In the tub

Well my first Rhinebeck sweater is in the tub. Before she took a bath I wanted a bit of photographic evidence that she was finished. Plus I left the markers on that I used to show where my waist shaping went and wanted a picture for future reference.

She is now lounging in a bucket of lukewarm water and SOAK wool wash. Soon she will be pulled from the bucket and receive her own towel wrapped foot stomping, courtesy of her knitter. How else do you get to know your special Rhinebeck Sweater?

I'm off to make some wine, I mean towel dry a sweater.

Whew!

Did you feel something six days ago? Nope? Well I did, it was complete happiness and joy (a whole heap of relief too). I finished my Rhinebeck Sweater last Thursday.

It looks awesome if I do say so myself! D agrees, good thing he prefers me in woolly things. You know I am at my best when covered in wool.

Anyways there will be pictures to follow once we take the plunge and wash it. I am a tad apprehensive something awful is going to happen during that stage. I did verify my new washing machine had a spin only cycle. It is amazing what you over look till you need it.

I do think the festival will be cool enough this year for RS to be appropriate wear. I do enjoy a crisp festival day!

Rhinebeck sweater progress

Now that my first yarn festival is done I can switch my attention back to knitting my Rhinebeck sweater (RS). Last week I knit in the car while D and I ran errands. D of course was my trusty driver, since knitting and driving go together like alcohol and driving. I think it helped add some inches to the body. It is getting to the almost stage, the sleeves are almost finished, the body is almost done, and the collar is almost started. When I'm knitting on it I tuck the sleeves with their yarn ball still attached into the sweater body. 

The sweater itself becomes its own project bag. I must admit that I was not smart enough to figure out that I could close the neck opening with a couple of stitch markers and make it even more bag like, till today. Invariably I had a sleeve trying to escape out the neck hole, but I have ingeniously put a stop to the shenanigans.

Today we went and watched football at our local American Legion and boy, a nice cold beer and some football really encourage a sweater to grow. It made a great take along project since it is plain stockinette, I just go round and round, my favorite thing. Now I need to measure to see if I can start the ribbing, then the body will be done and I can go back to the sleeves or start the collar.

I need to keep in mind that Rhinebeck will be here before I know it. It is too easy to let a project lollygag along and let time run out. So if I do get it done for the festival we'll have the warmest weather ever for the festival, I just know it.

However I am still in love with the cable I chose for the arm. Looks like I have braids running down both sleeves.

Plus they sort of look like hearts so I can always say I wear my hearts on my sleeves. Which I think I truly do.

Hello and goodbye

Well I am moving right along on my Rhinebeck Sweater (RS). I now have most of two sleeves and am half way down my bosom. I tried it on and it seems to be ok so far. This is of course the really awkward portion of a top down raglan sweater. It looks like a super short football practice shirt but it is wool and has almost full length arms. Have you ever seen a baby fuzzy yellow chicken during its change to a sleek white adult chicken? It goes through one of the most unattractive transition phases, not fuzzy and not sleek either just a bit of both fighting it out. My sweater is in that stage now, a crop sweater this short is just...not good.

But I have now knit enough of this type of sweater to know it will eventually grow out of this phase. It just needs to get past the what-is-that phase. The good news is that it is moving along nicely. Yay.

Now I have new confession, I am no longer going to fight (even only in my mind) with my Central Park Hoodie sweater. I talked a friend of mine into taking a class, she finished hers last year, mine is still in hiding. I am officially calling it quits on that sweater and I am looking for a pattern to repurpose the yarn. I still like the sweater but it is just not for me.

I think I am a seamless sweater knitter. Well at least for now I am. I really had a feeling that the sweater would not fit when I finished it. I could not shake that feeling and I love the yarn way too much to have to give it away. I am also a person that does not knit something that does not fit. I like the process of knitting but I am in my heart of hearts a product knitter. If I don't have the thing I want at the end of the process I have failed.

So we can say farewell to the Central Park Hoodie and long live to the sweater that will replace it.

Planning and dreaming

Well it is September again which means the start of festival season for me. I now have a couple of festivals that I attend. Lucky me! In a couple of weeks I will be going to the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival. It is a small but fruitful festival. All of the festival fun with way less crowd pressure and presence, which makes it more enjoyable and laid back. 

I've been saving my money and have a few repeat vendors I need to see and a few new ones to check out too. I am totally getting another knitting bag from JessaLu. I have barely been able to wait a whole year since I fell in love with last year's bag.

Come on cute sheep knitting on a knitting bag, what's not to love about that? And we all know I have enough projects in progress that I can fill a knitting bag or two. I don't think I will make the same mistake as last year and turn down a smaller accessories bag. I may even get a bag for my spindle, I just don't know, but I am giddy with excitement I can tell you that.

Then in October the mac daddy of fiber festivals on the east coast, Rhinebeck, more formally known as NY Sheep and Wool Festival. It is big. It is popular. It is wooly!

I love Rhinebeck for all its wooly fumes and goodness. I may even use it a girls day out this year. Do you think Kisknit would come with me if I promise to make her scones and tea? 

Some people have a tradition of knitting a new/special sweater for Rhinebeck. I've never done it. I've knit sweaters but never in time for an event. I just don't like that kind of pressure. This year is different though. I started this sweater earlier this year but then it was too warm to work on a sweater and I knew I would not be able to wear it when I was done so it went into a bag to bide its time. 

It is wool that I bought last year at Rhinebeck, the only time I've bought a sweater's worth of wool at a festival. Don't you think that earns it the right to be my first Rhinebeck sweater (RS)? Yeah me too.

When I pulled it out a week ago it was what you see of the body and a few inches on one of the sleeves. I would not even have considered it as a RS but I've managed to knit most of a sleeve in that week and still have six weeks to do the other sleeve, a collar and body. 

The lovely cabling down the sleeves is the only thing slowing me down, but since I am only slow and not yet defeated I am going to make a run at it. Hey the body will be straight stockinette stitch, I can do that in my sleep. Now I just need to remember what I learned about waist shaping and I will be all set.

SAdkFF and Rhinebeck here I come!