Rhinebeck redux

I posted a few photos of Rhinebeck in my last post, but didn't say too much about it. The only other Fiber Festival I have been too was Estes Park in June, and it consisted of animal barns and one large barn of vendors. They were great, mind you, and bought my fabulous Tracy Eichheim spindle there, as well as some fiber, but Rhinebeck is about 10 times as large. There was vendor after vendor, barn after barn. I was only there on Sunday because of my HS reunion on Saturday night so I arrived early Sunday, even before the official opening time of 10 am. It was a chilly morning with frost on the grasses, and the drive up the Taconic was fabulous for the colors. Here in Colorado we usually get golden colors, but in the northeast, the fall colors have always reminded me of a bowl full of Trix cereal: red, orange, yellow, green. I grew up on the east coast and didn't remember how vivid the colors could be, especially the reds.

On Ravelry, I had gotten directions from Spinnerella, and they were great. I am glad she also warned me about keeping down my speed, because the State Patrol was all over the place pulling over those who were not warned in advance.

It only took about 1 1/2 hours to get there from Norwalk at that early hour and I parked by the 4-H gate in about the fourth row. I was hoping that I wouldn't buy so much that I would have to make a trip to the car to unload, but if that was necessary, I was parked in the perfect location.

I met the sweetest lady when I entered at the gate. They were temporarily out of maps/books of the site, and she offered me hers. She said she comes every year and has the buildings memorized, so she didn't want me to be without, since it was my first time. Not that I studied it, but it did come in handy to find some specific vendors.

Mostly I wandered in and out of the vendor barns and other vendor spaces. I was totally overwhelmed at the number of booths throughout the site. Since I had arrived so early, many were not even open yet, and many were still setting up. The first thing I bought was hand cream and lip gloss from heal my hands. Of course, he was from Santa Fe,NM, closer to my neck of the woods, and he definitely understands what dryness is and what it does to hands and lips. It comes in a cute tin with a solid bar inside, like soap, that you rub on your hands. It is fabulous and I will definitely be ordering more when this runs out.

There were artisanel cheese vendors from NY and I sampled and purchased some of that for Marion where I would be going the next day.

I definitely had a few goals in mind as far as purchases go. I knew that Bosworth spindles would be there as well as Golding Spindles. It is always good to see all the options in person and to test them out. Since I already have a Golding from this summer, I purchased two from Sheila Bosworth. Johnathan was busy working on some wheels at the back of the booth, but Sheila was very gracious and I spend a lot time overhearing her conversations with others. I even helped another gal who was shopping for her first spindle. I should have gotten a commission!

Later in the afternoon, I spent some time at the Golding booth and watched Navajo plying on the spindle. I have tried the ply on the fly method, but this can be done from a spindle of singles in a chaining fashion. I will definitely have to give it a try. One thing that was really neat, was that that a Ravelry person, Photozurn, recognized my name from the Spindler forum and introduced herself.

Of course, I had forgotten to bring my list of recommended vendors with me in my bag---it was in the car, so I mostly wandered. Someone with an unlimited budget would definitely do a lot more damage to the bank account than I did, but I did my bit to support the economy. I was very impressed with the fibers of Creativelydyed. I bought 8 oz of Seawool fiber, which is 70% superwash merino and 30% seacell in a rose, burgundy, and copper color. It is spinning up so soft and I think I will make a 2 ply fingerweight for a scarf/shawl.

I can't remember the name of the booth (I paid cash there), but I bought great buttons for my February Lady Sweater in progress.

In the same building as Golding, was The Fold where they sell Socks that Rock by Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarns. By Sunday afternoon, they had sold much of their product, but I did find a nice color of medium weight sock yarn in burgundy and purples. I understand that the lines for this booth and their mill ends is hours long on Saturday. I don't think I would have done that, and as it was, the line was about 20 minutes for me. Once I knit them up, I will let you know whether I think the hype is worth it.

Mid day, I spotted Cat from Let's Knit 2 gether, a video podcast that I have been downloading to my IPOD. I introduced myself and chatted with her and her hub for a few minutes. She recommended the Lamb and Barley soup and I took her up that and had some for lunch. It warmed my hands and my insides as I made my way to the Ravelry meetup on the hill near the main entrance.

I already had a nametag pin and my tote, so I was ready to "meet up." I didn't know what to expect, but I wandered around looking at name tags and suddenly spotted Peaceful Knitter who reads my blog and I read hers. I had never asked her if she would be there, so I was surprised to actually see someone I knew...at least in the blog world. She had on one of her fabulous neck warmers and I must make one with one of my home spun yarns. We talked about the knit to fit class I had taken and the philosophy of it and I encouraged her to try a sweater. I am really surprised, with her skill, she had not yet done one. I also had my photo taken with Jess and Casey who ARE Ravelry. It was chilly so I didn't stay too long at the meetup, and I guess I missed the group photo. Oh well.

With my purchases so far, I went to the car to drop them off and went back in for one last go round of the buildings. I didn't buy any books, but saw the area where Stephanie Pearl McPhee was signing her new book. There were several other authors, but I didn't feel like waiting in any more lines. I stopped again at Briar Rose Fibers where they had some fabulous yarn, but I bought 17 oz of BFL (blue faced leicester) roving dyed in greens and purples. And I saw some silk hankies in really bright colors that I thought I would give a try spinning. It will be nice to ply this with some other yarn, and I couldn't resist.

After all, I didn't know when I would get back again.

The ride home was 2 1/2 hours long because of the heavy traffic leaving the fairgrounds. But I was sated, and happy to have spent the day amongst fiber, fiber people, and eastern fall colors. And broke.

Spinning FO

Today I was very productive, fiberwise. Since my birthday, last week, I have been working on spinning singles of the Louet wool top pencil roving in color "Thunderstorms". This yarn is to be entered into the Ravelry Spindlers Group in the August Challenge, whose theme is "rainforest." This is a reminder of what the fiber looks like:

It is my first spinning with multi-color roving and as such, I really didn't know what to expect.
The green seems to be predominant and the colors change at irregular intervals. The finished product will be more tweedy, than striped or pooled, I predicted to myself, and I was correct.

I knit three batches of singles, wound on 3 TP rolls and placed in my super-duper fancy Lazy Kate, made with a shoe box and straight knitting needles.

I used my ball winder to wind a 3 ply ball from the three singles. Then, using my Tracy Eichheim spindle, I plyed from the outside of the ball. I love this shot with the Golding and the Eichheim together.
I have made much progress getting my singles thinner and thinner compared to my beginning spinning and I probably could call the singles, or even a two ply laceweight. This is my early spinning on this fiber: This a shot from today, showing the more recent singles spinning and the plyed yarn still on the spindle.

I soaked the yarn, whacked it, and hung outside to dry quickly.

Here is the final result, 43 grams of sport to worsted, about 106 yards. Pretty, isn't she!

I still have more than 3/4 of the fiber left, so lots more spinning to do.

Then, I started plying on the last of the blue/green CVM fiber into a two ply.

Once I finish that yarn, it will be time to start knitting on it. I have enough to do several hats, mittens, or use it in combination in a felting project. I have seen on Ravelry the Fetching fingerless mitts, and there are hats to match. With gift giving season ahead, it is almost time to get started on that.

Starting over, again.

After knitting a couple of inches of my February Lady Sweater, using size 4 needles and singles, I realized that even making the xl size would result in a doll size sweater. I frogged it, doubled up the yarn, and started again, using size 8 needles. A much better weight and gauge, but now I am certain that I will run out of yarn. I do have about 1600 yards......... 400 grams but at this new rate of usage, I will certainly run out of yarn. Do I stop? Do I try to locate more yarn? Do I stick my head in the sand and continue on? Do I consider a second yarn (type or color?) to add in strategically? For the time being, I am continuing on as I consider my options. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Since this yarn was from a specific alpaca (Capella was her name!) from Stargazer Ranch Alpacas, I may have to wait till next year to get more of the same.....I may e-mail them to see if they have any just laying around.... fat chance.


Sunday is my Birthday, although at this age, I try not to make a big deal of it. I allowed Gary to buy me a new spindle which I picked out: a Golding Tsunami Purpleheart which is totally beautiful. The whorl is 2 inches and the weight is .8 oz. It arrived and I have been working on my August challenge with it. I don't know if it is just taking time to get used to it, or it is the roving I am using, or I am spinning too thick... but I cannot get it to spin very long, at least in comparison to my Tracy Eichheim. The Golding is .8 oz and the Eichheim is 1.5 oz, so it may be difference in weight and my inexperience, but I will keep working at it. The Golding spins quickly, but not for long, and then begins to unspin just as quickly. It is amazing how the different weights feel in my hands.


Last night I drove up to Broomfield to have dinner with my old college roommate, Candy. We are both old now. As a matter of fact it was 40 years ago this month that we met on our first day at U-CONN in the dorm. We were not assigned to be roommates, but we were next door to each other. We each had other roommates, who were, to be kind, a little more of a studious nature. After 4 days of freshman weekend, hanging around, having fun, and being a bit rowdy, the other roommates came to us on Sunday night and said we should just switch rooms. It was their idea, and we jumped at the chance. We then roomed together for two years and joined the same sorority. Here is a photo from spring of 1969 when Candy and I, as well as Donna and Cathy, who dubbed ourselves the 4 Musketeers, since we did everything together, watched intently the events of Greek Week. To see a more current photo of the four of us look in my archive! I am partially obsured in this photo, Candy is the one with the NATURAL blond streak, then Cathy and Donna.
Candy was in Nursing, so for Jr and Sr years, she was at the hospital and I stayed on campus. We both graduated at the same time, lived together for the summer after graduation, and traveled to Europe together. It was Candy who moved to Denver after this trip, but it took me a year to save up enough $$ to join her here. We lived together for about 6 months in Denver, then she traveled to Michigan with her future ex-husband while he was in his medical residency. We married in the same year, (1975), they moved back to Denver, and had our first daughters in the same year (1980). Raising kids on the opposite side of the metro area, we didn't stay in touch as much and now she has a son and I have another daughter and she divorced, remarried, got her masters and Doctorate in Nursing and runs the Nursing program at Regis U. We reconnected and have been getting together several times a year now.


Visiting with Candy and her folks, who were visiting because of her hand surgery, we shared a lot of the old stories, and laughs. Not to mention the great dinner Joe prepared for us all.

And here we are 40 years later, still friends.... How special is that!

On the needles and spindle

I am definitely improving in the spinning. Here is a side by side comparison of two skeins from the same fiber. As a reminder, the fiber is vegetable dyed CVM and it was spun on the Tracy Eichhheim hummingbird spindle. When I was plying it, I made a concentrated effort to put a lot of twist in it and I think most of it looks great. How 'bout you??

I have enough fiber for another skein or two, so I thinks a couple of hats and mittens are in its future. Now just to decide on a pattern.


The BSJ is coming along. Using the extra notes, along with the pattern it is starting to make sense, but I better not get cocky. The yarn is very soft but I am disappointed that it is getting a little fuzzy from handling as knitting.


Finished one sock and am almost to the heel of the second on Mom's socks. Love this yarn and I know they will be nice and warm in the winter. It is hard to think about winter when it reached 100 degrees today.

4th of July Weekend.

Most people had a three day weekend to relax and enjoy, but me....I only had off the 4th and worked both Saturday and Sunday. We are very lucky that we close on some holidays when the rest of the mall is open: New Year's Day and the 4th of July. My "weekend" was last Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Friday the 4th, I went down to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival with a coworker friend. We have been going down each year on a mutual day off and have enjoyed the crowds and the heat. How we really enjoy it.... is going down early, viewing most of the show, and then having a nice sit-down lunch with wine at one of the independent restaurants that dot the Cherry Creek area. I can't understand purchasing a very expensive lunch in small portions from the street booths and then sitting on the lawn or dirt or worse to eat. It is so much nicer splurging in a restaurant where we get served. Is this a sign that I am getting old??

I actually purchased some earrings this year for myself:

from 314 Studio in the Boston area. They were affordable and perfect since I love silver. This year it seemed that there were a lot more new artists represented and they offered a greater variety of arts and crafts than I have seen in past years at more affordable prices.

Lunch was at Soleil and we had a lovely lunch of tapas. The "Bag of Dirty Shrimp" was to die for and we enjoyed the Spanakopita and Bruschetta as well. They have a lovely outdoor dining area under a tree and we were able to watch the crowds wither in the sun as they walked the festival streets.

The rest of the weekend I worked......nuff said about that........

As for knitting, I picked up the Booby Socks again and began trying to avoid the ladders that plagued me the first go round. For the last stitch of the row and the first stitch on the next needle, I have been wrapping the purl stitch the opposite way and it seems to be helping a little. I still see a little laddering....argh....

I have been taking Mom's socks to work to knit during lunch and I have turned the heel and have been working the gussets around. Really love this yarn to knit with and they will make lovely socks. There is no pooling of the colors at all so far and I am glad for that.

I also have been spindle spinning each night as well. I took my first singles spun and have been re-spinning and drafting out the large lumpy unspun portions as best as I can. I have been doing this on the basic spindle which I have learned is a Snipes. On the CD Spindle is the wool/mohair blend, and on the Eichheim is the CVM. I have enough to wind into a center pull ball of it now, and then ply, but lately I have been reading on Ravelry about the nightmare of plying from center pull balls. I didn't have much trouble with my first attempt, because it wasn't so finely spun, but I am a bit worried about this batch because the singles are much thinner.

No. 1 daughter is coming home next weekend for a baby shower and her 10th high school reunion. Hard to believe it has been 10 years and her friends are having babies......It will be quite a while before I have my own babies to knit for......everything in its own time.

Spinning, Spinning, and more Spinning, but not much knitting

What is it about the spinning that makes me pick that up, and not my knitting of several semi-complete projects? I keep spinning on the new Eichheim which is just wonderful, but I discovered the point where the single breaks and needs to be wound onto a toilet paper roll for safekeeping.

The first batch of the CVM in blue-green, has been plyed, washed, and whacked only to find out that what I thought was going to be worsted weight, turned out to be bulky. That is a quarter...not a dime!

What I am spinning now seems much thinner than my first skein, so we will see. It is amazing what happens between spinning and skeining! I used dimes for these photos.

I keep picking up the basic spindle, and still, it is short spinning. So for the white wool/mohair blend, I have been using the cd spindle mostly. I will try the basic spindle again as my skills at very fine spinning improve, since it is pretty lightweight. Any suggestions?

I think I will look through my stitch library to see if I find anything worthy of the alpaca yarn I have. I only have 1600 yards and it is pretty lightweight, so I think I will look for something somewhat airy or easy lace. Once I find a nice stitch, I will swatch and then try another "Knit to fit" sweater I learned with Christy at A Knitted Peace.

Speaking of Alpaca, I looked at the website for the ranch where my alpaca donated her fleece and they have two cameras which are always on. One is in the yard where they gather during the day and the other is in the barn. You can even sign up your e-mail address to be notified when babies will be born and watch. How cool is that! Check out Stargazer Ranch Alpacas in Loveland, CO for yourself and see how cute they are on the hoof and everything you didn't know about the animals. As a city girl, I often forget about the creatures where the great fibers we knit come from. The following photo was from the Estes Park Wool Festival a few weeks ago.

WWKIP Day/ Estes Park Wool Festival

Saturday was WWKIP Day (world-wide knit in public) and it also was the Estes Park Wool Festival. What a happy coincidence to have them both at the same time and finally I found someone to go up with me this year to Estes. Stacy and I have taken a few classes together at A Knitted Peace and have gotten together to knit a few times outside of class. It was a gorgeous Colorado Day with blue skies and crisp air. We arrived early in the morning, just as the shopping was opening. We tried to stay organized and visit each booth, but of course the distractions were everywhere: wool, colors, equipment, ideas! Stacy bought some Rick Rack II from Interlacements to make a shawl like mine....she chose beautiful pastel shades. My goal was to get a new drop spindle or two and roving to practice my hand spinning.

What I bought was a basic spindle, about 1 oz. and another more decorative spindle from Tracy Eichheim (1.5 oz) with hummingbirds. Tracy spent a long time chatting with me about the physics and mechanics of his spindles and it was a great choice. It spins long and steady.

I bought some natural wool/mohair blend roving and then some naturally dyed blue/green roving from a sheep variety that was recommended for beginners: CVM which I think stands for California Variant Mutant! There is a lot of crimp in this fiber and it is pretty easy so far to spin. The basic spindle was probably a mistake as it doesn't spin very long and doesn't seem very well balanced. It might be user error, but I will keep spinning with it to practice..

Lunch was delicious lamb kabob in a tortilla. We had to keep telling ourselves that the wool was really a byproduct of the industry and the primary usage is meat... it was very delicious and a good choice.

I tried on so really cool felted hats by Ruth Walker. This one is called Toque de Ville. Felting seemed to be a big thing at the market. Needle felting and molded felting. That is all I need: another hobby!

Then we went to the Alpaca tent and fell in love.......we were petting both yarn and creatures here and I broke down and bought 4 skeins of natural alpaca wool about 1600 yards. It is soooooooo soft and cloud like. It is somewhere between fingering and sport so I will have to swatch like crazy to see what gauge it is before I pick a pattern. The best part is that we met the Rancher from Stargazer Ranch Alpacas who raised the particular animal who "donated" the fleece for my yarn. How special is that????? My alpaca is named Capella and she did a great job growing her fleece. Stacy also bought some alpaca to make a sweater for her husband in pretty shade of tan.

These are llamas in the above photo. Alpacas are a lot smaller like this:

After we spent to the limit, we walked through the animal tents and visited with sheep, llamas, angora rabbits. It was great visiting with the owners of the animals, because they were so passionate about what they do and their animals.

We drove into Estes for some ice cream and we sat by the stream, eating, knitting and spinning in public.

All in all, a perfect day.

Wild Week in the Neighborhood

The Kids are in town, which always shakes things up around here. Wednesday, Amanda flew to Kansas City and then the two girls drove to Denver on Thursday, arriving around 3 pm. They surprised me at work and I really enjoyed showing them off to my co-workers. Alison, who also works at Crate, got to see all her old friends from 722.

Alison:
Amanda then picked up the car, drove to DIA to pickup her friend, Mary, and the two of them headed up to Casper WY, to visit a friend who had recently moved there from NYC where the girls live! Like she didn't drive enough that day....oh to be young again. I didn't know whether Casper was ready or able to survive these 3 metropolitan girls getting together again.

Amanda and Mary

On Friday night, since Alison ditched me to get together with an old friend and Amanda was two-stepping in Wyoming, I had the perfect opportunity to get to see the Yarn Harlot again, appearing at the Tattered Cover, this time in Highlands Ranch. I arrived at about 5:30 pm, bought my book, and found a stool to sit on in line and knit as I was knitting. Friendly knitters were all around and helped pass the time as we waited for the tickets to be passed out.

I had an opportunity to chat with Connie who was spinning some of the finest, as in thin, yarn I have ever seen spun on a spindle. I watched her nimble fingers pass the roving to its twists and become yarn....Amazing. She graciously allowed me to photograph her spindle and yarn. It is something to aspire to.

As expected there were more than two hundred knitters, knitting supporters, and a few muggles (people who don't get knitting) and at 6:30 when numbers for seats were handed out, I headed right to the front of the seating looking for a random open seat and scored a center aisle seat in the 2nd row. Check out the Harlot's blog on April 5 to see me in the green sweater.Last year I

(see my empty chair in the second row.)

was in the front row, but I am not complaining. I worked on the Booby Sock and enjoyed all the

wonderful ladies (mostly) around me.

(The Booby sock will need some serious blocking.)

The talk was hysterical covering the zen of knitting, the Canadian cabin episode and the lack of air in Denver. Someone should invite her to stay for more than 24 hours next time, so she can acclimate! Consider yourself invited, Stephanie!!

She talks like she writes and writes like she talks...it is a very dry and deadpan sort of humor, but you all know that! Once the talk was over, the book signing began and since I held number 94, I knew it would be a bit of a wait to get me chance to get my book signed and a few words with Stephanie. She complimented me on my Nantucket Jacket, loved my booby socks, which grew by a few inches during the evening, and she was very grateful for the few pieces of chocolate I gave her while she signed my book. What is so amazing is that she is just as gracious with the last people in the line as she was with those in front. There were nearly endless photos with socks, babies, projects of all shapes and sizes, knitters galore and Stephanie herself. I sat next to Katherine and we took photos for each other when it was our turn. I checked out Katherine's blog and she used a couple, so I was glad they came out. Here are a few she took of me:

Sharing the Sock Mojo Checking out the Booby Sock Pattern

Signing my copy of her latest book. She liked my Nantucket Jacket!

A good time was had by all, except the staff of the Tattered Cover who really wanted to go home hours earlier. There were still about 50 people in line when I left at 10:00 pm.