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Weeks in Review
Rhinebeck, also known as the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, took place the third weekend of October and I WAS THERE!!! I flew in to NYC Friday evening, rented my car and drove out to Poughkeepsie. Then on Saturday morning the fun began. The wool festival was more or less what I expected. It was busy, and crowded, and FANTASTIC! It took me the first part of Saturday to get the lay of the land, then I met up with the SavvyGirls at the podcaster meet-up Saturday afternoon. The lovely SavvyGirls showed me around a bit more that day and I got a ton of shopping done. Sunday brought more shopping with Savvy Melanie and Deborah, a great cotton-spinning class, and a class on spindle long-draw with Abby Franquemont. It was a truly great weekend and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year... With Moira.
Acquisitions
My new acquisitions are all Rhinebeck-related.
I bought three new spindles - one is a tiny Turkish (weighing about 15 grams); a wooden tahkli with a little wooden bowl; and a medium-weight zebra-wood Bosworth. I also bought a color grid to help me with my colour work and dyeing, the Spinner's book of Fleece, a couple of shawl pins, and some Bengala dye (it's a really neat mineral dye that works on both plant and animal fibres). I got a Loop batt, three braids from FiberOptic, two braids from Into the Whirled, one braid of Merino/silk from Lisa Souza, and one beautiful skein of sock yarn from Miss Babbs. Phew!
I also got a few little gifts for Moira and my SavvyGirls swapetition Buddy (more on this next time).
F.O.s
Over the last few weeks, my main project has been diaper covers for my co-worker Kim. She's having a baby next month and is planning to cloth diaper, and she thought it would be nice to have some wool diaper covers for night-time. Enter me :)
I've made her 6 diaper covers - two each of newborn size, small, and medium. Half of them will have Velcro closures once they're dry enough to manipulate, and the other three are a one-piece cover with a ribbed waist band. I made them all with superwash wool so that Kim doesn't have to worry about felting, and today I washed, dried, then lanolized them, and now they are out blocking by the fire.
To lanolize them, I mixed about half a teaspoon of Lansinoh ointment with a capful of Kookaburra wool wash, poured boiling water over it to melt the lanolin, then poured it into a sink full of very hot water, and tossed the diapers in! I let them sit for about 15 minutes in the sink, then took them out, rolled them in a towel, walked on the rolled towel, then laid them out to block. Easy peasy :) Once they're all dried and the Velcro is done, I'm going to wrap them all up with a small bottle of Kookaburra and a tube of Lansinoh. I'm really hoping it will be a hit since it's a fair bit more work than I typically put into a co-worker's shower gift.
I also knit my brother a pair of mittens for Christmas and it was a great knit! It's the same fool-proof pattern I always use (Ann Budd's basic mitten pattern), but it's the yarn that made it! It's Paton's Classic Wool Merino that Moira gifted to me last year, and I can't believe how lovely it was to knit with! It was soft and bouncy and wooly and I think it might be the best mitten yarn ever. I need more.
W.I.P.s
Right now I'm working on mittens for my Uncle Steven. I'm using some really fun yarn that Jeff's parents gifted me a couple of years ago. It's 80% merino and 20 % possum. A single ply, kind of hairy, and really warm yarn.
I picked away a bit at Jeff's sweater too. I'm not making a ton of progress on it, but it's fun to pick it up every now and then.
I've also been working a bit on my Buddy yarn that I'm spinning for the Yanrraising Podcasts "New to You Spinalong". The two spindles of cashmere are done and my first spindle of Buddy/alpaca is also done, so now I just have one spindle of Buddy left to go, then some plying.
On My Screen/In My Ears
I'm still quite smitten with Moira's podcast (Knitting in Stitches) and this week was especially fun since I WAS ON IT! It was so much fun and I giggled the whole time I watched!!
I have the next episode of Fat Squirrel Speaks all queued up to watch too, but I'm saving it to really enjoy when I'm in dire need of it. It seems that all my favourite knitting videocasts have slowed down (with the exception of Moira), and since they aren't releasing episodes as regularly, they must be savoured with a glass of wine and a particularly soft merino.
Recently, I added the Minerva Turkey knits podcast to my list and I'm really liking that one too!
I finished re-listening to the Seaside Knitters Mysteries and now I'm on a bit of a witch bender. I just finished The Witche's Daughter by Paula Brackston, which I really liked. It had some mixed reviews on Audible, but I found it really engaging! Good vs. Evil and regular people having magic gets me every time. Now I'm listening to a similarly titled, but un-related book called The Minister's Daughter - also witchy themed - by Julie Hearn. They both take place (at least partly) in the 17th century around the time witch-hunting was big business, and you really get a feel for how terrifying it must have been to be a woman in those times. Along the same witchy lines, I have queued The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Barker and Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood. I'm going to have so much good listening to accompany my Christmas knitting!!
Show and Tell
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| Some adorable curly goats! |
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| Coated sheep. |
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| Isn't this so lovely? I want to buy 20 times that much and roll around naked in it! |
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| Greg's mittens! They're so soft and wooly :) |
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| These are the diaper covers for Kim. Ready to be velcroed and packaged up with pink ribbon. |
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| This is my first spindle-full of Buddy/Alpaca. I spun it on my 15 gram Golding, and once I finish the next spindle-full, I'll be ready to ply them with the cashmere I spun supported :) |
That's all for now!
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