Stopping Sweater Abuse

Hubby has decided to fight back. Throwing his sweater on the floor is no longer a valid way to control him.

The other day, when I knew the ribbing was dry after its encounter with the maple syrup, I ran upstairs to get it so I could work on it after dinner.

Of course, I made this decision just as Hubby was ready to fill our plates. Well, as soon as I crossed the threshold he launched into histrionics about slaving over the hot stove and now my food is going to be cold.

Since it took me, like, two seconds to run up, grab it, and come down, I was back in the kitchen while he was still talking.

So I held the ribbing over my head in a threatening manner.

When he saw what I was doing he pivoted and held my serving of spaghetti over the floor instead of my plate.

Obviously spaghetti on the floor was a more potent threat than knitting on the floor. You can't just pick spaghetti up and dust it off. Especially with two furry vacuums waiting to pounce on a situation like that.

I didn't realize he'd be willing to escalate the arms race to that level. We're at a stalemate now. Or would it be an impasse?

Anyway, the sweater is safe from any sudden, purposeful collisions with the ground from here on.

I'll just have to go back to fluttering my eyelashes as my primary means of bending him to my will.

The ribbing is done and I'm three colors into the body. I think I'll exchange the second ball of royal blue for a fifth charcoal. The royal blue will only have one stripe on each piece, so I have to imagine one ball will be enough.

Rhinebeck: More Stash Enhancement

Ok, I would say I'm going to be brief, but that would be a lie. Or at least an unachievable goal. You must realize by now that I'm totally missing the brief gene.

The portion of Hubby's Striped Sweater that had the encounter with maple syrup over the weekend was dry enough to knit on again last night. I have about 10 rows of ribbing to go on the front piece.

Right. On to more Rhinebeck yarn! My shopping strategy was to look for unique stuff that we don't carry at KC. If we carry it at KC not only do I have constant, easy access to it, but I get a staff discount. So why would I buy it someplace else?

Socks that Rock
As you can see, I bought a skein in the Tlingit colorway. But it was a real struggle. It shouldn't be this hard to buy yarn, especially sock yarn. And it wasn't hard in the way you might think.

As far as I can tell, there is a lot of buzz in the online knitting world about this yarn. However, it's hard to get your hands on. Well, unless you shop online, which I don't. I like to see and feel yarn before I buy it.

So I was very interested when I heard one of the booths at Rhinebeck would be carrying it. I also saw on Ravelry posts that it can be a bit of a feeding frenzy when the festival first opens, which kind of made me glad we arrived a little late.

Well, I found the booth...and I wasn't impressed. None of the colors reached out and grabbed me. None filled my little heart with greed and the need to possess it. I thought, "What is all the fuss about?" Maybe all the good colors were gone by the time I arrived, or maybe it just wasn't my style.

Decidedly underwhelmed, I moved on.

I might have made another pass during the day, again without buying anything. Then at the end of the day, really we were heading for the exit gate, I ran into my co-workers. G had a skein. I don't know if she had ever used it before. It gave me a chance to revisit my nagging concern that if I didn't buy a skein at Rhinebeck I didn't know when I'd have another chance, and I would be left continuing to wonder why everyone was so excited.

So I left mom and our bags on a bench (my nephew was watching the pumpkin carver) and I zoomed back to the booth.

Again, nothing grabbed me. There was a rainbow colored one, but it was no better than other primary colored rainbow ones I've seen in the past.

Since an impulse purchase wasn't working out I decided a more practical approach was in order. I remembered I needed more dark socks for when I wear dark pants. That narrowed things down.

I settled on this skein. It's got black, and some purply-red and green for interest.

I turned around to pay and asked Thor (as his Ravelry ID pin informed me) if the hype was deserved. He explained the woman who makes it is very particular about her base yarn, explained her dying process (which was Greek to me), and concluded the hype was deserved.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of projects in line before this, so it will be a while before I test it out.

Aussi Soxxi
Now this is a yarn that did grab me.

This yarn is 90 percent merino and 10 percent nylon. It's soft. Not the softest sock yarn I've ever felt, but also not stringy like Jawool, or scratch like Opal can be.

It's from Oasis Yarn.

I haven't used it before. Don't the colors make your eyes water? Apparently I prefer vibrant sock colors.

There were two other skeins I dithered over before I selected this one. One was in neon 80s day-glo colors. The second was a pastel version of 80s day-glo colors (if that is even possible). However, I thought this one might be more usable (ha!). I debated getting two colors, but didn't want to spend all my money in one booth.

See, not that is the way I expect yarn buying to be difficult. Because it's all so beautiful I can't settle on just one.

Samson's Angora
It wasn't until after I bought this yarn that I realized it was named for one of my puppies.

Aside from the Solo yarn, angora sock yarn was my other solid goal for Rhinebeck.

My feet get really cold in the winter. I mean really cold. Forget about not letting them touch Hubby at night, I don't even want them touching me! (Actually, Hubby loves me so much that he does let me put them on him to warm up.) I've heard that angora has some homeopathic thing going on for poor circulation.

This yarn is 50 percent angora, 20 percent merino, and 30 percent nylon. I'm happy about the high nylon content since it means the finished socks should have some durability. They shouldn't wear out the first time I forget and walk around the house in them. At the same time the yarn is still soft and fuzzy.

I don't mind that it's plain white since these are just bed socks.

Actually, I saw some nice dyed angora yarn at the end of the day. However it cost more and the angora content wasn't as high, so I'm happy I bought this instead.

Maple Creek Farm Alexandria
Again, here is a yarn that reached out and grabbed me. I had to have it. The tag just says superwash and nylon with out ratios. It has a good softness.

At the end of the day, when we were heading for the exit, we realized there was an entire section of the fair we had missed. All the buildings housing the 4-H displays, which is where the live sheep, alpacas, and llamas were hanging out. There were more vendors in that area as well. We missed them because when we arrived we immediately veered off in search of the kiddie section. I can see why some people spend two days at this festival.

As we were zooming through, this yarn caught my eye. I saw it and was once again mesmerized. In addition to liking vibrant socks, I apparently think you can't have too many pairs of red socks.

Mom seemed a little iffy about them, but my nephew said to go for it. Of course, my nephew said I should buy it to make socks for him. I was like, "Right, kid, don't hold your breath." (Please see my previous post about being cold hearted.) Heck, since I taught him how to knit, he can now make his own socks.

Ok. That is all the yarn I bought at Rhinebeck. I can't wait to get to use it.

That Sunday morning, when we woke up, I snuggled up to Hubby and was telling him all about the festival and my beautiful new yarns. He asked how much I spent. I mumbled a figure that was probably on the low side (despite my vow never to smuggle purchases). He was like, "Geez, honey!" because it's almost time for his case of wine. In a panic I blurted, "Mom gave me some spending money!" And he said, "What are you, 15?" because he doesn't like me to take advantage of her. And I said, "Well, yeah!" But I wonder whether he was secretly happy, since this meant his wine purchase was safe.

In case you are wondering about my lack of post yesterday...it took me two days to write this. My lunch hour ran out and I didn't want to drag the yarn purchases out to a third post. :-)

Hubby's Sweater: Argh! Maple Syrup

See? I knew that if I just stalled long enough there would eventually be something interesting to report about Hubby's Striped Sweater.

The maple syrup incident was on Sunday morning.

I was working on the ribbing for the front and had my stuff all over my love seat and the coffee table.

Hubby made French toast for breakfast. We were lounging around after eating.

Then I got up for something. Decided to take some dishes. Grabbed the wee pitcher full of maple syrup without looking/paying attention...

I was walking away when I glanced down and wondered why the pitcher looked like the syrup was recently poured...

Glanced back to see a puddle of maple syrup on the coffee table and a trail across my knitting and the charcoal ball (the tan ball was out of range)!

The keening noise I emitted sent Baru scurrying for the Puppy Fort. I think even Samson made himself scarce.

I grabbed a napkin and blotted it up. But I knew I wasn't going to want to knit with sticky yarn. I wrapped the ball around my arm to make a hank. Then I very carefully, with no agitation at all, rinsed the yarn and the ribbing in hot water in the kitchen sink.

I was going to do cold, which seemed safer, but Hubby pointed out it wouldn't melt the syrup away as effectively. Actually, Hubby thought I should zap it in the microwave, but it was on my Addi Turbos and I didn't want to waste time transferring it to scrap yarn.

I just held it under the faucet and let the water flush it. Then I carefully squished the water out and hung it on the towel rack in my bathroom.

It doesn't look like any damage was done. And it seemed pretty dry this morning, but I figured I give it the working day to finish off.

That's a Back
First, that picture is a total lie. It shows about half the back. As of, oh, Saturday night, the back is done!

Wheee! That took just over two weeks, judging by the start date I entered on my Ravelry project page. But I don't know if that takes swatching into account.

The stripe pattern we had decided in the store that day fell three colors short of the length I needed. So I finished it off with Navy, Charcoal, and Green.

Hubby has blue eyes. But they are the kind of blue eyes that will look green if he wears green. So I had wanted the sweater to finish on either the royal blue or the green.

Hubby was watching like a hawk when I laid it on the coffee table to take a final measure. He commented it was getting big. I agreed and said it was done. He took it (after I put on point protectors) and held it up to admire it in the mirror over the mantel. Then he sprawled on the couch and used it as a blanket for his chest.

It was all very cute.

I've started on the ribbing for the front now, which is how I managed to spill syrup all over it. It is moving along much better than the first round of ribbing did.

Speaking of Charcoal
I'm starting to worry about running out.

I'm sure that I have enough total yardage to make the sweater. It's having enough of the individual colors I'm worried about. Charcoal especially.

I have four balls, as it's my main color and that is the amount the original pattern called for.

But in messing with the color sequence we dropped a color and my main color is appearing more frequently than the main color in the magazine.

I have already used up one entire ball of charcoal just on the back. Then I dipped into the second one. Which means I'll need one and a bit for the front.

So I have to decided if I should just buy an additional ball. Or swap out one of the second balls of one of the other colors that might not get hit as hard. Like the royal blue.

I'm so concerned about this that I even sat down with the magazine and determined how many times each color appears in the sweater in the picture (which is only a size medium) and compared it to how many time I can expect each of my colors to appear. I was hoping this would help me decide how to rebalance my colors.

I thought if I could determine the pattern only calls for one 124 yard ball of a color that appears X times, then my one 136 yard ball should be fine.

Yeah, I don't think it helped much.

Although I'm really really sure I'm going to need more charcoal.

More Sweater Abuse
The sweater had a bit of a rough time over the weekend.

On Friday I had a fit of pique at Hubby and flung the sweater back off my lap and onto the floor! Where it landed half on Samson. Who didn't flinch.

I don't even remember what Hubby did to tick me off, aside from making me cook my own dinner. (If you ever had my cooking you would realize how cruel this was.)

As expected, Hubby gasped in horror and cried, "That's my sweater!" He dashed back into the living room to rescue it, protesting the entire time that it would be full of puppy hair now.

I, however, had a pretty good pout on by then and was impervious to his pleading. Until I realized that several stitches had popped off the needles! My ice queen facade crumbled in an instant as I snatched it back. Fortunately, no stitches ran.

Obviously we kissed and made up since I've started the front of his sweater and he's back to doing the cooking.

Rhinebeck: Stash Enhancement Solo

Finally, the post you've been waiting for!

Of course yarn was purchased.

But I was smart, I went in with a budget, cash, and a (vague) plan.

Solo
I knew for sure that if I didn't buy any other yarn I was going to stock up on Solo from Brooks Farm Yarn.

You might remember I was introduced to this yarn last year when Cynthia gave me a skein. I used it to make my Cropped Poncho. Well, I found it so lovely and squishy I decided I needed more.

When I was working on that uncooperative hat the other week, I was inspired with the idea of making a cabled sweater. A cardigan type that I could wear over other tops as a transition piece during the fall. Since I knew by then I was attending Rhinebeck, it made sense to get yarn for this potential sweater. (Especially since I'm making such awesome progress with that other cabled sweater I'm designing. [which would be none.])

I was thinking blue. Or maybe green.

As you can see I ended up with a glorious red. Turns out Brooks Farm is a very popular booth. I found a single skein in a nice green and asked whether there was more. The guy said what's out is it and there used to be 11 others just like it. sigh.

I considered getting one of their other yarns that they did have in green (or blue), but I had my heart set on Solo.

I ended up with six hanks in the NY18 color way. It is different than my poncho color. My poncho is dark red, with hinds of brown and dark orange. These new ones are more bright, scarlet red, with just a hint of orange. Trust me, they are different.

I had calculated that five hanks should be enough (they are 400 yards each) but there were six on the pegs and I didn't want some other poor knitter to go through what I just experienced with the pretty green one. Besides, what if I had stuck with the five and run out!?

Step Away from the Yarn
I got into the long line with my treasure. We were all chatting as we inched up.

Near the register was a rack of single skeins that were on sale. Some yellow caught my eye, so I switched the position of two skeins so I could get a better look at it.

It was a single hank of Solo. It was bright, sunny yellow and tangerine. It was like sunshine glinting off a glass of Tang.

I was mesmerized.

So I added it to my pile.

Then I reconsidered. It was only marked down $3. What would I do with a single hank?

I put it back.

Then I thought I could make another poncho and took it again. Then I put it back. But I had to give it a pet.

By now the lady behind me was laughing. I asked what she thought. She said I should get it, but pointed out she wasn't the best person to ask. I agreed that for that advice I should call my mom.

I took it again. Then I saw P from the store. She hadn't seen me yet. I held up the beautiful yellow skein and called, "Hey, P! What do you think?"

She told me to put it back. She said it as orange and she never saw me work with orange, so I obviously didn't like orange.

I put it back again. At which time the lady behind me snapped it up. Proving she was only encouraging me to get it so she couldn't! Oh, these games us yarn lovers play. At least it got a good home.

I also thought it was interesting that I looked at it and saw yellow, but P looked at it and saw orange.

Ah, drat, I really have to get to work. More yarn was bought, but will have to wait.

Rhinebeck: Faces and Fun

When Mom arrived with CJ in tow Friday night I was surprised since he and his sister had both said "No" to the original invite.

(He got his face painted like a pirate.)

We all settled down to watch the Yankees game.

I was happily knitting on Hubby's Striped Sweater when CJ asked me to teach him how to knit.

Now, most knitters might get giddy with excitement at such a request, but most knitters aren't as cold-hearted as I am.

"No," I said. "I tried that once and it didn't work out so well."

"I was four," he retorted. "I'm nine now."

Since I couldn't argue with that logic, and I didn't remember our previous attempt was so long ago, I fished out the US8 Colonial Rosewood Needles Cynthia gave me for Christmas a few years ago and a ball of light blue Red Heart that was lurking in the dining room credenza. (Proving it really was time to clean the credenza out.)

Despite firmly believing that if you don't know how to cast on you don't know how to knit, I decided to jump to the good stuff and cast on a few stitches.

He called my bluff and asked where the stitches came from and how I did it.

I demonstrated the long-tail cast on. He seemed to get it right away. I demonstrated the knit stitch. He started knitting.

Well, he had a little trouble remembering which direction to throw the yarn, but he got the hang of it awfully quickly.

He complained the wood needles were too pointy, but when I switched him to some metal #9 he said those were too slippery and wanted to switch back. So I said, "Just knit with the wooden one. When the metal one comes free, put it aside for the second wooden one." And he did!

Dude, I've met some adults who have trouble grasping that concept.

The Big Sock
There is a Rhinebeck connection to all this.

I had read that The Big Sock would be at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival and wanted to knit on it.

You can read more about it here but basically it's an effort to get a Guinness Record for the biggest hand knit sock.

It is distributed over several circular needles that all just feed into each other. The yarn was mostly worsted weight, as far as I could tell. It has been traveling around the country and the yarn store that has it contributes yarn, in this case Uncommon Threads.

You could just wander up and knit on it. Provided there was an open spot with a working ball attached (there were plenty of open needles, but no yarn).

Maybe you can tell, but I'm totally faking it in this picture. I didn't have yarn to work with, but wanted evidence. I did really add 20 or so stitches of my own.

CJ knit on it to. He did a good job, if I do say so myself. At one point I was next to him and said, "Remember not to pull to tightly." The woman next to me was like, "Oh I know, I'm just fixing this." Ooops! So I explained CJ had only learned to knit the night before. I guess that made someone else suspicious because she told me he had dropped a stitch. But he hadn't. He only split one. So I tinked back and fixed it.

After that, we got our commemorative buttons and moved on.

Of course, this newly acquired skill would explain why he wouldn't part with the yarn is his goody bag. If only I had known about the goody bag contents...but then hindsight is 20/20.

I know you!
Let's see. I ran into Lisa from when I used to take the train.

P from Knitting Central. (She has good Rhinebeck accounts and pictures on her blog too, as you might expect.) I had been chatting on P's Facebook page with one of her friends about how many layers of knitwear we could manage. Turns out it was P's sister, so I got to meet her too.

I saw MathCutie, who I only know from Ravelry and Facebook. She liked the Yankees Socks I made for Hubby and asked for the pattern. She found me at the big sock. I was looking down at the sock and she said she recognized my Coronet.

I also saw the Other Associate Editor from work (who doesn't knit) and G, the woman who does mysterious things with our website database (who does knit).

And I saw Bob! Ravlery's mascot. I don't think it was the real Bob, I don't think the real Bob is that tall.

This was at the Ravelry meet up. Bob was treated like a celebrity and got swarmed. I don't know these people in the picture, so I hid them in case they don't want to be online. :-)

I think that's everyone I saw. Really, I was focused on the yarn.

I had my Felted Ravelry ID Bag with me. As you can imagine, at an event like this, my bag finally got the recognition and respect it deserves. I spend most of my time with non-knitters, who admire the bag, but don't really understand.

Well, some people gawked at my bag in admiration from afar. Most told me how awesome it was. And a couple even took my picture! (link to someone else's flickr stream)

In addition to admiring all the fiber, we saw some cute animals, watched the shepherding dogs, and saw the Frisbee dogs. There were a lot of activities to take in. Did I already mention that CJ must have done the bouncy castle a half dozen times? And the big slide twice? I can see why some people attend both days of the festival.

Ravelry Party
We also stayed for the Ravelry party, which you knew from the goody bag in yesterday's post.
It was fun to see all the people and all their fabulous knitwear. The variety of hats alone was mind-boggling.

There were appetizers: spanikopita, chicken wings, mini quiches (which were burnt), pigs in a blanket, and fried veggies. Cash bar, but water, tea, and coffee were free.

There were also yummy cupcakes with fancy designs on the icing. I noticed the images were off the grab bag. How very coordinated!

My only complaint would be that it was cold. The whole damn day was cold. The party was in tents, and they had space heaters, but we ended up in the main tent which just had net sides. So unless you were right under a heater they weren't helping much. We managed to have fun anyway. Despite not winning any of the many, quality door prizes.

You might be wondering how a 9-year-old boy could stand all this. Well, when we were taking pictures of the cupcakes a 6-year-old boy appeared. He had come prepared with two plastic pirate swords. In case he happened to encounter a dueling partner, I suppose. They spent the evening running around having sword fights.

The Measure of a Foot
Also while we were admiring the cupcakes, a woman came over and asked if I knew how long my son's foot was. She said a friend was making socks for a little boy who wasn't around and couldn't believe that 8 inches was the target length.

I said he was my nephew so she would understand why I didn't know his shoe size. CJ and his new friend very obligingly took off a shoe each and let the lady measure their feet. They also reported on their shoe size. I also heard CJ tell her he was short for his age. How clever is that? I think they already knew the other boy was tall for his age.

Only at a gathering of knitters would this encounter not seem odd.

We didn't end up leaving until 10 pm! With a two hour drive ahead of us. We kept debating leaving earlier, but we wanted to be there for the raffle.

When we got in line for the shuttle bus we realized we'd be three, if not four, runs back. Did I mention is was cold? We ended up walking the mile to the school parking lot. In the dark. A bunch of other people walked too, so we felt safe. We also got to the parking lot at the same time as the second bus run, so we would have still been standing at the party if we hadn't walked.

Hubby was flabbergasted when he called at 10 to check on us (at least we were in the car by then!). The drive home was fine. I was flabbergasted at first that Hubby was still awake when we got home at midnight, but the Yankees game was still on. The two of us ended up staying up until 1 am, since the game went into extra-innings.

It was a very full day.

Rhinebeck: Goody Bags

Since Hubby's sweater is not making for good blog fodder these days, I'm going to milk my trip to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival on Saturday for all it's worth.

Considering how amazingly long winded I can be when I'm not even trying getting multiple blog posts out of one day shouldn't be difficult at all.

I know that what you want to see are pictures of the yarn I bought, but I haven't had a chance to photograph it yet. So just hold your horses.

Instead, I shall start with the fun, free stuff I acquired by being in the right places at the right times.

ChooChooKnits Goodies
I've been following Somebunnyslove (blog link) on Twitter and saw her tweet about a contest being run by ChooChooKnits (blog link)

She was going to tweet her location during Rhinebeck and if you found her you got a goody bag.

My little group was me, Mom, and my 9-year-old nephew CJ. We arrived just around noon and CJ was pretty insistent that we check out the kid's section first. Mom and I agreed in order to shut him up and get on to the shopping. Somehow he knew where the kiddie rides were located.

Turns out the rides were right next to the field were the Ravelry meet up was happening. That was very convenient.

I went over and started skulking around the perimeter to see if I recognized anyone.

I passed a lady whose pin said "Choo Choo Knits." I stopped and said to myself, "Wait a minute." Then doubled back and said, "Are you the Choo Choo Knits doing the Twitter contest?"

And she said, "Yes! you found me. Let me get you a bag." It was her last one!

It is a nice canvas tote bag (with the sponsors' logos on it) filled with all kinds of goodies! A copy of Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel, which is a cool book I've flipped through at KC but haven't bought. And three loose Glampyre Knits patterns—a cardigan, a cropped shrug, and that little one-skein shoulder warmer she designed.

A $15 gift certificate to Kaleidoscope Yarns, a Kaleidoscope Yarns mug (which got broken when mom dropped the bag as we were trying to settle down for lunch. sniffle), as well a KYarn pen and post it pad.

A skein of Tilli Thomas Milan yarn, which is a silk/cashmere/merino blend, along with a scarf pattern. The pattern looks sort of feather and fanish. I will follow it and this will be my Rhinebeck scarf!

A t-shirt that says "Knit Glam."

But I think my favorite item, well, they are all my favorites, but this one made me squeel, are the wee sheep stitch markers! They were wrapped up in tissue paper and then tucked in a jewelry box so I didn't see them until I was rooting through the bag again at lunch time.

Aren't they just so cute you could die?

They are from WeeOnes Creations (esty shop link)

When I found them I said, "Now I have to knit something with a pattern so I can use them." Hmm, I guess the Napoleon Scarf for the Milan yarn would do the trick. I suppose I could also randomly stick them on Hubby's sweater, just because they are so adorable.

Ravelry Party
We also went to the Ravelry Party when the NYSWF closed.

They handed out goody bags as soon as you walked in the door.

There is a drawstring canvas project bag that has sheep, lama, alpacas, and Bob cavorting on the front under a banner that says "Ravelry at Rhinebeck 2009" on the front. The back has all the sponsors' logos.

In side was a skein of Knit Picks Gloss DK. I got two because I stole Mom's since she doesn't knit. CJ wouldn't cough his up. I will probably use it to make a little scarf. Or maybe a hat. Or fingerless mitts. I just don't know yet. There is so much potential in a new ball of yarn.

A pink Namaste project tote out of a funky material. (Some of the bags had green totes.)

Little nibbly sample skeins of Classic Elete Provence Marl, Classic Elite Verde Collection Allegoro, Miss Babs Yummy sock yarn. Again, I managed to steal one of Mom's skeins. She kept her Miss Babs one and said she was going to make a key chain. CJ wouldn't fork his over.

A sample size of Unicorn Fibre Wash, which I've never used.

An a post it pad from (whoops, I covered the name).

There were also coupons and fliers, but I'm not sure if they were only valid during Rhinebeck.

As you can see, fun stuff was to be had at every turn.

Now, I must do more actual work.