Rhinebeck Recap!

It was the perfect day for Rhinebeck — breezy, sunny, and cool. We only had time for a quick trip out, but even if I had the whole weekend, I know I wouldn’t see everything.

My dad wandered around taking pictures while I shopped and hung out with Fuchsia. I think Dad was a bit overwhelmed by the fact that I’m not the only person in the world who’s this in love with yarn and needles, but it didn’t seem to impact his picture-taking abilities.

First purchase! I’m not sure what happened with the light toward the bottom of the picture, but look! It’s my Rhinebeck sweater! I knitted the Belfast Hoodie by Carrie Bostick Hoge in Valley Yarns Northampton — and it’s perfect. I’ve worn it almost every day since I finished it. I may redo the last few rows of my buttonband because my buttonholes are a little loose (heh), but it’s my favorite piece of knitwear, hands-down.

Ravelry Meet-up!

And here’s proof: I bought enough yarn to fill one bag. ONE BAG. Take that, spendthrift rumors!

One of the many great things about hanging out with Fuchsia is that her color sense is very different from mine, so she gently pushed me away from the blacks, greys, and jewel tones and toward colors that I liked, but never would have pictured together:

These skeins (from the Periwinkle Sheep) are destined to be a cardigan with elbow-length sleeves and colorwork on the yoke and cuffs. I wouldn’t have picked them out myself, but the more I look at them, the more I love them.

My first purchase of the day was this skein of sock yarn from Persimmon Tree Farm. I love rich gold tones, but I haven’t found one that doesn’t make me look super-washed out — till now. I’m not sure what this will be, but I’m thinking knee socks with contrasting toes and heels.

Then I stopped at the Steam Valley Fiber Farm booth and picked up two delicious skeins of sock yarn, in “Intensity” and “Candy Apple”, respectively.

And that was it. That’s my Rhinebeck haul. Seven skeins of wonderful yarn, all of which has a plan for the somewhat-near future. I was impressed with myself for being restrained for pretty much the first time in my knitting life…but then I remembered how much food I ate, and I’m not impressed anymore.

Only 348 days till Rhinebeck 2012!

Shawls enough, and then some.

I went on quite the shawl-knitting binge a few weeks ago. Three in a row, boom boom boom! Of course, I only got around to taking pictures of them last weekend, when I went home to visit my parents.

(It’s so sad that I’ve been growing out my hair for almost two years now, but I have no idea what to do with it)

Pattern: Catkin by Carina Spencer.
Yarn: Madelinetosh tosh sock in Oxblood and Rose — my first two Madelinetosh skeins! I was so happy to find the perfect project for them.
Mods: I ended up forgetting to put in one of the buttonholes (very smooth), so I only attached four buttons, widely spaced. I don’t think I’ll be wearing the shawl all buttoned up, so I’m going to remove the buttons and use them for another project.

(seriously, I should just cut it!)

Pattern: Herbivore by Stephen West
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere in Evening Flame.
Mods: None! This was perfect bus- and car-knitting.

Pattern: Coleus by Kristen Kapur
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere in Dark Current
Mods: None! Again, this was perfect sitting-still knitting. I need to find a nice shawl pin for it, so it stays in place (right now, it has a tendency to slip off my shoulders when I try to throw it across me all pseudo-carelessly).

Jake, who is now enormous, observed the proceedings from the stairs.

A few moments later, the comforter hanging from the bannister fell down in a huge, soft clump, and Jake stationed himself there for the rest of the afternoon. I envied him — sure, I had my shawls, cashmere and all, but taking a nap on a down comforter is a true luxury.

Playing Catch-Up

The knits are piling up faster than I can blog about them! However, this post isn’t about specific knitwear — it’s about yarn. Pure, lovely, simple yarn.

I had to wait days to get enough sunlight to take pictures of this yarn, but isn’t it gorgeous (if slightly blurry)?

It’s the Crabwise colorway in Three Fates Yarns’ Eponymous Sock, which I won (!!!) in Three Fates’ recent giveaway! I was so happy when Stephanie told me I had won, and used this as a chance to break out of my usual color choices. I default to rich jewel tones, greys, and black, and Crabwise is a wonderful pop of color in my somewhat muted stash. It was really difficult to choose a colorway, and I was so charmed by her references to Greek mythology. Her shop is worth checking out — at least it will be, until I break my yarn fast and buy every skein of sock yarn on sale there. It’s only a matter of time.

I could just stare at sock yarn all day and night.

Somewhere along the line, I fell in love with Fearless Fibers. So far, I’ve managed to get my hands on a few skeins of the Tight Twist Superwash Merino sock yarn while keeping my yarn fast intact. How? Through trading and using what’s in my Paypal account (which were the two secret conditions I built into the yarn fast), that’s how. I know, tricksy hobbitses and all that, but I knew I’d need a pressure valve or I would end up blacking out and coming home from WEBS with three bags of Madelinetosh yarns.

The aptly-named “Lust” colorway is marked for a Turmeric:

…while this unnamed colorway (maybe colorway “E”? I’m not sure) is going to be set aside for a shawl pattern I’ve had bouncing around in my head for a few weeks.

I wasn’t lying about the jewel tones obsession, was I?

And because a blog post that’s just pictures of yarn will bore my non-knitting readers, here’s a picture of me with a drag queen named Hors D’Oeuvres (pronounced “Whores D’Vores”).

I can’t wait to see what this does to my search results-related traffic.

Books You Don’t Need, In A Place You Can’t Find

The Book Mill up in Montague is one of my favorite things about Western Massachusetts. It’s one of three places I want to show everyone I know, because it’s just so perfectly New England-y and magical and full of my favorite things: books, friendly people, good food, and gorgeous scenery. I can even say that knitting belongs in that list, since I took my in-progress Catkin up there when I visited over the Fourth of July weekend.

Is it any wonder that the protagonist of my story spends her summer trying to beg for a job here? Not at all. My dad and I are having a photoshoot up here this weekend for my first (fingers crossed!) published pattern and I’m so excited to see what he thinks of the Book Mill!

The New Monogamy.

Somewhere along the line, I turned into a one-project kind of lady. I’m not sure how it happened, yet last weekend I found myself house-sitting and worked on only one project the whole time (even though I had packed yarn and patterns for two more).

I’m not complaining — I just find it interesting how, after almost eight years of knitting, one of my major traits as a knitter is changing. However, I’m going to be winding up a skein of sock yarn as a back-up project, just in case.

In other news, my solo sock club is going well.

March:

Vilai, from Cookie A.’s Sock Innovation, in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock (colorway Chocolate).

April:

Arch-Shaped Socks, by Jen Showalter, in Dream In Color Smooshy (colorway Dusky Aurora).

May:

Clandestine, by Cookie A. (from Knitty.com), in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock (colorway Manzanite).

June:

Embossed Leaves Socks (pretty much my favorite sock pattern ever), in Valley Yarns Hand-dyed Sock Yarn — not sure of the colorway, but isn’t it gorgeous? Gail is a genius with color.

My knitting output was pretty slow for a while, but it’s picking up again now that I’ve adjusted to my (not-so) new work schedule. I knitted hats as a wedding present for my boss and his partner, and then I got distracted from the sock club by a little thing I like to call Catty Purry…

Next up: more finished objects, and probably a lot of pictures of my cat.

And then…

…I stopped blogging.

Well, that’s what happens when you:
+ start having migraines two or three times a week
+ go out of town for almost three weeks for two funerals
+ start a new job while staying with the old one

Finding time to do anything but come home and go to bed (sometimes I get to shower, too) has been hard. But! Things are finally calming down, I figured out why the migraines are coming on so hard and fast, and I LOVE my new job. As in, I love it so much I’m actually willing to do manual labor because I want to stay and keep doing work. That’s right.

After I got the word about the new job, I decided to celebrate in pretty much the only way I know how: I cobbled together all my WEBS gift certificates and had a Yarn Party.

I may have missed “Flash Your Stash” day, but last Friday was definitely “Undo all the good work you’ve done through destashing” day.

I have a bit of a breather coming up — I only work at one job tomorrow and Friday, then I have the weekend off. Maybe I can squeeze in a real update then.

More importantly! Everyone should go check out Elizabeth’s gorgeous sweater — her design aesthetic is one I really love, and this new design is beautiful.

A Time To Craft.

Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.

Oh, crafting time. I wish I had more of you.

I will knit anywhere I have the chance. In the car, waiting in line, on the bus, at work (shh! Don’t tell!), at the movies…you name it, I’ve knitted there. I’m a big fan of using any free moment to knit, but there’s never quite enough of it.

Most of my crafting time is spent in front of my computer, which moonlights as a movie/TV-watching tool. I work till almost ten on most weeknights, so I generally come home, choose something to watch online, then make a snack. After the snack is consumed (I try not to eat around my knitting, just in case), I knit for the rest of the night.

It’s a good way to end the day. I’m not very good with being around people all the time, and I tend to use up all my social energies at work — I need those hours at home alone, crafting and psyching myself up for another workday.

Even when I come home to visit my parents, my schedule is basically the same. I’m social for most of the day, but the last few hours before bed are spent watching movies with my mom, knitting. It’s a tradition that was on hiatus while she was in nursing school, but now that she’s graduated and working as a nurse, we can start it back up again. We tend to favor BBC period dramas while we knit, like North & South. This weekend, we watched Downton Abbey.

I do my best knitting in these hours, when I don’t have anything left to do except relax and sleep. There are other crafty things I do, like jewelry-making or cross-stitch, but nothing trumps the simple beauty of making loops with string and sticks.

Oh, Aspirations!

Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make but can admire the result of those that have.

I tend to learn techniques as they show up in patterns I want to knit. I can’t remember saying “Wow, I want a pair of Fair Isle mittens!” or “You know, something entrelac would be really nice!”. I find a pattern I love, and as new techniques show up in those patterns, I learn them. It’s a rather organic process, with my knowledge growing out of necessity while I’m strengthening my technical basics.

I would like to become more proficient in one area of knitting — garments! Specifically, cardigans and pullovers. I want to be able to design my own in the near future, but I’ve got piles of them I want to knit. I keep going back to smaller projects like socks and shawls, but nothing has really satisfied me lately. Seems like a good time to get started on a spring cardigan!

Here are my top five choices for sweater patterns — my hope is to knit them all by the end of the year, but even if that doesn’t happen, I’ll be happy with one or two. And I know I’ll learn something in each project.

Na Craga:

Baudelaire:

Belfast Hoodie:

Harlequin Learns Japanese:

Delancey Cardigan

And off I go!

Whatever happened to Baby Knitwear?

Whatever happened to your __________?

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

I know, I know, I missed yesterday’s post. The combination of heading to my parents’ to the weekend and the six-plus inches of snow made me forget to update — oops! I even brought a bunch of past knits home with me so I could take better pictures, but the weather hasn’t cooperated.

It was interesting to see which knits I brought with me — they were the ones out of which I’ve gotten the most use, and (probably not coincidentally) they were the ones I had the fun knitting. Knitting Pro Tip: If I like knitting it, I’m going to love using it.

My hit parade:

My large Laminaria, knitted in Madelinetosh tosh lace in Oxblood:

It’s not the best detail shot, but how cute is Jake? I wear this shawl at least once a week — it’s perfect for an extra bit of warmth when a cardigan or pullover might be too much.

My favorite three cardigans — my Kerrera, Tea Leaves, and Farmer’s Market — get at least one wearing a week as soon as it gets chilly. They’re each a representative of that happy confluence of great yarn, well-written, interesting patterns, and perfect wearability.

But bad news is looming! I’m losing weight, my Farmer’s Market Cardigan no longer fits as well — I knit it with about two inches of positive ease so it would be a good layering, slouchy sweater, but now it’s just too big! I may need to frog it and re-knit it, which is something I’m actually looking forward to. My seaming and cabling skills have improved greatly since I knitted it, and losing weight is a great reason to have to re-knit something.

I love the way that well-loved handknits look in wintery light, don’t you?