Just a Few and Just a Bit

I took just a few photos at Rhinebeck yesterday.

These are the ones I like best.

 

I bought just a bit of yarn.

The four small skeins are Bartlett Yarns sport weight.  They came as a "Swirls" color pack with four 1 ounce skeins.  The larger skein is worsted wool from Hope Spinnery in Hope, Maine.  It was unlabeled, and on sale.

It was a beautiful day at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York.  As I said in a blog post last year, "It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday with some of my knitting friends and many thousands of like minded individuals."

This morning I decided to find the yarn in my stash from my last two trips to Rhinebeck.  I was pleased to find that because I have been a regular enough blogger for over two years now, I was able to find photos of my past Rhinebeck purchases in my archives.

2012
Yesterday Was...
(Lots of photos in that post.)

 

2011
Photos Not from Rhinebeck
(No Rhinebeck photos in that one.)

Would you believe that I have not yet knit with any of the yarns I purchased at Rhinebeck in my last three trips there?  I hope to use some very soon!

 

VK Live! New York

Last weekend I experienced Vogue Knitting Live in New York City 2013!

I took a two session class taught by Ysolda Teague:  "Approaching Design Patterns for Multiple Sizes".  It was mostly an introduction to using Excel spread sheet software to create tables and make calculations for all the different numbers used when writing a knitting pattern in many sizes.  Ysolda shared a great deal of design advice along the way.  She was lovely to meet in person and a very good teacher.  This was an excellent class for me to take at this time!  It is hard to believe, but I first heard of using spread sheet software in this way only a couple of months ago.

I attended a lecture "Thoughts on Design Development" with Norah Gaughan, and another lecture "Circle of Color Knitting" with Védís Jónsdóttir.  Both designers showed beautiful slides of their work and gorgeous images of their inspiration.

At the Market Place one of the first photos I took was of an appealing array of what some might call non-colorful yarn.

  
Of course there was every color in the world all over the Market Place.

I liked the hotel (right on Times Square) very much, with the possible exception of the carpeting.  I could see no reason for that carpeting, and it could be found (with several variations) everywhere.

The elevators in the hotel were very cool.

This knitted food -- fiber art -- was very popular and could be seen in the welcoming lobby from some of the glass elevators.  It was fun to explain what it actually was to some non-knitting elevator riders who remarked about how good it looked.

I will end with a couple of photos from Times Square, but we really did not spend too much time outdoors even though it was very warm.

My BLOG GIVEAWAY (in honor of my two years in the design world) continues until February 5.  Please see this post and comment there if you would like a chance to win some yarn!
 

Yesterday Was...

Rhinebeck.

Officially called the New York Sheep and Wool Festival.

It happens every October at the Duchess County Fairgrounds

in Rhinebeck, New York.

My purchases.

My knitting for the day.

A wonderful way to spend a Sunday with many of my knitting friends
 and many thousands of like minded individuals.
How was your weekend?

WomenHeart

February is American Heart Month.  Heart disease is the number one killer of women, and more women than men die of heart disease each year.  Heart attacks alone, will claim the lives of more than 200,000 women -- nearly five times more than will die of breast cancer. 

I learned this from reading about the WomenHeart organization when I designed my "Love & Prayers" scarf last year.  My design won first place in the WomenHeart scarf design contest held by KNITCIRCUS magazine and appeared in KNITCIRCUS Issue #15, Fall 2011.  The pattern is available here, and it is free to encourage charity knitting.

What I did not know, until shortly after I finished knitting my first "Love and Prayers" scarf for the magazine, is that there is a very active WomenHeart organization in my area (Luzerne County, Northeastern Pennsylvania).  And that the woman at the center of it all, Sharon Hinchey, is also a national WomenHeart Champion.  (Here is a local newspaper article about her from November, 2009.)

One of the many things that Sharon and other community WomenHeart organizers do is to collect handmade red scarves and distribute them to women who are recovering from heart attacks.  My LYS (local yarn shop), Gosh Yarn It!, began a "Love & Prayers" WomenHeart KAL (knit along) in late August, shortly after the release of my pattern.  I am happy to say that six beautiful hand-knit scarves were donated to WomanHeart.  (Several other knitters gifted scarves to women that they knew personally.  Just one more sign of how prevalent heart disease is in affecting women's lives.)

I finally had the pleasure to meet Sharon this Thursday when she did a presentation at our regular "Stitch & Spin" at Gosh Yarn It!  Sharon is the survivor of two heart attacks.  Her talk was very dynamic, very inspiring, very moving and very informative.  I was totally impressed by this woman, and I will follow up on my blog with links and information about a USA Today Magazine article that will feature her on February 28th, as well as whatever I can learn about her upcoming visit to the White House representing WomenHeart.

This photo shows Sharon (first on the left) and all those who donated scarves to WomenHeart and were present Thursday night.  (I am next to Sharon and wearing the first "Love & Prayers" scarf.)

To all my readers:  Please learn if you are at risk for heart disease; take all preventative measures possible; and learn about heart attack warning signs.  Take care of your heart like your life depends on it.   

For more information see WomenHeart, or the National Heart Association, and talk to your doctor.

Yarn Tasting

Last Thursday was an altogether fun night at Gosh Yarn It!  Two lovely representatives from Cascade Yarns, Erlinda and Shannon, brought a great many yarns to sample or "taste".  They also brought knitted sample projects, patterns and even some wine.

I sat near this corner of the table, because I most wanted to sample the Rustic.  I plan to use it to make a Swirl Jacket from the book Knit, Swirl! by Sandra McIver.  My favorite pattern in the book is Shades of Grey in Rustic, color #12, black, with accents of color #01, deep red.

Here is my swatch, in the welt pattern, for the Shades of Grey jacket.  It is basically 5 rows of stockinette alternated with 5 rows of reverse stockinette.  I really do like it!  I used size 6 needles for this swatch.

I also sampled the Ultra Pima Cotton: size 4 needles and the "Dew Drop" pattern from Barbara G Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns.

And I swatched with Cloud (size 8 needles) and Eco Duo (size 7 needles).

But I was thinking that the best part of the evening was "fellowship''.  I am not sure if that is exactly the right word.  But almost all of the regular Thursday night "Stitch and Spin" folks were there.  As were many others whom I get to see less often.  It was so great to see everyone!!!  And the wine was good, too!

Thanks Jill and Ann and Shannon and Erlinda!

Photos Not from Rhinebeck

While at Rhinebeck, I made only two purchases.  (I have a very large stash.  In fact, it is SO large that, lately, I rarely forget that it is SO VERY large.)  I bought a hat kit in a jar from Hope Spinnery.

I have seen this yarn before, and I love its quality of purity.  It was great to get a lovely sampling of colors and the "Tree Line Hat" pattern all in a neat package!

Purity shines in the additional skein of yarn I purchased with the kit.  This is Hope Spinnery's Wind Spun Yarn blend (75% ME wool, 25% ME alpaca) in a color called "SNOW".

It is pictured with my second purchase, a skein of OPAL sock-weight yarn, dyed like faded denim, called "INDIGO".  A yarn search at Ravelry, and a general googling, have returned nothing.

Cool!  I will think of it as a limited edition yarn that was waiting for me.  "in Handarbeit kunstvoll coloriert" on the label, translates to "in hand-crafted artistically colored."

"jeder Strang ist ein Unikat und somit einzigartig in seiner Schonheit und Brilliannz" on the label, translates to "each strand is unique and therefore is unique in it's beauty and brilliance."  (So much for online translation.)

The above photos were shot on my deck.  This photo was shot from my deck.

Not from my deck, but nearby...

Rhinebeck

This is clearly one of those times when it shows that I am new to blogging.  

This Sunday I went on a bus trip to Rhinebeck.  "Rhinebeck" is what everyone calls the NYS Sheep & Wool Festival, which occurs annually over one October weekend, at the Duchess County Fairground in Rhinebeck, NY.

It was a great day!  I looked at a lot of yarn, and I talked to a lot of people.  I took some photos of sheep.

And some of alpaca and llamas.

I am sitting here now thinking about some things that I should have done.

I should have taken pictures of some of the yarn.  All the amazing colorful displays.  All of the beautiful and varied textures.

I should have taken some pictures of the festival grounds, and the walkways, with so many thousands of people, many wearing beautiful knitwear.  I could even have taken a picture of the gumbo I ate for my lunch.  And maybe some of the lovely fall foliage.

I did stop by the Knitcircus trunk show in barn #37.  I introduced myself there, had my picture taken, and I met Amy Detjen who I know from the Knitcircus Podcasts that she does with Jaala Spiro.  (These are a lot of fun.  Have a listen when you have time.)  I probably should have taken some pictures there as well. 

I will do better next time.  This was not my first fiber festival, but it was the first one I could blog about.