Crosshatch socks

Well the crosshatchs are done! Yes it took me longer to do one toe then the rest of the 2 socks.





Can you see the difference?

I can not see the difference in the dye lots on the toes. Of course the dye lots are not what makes the toes different. I did a round toe on the first sock and when I got to the second toe I of course "knew" what I did on the first and proceeded to do a pointed toe. Yeah. Of course the first sock was sitting right by me in my bag and it would have taken a second to check but I tempted the knitting fates. It really is ok with me . The sock fit great and are keeping my feet nice and toasty as I type.

=)

Rhinebeck 08 part I lost count

Hey we are folks the Fiber Part!!!!! Yeah!! Woohoo!!! Ok I need more sleep. Anyway here we go.



Creatively Dyed Yarns. I have seen her stuff and all I have heard is great stuff. The booth was crowed could barely make a head way into it. This lovely braid of 50/50 Tencel/wool in blues and greens was right by the register and I grabbed it and payed for it and the preceded to get pushed out of the booth by the crowd.


Ooooooo was all I could say when I found this roving. It is another 50/50 mix but this is silk and baby camel mix. So so so soft.
I bought it at Shadyside farm. The only down side is that I only bought 4 oz. (smacks forehead)


This is natural colored Llama down. (Hubby and stepson both play war video games where you hear Man Down! every so often after we left this booth there was a lot of Llama Down!! jokes) This was my first purchase and I was happy to just stand there and snuggle with it. Over 8 oz (they were very nice and generous) of llama down bought at West Mountain Farms (already added to the 09 list)


2oz Merino balls (huh huh merino balls... Why yes I use to watch Bevis and Butthead) from Timbre Ridge Farms. I bought a few balls last year from them and was very happy to have found them again. I bought navy, orange, pink and purple.



This is the only yarn I bought (can you believe it! I couldn't and kept checking my bags) Mist Mountain Farm's Prime alpaca/ Heaven! Very generous hanks - talking 665 yards here people!! and so soft and squishy. I originally wanted the dark brown but walked away from the booth. about 3 booths later I yelled at myself what was I thinking get yourself back there and buy it!! By the time I did get back (had to fight the people traffic) they only had 1 brown left but the lovely lady was putting out black so I grabbed 2.


From Black Sheep Designs a needle felting kit to make 4 penguins. My Kiddies school mascot is the penguin so I thought it would be cool to make them and use them as ornaments on our Christmas tree.


2oz of potluck from Puckerbrush farms. Last year I bought the yarn I used to make my monkey socks so I was looking out for their booth. I told the lady (forgot her name) about my socks and how the colors were wonderful. This time I bought this potluck. basically it has everything in it. This ought to be fun to spin.



This lovely stuff that looks all nice and fuzzy is Bunny!!! I stumbled (really I almost fell) into it. I bought 2 2 oz baggies. I have no idea what or how I am going to spin it but oh it will be so wonderful. I kept petting it and showing the family how soft and wonderful it was. I am kinda afraid to spin it do not want to mess it up.

Well there you have it my Rhinebeck experience of 08. I think I could totally go without buying anything until next year.(Of course if anyone should happen to give me gift certificates to yarn places I would gladly accept) I am also seriously thinking about doing just that. I have lots of stuff I want to knit and when I buy something it gets pushed further back into the stash.

=)

Rhinebeck Goodies Part 1

I so had to split the goodies into two posts. I have uploaded the non fiber ones so that is what I will start with.
First up is the basket. If you look at the teaser picture from last post you can see it is almost as big as the shopping bag. I wanted one last year but there were a little pricey and I didn't want to spend the money. This year I wanted one and I got the oblong one.(Of course later on I found round ones I really wanted too, next year?)


It came in really handy while shopping =)


These lovely hand made things are WPI gauges. That is Wraps Per Inch. You wrap your handspun around the cut out part (which is already an inch) count the wraps and that tell you what yarn weight your handspun is.


I was afraid I would not get one of these. I kept asking and asking and those vendors who had were sold out. I finally found one almost at the end of the day . Of course every time I asked someone about this hook the Hubby and Stepson start laughing and joking. To their amusement it is called an Orifice Hook. It is for my spinning wheel. It threads the roving onto the bobbin.


Some lip balm. Hand made lip balm. I can tell you that this stuff is amazing. I wish I bought more. It is already on my list for next year.


This is an inside joke with us. We love Snick very much, but she is a dumb dog. I could go on and on about all of the things that she has done. I showed Hubby and he said we have to get this. Almost every car here has one of those "My child is an honor student at fill in the blank". We also got her some all natural dog treats that she loves very much.


This is Sheepy the 3rd. She is made from wool and a few pipe cleaners. Really cute!


Buttons were also on my list of things I wanted. I bought 3 sets. They are made in South Africa. The company gives woman in impoverish regions employment. That right there was good enough reason for me to look and I found more then 3 but I had to leave some for the other people.

This is a set of 3

This is a set of 5 and so is this one


Well that is it for non fiber purchases. Next time fiber!!

=)

Mammals (and some are famous)

Ok in this edition of Rhinebeck 08 I will be going over some of the mammals that we met.
Let's start with the human kind

I kinneared the Harlot =)

Well kinda kinneared her. I saw her walking grabbed the camera from hubby and took a picture of her back. I know she has been on tour and has had a hectic schedule so I didn't want to bother her.


Hubby took a picture of Franklin I love his cartoons and really want his book (HINT HINT).

Well now onto the fiber kind.
Jacob sheep- one of the oldest breeds. They can have up to 6 horns.


they are naturally black and white and I think that is kinda cool. They look kinda like cows. =)

This girl was the softest thing I ever petted.
.
Llama want to come home with me?

She was sweet and let hubby take a few pictures. He was like a foot away from her face and it didn't phase her.(I finally found out the the bigger ones are the Llamas and the small ones are the alpacas.)

=)

Rhinebeck 08 part 1

Rhinebeck 08 was GREAT!!!!! There will be several posts about it cause well I have over 140 pictures to go through.

Today I am starting at the beginning and showing the best part.


Hubby was such a good sport about the whole day, including over 6 hours of driving.


Stepson on the way there


Stepson on the way home


We are here!! (traffic was bad and it took another 40 minutes from this point)

And now for the best part of the whole day

Heather!!!!

Heather has been a internet friend for a few years now and we got to meet. (She is the 2nd from the right, the other 2 are her friends) It was the best part of the day.

Preview:


=)

Houston we have a problem...and another reason to LOVE Blue Moon

Ok I had this around half a skein of Socks That Rock heavyweight in Lemon Grass that I really liked. So I looked in my sock books picked a stitch pattern and headed off to the races. I made the sock short so I would have enough for both. After I finished knitting the first one, I took a look at the remaining ball. It looked about half. To be sure I pulled out my scale.



53 grams (my scale is not the greatest it margin for error is + or - 1 gram)

Then I weighed the ball


50!!!! and with the margin of error that means I could be 1 gram short or 5 grams. This was not good. I refused to frog the first sock and make it shorter so I did what any knitter in her own little world would do. I started knitting the 2nd sock. I hoped that the scale was wrong and I would be able to squeak out the second sock.



Nope

well I was 3 pattern rows and the toe short of a sock. What was I going to do?!?!? I asked around ravelry and also posted asking if anyone had a little bit left over. No luck. Well I then went over to the Blue Moon website and looked for it. Panic set in as I could not find the colorway. So I sent a panic email to them. Wonderful Joann emailed me back telling me not to panic, the colorway was discontinued but they would not let me go around in half knitted socks. They dyed me a hank of Lemon Grass just for me. I have heard stories about how great the women over there are but here I was someone who has only ordered a couple of skeins being treat like I was there number one customer. It is customer service like that that makes me like them even more then I already do.


Yeah I can finish my socks! I know I only need a few grams and will have the majority left over but have no fear there is a rush of babies coming where I work and would like to make a little something for 3 of them. So I see baby socks and hats in the future.

=)

Spinning

This is the last yarn that I spun. (Right now I am spinning one of my Blue Moon Sheep to Shoe kits, 2 bobbins down 1 more to go. It is 8+ ozs so It is taking me much longer then normal. I am also trying to spin it as thin as my fingers will let me. Why I wonder do I always feel the need to spin thinly when my hands hurt?)





From: Knitty Gritty Thoughts Designs.
Name: Lavendar Fields
What: 90% superwashed, 10% icicle
How much: 3.8 oz

I have no numbers what so ever on the yarn other then it is 2 ply. I lost my little sticky with the info on it. I am thinking it was around 200 yards and around worsted weight.


My helper

3 days until Rhinebeck!!!!!!!!

Not much

I do not have much right now. I have a nasty head cold that is making everything harder to do. I will get better soon Rhinebeck is Saturday after all and I have been looking forward to it for months.

I will talk about my main project right now. It uses nice bulky yarn and size 10.5 needles which explains that I have already finished both fronts and the back. I started one of the sleeves last night. so I have the sleeves and 2 borders (yep 2 borders to knit separately the sew on. They are not that wide so it should not be that long of knitting. It is the sewing together part I am not looking forward to.

The right side (not pictured) looks just like the left side


close up of the back cable

The pattern is from Vogue Knitting from a few years ago. that is how long I have wanted to make this sweater but I was not sure if I was able. Yeah the whole it looks harder then it actually is thing got to me. It is not that hard at all, well all the sewing maybe a little hard since I try to avoid it.

Oh and the pattern if Ruffled Jacket. I kinda think it is a blah name for it. I found the Ravelry link (sorry to all non ravelry people)

Field Trip!!

My Little Pre-ker went on her first field trip today!! It was to a local petting zoo/pumpkin picking/hay rides/ kids entertainment place/pony rides etc. They basically have everything you could think of to entertain kids but since this was a field trip we did the petting zoo, the hay ride then pumpkin picking.

The petting zoo was my favorite part, why you ask?

Sheep!!

Alpacas (or is it Llamas?)

Llamas (or is it alpaca?)

Honestly I felt sorry for these animals. Little pens, little kids bothering them all day and dirty pens. The smell was bad. All of my kids went here on field trips over the years and it has been going down hill. They had A Zebra. Zebras are herd animals not solitary animals. Zebras also like to run and this poor thing could not run in it's small space. They have had to add other attractions to the farm to keep people coming and the animals seem to be the ones that had to give up space to make room.
On your way out they want you to buy buy buy. I know it is a family owned farm but I could not see myself supporting them anymore then the school already did.

Turn me right round

baby right round round round.... Ok I just showed my age there didn't I ? Anywho I sing that song every time I think about this pattern. Turn a Square by Brooklyn Tweed. It is really cute and I used stash yarn =) always a plus.



Hubby's is from the beginning of the noro silk garden skein, greys and browns. Mine used the noro after his and it has blues and purples in it. They look like I used 2 different skeins but it is only 1.

Yarns: 1 skein of noro silk garden and 1 and about half of Swish from knit picks in black.



I love how the rings of color turn into squares of colors. It is easily done but it looks hard, know what I mean?

A few weekends ago my mom came down for a visit and snapped a few pics of the Emerald Lady on. So here I am in it. Poses by mom. (I still think I look dorky)



I was trying not to laugh in the second one, hence the strange face

Tomorrow is 2 weeks until Rhinebeck!!!!!!!!