Rhinebeck!

This weekend I went to the New York Sheep and Wool festival, known on the knitting blogs as just "Rhinebeck".  A 3 hour drive into upstate NY (not improved by a roving pothole repair crew on 287), a stay in a B&B in Saugerties, and $12 got me into the Duchess County Fairgrounds.

If you have been to the NJ Sheep and Fiber festival in Ringoes, it's like that only much, much bigger.  Think a dozen or more buildings, dozens of food vendors, and thousands of people, all proudly wearing handmade stuff.  Crowded!  Think amusement park at lunchtime, and you get the idea.  One building had tables of authors signing books, another had food items (totally unrelated to yarn) for sale from small vendors (like hot sauce, fudge, pickles, cookies, all packaged up), a few housed animals, but most were devoted to vendors.  Yarn, knitting tools, crochet tools, spinning tools, carding tools, weaving tools, felting tools, handmade buttons, mugs, art objects with sheep on them, fleeces, roving, dyes, hand creams, patterns, finished garments, felted things, tote bags made from llama feed bags, etc…  Building after building full of beautiful things to see and feel, and lots and lots of people.  But everyone was polite, and if you took the time to look at the people instead of the things, everyone was adorned with something they had made.  Scarves, shawls, hats, skirts, legwarmers, sweaters, coats - mostly (but not all) beautiful, all proudly declaring "look at my skill!".  Yet I never saw anybody compliment anyone else on their garment - as if the overall sentiment was "I could have made that".  And being that yarn is not the only aim of sheep breeders, there were also lambs roasting on spits and demonstrations of things to make from lamb.  I hate to say I missed out on that, but 5 hours of wandering around to see all of the vendors was enough, especially because it was pretty cold and windy.

I think I showed admirable restraint.  I only bought 4 skeins of yarn that spoke to me and suggested projects.  Overall, I'd say $20-30/skein was about average for the things I looked at, but there were many that were much more (and few that were less).  I petted a skein of a yarn called "Kitten", a blend of cashmere and silk with no price tag (a bad sign), and wondered what I could make from its 400 yards.  Eventually I found a price card, and alas, Kitten was $88 a skein and the card helpfully suggested buying 3 skeins to make a sweater.  I gave Kitten a last pet and backed away, clutching my wallet.  I saw skeins of something made from Alpaca/Vicuna (not sure whether the yarn was a blend or the animals were a hybrid) for large sums of money, and goggled at a finished product made from it - a scarf labeled "machine knitted with hand-crocheted edge", priced at $750.  I'm sorry, unless you plucked the hairs from the critters one at a time with diamond-edged tweezers while fighting off rabid weasels, that's not justified.  I saw yarn so fine that the scarves made from it were like spiderwebs, beautiful and delicate, but my experience working with fine yarn is that you can't recover well from mistakes, so I admired it and moved on.

But now I'm back, and I'm going to bag up each of my new skeins with its pattern so I don't forget what I wanted to do with it.  I still want to crank out more stuff for my fundraiser (I only have 30 totally finished items, about 10 in progress or needing finishing, and I want to have 50 - 60).  And then there's this:

Several pounds of wool from Stonybrook Meadows, with my friend the swift, without which I would not have gotten these into balls.  I'm thinking of not just hats, but maybe some felted items (coasters, potholders, clutch purses) and even scarves made of squares like this one.  At Rhinebeck I looked for things to make with thick, coarse wool, and noted felted dryer balls and felted balls labeled "aromatherapy balls", assuming you douse them with scented oils.  That might be a good use for some of the roving that hasn't been spun yet.  Now that the weather's colder, we'll see how the hats sell.

Today?  Cooking up last week's CSA stuff.  Huge head of lettuce (red oak leaf, perhaps?) for mighty salads is clean, celery tops have been washed and are drying to freeze for future soups while the stems regain turgor in a pot of water, carrots will join chicken in soup, beets and cabbage will join celery and carrots in borscht (with store-bought potatoes and onions, see "Russian Cabbage Borscht" from the Moosewood Cookbook), eggplant and big crinkly cabbage head will sit in the fridge until I come up with ideas.  Carrot tops and trimmings have fed the compost pile and local bunnies.  Stonybrook Meadows kielbasa is thawing for those who need something meaty.  Time to go check my chicken soup stock.

Flying through projects

Flying can be a hassle, but with the right planning you can get a lot of knitting or crocheting done.  From Trenton to Orlando and back, and in between, I got a lot done!

First, this scarf.  I decided 4 feet long was enough, leaving enough yarn for a hat or mitts.  I tried to make a hat with the same stitch, but after 3 tries gave up.  The pattern is too flexible, I think - all my attempts to make the starting circle turn into a hat shape just gave me a bigger flat circle, so I rolled the yarn back up and simply made 2 rectangles to sew into fingerless mitts, leaving a hole for the thumb.

The yarn is merino, colorway Wisteria, from Morehouse Farm.  It wasn't as smooth as most merino, and felt almost like cotton.  I finished these in Florida, except for sewing up and weaving in.  So I patted myself on the back.

Second project for the trip: this cowl.  I had one small skein of brown alpaca that I didn't think was enough for a project, but at $13 a skein I hesitated to buy more, knowing that sometimes the bids for an item don't cover the yarn cost.  But when I saw the same vendor at the NJ Sheep and Fiber Festival, I bought a white skein of the same type to combine with the first.  I like how alpaca farms usually tag each skein with the name of the actual animal from which it came.  Their critters don't get eaten, so they are around long enough to be friends.  I thought maybe I would make something striped, but then I found this pattern.  I finished this after I got home.  I worked until the white ran out and bound off with the brown (loosely - I looked at Jeny's stretchy bind-off, but didn't have the patience to try it).  All done except for the blocking and weaving of the ends, and very soft and thick.  The brown bind-off isn't as neat as the white cast-on, but I needed to make sure it would stretch enough to go over a head.

Trip project #3: these yoga socks.  I was down the cuff, past the opening, and ready to make progress on the foot when I thought to try it on, and dang if it was too small.  I didn't do any gauge testing, and I think the original was made with thicker sock yarn.  So I pulled it all out and started over with more stitches and this is where I am.  It's a little boring, K2P1 ribbing for most of it, but it requires little thinking or extra tools, so a good project for travel.  

Obviously not done yet, and another to go, but a good project for watching TV.

Before I left I started Nessie, so when I got back I finished her body, once I found where I had put the pipe cleaners that needed to go into the neck.  Now I just need to add flippers.  What a cute pattern, and so well designed.  Her head looks like a fruit bat's.

But the rest of today is probably going to be cooking, to use up the CSA from this week.  3 quarts of plum tomatoes, 3 pounds of other tomatoes, a quart of various cherry tomatoes, plus potatoes, eggplant, squash, yellow beans, kale, raspberries, and probably some stuff I forgot.  The potatoes and beans are cooked and cohabiting with pine nuts, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese.  The eggplant and squash are stewing with Amish ground sirloin, garlic, basil, mushrooms, and Ragu (yes, from a jar).  I'm in the middle of skinning the tomatoes to make sauce and thinking it's a good thing I only get a half share.  Later today or tomorrow I'll wash and tear apart and cook the kale for the freezer.  And because I'm delusional about how much we will eat, I picked up a cauliflower and some green beans while I was at the farmer's market for the meat.  Taking a share in a CSA means you have to be ready to process a whole lot of raw vegetables.  And my compost pile feeds a whole bunch of vertebrate and invertebrate critters and countless microorganisms.  But I do my best not to waste anything.  Alas, the chard from 2 weeks ago was not a keeper once I got back from Florida.

Back to skinning tomatoes, and then maybe time for a cup of tea and another flipper.

Sea silk

Something I thought was pretty cool: yarn spun from a sea creature's uh, secretions? Parts? Turns out it's from a clam's saliva and is known from ancient times.  Click the link for a BBC article about something rare and precious that can make yarn.

Fall is coming!  Here is a free pattern from KnitPicks for little pumpkins, both knitted and crocheted versions.  The Lion Brand website also has lots of patterns for Halloween/Fall decorations you can make.

Yarnworks business: once we get all of our hats and things out of the library display cases at the end of September, we will be able to donate them (except, of course, the things you want to keep!).  I like Mercer Street Friends as a recipient - they are the beneficiary of my Warm and Fuzzy silent auction for which I make most of the things I post here.  They have a day care center and a teen program that will take hats and warm clothing, so I just need to figure out when and how to do that.  But I have a bunch of tags that I can print and attach to the items, so I thought it would be nice to have Yarnworks tags, which can also be used to indicate washing instructions or size.  I could use some help.  The tags are Avery 80511, a scalloped circle.  If you go to Avery Online and put in that number, you can then design tags.  They have a lot of pre-made designs, none of which are yarn-specific, but many are pretty.  If you go there and take a look, tell me your favorites.  I made this template, but I'm not sure what else I should put on it.  Ideas?

Today Ann (the farmer) and I went to the NJ Sheep and Fiber Festival to look at lambs for sale, spinners, and yarn.  I was good and only bought one skein of alpaca to complement one I already have.  Lots of beautiful stuff, but most of it too costly to justify making something for the fundraiser - if I spend $40 on yarn making something and the bids don't reach $40, it feels like a failure.  I wanted some angora but didn't like the way it was spun, she didn't find any lambs she liked, and we finally decided to use our original spinner to spin the rest of her wool.  She took the 11 hats I gave her last week to a market, and sold 3 of them!  The ones with sheep and the ones with earflaps were popular, so that's what we'll focus on.  I have 7 more hats drying after their wash, and only enough yarn for one or two more, so I'll finish them up, then work on other projects while waiting for more yarn.

I have a crocheted bunny in progress, a knitted cat (I hate the finishing details so I'm dragging my feet), a scarf barely started that will go to Florida with me, and I keep finding bags of half-done stuff, so I need to sort that out.  And stop myself from starting something new until I finish something!

Eleven and counting

Today I dropped off 11 hats made from Stonybrook Meadows wool to Stonybrook Meadows' owner.  I embellished them somewhat with colorful wool from my stash, but mostly it was the farm wool, and those 11 hats took nearly 2 1/2 pounds of yarn.  We are thinking of having more roving spun, but she wants to do it while spending as little for shipping as possible, so someone local or within reasonable driving distance.  Know anybody?  I will keep cranking out hats till the yarn runs out, and this first batch allows her to see the economics of it - what will people pay?  What sizes and designs are most popular?  What's a stinker that won't sell?  Is it worth making any more yarn?

That's not all I did, though.  I kept plugging away on items for the fundraiser, sometimes just finishing little details.  Like, voila, the Biohazard socks are done!  I sat on the last one for a week or more before I got up the mindset required to graft those last toe stitches together.  Now they just need washing and blocking, which also requires the proper mindset.

And I finished this little guy once I got the hooks and eyes for his feet:

I love well-designed crochet patterns.  This and the sea otter (still on the to-do list) came from June Gilbank of Planet June.  If you're looking for some good patterns and don't mind spending a few bucks (I think each of these was $5.50) hers are well worth it.  Another good designer is Kati Galusz.  Her animals are incredibly lifelike in form and pose, like these:

Wow, look how realistic that cat is!  I'm pretty much a cheapskate (I was recently thrilled to buy jeans from Goodwill for $7 and find them on sale for $3.50), but I will gladly pay for a skillfully executed pattern.  The vast majority of the patterns I use are free, but there are a few I find enticing enough to pay for.  You know how much work you put into making something, and you have to know that the designers put work into it too.  Most of the paid patterns I find on Ravelry are between $1 and $6.  I also try to guide people toward buying their own copy of those patterns rather than sharing, because I want to help promote the designers and help them earn a living from their skill.  So if you ask for a pattern and I send you to a website instead of giving you a copy, that's why.

More projects are lined up.  Still working on a knitted doll family, I have to finish a lamb hat (which may be too big for anybody willing to wear it), but I have patterns and yarn bagged up for a scarf (beautiful merino from Morehouse Farms), Kroy sock yarn and a yoga sock pattern, and a purple Nessie.  I'll make the scarf on my way to Florida later this month, and maybe take the yoga socks as an alternate project.  Nothing with multiple colors or requiring stuffing, eyes, or other tools.

Are you going to the Garden State Sheep and Fiber Festival?  I'm going on the 13th to look at beautiful yarn and tools, and talk to spinners who might be local.  Did you know that a baby alpaca is called a "cria"?  I learned that there.  Check out the list of vendors on the website to see all of the yarn-related things that will be for sale.  I may acquire a little angora.  One year we watched a woman spin yarn right off the back of a live bunny sitting quietly in her lap!

I hear my crochet hook calling me.  One more row, then another hat base is done.  Maybe a white pompon and some embroidered snowflakes for this one...

Four pounds

That, my friends, is four pounds of yarn.  I sent off all the roving I had plus unravelled the hats I tried to make from it (below), and thanks to a talented spinner, got back what you see above.

I think the tiny baby skeins in front are what's left of the original spun thread that did not get plied (twisted with a second thread to make the final yarn).  I'm sure I can put that to use.

Now the trick is to turn it into hats that Stony Brook Meadows farm can sell at farmer's markets in October and November.  Crochet is quicker than knit, so I sat down and cranked out a few double-crochet hats, plain or with earflaps. I don't think plain gray hats will be in much demand, so I found some other wool I had on hand and added some colored embellishments.  Unfortunately, the colored wool is DK weight, thinner than the gray, so it's not exactly what I had in mind, but it helps.  I need to go out and get some Cascade 220 in a few colors.  Maybe I'll brave the condescending attitude of the Princeton store to get it.

This is what I managed so far, since the yarn came Thursday.  I had some of it already started using the test skeins, so I don't really work as fast as it might seem.  First I had to roll all of the skeins into balls.  If you're used to buying Red Heart or Vanna's Choice, you don't ever have to do this because it is already wound into balls, but this came as big loops of yarn that were twisted together.  Once you untwist that, all you have is a big loop of loose yarn, and you can't work with that easily, so I brought out the swift and hand-cranked ball winder and went at it.  Now I have 3 - 4 oz balls to work with.

The blue-edged hat still needs a tassel.  That loopy thing up top is my attempt at making a sheep hat using loop stitch.  I don't think I'm doing it right - I get loops, but the stitches are much looser than my usual gauge.  It also takes forever and uses a lot of yarn, so I might unravel that.  But I went on Ravelry to see what I could find that makes more interesting crocheted hats in just one color, and I found this lamb hat and a few others, so although they might not be as quick to make they will be more interesting and might sell better.  Definitely going to make the lamb hat.  The original idea was to make hats that looked like or suggested farm animals, but I may try other things that are more likely to attract adults.  

And I'm still working on stuff for the fundraiser, but I think I'm in a good place with the number of items so far.  Today I'll drop off some yarn and patterns to the farmer (who also crochets) and we will spend September building up inventory for her.  I'll let you know what she thinks about my ideas.

New things

Just to post a few pictures of new stuff.  Like this little guy:

Cute, huh?  And it looks so simple, yet finishing it and putting all the pieces together took a ridiculous amount of time.  See the tiny claws?  I used very small hair clips and forced them through the ends of the arms from the inside, so you can pinch the arms and open them up so it can hold things.  So I made it a heart to hold, and a baby (or maybe it's a monster's teddy bear).  The whole thing is about 4" high.  Instead of making separate arms and legs for the little one, I made a triple crochet for each limb, which then sticks out like an elbow from between all the single crochets.

Next up: a hat that's a little oddly sized when made according to the pattern.  It needs more stitches than are usual in worsted weight for a hat in order to get even repeats of the key pattern - if I left out one repeat of the pattern it would have been too small.  It fits without having to stretch, so it's only slightly too big, not outrageously too big.  And I think the designer realized that it would be too tall if decreases were made as usual with a plain K row between decrease rows, so at a certain point the decrease rows just come one after the other, which flattens out the top instead of making a gentle curve.  But somebody will probably love it.

Biohazard sock 2 is still in progress, and I have the body and 2 legs of a sloth done and a pile of patterns waiting.  I got small ceramic pots at Goodwill for planting crocheted cacti - my frugal side approves.

I made this hat out of a very thick chenille yarn with no stretch whatsoever, and it has a tendency to completely flatten out, and not be very hat-like.  I don't really want to put that in the fundraiser and find the recipient disappointed in how it performs, so I started another in something that is probably Wool-Ease Thick and Quick (no label with it).  What a huge difference.  The stretch makes the yarn so much easier to work with, it maintains hat shape, and I didn't have to use bad words.  Novelty yarns may be interesting, but not very useful.

No, you can't return it

Knit Picks has some labels for those of us who give our yarn creations to others as gifts.  Check them out:

I have Restless Hands Syndrome - I can't be without a project, and old ones are boring.  I still have a biohazard sock to finish, but I felt compelled to start new things.  Like these bunnies:

The white bunny (inspected by Selena) needs an angora tail that I haven't made yet, but the bunny lovey (ignored by Not) is done.  Eventually a brown bunny with floppy ears will join the white one, but I'm thinking of presenting them separately as items to bid on, to increase the proceeds, rather than having them as a pair.  Evil of me, I know, but it's for a good cause.

I also made a baby hat with bear ears out of some random thick chenille yarn, which is miserable non-stretchy stuff, started another hat, and started a smaller version of a monster I already made.  There's only so long I can work on one thing before needing a break, apparently.  I woke up at 5 am yesterday, feeling like I wasn't going to get my remaining hour and a half of sleep, and had a mental argument with myself over whether this was found time for knitting or whether I should try harder to get back to sleep.  Sleep won.  But I don't have a problem.