The Greatest Day of the Year

The Sheep and Wool Festival is a sort of Mecca for artisans.  On the third weekend in October we make our pilgrimage to Rhinebeck, New York to partake in all things yarn.

There are sheep, and rabbits, and goats, and llamas.  Dogs bred to herd such fibre bearing creatures.  Spindles, and looms, and wheels.  Needles, and notions, and swifts, and winders.  And yarn of all content.  Cashmere, Angora, Merino, Alpaca, Shetland, Highland, Peruvian, Australian, Icelandic.

With all of these choices, on 144 acres (I looked it up), it's amazing that I managed to only come home with this.

I look forward to this weekend all year long.  I try to put myself on a yarn diet (and usually fail) just so that I can go batshit crazy buying everything I see in Rhinebeck.

It's become a bit of a tradition to stop at Fishkill Farms on the way home.  That's where the apples and pumpkins seen above come from.  

Any good apple picker knows that the good ones are always at the top of the tree.  That means you need someone to catch what you pick.

There are very few things that warrant standing in line for 45 minutes at sunset on a cold, blustery October evening. A Fishkill Farms box of piping hot apple donuts and a few cups of hot apple cider is on that list.  After that, it's time to head home and start counting down to next year.

Planning all the projects to use up the yarn, and all the recipes to use up the apples just helps the drive go faster.

To Block Or Not To Block

Last week, a fellow knitter told me she didn't really understand blocking.  I get that.  I didn't block any of my earlier knits.  The things I made when I was just getting into knitting didn't really require blocking and the fiber I was using wasn't responsive to it.

I'd try to block my projects, they wouldn't change, and I decided this whole blocking thing was just a fiddly extra step that didn't actually need to be done.

I was wrong.

Here's a Brush Creek Shawl I made for Rhinebeck, pre-blocking.

I used a gradient kit from Black Trillium Fibres in Quartz.

It's a lovely shawl with lots of yarn overs and k2tog/ssk to add detail.  Now let's see what happens after a little bath.

The shawl soaked for about 30 minutes in some wool wash and warm water.  After that, it got a good wringing in a fluffy towel and laid out for blocking.

Already much bigger.  The wingspan is approximately 4 feet, and the hight is nearly 2.

The yarn overs are more apparent.

And we can see the center line through the middle.

To Block Or Not To Block.

Definitely to block.  To swatch or not to swatch still needs some convincing.

I Was Told There Would Be A Motorcycle

The face mask for fall weather motorcycle riding came along rather quickly.

I asked Michael to model it for me as I estimated his head is approximately the same size as the intended recipient.  And are both bearded gents.

Knit with sock yarn, this took a bit of time but was still much faster than a pair of socks.  It has some short-row construction for the nose and a bit of a mesh stitch over the mouth. 

It's way too big for my small head, but Michael says it's comfortable and doesn't make his mouth sweat when he breathes.  That's a plus.

I made it a bit longer than the pattern suggested to allow for tucking into a riding jacket.

Hopefully it's warm as the weather is turning colder and the bike still isn't ready to ride.

I think it'll look badass with a black jacket and black helmet.  Double plus.