Like The Inside of a Cloud...

....is how incredibly soft and dreamy this stuff is:


Yarn became mine last weekend at Rhinebeck - you can get it here. A bit on the pricey side but worth every penny!!!

"Tis not like me to be knitting with such tidly needles - 3.5mm (that's #4 for all you Yankies!)

Snug and Warm

Quickie post to show off me new legwarmers.
I used the pattern from Joelle's, Last Minute Knitted Gifts, (I'll add links later).
So the first pose is imitating the one from the book:

The idea was to make one pair of legwarmers to wear so just the tops peep out from over the edge of my boots - doing it this way I get a Teal pair and a Red pair, I doubt I'll be wearing them like this:


The Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk was lovely to knit with - I even had enough left over for some little matching wristlets!.
I love the Teal colour, but the Red is just not RED enough for me.

Sheep and Wool! Sheep and Wool! Sheep and Wool!!!

What a fabulously fibre-filled, frolicingly, fall foliagely flavoured weekend we had in Rhinebeck!

Thanks much to Jill R who drove the magic bus northwards, stopping briefly at her childhood abode to pop in on her parents. Her Mum showed off a couple of her knitting projects including this incredible lace dress with gazzillions of sequins:

We would be staying over at her parents' country house to be near the festival so it was so nice to be able to meet them and say thank you in person.

Even though it was past peek leaf peeping time in that locale, the colours were stunningly beautiful and put us all in the right state of mind for buying warm and snuggly yarn for this season's projects, (but let's face it....when aren't we in the right mood for yarn buying???)
One of the trees outside of the house had these gorgeous red leaves and orange berries that we all had to pose for photos using it's foliage as a backdrop - Here's Ruth and Jill A:



A group shot of Jenn, Johanna, Jill R, Moi, Katy, Ruth and Jill A:

and some of that frolicing I was talking about:


My statagy was to scope out the yarn on Saturday, compare prices, think carefully about projects, sleep on it then buy only what is completely necessary on Sunday. This didn't quite work out as the festival was much busier then when I last attended two years ago. Worried that my chosen items would be gone by Sunday, I just bought what I liked - haha!
Here's what I came away with... the most heavenly light and soft cashmere from Springtide Farm. It was pricey but there were so few skeins that I had to make sure they went to good homes:


The fleece on the table used to belong to Iris. Poor old Iris, she was a happy goat, apparently.





I also purchased some sock yarn, but not for socks - maybe scarves - I'm into scarves at the mo:






I'm not so good at lining up the text with the photos....please bare with me....





It wasn't all about the yarn buying. The last time I was at the festival I purchased a huge bag of soft roving, as I had planned on learning how to spin. Since buying it the bag of fibre has just been taking up space and gathering dust, so I needed to buy a drop spindle - here's a little shot of the cheapo spindle I aquired. If I get good at it I may treat myselt to a more fancy one:


Here's a pic of me getting to know the most photo friendly sheep I have ever had the pleasure of meeting - this little fellow certainly loved the camera!

and before this weekend I had never heard of such a thing as a therapy llama, but they do exist and here's a photo of one:


We were told that these animals were taken into homes to help people by petting them. One person who hadn't spoken for years bfore meeting the therapy llama uttered the words, "Oh wow!", after having their hand placed onto the animal's coat. Who knew?

Meeting the animals wasn't enough for some people as the queues for the lamb ravioli and chicken pot pies snaked around other tents around lunchtime. I stuck to the baked potato and apple crisp to fortify myself.
Here we are at the picnic table for Sunday lunch and to have a show and tell with our purchases, from left; Nicole, Micheline, (I'm guessing the spelling, sorry if I've got it wrong), Johanna, Jenn, Ruth, a rare shot of camera-shy Claudine and yours truley:

I had a wonderful time in the fresh air - so good to be with a huge field full of people who are just as mad about all things wild and wooly as me. Can't wait to go again next year!

'Twas the Night Before Rhinebeck....

OK, who of you out there in the North East United States woke up this morning with your first thought being, "tomorrow I'll be in Sheep & Wool heaven"? Or was it just me?
I'm so excited that I can't concentrate on work!
So I'll blog instead - hehehe.
(Susan, if you're reading this - I'm not doing this in work time, so chill, OK!)

First out of the bag is my version of the Flower Petal Shawl. This was my first attempt at shawl knitting and I feel it won't be the last.
The pattern was very easy to follow, athough, I got a little to confident and worked a couple of the pattern rows twice - resulting in an arrowhead effect 1/3 of the way in. I considered leaving it but as I wasn't sure if I had enough yardage to complete it, I would need to unravel all the way back to fix it to save those precious few feet.


When I reached the part where I would knit the pointy edge, I realized that I really wouldn't have enough yarn to complete it as written, so I made smaller points. With my heart in my throat I knitted on unsure if I would have enough to finish - I had 2 inches left at the end - pheeww!!
Here it is all blocked out:


And who is that attactive model wearing it?

It's so warm and cozy and not at all itchy - I'm quite sure it will be regular feature around my neck this winter!

Next up is a strange little number I have named Blancmange, as it's soooooo soft and very pink!!

This picture cracks me up! I was alone in the studio when I set up the camera on a table, switched on the self timer, ran across the room and jumped into this position - Thank goodness the gals at You Knit What? have retired - hehehee!

And finally.... I'm a bad girl as I broke the NO NEW YARN BEFORE RHINEBECK rule! - But I couldn't resist the sumptuous softness and flippin' gorgeous colours of this:

I have already cast on what will be my first pair of legwarmers - lucky legs!!

See you in Rhinebeck - WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Still Alive!

But not blogging......

Spending the small amount of free time i have trying to figure out how to work on my website - it's sloooooooow going!

I'm teaching myself Dreamweaver - the old dog is learning some new tricks!

I'll update later this week - hopefully ;o)

All Knitting, All the Time

With the boyfriend back up in Montreal and a weekend free from plans, there was a chance that I could make up for lost time.

Firstly, I finished off my Razor Armlets:

A great subway project, these beauties were made from the leftover yarn from my Razor Cami. I hope to post the pattern for these soon.

Then I dove into my stash for some pink fuffiness bought from the Suss sale.

With an image of the garment in my head I knit away whilst indulging in crap television and junk food.

So, it looks like I dipped a mannequin into a candyfloss machine, but trust me on this one - it'll look fab when I've finished! There's just one problem.... I ran out of yarn...the colour seems to be disscontinued, (I checked the website and ebay)- anyone got a spare skein of Pink Suss Feather they can live without? I have cash!

So with that project cut short I needed to cast on something else.
I found this pattern last Tuesday and knew that it would become my first knitted shawl project. I'm not a shawl wearer but thought that I might be able to rock this one.
Yarn from the stash is The Great Adirondack Yarn Co's spacedyed merino in a colour named, Watermelon. It's nothing like watermelon - I'd call it Macaw.
It's a relatively easy to follow and quick knit - Here's how it looks so far:

The pattern will show up after it's blocked. (I never block!)

So, that's quite a lot of knitting for one weekend and I did manage to get out. (I had to go to my office for something, so I took advantage of the better lighting in there and took these photographs - it's sooooo dark in my apartment!)
While I was in the role of photographer, I took some shots of Jessamyn's knits that are featured in my book. (I hated the photos in the book - I've mentioned that before, haven't I?)
Anyway, hopefully these show the beautiful lace stitches in "Girly" and not a sweeping brush in sight! (Please ignore the messy office background.)







My plan is to create a gallery of photographs of the book projects. I want to show some alternate images of the original designs and also have a place for knitters to show how they have interpreted the patterns. Until I get round to it, please take a gander at Jenn's Frosty and what Anna did with the Cable Earflap hat pattern.
Having people take one of my patterns and change it to make it suit themselves makes me soooo happy!
Thanks so much for posting ladies - I'm loving it - keep 'em coming!