Rhinebeck part three: FOs and WIPs

I've been a bit remiss in my blogging duties; objects have been begun and finished with nary a peep from me, let alone a picture. But I intend to fix that today.

Let's start with the spinning first shall we?

You may recognize this as the swamp gas I was spinning for socks a while ago.
I finally got it all spun up and plied. It's just been waiting for me to finish my current sock WIP.



while I was waiting I started anther spindle project: this is the tie dyed flowers roving I dyed up. I only had 3 ounces though, so I spun up one ounce, and plied it with some wooly nylon along with one ounce of undyed singled from the same base roving. I intend to use that for the toes and heels. The other I spun up and plied as normal.

I'm really happy with the way this yarn turned out, and I can't wait to see how it looks knit up!


As for wheel spun, I have this:


4.5 ounces of merino/mohair/alpaca from all strings considered that I talked about yesterday. This stuff was a DREAM to work with. I hope to make a pair of mittens from it. I got over 230 yards of worsted weight, so I should have plenty.



but that's not all, I've also been knitting!

The most recent FO is this hat:

Knit with my own handspun even.
I carded up three bats, one with mostly white, one with about 1/2 & 1/2 and one with mostly blue, and then split them into quarters and spun each little section one after the other to make the yarn. which I totally forgot to take any pictures of, because I was just that excited.



stats:
handspun yarn, worsted weight, less than 100 yards.
Pattern: Asminah's Hat

Mods: I knit ribbing instead of the crochet edging, the original pattern used a flat version of the stitch pattern, and that left a weird unpatterned ridge at the back, so I altered it to work better in the round. This also let me cast on a few more stitches to make a better fit. I ended up knitting three repeats of the lace pattern. And then completely changed the top decreases to look nicer.



Last week a friend of mine from work went into the hospital for surgery. Before she left she jokingly asked me to buy some yarn at Rhinebeck and knit her a sock. (just one) when I saw the little mini sock blocker I knew it had to be, and I got it right away. This is the result.


I mailed it off on Tuesday, and I hope she gets it soon, and that it makes her smile. She's and awesome woman.


Speaking of socks, for the October sock for the SAM kal I was hoping to finish a pair of Coriolis. But so many things have been popping up that I just haven't worked on them enough:



In order to still get my monthly socks in I dug out the single practice socks I made while learning Cat Bordhi's new architectures and knit them mates.
The green are little sky, and the blue are little coriolis.

Rhinebeck, part two: The loot

Well I said that I wanted to fill my bag full of fibery goodness, and I certainly did:


lets start with the fiber:

these two are 4.5 oz each color way of a delicious merino/mohair/alpaca blend from All Strings Considered
I've already finished spinning the blue/green, but more on that tomorrow.



starting from the top left and coing clockwise, we have...
silk hankies, some merino/bamboo from Creatively Dyed Yarns (Dianne is totally awesome btw), merino/tencel from stony mountain fibers, and merino/tussah from cloverleaf farms


are you sensing a theme?
I've begun to feel confident enough in my spinning that I really wanted to try out some luxury type fibers.

Next, the yarn!

Once again, clockwise from top left...
Poseidon, Imbas, and the vintage leaf kit from holiday yarns (formerly VanCalcar Acres) and the Tsock Tsarina, a mini sock blocker keychain from stony mountain fibers, and Strideaway Twist in Indigo Garden from Autumn house farms



of course, a visit to NY sheep and wool would not be complete without a visit to the authors tent
Franklin Habit signed a copy of it itches for me, and I got up the nerve to finally speak to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and have her sign her newest two books (free range knitter and Things I learned from knitting) for me as well.


now... the piece de resistance!

My two BIG purchases this year were a new Stauch Finest drum carder. And my baby... introducing, the Hitchiker spinning wheel Heart of Gold!!!!


I eventually plan to paint the large wheel, and to give the rest of the woodwork a good coat of oil. But that will have to wait until the weather is a bit nicer and I can work outside again.

Tomorrow, catch up on my finished projects and newest works in progress.

Rhinebeck, part one: critters and people

Well I guess I've had long enough to play with my new toys from Rhinebeck, I guess I should make a post about it now eh?

As usual, Bill and I drove down to Albany the afternoon before; we usually get a motel room in Albany, because by the time we know that we can go to the festival, everything closer is booked up. And anyways, it's a pretty ride.

The next morning, bright and early we got up and went to Bruger's for breakfast, and to get something for lunch later on. (ah, Bruger's, I wish we had one up here, they are pure bagely ambrosia) then went to grab Monica and her fiancée Lee. And we were on our way!

On Saturday we had a great time wandering around checking out the vendors and the critters, I got to meet bunches of cool people from Ravelry, including the Tsock Tsarina and I even got a book signed by Franklin Habit! And Sunday there was more wandering around, more talking to people, and more book signing (this time, by the yarn harlot!)

Now for the pictures:
(click on any picture for a bigger version, I'm using the smaller size to save the load time)

there were Suri Alpacas, with shiny, shiny wool:


lots of Llamas:




you may recognize one of the two guys above as the one who was giving me smoochies in my earlier post well, he was quite a sweetie, and also gave Bill kisses:



there were sheep (duh):
(I think these guys are romneys)


(Suffolk)


(Babydoll)


(and my favorite, Jacob)



and of course, lots and lots of vendors, but by then things were getting crouded, and wes getting busy buying stuff, so I only got one picture of my favorite sign:


if you want even more pictures, check out Bill's photo set from the festival he was way better about the picture taking than I was.

Tomorrow: the haul!
Stay tuned!

back, and exhausted

Abby and Llama Smooch
Originally uploaded by Bill LaLonde

we are back from Rhinebeck!

we had a great time, saw lots of cute critters and my bag did indeed become full of fiberey goodness. But I am TIRED and need to work in the morning, so for now I will leave you with this picture Bill took of me getting llama kisses:

meetup stuff

It occurs to me that while there is no blogger bingo this year at Rhinebeck, there will still be a ravely/blogger meetup type thing. And if you would like to say hi to me, you may want to know how to identify me!
:)

so to help you all out, I will be carrying this,
which I hope to fill with plenty of yarn and fiber and other such goodness:



and so that this post isn't completely about Rhinebeck, yes, I did sew the tote.
I had a bunch of scraps and stuff left over from making sachets, and I had wanted to make a nice large bag for a while, so I decided to try out an idea and see if it would work.

and it did! although I do have to admit the sewing is not completely perfect.

the pattern is mostly my own, but a lot of the ideas came from various sources throughout the web. there is a plain muslin lining, but even with the lining it is a bit flimsy. I want to make more, and I think I will look for thicker fabrics, or possibly denim for the next try to give it a little more body.

Rhinebeck!

Yes indeed, I will be attending The New York Sheep and Wool Festival again this year.

If you want to say hi I hope to be at the blogger/ravelry meet up, at least for a few minutes each day. but I also will be going to say hi to Franklin and get a signed copy of his book on Saturday.

I'm very excited, and starting to get a bit twitchy. My parents and Bill (and I was good and saved up all year, so I could pitch in too!) collaberated for a super awesome early Christmas present.

I will be buying a Hitchhiker wheel and perhaps a Strauch drum carder!!! (I'm thinking about the finest, but I'd really like to look at them in person, and if I understand the ad I saw in spin-off they will be at Rhinebeck)

See you all there!

Busy kitty

Sorry about the lack of updates but it's been a bit busy around here lately.

I've been working on a big update on my shop.

New items include:

Lots of new sachets:



And some hand dyed tops and sock yarns:



1. aquarius meriono top roll, 2. st lawernce sock yarn detail, 3. mermaids tale sock yarn deail, 4. asters merino top spiral, 5. rainbow candy Romney top spiral, 6. unicorn sock yarn detail

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.


I still have a bunch of yarn and fiber I need to dye up, but I needed to take a break. I'll probably work on them next week.

Also, this actually happened a while ago, but I forgot to mention. But a lot of my sachets and stitch markers are also now available over at Yarny Goodness you should totally go check it out; she has tons of cool items from a lot of really awesome and talented people.

I've also been spinning a lot. I'm finally gotten happy enough with my spinning that I'm trying for some sock yarn.



This is a hand dyed by me Romney top in "swam gas" (can you tell I wasn't very pleased with my first attempts?) it started out in life looking like this:



It spun up beautifully. I've plied up one skein worth. And I'm waiting until Wednesday weavers to ply the second skein on the wheel. There is just so much yardage, it would take me forever otherwise. Especially as I'm adding a lot of twist to make them nice and strong for socks. I'm really happy with it, even with all the extra twist I put in its still wicked soft, and it will only get softer when I wash and abuse the finished skeins.

Next up in my spinning queue is this:



Romney/Perendale sliver, I'm calling it "tie dyed flowers" both this and the swamp gas were my practice dying. I used Wilton's cake dyes to see if I could really dye fiber without turning it into a felted mess. As you can see it worked. :D

I have been knitting a little too, but I think that post will have to wait until another day. ;)