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.

New Stash & Toys

On Sunday me and the Fi (fiance) went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival in West Friendship, MD. They came from near and far.



We didn't get a chance to go last year and I could swear, there were more people there this time than the last time. Even though we got on the road a little later than we wanted to, a good time was had by all.

Since we've been to the festival before, we wanted to focus on things we hadn't seen. One of those things was seeing a sheep shorn. Let me tell you, watching this woman handle that sheep was very impressive. She moved him around like he didn't even weight anything.

Now, before I left the house I made a list so that I wouldn't stray. We all know how easy that is to do. I am happy to report that I got everything I went for and I didn't even have to pull out the credit card. Here are all my great buys.

The drop spindle is from Turnstyles, handcrafted by Bill Hardy. The beautiful fiber underneath (the picture does not do it justice. You just have to see it to believe it.) is cashmere & silk from Chameleon Colorworks. My hand carders are from Strauch Fiber Equipment Co. Last but not least, when I buy my fiber, I like to deal with sheep owners directly. A lot of times by doing this you get better prices on your fiber and boy did I get a great bargain. I also do it because all this time we thought I was allergic to wool, but it turns out by learning to spin it wasn't the wool I was allergic to but what they treat the wool with. I still don't wear it next to my skin, but my resistance level is much better than it use to be.

Anyway, here I have 1 pound of Border Leicester Midnight Black and 1 pound of Border Leicester and Cormo combed top in the color called Snow Drift. Both of these rovings are in their natural colors. They feel really nice, especially the one with the Cormo, it's like butter. I can't wait to spin it. I also bought 2 packets of dye from Barneswallow Farm. I'm trying to get up enough nerve to dye my fiber which is something I've never done before.

On another note, here's an update on my split-neckline tee from Fitted Knits. I'm almost done so I'm very happy. I should have been further along, but I was doing some finishing work for my lys.





Last but not least, I updated the layout/format of my page. Hope you like.