better late than...

Here are some Rhinebeck pics, how can you miss with kids and animals? The kids had a lot of fun. They did not even mind the fact that I was having fun too. I am being thwarted by blogger and my pop up blocker, which are conspiring to keep me from posting the pics of my goodies from Rhinebeck, and recent finished objects. I will have to try a different computer or something.

the muldirectional witches

I am so mystified. I tried to join the yahoo group for multideirectional knitting and my request to join was REFUSED. WTF? I cannot imagine how anyone could refuse a knitter membership in a knitting forum! I was informed by the letter that "all decisions are final". Am I missing something?

Rhinebeck!

Well, despite the fact that my partner in crime was unable to go I took the two little ones and went to Rhinebeck. What a scene! It was the most gorgeous day and one of the lovliest drives ever. Thanks to a fun new game we learned ( virtual hide and seek) the ride was without any bickering. Driving into the lot and seeing the massive number of cars was amazing. There were some fun things for the kids to do and there was yarn. We watched a sheep shearing. My five year old now is desperate to learn to spin with a drop spindle, she is carring a small piece of angora fiber that a spinner gave her. I continue to chant "Must not take up spinning". My favorite find was Ellen's Half Pint Farms sock yarn, the colors are lovely and the yarn has a great feel. I will post photos later. I bought 5 skiens but I am not sure they are all for me.

The Fold's booth had been stripped bare of STR by 1PM on saturday, they had only sockcandy left. I guess there is a slight exaggeration when I say stripped bare, as there were two skiens of the almost solid olivine left. I saw so many people wearing their handknits, but was most impresses with the two women I saw wearing items they made from the Knitting Nature book. Wow did they look great.

Coming from the epicenter of bland whiteness (Connecticut), it was great fun to see some funky fresh non-beige people. My kids behaved amazingly well, and I realized how lucky I was when I saw so many moms with crying kids. Its hard to find a place to time the kids out in the midst of a fiber fest. I will post pics as soon as I can.

brain cramp

So I have started knitting aChristmas Stocking for a really nice woman who recently adopted a child from Russia. Over the summer she told me about the stockings that her mother lovingly knit for all her grandchildren (I loved the part about how they got bigger as the years went on and her mom's gauge grew). Sadly her mother was not here to meet this grandchild or to make her a stocking, so Jean asked if I knew anyone she could hire to make one for Krystina. I of course told her I would do and she could pay me in coffee! SO she ordered a kit from Patternworks in New Hampshire, and I got to work. I couldn't figure out why the instructions called for straight needles in addition to dpns, so I cast on the dpns. When I finished the cuff, it finally hit me - the intarsia part of the stocking was to be knit flat, then they tell you to change to dpns. Boy did I feel dumb as I frogged it! In my defense, it doesn't say to cast on using straight needles, you only kind of figure that out when they tell you to change to dps for the heel. Now I am back on track. The pattern is really cute - its a teddy bear sitting next to a xmas tree. I plan to jazz it up a little! The ornaments are supposed to be duplicate stichted in colored yarn, but I think they really need to be little crystal beads. Now if I could only figure out how to explain this project to the rabbi when he sees me knitting in front of the kid's hebrew school.

for real finished object (frfo)

Well in between all of the challenges of life, health and sockwars , I managed to get some knitting done. My son is in a green phase and begged for some green socks so I used the opal chameleon. It is a pattern from my head and from now on I really should write them down as I do the first sock. It was a challenge to remember what I did. The ribbing is k3p1, with a heel that combines a PGR short row heel and Lucy Neatby's garter stitch short row heel. The toe is also a combo toe. I really like doing the heel and toe on crazy small needles, I think this was a 00. While my son liked the socks, he was scaring us by using them to skate on the wooden floor. He can find a way to make anything dangerous! By the way the other feet belong to my 5 year old daughter who cannot tolerate being left out of any picture, even a goofy knitting shot.

Now I am using the rest of the skein to make DH a matching pair, but his will be a low ankle sock so I don't run out of yarn.