Rhinebeck!!!

Last Saturday morning I got the chance to headed up to Rhinebeck, NY for the Sheep and Wool Festival with my yarn buddy Rachel. Driving up the weather was lousy due to the scheduled Nor'easter. When we hit exit 16 on the Jersey Turnpike it started to clear up a bit. The weather held out in Rhinebeck, so that alone was worth the drive. The scenery was beautiful.


I pretty much behaved myself when I got there. I needed to check out Brooks farms for some more Acero yarn. I needed one more hank of the green (Some lady told another lady that I knocked her down to get the green hank of yarn. That to me was pretty strange, as she was standing looking at the blue yarn next to it. I walked up, picked up the green yarn, and as I walked away she gave me a look. I didn't even touch her. I guess she decided she wanted the yarn when I picked it up. Too bad, I think I needed more than her.) for my Coraline sweater to be safe and I picked up 4 hanks in red to play with possibly for a future design.

I lucked out at Misty Mountain Farms. They are the folks that my then boyfriend, now husband purchased my spinning wheel from. I got 2 large hanks of black alpaca 665 yards a hank for $23.00 each. Sorry about the picture, because the color's off .


I'm saving it for either a skirt or a sweater. I'm not sure yet.

I found one new vendor(The Sheep Shed @ Mountain View Farm) I really like and I will be ordering from them in the future. I purchased 3 hanks of roving each 2 ozs for $6.00 a hank. It's wool and tencel. Ive never spun that combination before so I was eager to try it out. Which I did a little on Sunday. I LOVE IT. I'm hoping I have enough for a hat and either a mittens or hand warmers. We'll see.

At the festival they had wine and cheese tasting which I liked very much. I purchased goat cheese with a layer of burnt ash on the top and sheep cheese. They are both very tasty. Here's a picture of some of the sheep cheese which I had with some cranberry wine Sunday night. The wine was very good also.

One of the booths that caught my eye had 2 beautiful felted paintings in it by Leslie Samson of Brantford, Ontario. Each of these paintings took about 100 hours a piece to do. She told me that she felts her canvas first, washes it, then she needle felts on top of the canvas and washes it again. The second painting is of the Elora Gorge in Elora Ontario.

Overall I had a really nice day and great company. Rhinebeck is a beautiful place to visit. The festival is nice and it had a little bit of everything for everyone, even if you weren't a knitter/crocheter/weaver/spinner. The festival was more spread out than Maryland, and you could purchase more handmade items.

In knitting news I finished my project for Knit Picks. I only have to weave in the ends, so you know I'm happy. Yesterday I started on this blanket. Since it's a holiday gift and I'm afraid I won't finish it in time, I figure I'm going to crochet and knit this project. This is what I have so far.

On Sunday I spent the afternoon doing laundry and cleaning. I finally figured out how to transfer my downloaded audio books from my public library (they have a website with downloadable books) to my iPhone. Let's just say, I'm a very happy camper now. I'm reading the Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

I also started to FINALLY cut out my trenchcoat pattern. I'm clicking my heels 3 times. Hopefully by this weekend, I'll have a muslin cut out and worked up.

Family Update and some sewing

First of all , I would like to thank all of you for the well wishes and prayers. The more prayers the better, they are helping and working. My mother is doing better every day but I know it's going to be a long road. My MIL is doing alright as well. I just wish we could get her to stop smoking as the doctors have told us that is one thing she can't do. But, she is not willing to stop.

In other news, my project for Knit Picks is coming along nicely. I should be done soon, since it's due back to them by the end of the month. Then hopefully I can get back to my knitting projects that are already in progress.

This past weekend I worked on New Look 6828.

No time like the present to get this one done since I've only had it cut out and sitting since late Spring. I did View A with sleeves. I love this dress. I purchased the fabric at one of my favorite places, Fabric Warehouse in Bensalem, PA. The construction was very simple and easy. The hardest part was doing the gathers.

After that, you pretty much fly through the rest of the it. I wore it to work today and got quite a number of compliments. Once they found out I made the dress, a few of the girls including my boss asked me if I could make them one. I have to think about that one, as I wouldn't know what to charge and if it's worth it.

I also reworked my mother's padded cushion for her travel wheelchair. I talked about it in my last post. Well, the staples weren't going into the boarding all the way, so I went to JoAnn's and found upholstery tacks and used those instead. I actually think it looks nicer.


Last week I got a chance to iron the pattern pieces for McCalls 5978 and Butterick 5030. This week hopefully I'll cut out the fabric and finally cut out the pieces for my trench coat. I am so behind on that.

Can It Get Any Worse

I've been trying to decide if I should talk about this because I usually don't talk about private things on my blog. But I figure the more prayers we get, the better.

On or about my last post, my husband and I found out that his mother had an aneurysm in her brain. She is doing okay right now. She went through one procedure that week and has to go back in 4 weeks. At that time they'll shoot coils into the aneurysm hopefully taking care of the problem. She did suffer some short term memory loss from the first procedure but she coming along.

A week after this took place (last week) I got really sick with a sinus infection. They also thought I had the flu, so per doctor's orders, I couldn't leave my house. Now to make matters worse, my mother didn't answer her phone on Monday so I drove over there, and thank god I did. Her blood sugar was through the roof(she's a diabetic) and she had also suffered a heart attack. It was a little crazy at first and they didn't know if she was going to make it. She is now doing much better and getting stronger every day. I know this of course by her attitude towards me.

Through all of this, I've gotten some knitting done, but I can't show it because it's a sample item for the December issue of Knit Picks. I can tell you that it's beautiful and I want a set for myself.

Last Saturday I made a window treatment for my bathroom window. Do you ever have that problem where you buy a shower curtain, and you want a matching window curtain, but they don't sell them? Here's an easy solution. Buy an extra curtain, and make one. The curtain looked like this and here's the end result. My second project last weekend dealt with my mother. When I travel with my mother, we usually bring her wheelchair. It just makes things go faster. We purchased a traveling wheelchair the other day but it didn't come with a cushion, so I made her one. I measured the chair dimensions, went to JoAnns and purchased some foam. I used an electric knife and cut the foam to the size I needed. I then went to Home Depot, I purchased some boarding for the base. Had that cut there to the size I needed. Last Saturday I put the foam on the boarding. Covered it in batting, and this morning I covered everything in black duck cloth and stapled away. I think it turned out okay.On Trench Coat Sew Along news, I found the lining for my Trench Coat last Sunday.

I thought I had found my buttons as well, but now that I've found the lining, I'm going back to the drawing board on that one as they do not match. These buttons were in my stash. Believe it or not I purchased them at The Dollar Store. Here are pictures of the front and back of the buttons. I'll probably go back to JoAnns or take a trip to 4th Street in Philadelphia to see what I can find in the near future. Between today and tomorrow, I want to make another attempt at cutting out the pattern pieces or at least start to cut them out. After that I want to start my muslin.

I did cut out the pattern pieces for Butterick 5030. I need to iron them and cut out my fabric. I also plan on cutting out McCalls 5978. I'll have to see how much I can get done this weekend. That's all that going on right now. I hope you all are doing well.