Saturday, October 28, 2006

It's been a busy month of knitting. Too busy, apparently, to post to my blog! Here's what I have been working on:

I finished my FiberTrends Mock Cable dog sweater. It's being modeled by the one and only "Non-Floppy Dog." I love how the colors of Brooks Farm Four Play yarn came out in the pattern.

Next I will update you on the Wine Country sweater I started awhile back:

The back is completely finished and I'm almost ready to bind off the armholes for the front!

Lastly here's another WIP:
I'm making a simple 1x1 ribbed hat out of the softest alpaca yarn. I actually triple stranded it so I can knit it up on size 8's. So far it's 7 inches long. I'm going to fold over the brim for about 3 inches. So 3 more inches of knitting then I get to start the decreases. I know-so exciting :-p

In other important knitting news JF and I drove up to Rhinebeck, NY for the annual Sheep and Wool Festival. It was my second trip and JF's first. We met his parents up there and they mostly chatted while I shopped away. I seriously did hold back on the yarn purchases as I am trying to use up a lot of my stash. I miss the feeling of being able to pop into a yarn store, buy something on the spot, and start a new project with it. I always feel guilty now if I don't knit from my rather extensive stash (as you can see from my last post).

I can never resist Brooks Farm yarn (even if mad hordes of people are swarming the stand.) I bought another skein of their Four Play yarn in a variegated pink/grey/white as you can see above. It's a 50/50 blend of merino wool and silk. Beneath it is a bulky yarn I believe is new to Brooks Farm. I wish you could have seen it in the skein. One whole side is white and cream colored while the other side is dark brown and reddish. I can't wait to see how it knits up! A skein of the purple superwash merino for my Wine Country sweater snuck into the pic on the top. Sometimes it just seems like my yarn has a mind of its own!
In the next picture are a set of beautiful cards I purchased with pictures of colorful Fair Isle knitting on them.


These are a couple more sheep pics to add to my collection. I bartered with the vendor and thought I got a good deal until I saw the KNITTING pic being sold for nearly 20 dollars less at another stall. Oh well! My roomate is even going to let my hang the KNITTING sign up in the living room over my little corner of WIP's.

The crowning glory of my Rhinebeck purchases is this swift and ballwinder I bought at Morehouse Merino after the show was over. They had an awesome afterparty at their store nearby with wine, hot cider, refreshments, and booksignings with knitting authors. It was great meeting Debbie Stoller in person. Unfortunately the camera was in the car so no pic for the blog.

Anyway as for the swift and 'winder it is making life much easier and it's also really fun. It still took 4 hours to wind the second 800 yard skein of the purple Wine Country Sweater yarn even with the ball winder. I need to write a letter or something to the company I bought it from that they need to "skein" their yarns properly.

JF has the actual photos from the S&W Festival on his camera so will upload those when they become available (hint, hint). The sheep and goats were adorable as always. I somehow missed the alpaca barn which was a bummer. There was the funniest sheep that had laryngitis or something. It would start to bahh then seemed to lose its voice. Well, I guess you had to be there but it was pretty funny.

I hope I made up for a post free month with all these pics. Until next time (insert cheesy knitting catchphrase here).