Pining for Rhinebeck

Oh Rhinebeck. We wait all year to go and then woosh! the weekend just flies by! I had a really great time and consider this year to be a big success. I went with a list and pretty much found what I was looking for: yarn from Green Mountain Spinnery to do a JETS hat (inspired by their modifications to the Icebreaker Hat), "breed specific" yarn (thank you Solitude Wool), and Bijou Spun Sport weight Yak Down yarn. I also received a yarn payment - the same dyelot in a sweater's worth of yarn from Good Karma Farm for the Charleston Tea project. The most fun though was the infamous Rhinebeck Hat! This year, our hats were individual interpretations of the Fiddlehead Hat. I made several tiny pandas for my hat, and tiny mermaids for Virginia's hat.

My hat base was a black sparkle "holiday" yarn with green sparkly fiddleheads to be a loose interpretation of bamboo. Virginia's hat was blue and sparkly with green sparkly fiddleheads for seaweed.

We made a point to find Miss Mochimochiland herself in the book signing area. I do have her newest book, which she was kind enough to sign. I think she liked our hats - she tweeted our picture! And now, it's back to reality. There have been several sleepless nights as Nate is teething, I'm trying to keep up in an online course I'm taking about web design, there's work stuff, and general life. But, I've got pretty yarn to squish and pet!

Garter Stitch.

Garter Stitch. It's one of those things every knitter starts out with right? I finally took a picture of my first ever knitting project.

It was an afghan. Red Heart yarn, cranberry I think is the colorway. This project was made for Dan when we were dating (back in 2002 - we had been dating for 6 years at that point. We're married for 5 years this Nov. No such thing as a blanket curse in my opinion) The "pattern" was from a "Teach Yourself to Knit" - which I did, successfully (and left-handed too!). It's two big garter stitch rectangles, "seamed" together. It almost pains me to look at it and I can't wait to make us a new blanket. But, Dan likes it and it does effectively work (imagine that!) - and even covers the bed!

Sometimes, garter stitch is not all that bad. I've had cowls on the brain this week - maybe because it's getting cooler cold outside, and the scarves are driving me a bit crazy with the long tails. And I wanted a new cowl for Rhinebeck. So, I pulled out yarn I got at Rhinebeck last year (from Jamie Harmon) - bulky yarn, great blue-green-white colors - a few hours, some big needles (even Dan commented - so what gauge are those needles? 13s? He was right!) and Wham, Bam, Thank you Lamb! I've got a new cowl and it's awesome.




Love. And I'm so buying more of this yarn this weekend!