just terribly weak when faced with a new, tiny spinning wheel. 

I don’t even want to count the wheels I have.  I might have to cull the herd a bit.  I can think of two (three) that might be looking for a new home soon..

Ugh, I need a huge project to keep the shopping down!

Craft on!

I promise, this is my last Rhinebeck related post.  Tomorrow we shall return to the regularly scheduled postings that actually involve using stuff rather than just acquiring it!  I do have a finished object to show, though it was spotted on the girl at Rhinebeck, but formalities must be met.

I present the fiber acquisitions in no particular order:

First, the fiber preparer.  A 12 gram Canarywood Featherweight from the Bosworths.

This is one ounce of bison roving.  It is soooo soft.  I seriously fondled the skeins of spun yarn they had and when I spotted this roving, I knew I had to have some.  The most expensive of my purchases at $25 an ounce.  I hear it wants to be spun very fine.  My kind of fiber!

4.5 ounces of the most delicious Icelandic Lamb / Bombyx Silk roving from Frelsi Farm.  I bought the Featherweight from the Bosworths after picking this up.  This is going to be laceweight for another of those wonderful shawls.

Two batts of LincolnX from Barneswallow Farms.  I’m planning on plying together one of each color for some Kat approved yarn.  Not sure of an end product, but that is nothing new for me. 

I picked up these two rovings from Cloverleaf Farms.  The green is 80/20 Wool/Silk in the Dragon colorway.  The other is 100% Wensleydale in the Autumn F06 colorway.  The wensleydale is destined to be sock yarn.  Your guess is as good as mine as to what the other will become.  Both are 4oz.

One pound of delicious cormo from Alice Fields as Foxhill Farm.  I love cormo.  I love cormo from Alice Fields even more.  Each trip to Maryland, against my better judgment and the no new fleece moratorium, has involved my buying a new cormo fleece from her.  She actually pulled this bag for Karen, who I went up with on Sunday.  Except Karen didn’t want it so I jumped!  Lucky me!!!!  Mine, mine, all mine.

Last, but certainly not least, the spoils of two trips into the tent of Little Barn. From left to right:

8oz of Natural Tussah Silk (was a show special)
1lb of Bleached Irish Linen (it was buy one, get one special – yeah, lost my mind)
1lb of BFL combed top in Black
4oz of 60/40 High Grade Cashmere / A-1 Mulberry Bombyx (had to have it!)
8oz Gotland roving
8oz 100′s merino roving

This brings us to the end of the feeding frenzy.  As Rachel H. so aptly put it, "You may have been confused by the lack of stroller on Sunday, but by the looks
of things it didn’t impair your shopping abilities one bit. Very Impressive."   Thanks Rachel!  Now to begin to use some of this stuff before Maryland!

Craft on!

While Saturday at Rhinebeck was primarily for socializing, Sunday was for shopping.  It has been a while since I bought any fiber of substance at a festival.  Last year’s NYS&W yielded only a pound of shetland rovings.  I made up for it.

Paige at Modern Yarn organized a group trip from the store to the fairgrounds.  I volunteered to drive, arranging to borrow the folks’ 7 seater GMC Envoy so as to get more folk to the fair in fewer cars.  It was a great group of women, most of whom I know pretty well from the weekly SnB, including the very talented Ina, as well as the blogless Katie, Nancy, Christine, Karen and Donna.  We met at the store at 7:30AM, which meant leaving by 7AM for me to get there on time.  I might have trouble getting my arse out of bed to get to work, but a festival?  That’s a horse of a different color.  I sprung out of bed, got dressed, made breakfast and even had time to stop at Dunkin Donuts for a large coffee before having to hit the road.  It was nice driving up with the ladies as they held conversations in a far different way than the twins did the day before, well when the twins were awake that is. 

Before I knew it, we were at the fairgrounds.  9:15AM.  Unbelievable.  After a trip to the ladies room and we were all ready to shop.  First stop was building A.  At that time of the morning, it was blessedly empty and I made a beeline for Brooks Farm and the Four Play that I’ve coveted for another Clapotis.  (Only one of the 3 skeins is photographed.  As always, click the pics to make them bigger.)

Next purchasing stop was the Skaska Designs booth.  I picked up a skein of 80/20 Silk/Cashmere laceweight and the pattern for the Orenburg Lace Triangle.  This is high in the queue for after finishing some of the other existing lace projects (of which I managed 2 rounds on Shetland Tea Shawl today on the train, but I digress again).  I don’t look forward to pulling out the ballwinder for this skein as it is 1600 yards!  This isn’t going to be my first attempt at an Orenburg shawl.  (Someone remind me to show the handspun gossamer merino and beginning of the Pine Tree Shawl from the Designs book.)

After that the purchases all seem rather random and I can’t tell what happened next, but there was much rejoicing.  Might was well continue with the trend and show the yarn acquisitions..

I picked up this dark brown Border Leceister yarn to knit myself a gansey.. oh and a pattern for one too!  Though I could always use the Beth Brown-Reinsel book that is sitting on the shelf.

There’s this skein of 816 yards of Denim colorway merino yarn.  I sooooo loved the color that I just had to get it.  Not sure what it will grow up to be, but it will be something.  Suggestions would be most welcome.  At the very least, it would make a good Clapotis Trois.

Then there is the 8.5oz of 3550 ypp Icelandic Laceweight from Tongue River Farm.  I’m set now to make a couple of shawls from the fabulous book.  Again, not looking forward to the ballwinder/swift experience with this bad boy either.  But it is purty.

What kind of crazy sock knitter would I be without a sock yarn purchase?  Rest assured that I ain’t that crazy.  While the Socks That Rock was sold out before I even got to the festival on Saturday, there was still some yarn to be had elsewhere.  I got a skein of the 50/50 Merino/Tensel from Ellen’s Half-Pint Farm. 

While Saturday had really been about the socializing, I did quite a bit of it on Sunday as well.  Thanks to the more relaxed feel to the festival, I was able to spend some time with old friends, and made some new ones.  I pulled into the field at the same time as Shari and her family arrived.  Shari is from the other end of NJ from me and I do so wish they were closer.  She’s got amazing kids and is just a wonderful person.  I only wish we could see them more often.  I saw Nancy and Maribel a few more times as we wandered and spent money.  My MY group split up and came back together a number of times over the course of the day as well, each taking the grounds at their own pace.

I met and spent a good deal of time wandering the fair with the wonderful Brooke.  We had met briefly on Saturday at the blogger meetup.  I found we were taking the barns at about the same pace, as she knit a sock.  Go girl.  Made sense to chat while we walked.  I had a great time and really enjoyed her company.  She helped me decide on the Icelandic laceweight and the BL for the gansey.  We also hit the Little Barn tent together.  The spinning fiber spoils are for tomorrow’s post, don’t want to overwhelm you all at once!  All too soon, she had to head out.  I then spent the next hour or two fiber hopping with Jessica!  Another Jersey spinner!  Woot.

Tune in tomorrow for the remainder of the haul…

Craft on!

The borg have nothing on the wonder that is Rhinebeck.  While I’m still recovering from the two day extravaganza, I thought I’d quickly post some photos of both the event. 

But first, Thursday night I saw Stitchy at Stix-n-Stitches in Montclair.  Here she is showing us items from the travelling trunk of fuglies.  She’s as funny in person as she is on her blog.

So, the festival.  Saturday morning, after breakfast, I piled the monkeys into the car and headed north for the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.  After a drive of some 90 miles we arrived.  The pushing of the stroller got old somewhat fast.  We met up with Nancy and Maribel shortly after arriving at 11am.  The barns were too crowded for me to do much shopping, but as I was going back on Sunday sans stroller, I didn’t feel too badly about it. 

I do have to add as an aside that I was so totally ticked off by the attitude that so many fellow fairgoers showed towards the stroller.  I got so many looks that shouted that I had alot of nerve showing up with it.  People were rude, obnoxious and inconsiderate, not to mention oblivious wandering right in front of the beheamouth that doesn’t exactly stop on a dime.  I said "excuse me" until my voice was gone and even had one woman tell me "there are other people here, you could say excuse me".  I laid into her and was nicely backed up by her wandering companion that I had indeed said excuse me.  Bitch.  The attitude that one shouldn’t go to an event like this if one has to push a stroller is downright wrong.  How about the old slow people, huh?  Are they more welcome than the strollers?  Or the people with canes?  They are as much "in the way" as the strollers.  Should they stay home too?  The intolerance is really ticking me off. 

There, that’s out of my system.

When the little ones, who were so unexpectedly wonderful for the day, got impatient, we parted company with Nancy and Maribel.  Passing Juno and Stephanie, we made our way around the big barn quickly and then back outside.  We met up with commenter extraordinaire:  Rachel H!  She was so sweet, bringing the twins each a teddy bear wearing a Doodlebops t-shirt!   Thank you again Rachel!  The kids love the bears and sleep with them every night.

The blogger meetup was definitely the highlight of the day, and the reason I went up on Saturday, even though I’d have to bring the kids for it.  The sea of bloggers just totally weirded out the grups and I heard several query as to what we being sold in the middle of the crowd!  While the meetup last year was fab, the addition of the Blogger Bingo made it even cooler.  Not only license to, but compulsion to go introduce and meet as many people as one could meet.  I finally was able to put real faces to a lot of names (not only during the meetup but over the course of the two days) and that has made for a much richer experience.

This is only a small representation of the vast number of bloggers who attended this thing.  With my stroller situated in the middle of this crowd, I was able to get BINGO on the I column of my card!  WOOT.  Anyway, it was a great event and worth the trip.

I made exactly on purchase (besides the entrance fee and food) on Saturday.  Predominantly because the crowds wouldn’t let me get near a majority of the booths with the stroller.  I did pick up a batt from Grafton Fibers in a purple to pink range (that I spun today, but that is for another posting ).

Exhausted from all the walking and pushing of the blasted stroller up and down the hills, I loaded the monkeys into the car at around 4 and sat in some 20 minutes of traffic waiting to get off the fairgrounds.  The monkeys and I went to bed early that night!

I’ll leave Sunday’s trip and resulting stash expansion for tomorrow’s posting!

Craft on!

Wait long enough (though is an hour really that long) and have a stash of patterns and yarn big enough and the answer to a problem usually presents itself. 

Last night after the most excellent 2 hours of Battlestar Galactica were over, I did a little digging in the patterns subdirectory on my hard drive (memo to self:  save to cd for safety sake already) I tripped on the Knitty childHood pattern that I saved ages ago.  While the sweater is not a top down in the round raglan, I do like the shape of it and it passed Miss K’s approval test. 

I toyed with the doing the sweater in a solid, but then it would be very much like Alex’s sweater from last year.  I have plenty of Cascade on hand, thanks to the current obsession with it, including some the Deb bought a while ago (color 7803) and had second thoughts about recently.  (Which reminds me, I still owe you a check, don’t I?  Mail or Rhinebeck?)  Anyway, I liked the whole color thing on the borders, sleeves and hood. 

It was then my brain started trying to dig up a mental color card of the Cascade 220 colors.  Heck, most nights at MY, I sit facing the wall o’220.  I vaguely recalled a Quatro that might be good.  So late this morning, as the folks were heading up to the boat to start the winterizing process and getting it ready to be pulled from the water, I piled the monkeys into the car and headed off to MY with a skein of 7803 in my purse.  While the children colored (they remembered that the store had crayons from their very first visit there back in the spring and asked about them on the way), I fiddled with combinations of cascade.  I found the perfect match.  Quattro in 9440.  Which coincidentally is the same color that I bought way way back in my first trip to MY during the Montclair yarn crawl with Deb.  One ply of the Quattro is the same shade as the 220.  How perfect can you get?   

We stopped for lunch at a local pizzeria, Kat insisting on ‘chicken nuggies’, and now the monkeys are taking a nap.   I’m now ready to get knitting.

Craft on!