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.

Well that was fun

I just completed round one of my fiber festival season. I can tell you that the tendency to buy yarn the same color as the shirt you're wearing did not hold true this year. This year I wore a candy apple red T-shirt and bought a lot of purple/plum/dark raspberry colored yarns.

I was proud of my self for not worrying about buying fiber. As a new spinner, the urge is there but the knowledge is lacking. I bought breed specific roving but didn't go crazy. It is mighty tempting when you see beach ball sized balls of beautifully colored roving. I don't even want to know what one of those is worth.

I did find a cute knitting related cup, but my cute T-shirt vendor was not there this year. There were a few vendors missing that I would have liked to buy from again. Alas as much as we would like to we can't all own a yarn shop. Businesses fail that is the sad fact of today's economy.

On the plus side I hope I helped a few to make ends meet, today.

Pictures to follow as tradition dictated. Don't worry either I still have money in the bank for Rhinebeck too. Hee Hee.

Choosing my next books

I had something happen to me for the first time last week. My audiobook in the car and my lunch time kindle book wrapped up on the same day. Usually my books are more staggered but this time, nope. Now I am floundering around a bit with two decisions to be made. Well sort of, my kindle book had an excerpt of the next book to tide me through lunch today.

Choosing your next book is a bit like choosing your next knitting project. Are you having fun with what you just finished? Did you like the characters/yarn? Was it what you needed at the time, challenging or comfortingly mind numbing? Is it time for something completely different? Is it season appropriate?

You see how these things play into making the decision, right? I would even say knitting and reading cross over each other. Sometimes a book holds your attention and all you can do while reading is mindless garter stitch, the same thing over and over. Sometimes a book is there to keep part of your brain distracted while the majority of it knits complex lace.

The problem is that I am in a transition period now. Twice a week I am driving to my ASL class and spending time away from my knitting. While I enjoy my class, I am missing my knitting. So I am looking for a great audiobook for my drive time something fun but complex. Do I want to continue on with a series or meet new characters?

Currently my first six choices for audio are:

1. Book 7 of the Pink Carnation series Betrayal of the Blood Lily
2. Book 3 of the Lady Julia series Silent on the Moor
3. A choice between the first book of two different series by Charles Todd (A Duty to the Dead or A Lonely Death)
4. First book of a series The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry
5. Bossypants by Tina Fey
6. 40+ hours of The Stand by Stephen King

Now my thoughts are:

1. It has been so long since I read book six of the series... maybe I should do a quick refresher, but then that is something I already read.
2. I fell asleep listening to this one on the plane back from So Dak, maybe my subconscious has forgot what happened and I can start over?
3. New books yay, but I don't know if I will like them.
4. Same as number 3.
5. D read this in one day laughing the whole time, he is a very slow reader. But maybe it is to diverting for driving.
6. Now that is a time commitment! Nothing new for two or three months. However, I did love Under the Dome and that book was about the same length.

You know I am just going to end up listening to the next book that starts on the ipod, because I am an indecisive weenie. By default it will be Betrayal of the Blood Lily, which means I will be lost for a time first.

Ok now I just found a program with Audible and Amazon where you can get both versions of the book and use them simultaneously. Crap I knew all my devices would start talking amongst themselves soon, is a revolution to follow? Do you think they're judging me on my reading material? If they are my kindle thinks I am smart because I downloaded free classic literature. We're talking Les Miserables and Don Quixote. Audible has Blood Sucking Fiends and Her Royal Spyness, while I loved both of these books, Audible may think I like to laugh rather than think. I think Audible knows me better.

I went ahead and downloaded The Mysterious Affair at Styles just to see how it works.

If you want to leave a comment on which book I should start, I am all ears. I can not promise not to over ride you vote but I'd love to read the arguments.

Getting schooled

I've went back to school, sort of. I am taking American Sign Language 101 from a local community college. I am trying to catch up to D since he's already been through three levels. He says it is different going through schooling rather than learning from our friends. I agree with the idea as I am always in need of help with my grammar.

I can tell you that college has changed and it has not changed. The students seem so very young from my perspective. Technology is everywhere, but in my class it will get you kicked out of class. I should be doing homework but I am talking to you instead. (Somethings never change)

I went to a technical college so there was not as much writing of papers, plus technical writing is its own genre. We like facts and data, it can be dry but it is our kind of dry. I don't really know how to tell a story if knitting is not involved.

I am the only one so far that knits while waiting for class. Do you think I will lure anyone else out into public? Yeah me neither.

Well I have some homework to do so I'll be seeing you.

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!

What about my spinning you say?

My spinning has slowed down, pretty much to a halt for a time. But I've picked up my spindle again and plied this.

I still have a bit more to go but my spindle was so full it would not hold anymore. I think that may have been part of the problem. It takes a bit more force to get all this yarn moving.

Now what am I going to make with this crazy colored yarn? I think it is mostly fingering weight. Maybe some stop traffic mitts? You know people are going to see those coming.