AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Rhinebeck was my free day

I went to Rhinebeck with an allowance of sorts (cash only, all cards left behind, super limits to the amount of danger I could fall into), which was a great idea!  Rhinebeck was so wonderfully overwhelming that I was hard pressed to remember where some things were if I didn't buy them right away. 

The sweater that I had just finished was a total of 7 skeins, so I told myself that was the most I could buy.  I knew I wanted to buy yarn for the February Lady Sweater, something with a bit more color depth than I could get from a skein of Cascade 220 as it were, but not quite as dear as the Sundara yarn that the original was knit in (umm, yes, I drooled quite unattractively). I wanted the sweater to be about the same cost as it would be in Cascade 220, and I'm just between the sizes for the XXS/XS (mostly because I prefer a close fit for most of my clothing).  I also wanted to have the option to fall hard for other yarns... and oh yes, I did.

This will be the yarn for my February Lady Sweater:
 

At first glance it is just a nice, saturated blue, but it is really more than that.  It has hints of purple and brighter bits of almost magenta.  I have a close up, but I'm not going to use it.  It's just not the easiest to photograph.  Especially in my normal lack-of-natural light conditions.

Then K- and I went back to the laceweight (well, and some wondering around before that) and fell down hard!  I buy laceweight like some people eat potato chips.  With a reasonable thrifty mind, laceweight is the best bang for the knitter dollar.  It offers beautiful generous yardage, takes a goodly amount of time to knit up, and is often disgustingly gorgeous.  The biggest bang for my laceweight dollar is the Misti Alpaca, because those skeins are really affordable, but that doesn't mean I won't buy pricier laceweight...

Like  these:

  

The top is the Cashmere Silk from the Skacel both.  It's the only non-blue thing I got and is wonderfully soft.  It isn't quite enough yardage for any of the big shawls, but it is certainly enough for a Flowerbasket or similarly sized shawl.  Gorgeous!

The bottom is a slightly smaller than average skein of Clotho from Spirit Trail.  It's blue!  It's semi-solid! And at 437 yards is big enough for shawl or a stole.  There quite a number of options available from a quick search in Ravelry!

a good knitblogger has photos

I'm not nearly so skilled, so while I did take photos of some of the animals that all stopped within my first 20 minutes on the site.  As I entered through the main gate, the first animals were more like a children's petting zoo rather than a 4-H fair.

Most of these were for my hubby, because really Monkeys!

A cute little goat!  It's not the best picture in the world, but I was trying to not take pictures with the flash.  I find it disturbing enough and I know what is going on.  I can't imagine having bright lights going off in my face all day long.

This ring tailed lemur is mostly for my hubby.  He's looking directly at me and saying, "What do you want?"  Seemed appropriate.  I mostly feel the same way when people surprise me with a question or something.   

 This lemur didn't want to play.  Just sticking his butt out at us for all the world to see.  Silly emo lemur (though admittedly if I were in a cage I'd be emo and antisocial too).

I didn't get any other pictures while I was there.  Not of animals, potential stash, food, or people.  I had the camera in my pocket and extra batteries in my bag and it just didn't matter.  I was much more interested in exploring my surroundings and petting all of the sheep that would deign to come close enough than I was in testing the limits of my photography skills.

I did finish something last week (umm, the sweater I wanted to finish for Rhinebeck actually) and I did buy some yarn, so there will be more pictures later this week.  It is just that they will all be in the local lack-of-ambient-light conditions that occur when you do all of your photography before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m.  It's autumn in New England!

the kindnesses of strangers

The day after my first Rhinebeck trip is a little like a hangover, or at least what I imagine a hangover would be.  I am tired and a little sore.  I'm happy I had the time there and I wonder what I missed in my "Ooh, shiny" approach to exploring the space.

I'll probably blather about the trip most of the week, so please forgive me.

I enjoyed the trip, but I almost didn't get to go.  I left my condo with the intention of walking to Quincy Adams at about 5:15 in the morning.  Three miles away.  I thought that there might be an underpass along the path to possibly cut some of the time.  Heck, I didn't think to write out the directions, and so I dared a few of the side streets and then a few more.  I walk jogged and at about 5:57 a car was driving by and I waved.  "Can you tell me how far I am from Quincy Adams?"  I probably sounded a little frazzled.

"Pretty far.  Would you like a ride?"

This nice guy (probably a few years younger than me) drove me to the T where I met up with the rest of the people catching the bus from QA.  The route was just long enough that I would have been another 20 minutes walking, provided I didn't get (more) horribly lost.  I hate to ask for the kindness of strangers, but I was so thankful to receive it. 

If I do this next year, I think I'm going to ask for a departure of about 5 minutes later, so I can just take the T.  Or practice the walking route, so I don't get lost along the way.

changing directions

My Rhinebeck sweater needs to be finished tomorrow.  I am no further along than I was at the beginning of the week when I finally finished the cable panel.  I'm seam phobic or something.  Well, mostly or something.  I had rehearsal on Thursday and game tonight, so it really all is going to happen on Saturday. 

Finishing the sweater doesn't probably matter to most people, but somewhere along the line I changed my mind about stashing-along.  Not that I am not going to do it, but that the goal wasn't a reduction in yarn as much as a breaking even.  I need to finish the sweater, so I buy yarn.  It's that simple.

Since August (when I decided to do this), I have finished a pair of socks, Picovoli, the Swiss Cheese scarf and the Pi Shawl (6 skeins) and I have acquired as gifts, purchases, etc. 6 skeins of yarn (all for making gifts).  The sweater is 7 skeins worth of yarn, enough that I could buy yarn for another sweater.

I want to make another sweater...

I really want to wear the one I've been working on to Rhinebeck...

Simple problem really.  Just 6 seams and a neckline.  An hour a piece (let's project slow, shall we?) and I'll be done in time to take a good snooze before the evening is out!

But just in case, let's cross our fingers please.

productivity

I feel like I crammed a lot into last week.  Three rehearsals, four classes at the gym, work and baking.  A lot of baking.  I got home from rehearsal on Thursday night to make my sort of annual Superman cake.  Now, only the first one bore any resemblance to the Man of Steel, because I've been too lazy for the more complicated frosting job.  Last year I didn't even have time for cake and just made a batch of fudge in the same pan.  This year Superman was blonde and tasted of lemon. 

Saturday I made sugar cookies which I sandwiched together with some of the blue lemonade frosting I made, and today I made cupcakes (and realized that unlike the last batch of muffins which stuck to the paper, this batch was going to stick to the pan without the papers) which I filled with a lemon curd-frosting mixture.

Of course, we're going on vacation starting on Thursday, so I think I'll be bringing cookies to the airport (cookies are like lunch, right?) along with my knitting.  I'll only be gone for a few days, so I'm only going to bring my latest socks.  It will have to do (we're only out of town for a couple of days, so I don't feel like I should bring an army of knitting).

I set my Pi Shawl to blocking this afternoon in between loads of laundry.  It is pinned out in something vaguely like a circle, drying on the floor.  It is about 48 inches in diameter, which should be plenty big enough for me.  I don't remember how big it is supposed to be with the original description from Knitter's Almanac, but I am pretty sure that if I feel that it is too small that I can block it out bigger.  It definitely has a bit more stretch left to it.

In yarn-related news, one of my friends (waves) got back from her vacation a few days earlier this week.  While she was out west, she visited an alpaca farm!

She brought me back two skeins of light sport weight alpaca in a gorgeous chocolate-y brown!  The farm's name is Switzer Land Farm and they have a website!  Of course, there is a link to the Estes Park Wool Market, which is tempting to go to (though probably not in 2009).  I haven't been to Colorado in what feels like forever, so it is definitely something to contemplate.  I loved the closeness to nature and the feeling of being out in the open when I was there (though I did admittedly still spend most of my time inside).

I have plans for the yarn.  It took about 2 days of search Ravelry off and on to come up with something that I think will do the yarn justice, though I haven't add the pattern to the queue (much less marked anything as either finished or put in the things I've started in the last couple of weeks). 

I need to put an order in for yarn this week for the holiday presents.  I'd like to start them in October at the latest.  It looks like the holiday wishlist is 2 pairs of socks and one scarf, which is 6 skeins of sock yarn given the patterns I've been looking at.  That will take a month or two of steady knitting, so I need to get cracking.  Nothing is less fun than having gift knitting become a chore by running up against the last minute.

danger!

I'm back to the cuff on the Little Shells socks, and still enjoying the process (I finished the heel on the train this morning, making the disabled train on the Longfellow Bridge useful for at least one person).  Because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for the project, my mind has turned to new projects.  Not terribly useful, because I have not new projects to work on too.  I want to try something akin to the jar dying a la maryse or dip dying.  Theoretically I want to take my Kimono Shawl (ravelry link), which I made for my wedding and dip dye it.  It's a lovely little stole, but I'm just not likely to use it in its white configuration.  But I need a test run.

I was going to knit something nice and plain, but about the same size, for a test run.  I'm pretty sure, however, that I packed that yarn when we were shoving things willy nilly into boxes for the Pod.  Of course, I'm going to check when I get home (or if I am smart after I finish the socks) and see if I kept it out.  It's possible, after all, because I love the lace yarn! 

If I've packed it, then I'll probably go stash diving.  I packed a ton of yarn, but I still have a bit of stash available for a project or two.  Has anyone tried dying something that has beads on it?  That could be interesting too!

The view outside my window

 A few days off and the world just throws you for a loop. 

Last week I bought yarn for my birthday (and gave away the lime green sock yarn to Miss G!).  Of course, buying yarn for my birthday was only supposed to be the yarn for the Butterscotch Cardigan (which I will probably start in a week or two) and the yarn to finish Vestish, but I decided that the Frog Camisole would never be finished if I continued with the cotton.  So, a frogging and a shopping I went.  Currently, I'm knitting it with a combination of the Kureyon sock yarn (thick and thin sock yarn is very odd) and leftover Trekking (I had 40 grams leftover from a pair of socks!).  The original gauge for the pattern produces a garment about 29 inches around (just mathing here) for a 35 inch bust.  I figure my rejiggered numbers should work just fine for my measurements.

But this isn't really about knitting.  Lately, my hubby and I have been taking pictures outside our windows.  We live slightly below grade, so many a morning is punctuated with cries of "Bunny!"  We have a regular bunny visitor and slightly less regular kitties who talk to our cat through the window.  We also have plants.  I want to do Norma's Garden-a-long, but I don't really have a place with light.  Occasionally I will say rules be damned and toss something out the window (usually it is trying to grow anyway).  And because photographing my knitting is much harder than taking random pictures out the window...

Our regular visitor taunts Saru-chan.  She is by nearly every day (or at least every morning I'm looking out the window).  Thankfully our cat is not like some I've heard of - she doesn't stare out the window with her mouth partway open and little bits of drool.  Thank goodness.  I am not sure I would be photographing her then.

The bunny was all over the area around our condo that morning, with my hubby and I looking at her from roon to room. 

We do have some things growing outside our windows... I'd need an expert to tell me, but I think this is an onion. If so, then I put it outside a number of months ago when I decided that three inches of green shoots meant it wasn't food anymore.  Can anyone tell me?

Of course, I am having a few issues with my image insertion with the newer Typepad interface (I'm just not used to it being so slow), so this image is currently stuck at its tiny size.  The top of the plant is a small bulb-like area covered with a large number of small white flowers.  If the powers of knitbloggers aren't enough, then I'll start with wikipedia and the sites like Burpee for the rest of my info!

Want some yarn?

It's time for another giveaway!

This is a special week for me, so I'm going to give away this skein of yarn to a random person on Thursday, June 12th.  Which skein of yarn?

This one:

Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in a really brilliant lime color.  This skein should be enough for a pair of socks (provided that they aren't too tall or for really large feet). 

I'll keep this short, because I'm going to go out and enjoy this week to the fullest!
[Just leave a comment if you want the yarn...]

Not quite enough

A bit over a week ago, I took apart my faded rib stole to recycle the yarn.  I wanted to make Vestish, and indeed I have started Vestish.

However, I am doing the ribbing in a contrasting tweed grey and the body in the reclaimed yarn.  How much yarn do I need (based on the skeins): 750 yards.

How much do I have?  500 of my main color and 191 of my contrast (though, technically I have two skeins of contrast, I'm much more worried about the 500 yards of the main color not being quite enough).

So, if anyone has a partial skein of the natural Mostly Merino Sport Singles and is willing to trade for it?  Yeah, I'm looking in advance.

Stash Addition!

A few days ago (because I'm stupid about photographing stuff in a timely fashion) I received this lovely laceweight yarn. 

I never expect to win anything, so it was just such a nice bonus to see this in my mail!

Of course the best thing about receiving any treasure like this is the when.  I always receive mail like this after a busy day at work and a long commute on the train.  While I am not always grumpy, I'm not normally all happy and perky either.  It's packages like these that make you feel like someone cares for you (even if it is just yourself - I totally get the appeal of belonging to a yarn club) and helps reverse the feelings caused by the endless stream of bills and junk mail.

So, I have 880 yards of this beautiful yarn.  What should I make with it?