Recapping Rhinebeck

Y'all, I am tired! (So tired that I've apparently become Southern!) I got back from my weekend away late this afternoon, but when I got home, I had bathrooms to clean, laundry to do, and dinner to make -- no rest for the weary! I have a lot of catching up to do in reading blogs and responding to comments, and I expect that will take me a few days, but I didn't want to go to bed without posting a bit of a recap of my weekend.

Let me preface this by saying that my experience of Rhinebeck is not typical, largely because while I'm not a vendor myself, for this weekend, I'm working like one. I had very little time outside the booth this time around, in part because for most of the festival it was just me and Amy working and in part because I didn't really feel a need to shop (see, my resolve is strong!). So if you're expecting lots of photos of people in beautiful hand-knit sweaters and colorful fall foliage, I am sorry to disappoint you. Okay, well I do have one sweater photo to share -- this customer came into our booth and I loved his sweater so much that I asked to take a photo of it:

If this isn't familiar to you, click here to see the inspiration.

The weekend was a real whirlwind. I got picked up my Uber at 9 on Thursday morning and met Amy at a Panera not far from the PA Turnpike. It was the two of us and the two puppies in the car; we met Amy's three friends who were coming to help at our AirBnB -- they'd flown in from Nashville and Chicago. We set up the booth Friday morning, and then went to Indie Untangled in the afternoon, where I saw a few friends and made a couple of small purchases. Saturday and Sunday were a blur, but I did find time for one very important Rhinebeck tradition:

This counts as lunch when you're working a festival.

I'd say that in addition to seeing friends and getting hugs for the first time in two years, the highlight of the weekend for me was meeting, live and in person, the Knitmore Girls! I've been listening to their podcast for at least a decade, so I was so excited to talk to them. And they are just as lovely in person as they are on their podcast.

In case you're wondering, Jasmin's sash says "Stash Dash Champion."

Amy and I got on the road before 7 a.m. this morning, with quick stops for bagels and caffeine, and we were back at the Panera (where the Mister was waiting for me) by about 2:30. The puppies had the right idea for the ride home:

Zzzzzzz

My acquisitions on the trip were very modest and almost exclusively made at Indie Untangled on Friday afternoon:

I got the mini skein set (which I'm planning to use for a design sample) and "Knitting Jedi" pin from McMullin Fiber Co. and the greenish speckled fingering weight skein from AT Haynes House Yarns, both new-to-me dyers. I bought Clara Parkes' latest book from Amy (I even rang myself up and checked myself out) because I've been wanting to read it, she had a stack of copies, and I figured one less copy meant less for her to have to take home. The only other thing that came home with me that's not shown here is the festival t-shirt I preordered.

I'm sure I'll have some more details to share in the week ahead, but that's it from me for now. I'm off to go tuck my kid in to bed and then tuck myself in!

Fiber Friday Fun, Rhinebeck Edition

By the time you read this post, I'll be somewhere in the Rhinebeck, New York, area. I'm setting this post up ahead of time so there's not a long absence from the blog, but I'll likely wait to catch up with all of you until I'm home.

I mentioned sometime last week that I was thinking about taking another sweater project with me, and I even wound up the yarn and swatched for that sweater. But I realized that if I had two fingering weight sweaters on the needles, I wasn't likely to make a lot of progress on either one, so I have only taken my Shifty on the trip (with a sock project for when we're out and about) and I'll wait to cast on for my May(be) Queen. With any luck, I will make some decent progress on Shifty while I'm away and I won't feel quite so ridiculous about having two sweaters in tiny yarn going at once.

The "fun" in this post is all about how working with hand-dyed yarn can require some extra steps and awareness. When I finished winding my yarn for my next sweater -- Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in a variegated and speckled colorway -- I noticed this:

Notice how two of the four skeins are a little lighter than the other two? Lisa doesn't really do dyelots, but she generally dyes multiple skeins of the same colorway at the same time. I don't know if all four of these skeins were dyed at the same time, but I did purchase them together. I was going to alternate skeins anyway because the yarn is hand dyed (that's always a good idea with hand-dyed yarn), but now that I've seen the difference in the skeins, I will be sure to pay attention to make sure that I'm alternating a lighter skein with a darker one. The variation doesn't bother me in the least, but it's a good reminder to look at my yarn and be mindful of what I'm doing with it.

I hope that whatever you have in store this weekend, it brings you joy! See you back here next week for a recap.

Three on Thursday: Looking Ahead to October

I can't believe it's the last day of September! Time seems to have gotten into some sort of weird warp this month, as it's simultaneously felt very long and also like it's flown by. I've already talked about it being a stressful month, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who is hoping that October will be calmer. So I'm linking up with Carole and friends today for Three on Thursday, this week with three things I'm looking forward to in the new month.

One of my two full drawers of hand-knit socks

1. Wearing my hand knits
I run cold most of the time, so I always look forward to the time of year when there's a chill in the air and it's reasonable to be wearing wool. My feet especially enjoy being covered in hand-knit socks. Our high temperatures are still running a little above normal these days, but it's starting to cool off enough that my feet are comfortable in wool again. This morning, it was 46F/8C when we got up! So socks will be in the regular rotation now, although sock washing is going to need to look a little different now that Rainbow has moved up into what was the stash room and I'll have to find another place to put my drying racks.

2. Designing more
It's been a pretty crummy year for me in terms of designing and creativity. Whereas in past years I've published roughly one pattern a month, I've only gotten four out so far this year, one of them a third-party pattern that I actually designed last year. I just haven't felt all that inspired. But lately I've gotten some new ideas that I want to swatch, and I feel like I might have a bunch of patterns ready to release in the last months of the year. Fingers crossed!

3. Rhinebeck!
Barring any last-minute changes, I will be on my way to Rhinebeck two weeks from today. I've already reserved the days off from work and purchased a festival shirt that I'll pick up at the fairgrounds. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about being around that many people, but I'm vaccinated, I have a stack of N95 masks to take, and I'm hoping that the safety measures the festival has put in place will be effective. My desire to go this year has less to do with buying stuff and more to do with seeing people, especially my dear friend Amy, whose booth I'll be working in. I have not seen her since December 2019 at the visitation for Scooterpie. This will be the first Rhinebeck without him there, and I can imagine it will be emotional, so while I'll be there to do the physical labor of setting up the booth and selling the yarn and fiber, I can imagine that much of the labor involved will be emotional. I know that many people who normally go to Rhinebeck will be skipping it this year, but if you do plan on being there and want to say hi, I'll post more specific details of where we'll be once I know them.

Is there anything special you're looking forward to in October? I'd love to hear!

The Start of Knitting Season

This week has started off with weather that always kicks off a case of cast-on-itis in me. The weekend was cooler (good for running, but not so good for staying warm, prompting me to reach for wool sweaters and socks), and yesterday it rained pretty much all day. Today started out still very overcast and gloomy, so I am sitting here curled up in one of my favorite sweaters (Ravelry link) with my knitting by my side. After a very busy workweek last week, this week is, I'm hoping, going to be much quieter, which should translate to a lot of knitting and reading time.

I'd hoped to have more progress on my sweater by now, but I've pretty much put it aside for the time being in favor of a more urgent project. I got back my new sock pattern from my tech editor yesterday, and I've been working on a new sample pair to take photos to go with it. Rainbow conveniently agreed to allow me to knit that new pair for her (ha!), and as fast as the original pair for me was, knitting a 56-stitch sock in sport weight is even faster. I cast on the first sock Saturday afternoon and finished it last night.

Technically I only need one sock to take pattern pictures, but I've already cast on the second and will be working on it anyway -- it's a good project to work on while reading. I am hoping to be able to publish the pattern later this week.

My Hitchhiker also distracted me from my sweater at the end of last week, and it's grown enough that the purple is just starting to change to a slightly darker shade, though it's a little hard to see in this lighting:

As I predicted, Rainbow saw this and heavily hinted that she'd like it when it's done. I really don't want to give this up, though, so I reminded her that we bought a sparkly purple skein of yarn when the Steel City Fiber Collective was closing a few years ago that would suit her very well, and she agreed that it would be perfect. So it looks like there will be another purple Hitchhiker on my needles in the near future.

The first of my not-Rhinebeck purchases showed up yesterday, which was incredibly fast! This is the only yarn I purchased, a mini skein set from Murky Depths Dyeworks. 

 

That the yarn is beautiful and made it here in record time is great enough, but I was really touched by a message I received from Debbie, the dyer, shortly after I placed my order. She sent me a message thanking me for my order and for supporting her shop but noted that she would have much rather seen my smiling face in person. Isn't that lovely? I know not all people in the yarn and fiber world are inherently good, but there are some who are truly excellent, and I feel better for knowing them.

Missing Rhinebeck

If this were any other year, or if this was an alternate version of this year without a global pandemic, I would have gotten up super early this morning in order to get on the road to Rhinebeck. While we couldn't have anticipated COVID, I'd known since late last year that this Rhinebeck would be different since we lost Scooterpie. But I couldn't have anticipated that everything would be canceled, and I'm feeling a mix of emotions today.

It was obvious months ago that Rhinebeck wouldn't be happening, and I fully supported the festival's decision to cancel. Even if it had gone ahead, it would have had a very different feel, one that I'm not sure I would have liked -- how much fun would it have really been to see so many friends but have had to stay 6 feet away from them? So part of me wants to do some things this weekend that I would have done had this been any other year, but part of me also wants to keep my Rhinebeck memories pure, in a manner of speaking, so that I'm not too sad. I'm probably not explaining it very well, but I'm sure all of you can understand the reluctance I'm feeling to try to have any substitute event truly stand in for the real thing.

Some things I'll be able to do safely from home. We're supposed to get some cooler weather coming through this afternoon, so I will definitely be wearing sweaters and wool socks this weekend. Rainbow and I spent several hours last weekend making boiled apple cider (basically a syrupy cider reduction) so that we can try our hand at making apple cider doughnuts. I will likely do a little online shopping with some of the vendors who are missing out on one of their biggest sales weekends of the year. And because the trip to Rhinebeck involves many hours in the car and lots of knitting time, I have cast on a new project:

Yes, Bonny, I finally did it! And now I am officially addicted and have started thinking about all the other skeins in my stash that might become Hitchhikers!

If you're able to support some of the businesses missing out on Rhinebeck weekend, I'd highly encourage you to place an order or two. One of the benefits of the festival being virtual this year is that anyone can attend, even if you've never been able to make it there physically. There's a $5 admission fee to the virtual festival, and you can also buy a $5 admission ticket to Indie Untangled Everywhere for access to a host of other vendors.

Whatever your weekend holds, I hope there's time for knitting, wool wearing, and fall color.

What Day Is It?

What a weekend it was! Weekends away always mess with my internal schedule, but this weekend was exceptional. It was great fun but also greatly exhausting, so I expect I will be playing catch-up all week.

I think it's fair to say that we all had a great time at Rhinebeck. With the exception of some light showers on Sunday afternoon, the weather was spectacularly autumnal and perfect for sweaters. But the two days at the festival were also incredibly busy, even with an extra person in the booth to help out this year. I did not get out of the booth all weekend except to go to the bathroom once or twice each day, so I did not have a chance to visit any other buildings or see any other vendors at the fairgrounds. Not that that was a problem -- I certainly didn't have a need for any more yarn! But I also didn't come back from Rhinebeck empty-handed.

Aside from the festival t-shirt (that's the thing wrapped in plastic that looks like a postcard), which technically was purchased by Scooter Pie, I bought everything you see here at Indie Untangled or Needles Up, both of which occurred the day before the festival and were really my only chances to shop. As I said, I really didn't need anything, but I did decide to treat myself. The yarn at the top is, from left to right, self-striping from Must Stash Yarn, a purple variegated (to make something for Rainbow) from LolaBean Yarn Co., the MDSW colorway from Fibernymph Dye Works (because I never made it to Needles Up Maryland this year to get a skein), and four skeins of fingering weight singles from Lambstrings Yarn that I plan to use for the Stephen West mystery shawl that's currently in progress. I purchased a bar of wool soap to try and a lotion stick (in the Cider Donut scent, yummy!) from Tuft Woolens as well as two enamel pins from Nerd Bird Makery, a sloth in a tree for Rainbow and a "Nevertheless She Knitted" one for me.

New acquisitions aside, the best part of going to Rhinebeck was seeing people -- friends from near and far, podcasters, members of the "knitterati," and so forth. Here are a few photos I got (though I missed taking photos with some other people because I was a little awestruck, like Bristol Ivy, Kirsten Kapur, and Jenny and Nicole from the Stash and Burn podcast).

Top left: with Beth Smith and Amy King (aka Spunky Eclectic)
Top right: with Lisa Ross of Paper Daisy Creations
Bottom left: with Boston Jen (center) of the Down Cellar Studio podcast and her mom
Bottom right: with Caroline aka Dunderknit of the Knitting Vicariously podcast

As you can see, I did wear my new sweater all weekend, and one of the highlights of the weekend was when Kirsten Kapur stopped by the booth to say hi and told me that she thought the pattern was beautiful. She may have just been trying to be nice, but I was over the moon regardless!

Now it is back to reality for me. The Mister is away at another conference this week, so Rainbow and I are managing on our own and trying to get the house back in order. I've got lots of blog reading and e-mail to catch up on and laundry and house cleaning to do. And I will be back to my normal blogging routine later in the week!

Rhinebeck 2019: A Recap

It was a whirlwind of a weekend -- a fun whirlwind, but a whirlwind nonetheless. There was a lot of driving, a lot of time on my feet, and probably not enough sleep. But it was wonderful, and I can't wait to do it again next year (the Ross Farm folks have already asked me to come again, so I just have to put it on the calendar).

We left a little later on Thursday to drive up than we did last year, so we didn't unload and set up the booth until Friday morning, which left us less free time that day to wander around Rhinebeck. But we did make it to Needles Up (though not to Indie Untangled, as we didn't manage to get tickets) and made a brief stop at Jill Draper's open studio event on Saturday night. Those two stops were where I made my only purchases of the weekend, as the booth was so busy during the festival that I really only escaped to go to the bathroom. I think I was fairly restrained in my buying, especially given that before I left I reached the conclusion that the stash has gotten out of control and I should use up or give away a bunch of it before I start buying yarn again. In any case, here is the haul:

At Needles Up, I picked up one braid of fiber from the Classy Squid Fiber Co. This is Amanda's Opulence blend -- Rambouillet, cashmere, Tussah silk, and bamboo -- and I couldn't resist it. I also picked up the Fibernymph Dye Works special Rhinebeck colorway, called Rhinebeck ... Sweater Weather? (the stripes are meant to illustrate the potential temperatures for the festival weekend), and two lip balms from Tuft Woolens. At Jill Draper's, I picked up three skeins of yarn (we will ignore, for now, the fact that I have yet to knit up the skeins of JDMS yarn I bought at her open studio last year or the sweater quantity I bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool this year): two skeins of Mohonk for a shawl design and a skein of Mini Empire to make myself a hat. The colors in this photo aren't as accurate as they could be, given that I snapped this photo early this morning before the sun was really up, but I think you can get the idea.

While we were all very busy during the actual festival, the long drive to and from Rhinebeck make for good knitting time. On the way up, I cast on two new projects. First, I finally got started on my Floozy cardigan and managed to get through all the short rows before we got there.

I have since added the first rows of the second color, but I didn't get a chance to snap an updated photo.

I also started my Swing Left socks from my Little Skein in the Big Wool Sock the Vote kit and worked on them throughout the weekend. On the way home yesterday, I finished the first sock:

I added some additional stripes to the shawl as well, so lots of progress was made in general.

All in all, despite the lack of sleep and the cold weather on Sunday (so cold I had to steal some samples from the booth to put some more wool on me), it was a great weekend. I got to see old friends and meet new ones, eat some delicious meals, and spend several days in the company of "my people." I'll admit it was a bit hard to get up this morning and go to work, but Rhinebeck weekend can't last forever and it's back to the regular schedule this week.

The Road to Rhinebeck

Shortly after I post this, I'll be getting in the car to drive out to meet Amy and Scooter Pie so we can start the long drive up to New York. While I'm not nearly as excited as I was last year for my first-ever trip, I'm very much looking forward to the long weekend away -- not least because of the amount of knitting time I'll have. I'm taking probably more yarn and projects with me, but options are always good, am I right?

First, I've got the Fibernymph Dye Works mini shawl, which I was hoping would be done by this time but obviously had a setback when I ripped and restarted and didn't see much action when I was on deadline to finish some design projects. I'm determined to put some serious time into it and get it done soon.

I'm also taking yarn for two new projects to cast on. The first is my Swing Left socks, using the kit I bought from Little Skein in the Big Wool. I've already wound the yarn and printed out the pattern, so those are ready to go.

The project I'm most excited to start is my Floozy cardigan, which I'd intended to knit to wear to Rhinebeck but obviously did not (heck, I never even cast on for it!). I did, at least swatch, but my gauge was off a tad despite going down to a US 2/2.75 mm needle. I couldn't imagine knitting an adult sweater on US 1 needles, so I'm going to be knitting a different size than I normally would to account for the difference. It'll still be a lot of knitting, but at least most of it is single-color stockinette.

And if that isn't enough knitting, I'm sure I can find some more somewhere.

If you'll be at Rhinebeck this weekend, please do say hi if you see me!

Rhinebeck Reentry

I'm not sure I can even begin to capture everything from this past weekend and the excitement that was my first Rhinebeck, but I'm going to try -- and please forgive the long post! It was a long, busy weekend, and while it was technically a working weekend for me (meaning that I spent most of the time at the festival in the booth), it was absolutely wonderful.

We left early on Thursday morning and pulled into the fairgrounds at about 4:30 in the afternoon to unload all the stuff. Then we headed to the campsite to set up the camper and then to dinner at Terrapin, which was absolutely delicious. On Friday morning, we went back to the fairgrounds to set up the booth. We were done by about noon, which gave us time to wander a bit around "downtown" Rhinebeck and have some lunch before heading to the Needles Up event. I made just two purchases there, a new sock-sized bag (I'm calling that a necessity, as I'd forgotten a bag for the socks I cast on for Rainbow on the trip up) and an Elizabeth Zimmermann pin from the Fat Squirrel and a braid of Cheviot in Starry Night from Classy Squid Fiber Co.

We decided to try to get into Indie Untangled before dinner on Friday and after spending a very long time in a very long line had about 25 minutes to fight the crowds. I purchased just one skein of yarn, the Rhinebeck 2017 colorway from Skeinny Dipping on her fingering singles base, and also got to meet Christine, the dyer, who I've "known" online for a number of years.

I also met Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade in the crowd and met fellow designer Mary Annarella. I didn't get a chance to get a picture with Helen, but I chatted with Mary for a bit when I escaped the claustrophobic room, and she's every bit as nice in person as she is online.

Once we escaped that madness, we went to dinner in Saugerties with Danielle, the owner of Fibre Space, and her husband and adorable daughter (a.ka. Fibre Space Tiny Human). That was a very fun dinner, and as both Danielle and her husband are originally from the Southwestern Pennsylvania area, we discovered a lot of connections.

On Saturday we were up early to get to the fairgrounds and finish setting up the booth. I thought it looked pretty great when we were done:

If you look closely, you can see one of my patterns on display!

Though the temperatures did get rather warm later in the day, it was chilly enough in the morning to wear and show off my Rhinebeck sweater!

I'm so glad I wore it, because, a bit later in the morning -- completely by chance -- the designer of the sweater, Elizabeth Doherty, was in the booth and I got to show her my sweater in person! She was so nice, and meeting her was probably the highlight of my day.

The booth was busy for most of the day, but it calmed down enough by late afternoon that I was able to wander for a bit. My first stop was the fiber arts competition display, where I was stunned and delighted to find that all three of the handspun skeins I had entered had won ribbons (one fourth place and two fifths)!

I ran into Melanie of the Savvy Girls Podcast (who I had met at Maryland Sheep and Wool last year), and the two of us wandered around together a bit.

Saturday night we headed to Kingston for a delicious Mexican dinner and made it to Jill Draper's open studio event for about the last fifteen minutes. That proved to be a good thing, as the studio was fairly empty by then and we were actually able to talk to Jill and Rachel of Daughter of a Shepherd, whose yarns were being featured at the event. I may have bought a little yarn there, too.

Sunday at the festival was much more relaxed. I got a chance to try the famous apple cider donuts and do just a little bit of shopping. At the end of the day, we packed everything up, loaded it onto the truck, and headed back to downtown Rhinebeck for one last delicious dinner. We had a long day coming home yesterday -- I didn't get back to my house until about 8:45 last night -- but it was worth it.

I'd say the best part of the whole experience was all the people I got to see and meet. I ran into a number of friends from SSK and elsewhere, and thanks to Amy and Scooter Pie, met a bunch of designers, podcasters, and other fiber industry people, including Laura Nelkin, Thea Colman, Amy Christoffers, Anne Vally, Boston Jen, and EmilyStraw. I also ran into Miriam Felton just outside the booth and introduced myself, as I'd "met" her online probably a decade ago when she helped me get through my very first lace shawl from one of her patterns (and I later loaned her the finished shawl when she got the rights back to the pattern and needed new photos). I got to meet a number of friends from Ravelry who I'd not yet met in person and ran into some friends who I've known for years.

I'm sure you're wondering what else followed me home, aren't you? Here's the full haul:

In addition to the things you've already seen, I bought a woven basket from Ghana (perfect for carrying all my purchases), a festival T-shirt, a sock blank from Gale's Art, and some Ross Farm Romney and CVM fiber and a skein of Shetland sport weight that I kept fondling throughout the show and Amy wouldn't let me leave without. I also came come with three new-to-me Lendrum WooLee Winder bobbins (not shown) that I bought from another Raveler who was nice enough to meet me at the booth for the exchange.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading it all. I'm going to wait until my next post to share the knitting I did on the trip (because it's a long drive to and from Rhinebeck, and that's the perfect time to knit). I'm thoroughly exhausted from the weekend, but I wouldn't change a thing -- and I really hope I can go back next year!

Can I Do It?

I'm in the home stretch on my Rhinebeck sweater, with just a portion of the second sleeve to go. I tried to work on it as much as possible over the weekend, but of course we were busy with errands and things like housecleaning and laundry, so it wasn't quite the knitting marathon I was hoping for. Still, I finished the first sleeve and got through the sleeve cap and upper portion of the second. My goal is to finish this sleeve by tonight so I can quickly block it in time for it to be dry for my early morning departure on Thursday. I have about 45 rounds (some involving decreases) and an I-cord bind off left to knit -- wish me luck!

In other news, thanks to some knitting time at lunch on Saturday and in the car going to and from dinner on Saturday and Sunday evening, I finished my socks!

These were such a quick knit, in large part because I worked them on size 1/2.25 mm needles instead of my usual size 0/2.0 mm. The pattern is already with my tech editor, so I likely won't think about it again until after Rhinebeck.

On Saturday morning, Rainbow and I took last trip out to Knitsburgh Yarn Shop, which is sadly now closed. There wasn't much stock left in the shop, but we picked out a few things. I grabbed a couple of circular needles and a set of crochet hooks as well as a skein of Neighborhood Fiber Co. Rustic Fingering in an acid green, and Rainbow picked out a skein of BMFA Plushy for a hat and mittens and some ONline sock yarn so we can have matching socks (the colorway might look familiar because I used it for a pair for me earlier this year).

I am really sad that the store is closing, but to be honest I haven't been there much because I have so much in my stash already and a lot of the knitting I've been doing for my patterns has involved yarn support. There are still other LYSes relatively close to me if I need yarn, but I'm going to try to stick with what I already have for the time being (plus whatever follows me home from Rhinebeck, of course).

An Unexpected Development

The long holiday weekend that has just passed was a good one, filled with a lot of crafting time and an exciting development in my plans for the fall. I'll get to that in a minute, but first I have an FO!

I finished up these quick socks for Rainbow on Sunday evening and left them by her bedside so she would see them when she woke up on Monday. I was very pleased to find that she had put them on almost as soon as she got up -- clearly she likes them! I used the Fish Lips Kiss Heel pattern and worked them toe up using the foot template process described in the pattern. I did make them a little bit big (maybe a quarter of an inch longer than her actual foot length) so that she won't outgrow them too quickly; she's planning to wear them mainly around the house, so a bit of room isn't an issue. The yarn is the My First Regia that I picked up when we were on vacation last month, and I used US 1/2.25 mm needles. Amazingly, Rainbow's feet are only an inch less in circumference than mine and only two inches shorter in length, so it almost felt like I was knitting socks for me! I'm usually not a fan of toe-up socks, but it worked well in this case to use up almost every bit of the yarn. I ended up with about 2 g left from both of the original skeins, and it felt good to be so efficient without playing yarn chicken. I didn't do anything special to get the colors to end up like they did -- I just started with the yarn on the outside of the ball regardless of where it fell in the color sequence -- but I'm tickled that the two socks ended up like complete opposites.

Though I spent a lot of the holiday weekend spinning, I did take the opportunity to cast on a new project. And I've got a deadline for that project. Why? Because, dear readers, I AM GOING TO RHINEBECK! Attending the New York Sheep and Wool Festival has long been on my knitting bucket list, and I honestly thought it would likely be several years before it was a possibility. But on Saturday evening I got a text from Amy at the Ross Farm asking me if there was any way she could convince me to come with her and Scooter Pie to the festival and help out in their booth. Honestly, it didn't take much convincing! As soon as I knew it would work as far as my family's calendar and my available time off from work, I was in! But of course going to Rhinebeck means that I really must take part in the annual Rhinebeck tradition: knitting a Rhinebeck sweater. I started mine last night.

The pattern I'm knitting is Copperplate by Elizabeth Doherty, for which I'd swatched (and gotten gauge) months ago but never gotten around to casting on. To give you a sense of how long I've been planning this sweater, I bought the yarn at my former LYS, Natural Stitches, long before they announced they were closing but when I found out they were no longer going to be carrying that particular vendor. The yarn is Yarn Hollow Tango, an absolutely luminous blend of Polwarth and silk, in a deep red shade called Garnet. As you can see, I haven't done that much yet, but that's mainly because I screwed up at the beginning and had to do a do-over pretty much right away (I blame the headache I had last night). I'm sure this small piece will be growing much more quickly now that I've read the pattern correctly and know what I'm doing, and the deadline to get it done is surely going to keep me on track.

I unconsciously made a smiley face with my yarn and sweater!

I'm very excited about my first Rhinebeck, though I'm sure I'll be just as overwhelmed as I was for my first Maryland (this time I'll know to bring extra allergy meds just in case my body decides to have the same reaction as well). If you're a Rhinebeck veteran, please feel free to share any bits of wisdom you'd like with this newbie!