The obligatory Rhinebeck post.

Okay, so my third time at Rhinebeck was such a different year for me, leaving behind my 8 week old child in the care of the incredibly capable Mr B. I caught a ride upstate with gleek (oh! and I've been meaning to mention, you should check our her new project, a new online magazine called Popknits, it's incredibly cool!) and Nancy, it was a beautiful day and I had a great time. Although I didn't get to meet many fellow bloggers (besides the spiders, of course, and Maryse [edited to add this info, sorry Maryse - it was great to meet you irl!) I was so happy to be out among the adults. I don't have an amazing haul to show you - in fact I've barely got a thing to show except the cool mug and yarn I bought from the last stand I went to.

I *love* this mug, I use it every day, now that my Mum (and lack of reflux) has helped my tea addiction come back in full swing. The [supersoft, lovely] yarn is most likely going to be used for some fair-isle mittens.

I don't have much in the way of knitting to show you this time, just a hat that I'm trying design - it's Malabrigo, which I also bought when upstate, from Fabulous Yarn we stopped in the village of Tivoli, NY for dinner before the Rav Party. The lady saw our desperate, yarn hungry faces peering in the window (yeah the festival didn't quite sate us) and she re-opened for us! how nice. I decided that I wanted a cabled hat, but could find no pattern that caught my fancy, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I still have no clue what I'm going to do come the crown...

Oh yes, I am actually in the middle of a row here, in fact, it's mid-cable! The joys of motherhood :)

I have been sewing like a maniac though (well, when I get a chance) and the shop has never been so full. The reason for this? Well, apart from the huge daycare deposit and severe lack of income (aaahh, US maternity coverage is astoundingly bad) I actually have an ad running on Ravelry for November and thought I better have some bags to offer - this is VERY exciting for me.

Good news is, I have lovely bags to show for it.

(more) News and Knitting

The next step with beany baby was to find out whether the predominant color in my knitting (and other stuff) would be:

Pink*

OR


Blue*

Now the rather grumpy technician was quite adamant that we will be focusing on....

Nah, I'll wait until the end of the post before I tell ya (of course it's just a simple matter of scrolling to the bottom to find out).

So in practically one evening I used up the handspun I'd made a little while back, with it I made Ysolda's Urchin [rav link for details].


I haven't worn the hat outside among the "real" people yet, I don't feel I have the guts, and am not sure about me in a beret, but I'm happy with the pattern itself, the simplicity of the short-rows and the loveliness of garter stitch.


Mr B got his wish last week, a Munkee all his own for the bean. As I wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn to finish this monkey, I offered to make a shirt. Mr B. requested orange, his fave color, which also happens to be a Mets color.



While my embroidery skills are a little scant, at least you get the idea, and just in time for the opener too. Details about this Munkee are here [more rav].



Oh yeah, and about the sex:



The tech was very sure we are going to have a GIRL!! Exciting stuff.

* Buttons coming to an etsy shop near you soon.

Weekend update

First of all, I just have to say 2 words Raverly Rocks! Frecklegirl Jess and her amazing hubby built up this phenomenal site for knitters - it's a perfect way to keep a track of all your projects (finished and WIPS), your yarn, your needles/hooks, your books, patterns your want to do, even your friends. Check it out now, you can only join by invite - so contact them, your invite will be given to you in the order it was received.

While deciding what yarn to buy project to do next, I picked out the baby silk I had in my stash and knit....well.... another shedir. Maybe it's a shedir addiction, may it's that I have tried several patterns with this yarn already and it just didn't want to be them, ever


And this is how much yarn I had left - I measured it, not even 21 inches - PHEW! That was a close one.


Okay, okay, you just want the stats - so here ya go...

Pattern: Shedir cap.
Yarn: 3 balls of Elann's Baby Silk in "Deepest Black", 80% baby Alpaca, 20% silk yarn. I doubled the yarn.
Needles: Addis Turbos, 32" #3's (magic loop method).
Adaptations: I did 4 of the 5 pattern repeats, again.

As for other knitterly goodness. I got my order from WEBS this week, I cast on for a sock, more about this another time.



I also swatched.


I might be pushing this one though, I keep getting 20 stitches, as opposed to the required 19 sts per 4". While I really like the feel of this yarn, I'm not convinced about the color - as is frequently the case with reds/oranges, it's impossible to capture the true color - but I would say there is a little more 'flamingo' going on.

And the spinning has been going well.


There's a little more white in it than I would like, but I'm sure that plying will change it all. Speaking of which, I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle the plying. I got an Ashford lazy kate some time ago, didn't really think about it until I assembled it. However it's too small the bobbins of my mystery wheel - doh! I've been plying from center-pull balls, leaving me with less than perfect plying, I don't want that for this beautificous roving.

Oh! and one more picture - Absorba out in the wild. Don't you just love our bathroom's subway tiles?



Enjoy the weekend - it's a beaut here!

Yippee!

Now that the daylight managed to coincide with me having my knitting and camera at the same time, it's time to show you some FO's. First of all, Mr. B's socks. Man are his feet big! I was beginning to think I would never finish knitting these socks, but perseverance does pay off.





Pattern: Slipped Stitch's Boyfriend Socks.
Yarn One hank of Knitpicks bare superwash fingering weight I dyed it myself using Jacquard acid dyes, I just mixed some green, blue and purple until I got this cool turquoise.
Needles Knitpicks Classic Circulars, 32" #1's (magic loop).
Adaptations None.

Secondly, after a marathon knitting session yesterday, Shedir #2 is complete. I got to do the extra pattern repeat that I wished I'd done with the last hat. Now my ears will be warmer. I guess I should do stats again eh?



Pattern Shedir cap.
Yarn 3 balls of Elann's Baby Silk in "Oxblood", a soft, beautifully colored 80% baby Alpaca, 20% silk yarn. I doubled the yarn.
Needles Addis Turbos, 32" #3's (magic loop method).
Adaptations I did 4 of the 5 pattern repeats.

Of course, I had to do a top of the head shot again.

Avast Ye!*

First of all, please join me in a moment of silence as I mourn the lost of my Shedir, which is probably in the hands of some hipster brooklyn-nite, somewhere in the depths of Williamsburg. It fell out of my jacket pocket when I was out for some drinks with friends last night, I went back for it about half an hour later, not there, no-one handed it in! I can only hope that whichever thieving bast@rd stole it whoever found it, is getting as much pleasure as I did, man I miss my shedir already. I guess I have to go shopping for more yarn now.

I finished my mitts last week, they took forever to dry in our freezing bloody cold rather cool apartment. I've been dying to take pictures of them so I can show them off. Fortunately, I managed to share them with my Spidey Pals, and now the weekend has finally rolled over and I can show them to everyone else. So, enough with the talk, talk, here are the pics and stats:



Pattern: Hello Yarn's cool, "dangerous" Pirate Mittens.
Yarn: 2 balls of Knitpicks Telemark one in Bayberry and one in Chestnut, inspired by the color combo used by Lisa with her Norwegian Mitts.
Needles: Denise's in US 5's, magic loop method.
Mods: None, the only thing I can say about the project is that I had difficulties with the fair isle initially, I ripped out that first mitt a significant number of times, but it was worth it.



One final word on fair isle [which I know really should be called "stranding", but just can't bring myself to use that term, plus "fair isle" sounds so much cooler]. I wasn't too happy with my stitches on the mitts, they looked uneven to me and not so great. When I blocked I blocked hard. I soaked them in soap-filled water, and basically beat them up in the water (not too hard, since I didn't want felted [or should I say fulled?] mittens. Once scruched of water I pinned them down on the blocking board, Mr. B. laughed and called me a Mitten collector. But I think the results were worth it.



* Apparently, pirate talk for get a load of this, me likey.

Somewhat Cashmere Hat

FIL's hat is complete, with me modeling.



Pattern F&P Jess's Cashmere Ribbed Hat.
Yarn Noro Cash Iroha (in color 16) a wonderful blend of 40% silk, 30% lambswool, 20% cashmere & 10% nylon - thanks Alyson!
Needles Denises size 6.
Adaptations Unless you count using the Noro, none. The hat seems perfect, let's hope Mr. B. Senior agrees.



And the money shot, the top decreasing is so simple, but perfect...

Mmmm, Mmmm, Good.

What is that I see before me, is that more Malabrigo? Yes! It's Malabrigo in color 137 "Emerald Blue". This is such a vividly colored yarn, I can't wait to see how it will look for MIL's So-Called Scarf. Thanks again Alyson for the introduction to this stunning yarn.


This is the beginning of FIL's hat made using Noro Cash Iroha (in color 16) - thanks again to Alyson for the fantastic prize package, I know that Mr. B. Senior will love this color and fabric, so soft. The hat is going to be F&P Jess's Cashmere Ribbed Hat, I love the top of the hat, the decreasing is special.

Finally, the Shedir hat.



Pattern Shedir cap.
Adaptations I only did 3 of the 5 pattern repeats as I felt that I was going to run out of yarn and it would be long enough, and it is, except for the bottoms of my poor little ears, I wish I'd done 4 pattern repeats now.
Yarn 3 balls of Elann's Baby Silk in "Oxblood", a soft, beautifully colored 80% baby Alpaca, 20% silk yarn. I doubled the yarn.
Needles Addis Turbos, 32" #3's (magic loop method).


I love this pattern, isn't the top so pretty?