Sunday, October 25, 2009

Look What I Got!!!

Rhinebeck 2009 has come and gone, and what a fine time it was! Pam picked me up at 7:30 sharp - we arrived at the fairgrounds at 9:15. It was a cold and windy day, but the rain stayed away. A hat would have helped but we managed to stay fairly warm nonetheless. We hit ALL the barns, and my $300 was quickly drained as I bought (mostly) fiber for spinning. I did buy some yarn, including a hat kit, 5 skeins of "Sylvan Spirit" from Green Mountain Spinnery (along with their newest book, 99 Yarns and Counting), and some Shelridge Farm sock yarn for Nancy Bush's "Canada" sock in Knitting on the Road.

We were smart this year - had an early lunch of lamb ravioli and beat the LONG lines that formed by noontime. Later we treated ourselves to hot apple crisp with ice cream - yum!

Here's a photo of the fiber I bought!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Spey Valley meets Pine Star


I've begun Nancy Bush's Spey Valley socks from Knitting on the Road. The yarn is from Pine Star Studio, purchased at Fiber College in September of 2009. The colors are absolutely lovely, and the merino/silk blend is perfect.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Not Sure About This...


Here's the completed Abrazo Vest. I finished it this morning and modeled it for my husband. He hesitated for just a nanosecond too long - he doesn't like it. Actually, he doesn't like the yarn. Boohoo.

I guess I don't like the yarn, either. Though rescued from a life buried in the stash vault, it's unbalanced, thus it still skews.

Oh, well. I've got enough left to knit at least 2 pairs of Super Bulky Mittens.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Rescue Redux

This weekend I was rootling about in the stash - always a dangerous activity (I usually remember to attach a lifeline to reality but forgot this time) - when I came across several skeins of handspun. Handspun by Penelope, circa 2002??? Part of it was no longer in skein format, but was knit up into some monstrosity of a self-designed garment. The horror is that the garment was being knitted with - gasp - a single ply yarn. Nooooooooo, you say, but don't click the Back button yet. With my newfound grasp of the fact that singles are good for weaving but not so much for knitting, I yanked the skeins/balls/partially frogged garment out of the bin and proceeded to rescue - via plying - the yarn.Now, in 2002, my spinning prowess was, shall we say, limited. I knew so little about spinning...the tension band confused me (which way to turn the screw to tighten???), and predrafting - what's that??? Suffice it to say that the singles weight was a heavy worsted, and, now that it's plyed, I'm not sure if "Super Bulky" is descriptive of the rope you see in these photos.

Well. I'm now on the prowl for super super super bulky patterns. Or maybe I'll just donate this "yarn" to the nearest ship's chandler.