Rhinebeck - The Third Time!

I just got home from my yearly trek to Rhinebeck a few days ago.  The whole extravaganza was awesome.
Here is my yarn mountain!

My purchases consist of the following yarns:

5 skeins of Creatively Dyed Woodbrook "Patrice"

5 skeins of Creatively Dyed Woodbrook "Laity"

5 skeins of Malabrigo Worsted "Amoroso"

5 skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino "Amoroso"

1 skein of Socks that Rock Mediumweight "Muckity Muck"

1 skein of Socks that Rock Mediumweight "Backstabber"

I have been speaking with Dianne of Creatively Dyed via Ravelry messages for about a year, and it was such a pleasure to finally meet her in person.  She is a hard-working woman, and always with a smile on her face.  I admire her drive, and how far her one-woman-show yarn company has come. I bought her Patrice colorway with Rosamund's Cardigan in mind, then saw Laity and thought "I don't know what I am gonna make with it yet, but this color is too nice to put back on the rack".  I am going to make something that is not too busy with intricate stitches so the beauty of the hand-dyed colors can show through. How do you think Francis Revisited will look variegated?

I totally fell in love with the Amoroso colorway of Malabrigo. The color has been difficult for me to find at my LYS as well as the online store that I usually shop at, so when I saw it at the Uncommon Threads booth I grabbed ALL OF THEM.  I am going to use the Silky Merino to make the February Fitted Pullover and the Worsted to make Vaila.  I saw many February Lady Sweaters this year as well as last year.  However, I feel that a fitted sweater would be more flattering on me. Lo and behold, I saw that it was one of the recently published patters the night before I went to Rhinebeck.  Yippee!!!  I have a feeling that will be my November project.

My sock yarn will be used to make a pair of gloves to match my Crofter's Cowl and Cabled Beret. Here is a finished picture of the Cowl. I didn't have time to block it, but who cares?  It's warm and soft, and I love it.

There was much fun to be had. I spent the weekend with Yvonne, Mary Beth, Deborah, Misa, and Kim.  We were laughing the whole way through. 

My fashion choice for the day was my Fashionista Hat designed by Me and my Bobbled Tunic designed by Twinkle. It was very cold, so I also decided to wear my Crofter's Cowl on my neck. Yvonne wore Mr. Greenjeans, MaryBeth and Deb both wore Ursa, Misa wore Vivian, and Kim has a gorgeous Owl Sweater hiding underneath that coat.

I also managed to run into a bunch of my friends from various knitting groups throughout New York.

Me hangin with Tina from Sit N Knit.  I saw her at the Socks That Rock Booth.  She had an affinity for Muckity Muck as well.

Me and my birthday twin Jeanine.  No, I am not gonna tell you how many years apart we are. 

Me and Tawana.  My first CPH buddy!

Hangin' with Cleo at the Ravelry Meetup.

The Whatchamacallits! Jeanine, Norma, Marta, Ayana, RosiG, Tawana, and Ann-Margaret.

Me and Ysolda "Bob" Teague.

Misa finished her Monkey Sock at the Ravelry Party.  Yay!!

Adding to the list of FO's.... Here is my Springtime Bandit.  Funny how it matches my hair.

So, what's on the needles now? 

Stay tuned.........

November Wrap-up - Picture Heavy Post

November has been a whirlwind. First the Election, then a marathon cookfest to celebrate my Mom's birthday, then Marathon cookfest #2 for Thanksgiving, a belly busting knitting potluck, and a delightful show to top it all off. I am so sorry that I have not blogged in over a month, but please forgive me. I have been a little busy... with good stuff of course!!

Well, I will give you what you have all been waiting for first!! The knitting extravaganza.

I started Juliet on Halloween, and finished on November 21st. I used Briar Rose Fibers Sonoma that I bought last year at Rhinebeck. I started out casting on for the medium size, because my gauge was slightly smaller than the pattern called for, and I used size 10 needles. I increased for the sleeves until I felt comfortable. It turns out I was about 3 stitches away from the large size, so I just added 3 more stitches and went ahead with my fingers crossed. I ran out of yarn halfway into the last repeat, but luckily, I has a second skein that was dyed similarly. With Briar Rose, it is impossible to get the same dye lot. But, the slight color variation didn't bother me at all. I bought some gold buttons from Save-A-Thon, and boy did I save a lot. The buttons were less than $2. Yippee! The best part is, that they match my boots perfectly. I know, there I go being all matchy-matchy again. Here are my pictures.

I also completed my Cabled Beret from the Premiere Issue of the Debbie Bliss Magazine. I love this hat. I started it on Nov. 19th and completed it on the 24th. The original hat looks very droopy, and I thought that it would swallow my head, especially since my hair is a lot shorter now. So, I went down to a size 4 needle for the ribbing, and a size 7 needle for the rest of the hat. The result is perfect. I used 3.5 skeins of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran as specified in the pattern, in the Berry Colorway. This hat is super warm, and just glides over my hair. Because of the silk content, I don't have to worry about it sucking the moisture out of my hair like wool does.

So, now that the hat is complete, the challenge was to find a comparable sock yarn so that I can make Druid Mittens to match. Debbie Bliss does not make the Berry color in fingering weight. Booooo!!! :-( I took a chance and ordered Socks that Rock in "Jasper". I felt like a big dummy holding the hat up to the computer screen to see if it would match. Well, nobody is perfect... but I am happy that the colorway is really close.
I am excited to get started on these.

I have one more thing to complete this set. I started making the Crofter's Cowl with the Debbie Bliss Silk Alpaca. On the second half, I ran out of yarn with about 9 stitches left to knit. So, now that I have leftover yarn from my hat, I can finally complete it. Here is a picture of half of it, sadly.
I also started another sweater. On the day after Thanksgiving, Rosi G. invited the girls over for a feast and some knitting company. My contribution was a lovely Sweet Potato Casserole. My first attempt was on Thanksgiving day, and I truly believe that the knitting crew got the sweeter deal the second time around.
When I wasn't stuffing my face, I was busy knitting. Here is the bottom portion of the back of my Victoria Sweater from Twist Collective.

Here is another shot of some Thanksgiving gooey goodness. Mmmm.. Lattice-Top Peach Pie. It was gone in about 2 minutes. LOL!! Greedy family!! I have also been doing a little crochet. I promised my friend Deborah a long time ago that I would finish her hat and scarf set. Ummmm.... let's just say that I love her more than I love to crochet. And, since I love to see a smile on her face..... I made some progress this past week. 15 inches whew!! I have about 30 more inches to go before I add ruffles.
Here is a picture of me with my mom on her birthday. We are still trying to work on getting her to fall in love with yarn, but for now she can just smile on the knitting blog.
Last but not least, I went to see the Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall. The Rockettes were amazing!!! Here is a picture of the whole cast.
I sat in the First Mezzanine, in the last row. Dang!! I love the zoom on this camera!!

And the winner is......

I want to thank everyone for participating in the contest. There were 16 entries in total. 1 person had two entries, so her name was added to the list below all of the single-entry individuals. I found a random number generator online, and here are the results.

The 14th comment was posted by Nancy of Knitarooooo! Congratulations. Please send me the picture that you would like me to put on your stitch markers. I will take care of the cropping and other formatting. I am so happy to send you this gift.

And, since we are on the topic of contests...Sophanne is having a contest that I would like to participate it. She asked that we post a picture of our favorite halloween costume. I never really go all out for Halloween, but last year I got invited to a Halloween party by my friend saying "You better come, and be in a costume". At the last minute, I picked out this costume from Ricky's. It was within my budget, and I really digged it because it had pink hair.

Me as Pebbles from the Flintstones.

Hehe!! Oh, am my caveman friend... I met him at the party that night, and it was totally unplanned. However we did manage to snag the prize for "Best Couple Costume", even though we weren't really a "couple". Haha!! It was a lot of fun. Thanks J!!

So, I have knitting group tomorrow, and the weather is really cold. I am making something to keep me warm, and here is the first half of it. Hopefully I can finish it before my neck freezes. Yes, it's another Crofter's Cowl. I am in love with this pattern. I am making it using 2 skeins of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran. This yarn is really soft. I casted on 80 stitches as the pattern specified, for a cowl that fit close to the neck. I have enough yarn to add an extra pattern repeat, and still have enough of a yarn tail to kitchener it to together. I am going Cowl Crazy. I plan on making at least 2 more in the near future.