NH Sheep & Wool Festival, Part 2

Yarn nibbles!

Sock hors d'oeuvers!

Wee skeins of beauty.

Call them what you will, but during the NH Sheep and Wool Festival they made success mine.

You see, back in 2009 Mom bought me the set of landscape sock patterns from Borealis Sweaterscapes. You might be most familiar with the lighthouse pattern. There is also an autumn road, pine trees, and cows in an apple orchard.

They sell kits that include the pattern and the yarn, but at the time I was working at Knitting Central and thought it wouldn't be a problem getting the yarn on my own.

Then the patterns arrived and I was stopped cold because I found out I would need small quantities of a large number of yarns (especially for the autumn road socks). I was facing a situation where I might use 25 yards out of a 400 yard skein. This would not only be expensive but would also lead to me knitting striped socks for the rest of my life to get rid of the leftovers.

Also, even if we'd had all the colors I needed in stock, which we didn't, I would have been brand hoping with unknown results.

So I made myself a spreadsheet of the colors and quantities needed, then put the patterns aside to bide my time.

In the past I've come home from Rhinebeck and kicked myself for forgetting to bring the spreadsheet, but really I just would have been in the same large skein situation I was in at the store.

Victory!
But then on Saturday Nancy and I were walking by the Holiday Yarns booth and saw a bin full of wee skeins of yarn. There was a sign about blah blah and at the bottom big red letters that said "A handful = $20."

Well, who can pass up an offer like that? We made jokes about needing bigger hands. I confirmed we could select colors rather than acting like a prize claw and taking whatever handful we came up with.

As we picked through my landscape socks suddenly came to mind. It wasn't a coherent enough thought to regret not having the spreadsheet, but it was enough to guide me toward autumnal colors that could be in the tree leaves.

My first "handful" was the top picture. I knew I needed blue for the sky. I knew I needed brown for the tree trunks. I basically did my best.

Then mom and I headed home. We discussed what a nice manageable fair it was and how we sort of conquered it one day.

Filling the Gaps
However we quickly realized this "one day" stuff was nonsense. I, of course, immediately fished out the patterns and spreadsheet and spread my precious wee skeins out on the dining room table. More colors were needed. I was so close. At the same time Mom realized she didn't buy any handmade soap. The book signing was Sunday. Then the final straw came when Hubby announced he had too much school work to hang out with us Sunday.

Obviously we needed to go back.

This time I took my patterns, spreadsheet, and the colors I bought Saturday.

I got to the booth in a slight lull with gave me the opportunity to show Jennifer the patterns and explain to what I needed. She was smitten. We spread out my stuff and she helped me select the missing colors. I ended up purchasing three full size skeins a well mainly for the foot portions but also because of cross over between patterns.

She was very helpful and supportive of the cause. She said she will knit vicariously through me. I'll have to do a good job so I can send her pretty pictures.


Divide and Conquer
I have decided to start with the Autumn Road socks. You can see the pattern picture peeking out from under the yarn in the bottom right of this corner.

I matched up the colors I bought with the colors in the pattern with a slight amount of fudging.

Then I put them in Ziplock baggies with their pattern color names being careful to keep similar colors separate, i.e., poppy, garnet, and Chianti are in different bags.

Now all I need to do is ball all the skeins and I can get started.

It's so exciting.

NH Sheep & Wool Festival, Part 1

You had to expect me to drag a weekend wool festival out over multiple posts.

This was my first time attending the NH Sheep and Wool Festival. The first time around living in the state I had not yet realized the glory that is wool festivals, but after attending Rhinbeck two years in a row I had to check the local one out.

My hope was that it would be smaller and more manageable than Rhinebeck, and indeed it was. It was busy and there were many vendors, but it wasn't overwhelming. One thing I liked about it was all the vendors seemed to be from the NH, VT, ME area with a few from farther afield. It's not that I was really pulling a "support local" attitude (which was nice), but rather I figure if I want more of their products they'll be easy to get to.

People
Mom came up for it. We'd planned it before her little heart attack at the beginnig of the month and the doctors said there was no reason she shouldn't. Once there we met up with Pam's sister Nancy (who does not have a blog).

We also ran into Marcia and Patty from the Library Knitting group, several of Nancy's friends, and Pat who I worked with briefly at Patternworks my first time around.

Now that I work from home full-time I often feel that I never see other humans aside from Hubby. It made me happy that I already know enough people to encounter them out and about despite only being in the state since the summer and never leaving the house.

On Sunday I also got to meet Vicki Stiefel, who I follow on Twitter. I saw on Ravelry that she'd be a the festival doing a book signing and thought she looked familar. Her book is 10 Secrets of the LaidBack Knitters. I had a chance to flip through it on Saturday and determine it was worth owning. She was so very excited that I'm a Twitter follower that at first I thought she was yanking my chain. But she really was excited (and of course I was excited too, not often you actually meet your social media friends). She was also very sweet and we had a nice chat. She even had Mom take our picture so she could tweet about meeting me!

Speaking of pictures. Of course I can't go near a fiber festival without my Felted Ravelry ID Bag. Trust other knitters and crocheters to appreciate the insantiy of it. I do enjoy basking in the compliments. hehehe.

Yaaarnn!
Of course I go to these festivals for the wool part, not the sheep part. Although I do try to swing by the stalls and thank them for their contribution to my happiness.

The first thing I fell in love with was this beautiful bundle from Ellen's Half Pint Farm. It is 1,375 yards of 50% Silk 50% Merino goodness. As you can see in the opening picture, it was love at first sight. I bought it in the "Spring Pansy" colorway, but there were many other lovely colors. I was briefly distracted by some of the other colors (there was one that would have matched the Flashy Socks I recently started) but I decided to stick with the first one that caught my eye. I plan, of course, to make a Schleppy Sweater with it.

Listen, that raglan I designed for myself fits well and works fine with colorful yarn, so I'm just going to stick with it. At this rate, if I actually knit all the Schleppys I plan too, I'll be able spend the entire winter wearing just them!

While Mom and Nancy both stopped at Leslie Wind's booth to have some pins made while they watched (website has sound effects) I wandered through the Ball and Skein booth right next to it.

The Ball and Skein booth was well organized and well lit. She had sample shawls displayed around the booth and I became enamored of the Ceder Leaf Shawlette from Never Not Knitting.

Ball and Skein was selling the pattern as a kit with her Sophia yarn for $30, which struck me as a very reasonable price since the yarn is a Merino/Nylon/Cashmere blend.

The sample was in orange, which was nice, but not really me. I decided green would be too easy, because of the leaves. So I went with this nice shade of red called "Rusty Nail."

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this pattern is similar to one I already have queued on Ravelry. Between this and my Trellis Leaf Mitts, I guess I'm totally on a leaf kick for some reason.

Needles
That is not the end of my yarn purchases at the festival, as you might imagine, but I'll leave the rest for tomorrow.

I'll wrap up today's post with the needles I bought. Well, I suppose the Denise companion set isn't actually needles, but they are close enough.

Oh.my.goodness, are they not beautiful?!

Really, I need more Denise cables about as much as I need more yarn, but how could I pass them up? As you might know, I have a set and a half as I bought a set when I learned to knit then acquired Pam's cast off set before I left CT. But those all have the traditional blue cables. These, these are colored cables!

The booth I bought them in had the range of colors and it was hard to select, so I defaulted to happy yellow. A woman watching me dither suggested I get a color that will contrast with the colors I normally work with. That was a good idea and reaffirmed the yellow since I tend to knit with red and blue.

The other needles I bought are a set of US 1.5 "Darn Pretty Needles" double points. They were out of US 1, but I figure these are close enough. You can't really tell in that bad picture, but they are multicolored wood needles.

Now I just need an excuse to use them because goodness knows I have the yarn.

Yellow Lace Top

Works in progress be damned!

Knit from your stash? I laugh at the concept!

Because I have yummy new yarn and have finally decided on a pattern.

You will remember (perhaps bitterly) my recent bragging about receiving sample balls of the new Juniper Moon Farm Yarn "Findley" to play with.

Hmm, that doesn't sound quite right...anyway.

I had settled on a knit sweater, a crocheted sweater, and a shawl, but was dithering over the colors to use for all of them. Of all the colors I'd received I only had solid plans for two of them, but there was heavy math involved before I could start either of those.

Last week I laid out the patterns and yarns and made Hubby decide for me. Don't laugh. He has a very good eye. And perhaps not as much at stake.

For the crochet sweater he suggested the robins egg blue. For the shawl (which will be the cover pattern from the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Debbie Bliss Magazine) he selected the grass green.

Finally, for my friend Pam's Lacey V-Neck Top that is in the Holiday 2009 issue of Vogue Knitting he selected the soft, buttercup yellow. Interestingly, it is also the one the women in the Library Knitting group suggested.

Away I Go
With a color selected, I cast on last Tuesday and have been clicking away.

The lace pattern only has an 8 row repeat and it's a fairly regular progression, so I hope I ingest it soon and can stop looking at the pattern. That will speed things up.

The sweater has waist shaping, but instead of having you increase and decrease Pam cleverly has you change needle sizes. In fact I'm already at the first change. I was surprised it arrived so quickly.

So surprised that my US 3 circular wasn't available. It was still in the lace scarf I've been knitting for, what, a year because scarves just kill me and now I only work on it during the Library Knitting group. Anyway, I knit it onto a pair of bamboo straights I own for some reason and freed the circ for the sweater.

Of course sweater progress was derailed when I skipped town over the weekend. But I'm back at it.

Another nice thing is that it's knit in the round so there won't be much seaming to worry about at the end.

Well, considering I've only knit around 3 inches of sweater there isn't much more to say.

I think it's time to stop typing and start knitting.

A Need for Socks

Last week I swore project monogamy to a lace sweater about which I haven't had a chance to tell you.

However, since knitters plan and G-d laughs, that all went out the door Friday morning.

On Friday morning my mom called to tell me she was in the hospital because she might have had a heart attack the day before but they were still waiting for test results to come back. She assured me she felt fine and not to bother coming down.

That was a relief on all counts since it's an 8 hour drive. Of course, by the time I got out of the shower I'd come to my sense so when my older brother called to make sure I was up to speed I was able to assure him I was packing.

The final word is that she did have a mild heart attack and had had a silent one sometime in the past. They determined that she did not need a stent because her heart had grown new veins to bypass the blockage.

Despite these amazing regenerative powers she assures us she is not a Borg.

We were able to take her home Saturday afternoon and informed her that it was a hell of a stunt to get me to come down for Mother's Day.

I ended up staying the weekend and coming home Monday. It was a very nice visit in the end. It would have been a better visit if it hadn't been for a health issue and if I'd been able to bring Hubby and the pups along. (Hubby had school duties and the puppies would have added to the chaos anyway so I left them all behind.)

Road Trip!
About a hour into the eight hour drive I began wishing I'd made Hubby come along, mainly so he could do the driving. Then I began wishing I'd followed his suggestion of taking the train. I thought it would be inconvenient on the other end, but it turns out my brother had the day off and my mom was in a hospital across the river from Philly, so it would have totally made sense.

But I drove.

On the way down I was happy to see that my intense dislike for the Garden State Parkway was both undiminished and still justified.

On the way home I followed the GPS suggestion to take the George Washington Bridge. Famou last thought, "It's mid-day, how bad can it be?" Actually, it wasn't any worse than the Tappen Zee and the Garden State Parkway combination, but the toll on the GW is $8 which I was totally not expecting and I'm pretty sure made it a more expensive option. (Oh! I just checked my EZPass account online and it looks like I got a discount so the GW was only $5.90.)

In the end the drive both ways was fine and I made good time, so I guess I can't complain (much).

What Does This Have To Do With Socks?
Despite the jarring phone call and the rapid pace at which I packed I had the precense of mind to realize that a sweater which was all lace all the time being knit with lace weight yarn held doubled was not an acceptable project for the situation.

I will remind you that she sounded fine and perky when she called so worrying about which project to pack was a legitimate activity. If you don't understand that you are obviously not a knitter or crocheter.

I realized that the situation called for a pair of plain old socks. Small, portable, and mindless.

With that goal in mind I threw open the dining room credenza to fish out some sock yarn.

I was after this blue and purple Seacoast Handpainted Sock Yarn that I bought over Columbus Day weekend in 2010 and never told you about.

But when I opened the cabinet doors the first thing I saw was the brown/yellow/pink Aussi Soxxi yarn pictured at the top of the blog. I bought that yarn at Rhinebeck in 2009. The age and the extreme brightness of it made me decide to go with the Aussi Soxxi instead.

I figured I would need something cheery and obnoxious to knit with to combat the potential gloom of the weekend.
I didn't get much knitting done, but it seems to be moving along quickly.

The first night I was knitting, Saturday, I was a bit nervous because I thought I felt my fingers tingling like they do when I have an allergic reaction to some yarn. But the sensation didn't come back the next night so I think I'll be fine.

The question now is do I abandon the new socks for the lace sweater or try to juggle them?

Because project rotations always work out so well for me. ha!

Schleppy Socks

This project has come, been, and gone.

Or, more accurately, cast on, knit, and ends woven in.

With all the sock carnage lately I thought it might be best to knit myself a pair to take the burden off the existing pairs.

Socks were my second project after I learned to knit, so I've been knitting socks for a while now. Once I hit around 14 pairs I transitioned to wearing hand knit socks almost exclusively.

This puts a lot of wear and tear on them. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that some need repairs.

Despite all that it's been a while since I knit myself a pair of socks. According to my Ravelry notebook the last pair I knit myself was in September 2010. In fact, I haven't knit many pairs of socks in general lately.

The last pair I knit was for my sister-in-law. I started them around the time we moved last year and didn't finish them until our vacation in March. She likes them very much.

I could not tell you what caused this sock dearth recently. Although judging by my Ravelry notebook the last pair I attempted to knit myself were those Skew socks. That was traumatic and I guess put me off.

Of course, I've also had a lot going on recently. Lots of projects on the needles. Spreading myself thin knitting wise.

Still, I always seemed to have a pair of socks on the needles regardless of other projects, so being sockless is pretty odd.

Back On Track
Anyway. After all that darning I snapped and decided it was time to whip out a pair.

This pair took 3 weeks, which is a little unusual.

There is nothing exciting to report about them because they are just plain old stockinette stitch, which is a nice soothing pair of socks.
There was a brief moment of excitment when I tried to work the gusset decreases in a different place just to mix things up.

Instead of working the decreases from the point where the instep and the heel flap joined I worked them in the middle of the sock. I left two stitches in between. I thought it would make an interesting decoration on the instep.

Nope.

I guess I placed the decreases too close together because it created a tight spot on the sock. I seem to remember they were hard to put on and not comfortable at all. Unfortunatley I didn't realize that until the first sock was almost done.

Still, I did not hesitate to rip back to the heel turn and rework them in the traditional fashion.

Rhinebeck!
Actually, there is something exciting about these socks. I made them with yarn I bought at Rhinebeck.

Finally, a finished project using Rhinebeck yarn.

It's Alexandria yarn from Maple Creek Farm that I bought in 2009. I called them "Schleppy Socks" because they are the same colors as my "Schleppy Sweater."

It's nice yarn. It's a merino/nylon blend and felt quite normal while knitting. It has also softened up nicely with washing.

Of course with my little feet I have half a skein left. Guess I'll keep it on hand for any darning that might need to be done many years down the road.

Done: Trellis Mitts

I finished knitting the second (left) Trellis Mitts last night.

Technically I still have to weave in the ends, but it's done enough for me. Especially considering I'll be weaving in the ends when I finish this post.

Not much to say about it since I wrote all those other posts in mid-April about making them bigger or into gloves or into socks.

I will be happy to have another pair of fingerless mitts to wear. You can almost never have enough pairs. You never know what color you will be in the mood for on any given day.

One amusing thing...according to my Ravelry project page I started them on May 16, 2010. So they took me almost a year. haha. Of course they didn't because I wasn't actively knitting them all that time.

Still, it's interesting to see how pauses and stops influence how quickly you finish a project. I'm sure if I'd worked straight through I would have finished in two weeks.

Oh, my finished pair took about half the skein of Ella Rae Lace Merino. I'm looking at the rest of the skein trying to decide what to do.

I wonder if I can figure out a crochet version?