October 2009 – Rush Hour Knitting

Friday, 23 October, 2009

Local color

So I knit these great socks, and I was all set for Rhinebeck. Mitts, scarf, hat, socks, everything involves some nice flaming orange, all nice and matchy-match. Then the temperatures dropped, a lot, and I ended up wearing my nice thick Socks that Rock all weekend since they were warmer than my nice orange socks, even if I have yet to knit socks from STR with any orange in them. (Tan, yes, but that isn’t quite the same.)

AUTUMN SOCKS

Pattern: Plain stockinette sock, 62 stitches
Yarn: Done Roving 1-Ply Sock Yarn in Cherry Pitts.
Needles: US1/2.25 mm
Notes: Oh. This color. You can see why I just did stockinette here, right? Anything else would have taken away from this spectacular dyeing job. I am in love with this colorway. Look at it:

Glorious. It jumped off the rack a year ago at Rhinebeck and refused to let me put it back, and every time I looked at the skein and now the socks I grin, because it just evokes the smell and sound and crunch of a pile of leaves for me. These socks make me very happy.

I looked for Done Roving at Rhinebeck, because when I put these babies on they were nice and cushy and wonderful to wear, and I am always on the lookout for cushy socks. But I didn’t see them anywhere, and so there’s no new Done Roving in the stash this year. I still have a pretty decent chunk of yarn left from this skein, though… perhaps a cowl, to round out my obsession with autumnal oranges and browns…

Mmm. Perfect.

Tuesday, 20 October, 2009

Rhinebeck

The best weekend of the knitter’s year is now over. My stash acquisitions (there were many) have been photographed and entered into Ravelry, and I am working on shaking my post-Rav cold. But that’s not what you came for, I know. You came for PICTURES.

I aim to please.

I had one of the best weekends ever. Highlights include:

-walking in on Saturday morning at 8:45, going straight to the Fold’s booth (do not pass Go, do not collect $100), grabbing a mill end and a Rare Gem and paying and moving on by 9:30

-bumping into Rebecca and Glenna a half hour later as they were finishing up their turn on the Fold’s line

-being one of the first in line for the famous CHICKEN POT PIES.

-meeting some of the many girls and boys of LSG over the course of the weekend. (The name is ironic. Mostly. Lazy people would never have gotten that excited over Rav username bingo.)

-getting my picture taken with ~~Ysolda~~Bob:

-leaving Saturday to catch an early dinner and making an unexpected but wonderful detour through the Vanderbilt mansion grounds, to find the most inspiring views:

-scoring yarn from old favorites (STR, A Touch of Twist, Holiday Yarns) and new (Sliver Moon, Briar Rose). So much yarn. Did I mention I bought yarn?

-the Ravelry party, where I helped Melissa liquor up the room with a keg of her homemade vanilla mead. And where I won a prize. A very very nice prize:

That is a skein of qivuit yarn. It was the grand prize in the Ravelry party’s raffle, and they called my number, and now it’s mine. I’m going to make a Pretty Thing out of it.

If anybody asks you about Kanye-ing Mary-Heather to proclaim that Ysolda had the best Bob of all time, well. I blame everything on LSG and the mead. And I thank Ravelry very much for the wonderful party and the amazing gift. I missed which company donated it but I thank them too!

-Knitting on the Big Sock — that purple row is mine!

-Meeting Sandi Wiseheart in the Holiday Yarns booth and spending almost half an hour chatting and joking and letting her help separate me from my money in exchange for more yarn. Turns out Sandi’s a kindred spirit and I’m very happy to have met her and learned that fact.

-Spending the weekend with Melissa, one of my oldest and dearest friends. Lounging in our hotel room at the end of the day, drinking tea and discussing what to make with our yarn was the perfect way to end a day of Rhinebeck.

I’m already looking forward to next year, and happily pouring over my new stash deciding what to knit first. Oh, who am I kidding — I know perfectly well what’s getting knit first!

Tuesday, 6 October, 2009Tuesday, 6 October, 2009

September Wrap-Up

September is a watershed month for me, with Baby’s First Pattern Released For Sale. And on top of that there was one of the most complex sock patterns I’ve tackled yet, and half of a sweater that I haven’t gotten around to photographing.

OCTOBER LEAVES FINGERLESS MITTS

Pattern: October Leaves Fingerless Mitts
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Fingeringweight in Pumpkin
Needles: US1/2.25mm
Notes: Written up here and available for sale here on the blog and on Ravelry. As of writing this, there were 14 projects in Rav, and it’s in 200 queues and has been faved 483 times. Those numbers are both gratifying and making my head spin, and I’m so pleased at the reception my little mitts have gotten.

JADE SLIPPERS

Pattern: Glass Slippers
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Good Luck Jade
Needles: US1/2.25mm
Notes: Writeup here.

Also on the needles: An Ivy sweater that might or might not be done in time for Rhinebeck. At this point we’re closer to “not”, sadly — but it’s not like I don’t have plenty of other things to wear!

Tuesday, 6 October, 2009

Green Mountains

Vermont is lovely in October. You should all get yourself a sister in Vermont so you can visit her and see things like this:

This is the view from Grand Isle when you’re waiting for the ferry over Lake Champlain.

And this is the view of my sister’s new Basset puppy Eeyore, investigating my sock while we wait. He’s a sweetheart and a snuggler and likes to drool.

The reason for my visit was to have a road trip to the Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival. So naturally it rained. Buckets and buckets of rain. (I’m sensing a theme for 2009 fiber festivals, which concerns me for Rhinebeck…) Our visit was short, since rain doesn’t really encourage lingering to watch llamas and our driver was pretty tired after a long week, but I got a few nice pictures in between raindrops:

I picked up some sock yarn from Green Mountain Spinnery and the Periwinkle Sheep, and even found a vendor whose name I stupidly neglected to note who had a pile of Opal Harry Potter sock yarn — so a skein of the Ron colorway might have found its way into my stash at last.

I wish the weather had been a little better, although it sounds like all the vendors did very well in spite of the rain, and I’d definitely love to try again in the future, if my sister is willing. But even if not I’ll be going back to Vermont as often as I can manage, because it’s so beautiful and restful. Think of all the knitting you can do surrounded by mountains like that…