Too tired for a real post (I don't know why no one warned us of the perils our limbs would suffer if we were to carry 2 toddlers around the streets of Manhattan for 5 days straight! Silver lining: hubby got a workout!).
Happy Halloween!
Going to Rhinebeck was one of the best Fibery experiences ever! I felt that I was in fiber heaven for sure! I saw barns after barns full of fibery stuff--lace stuff, homespun, wheels, sock yarn, roving, fleeces...anything fiber related it was there!
I have been to fiber festivals before but Rhinebeck truly put every other show I have attended to shame! I went to the first barn/building and I thought that I had seen everything, but then I met Denise and she told me that I had only seen the tip of the iceberg. I was doubtful, I didn't believe her but then I got out and I looked around the corner at all the barns in the back and they were all packed full!!
I had a little stash money set aside and I was very careful in all my purchases: all of them were very meticulously made, the most cute colors were chosen, in my case, the Neopolitan theme was predominant, for the exception of a skein of merino and mohair in green and silvers. The two middle dark neopolitan are 50% silk 50% merino, 400 yards total, enough to make a small luxurious shawl. The other 2 skeins were a gift from my Mom: after observing me for a couple of hours (okay, more like all day) she realized that I had a soft spot for pinks and browns and she picked out 2 skeins of Koigu and she gifted them to me...I love my Momma! In the heat of the moment, I also picked up a small dpns case holder: something small to keep a few pairs of dpns with me at all times.
Oh, what did you say? I heard something...were you asking about the mug on the picture? Well, you see that is my very special mug.
It traveled to me all the way from Vermont. The most lovable, huggable, and adorable Norma got it just for me!
You see, although the show was fiber heaven, it was nothing compared to meeting some of the most lovable, kind, inspirational, cheerful, and enthusiastic women on the whole planet. Here are a few shots of the day with my wonderful and amazing friends.
First, let me show you one of my hugs (I say one because I gave her tons, she is huggable) with Norma...yeah, this is the legendary Norma from Now Norma Knits blog. I have been wanting to meet her since last year when I found her blog. She is kind and thoughtful and she smells wonderful (yeah, I hugged her and the first thing I thought, wow, she smells good enough to eat!). She is beautiful!! If by chance you meet her--hug her :).
Margene...what can I say about her that you don't already know. She is so kind that it makes me wish that I lived down in SLC so that I could be around her more often. Love ya Margene!!! She spotted me and Denise a few minutes after I got to the show and called me right over and gave me a huge hug. Love ya!!!
And you see this gal...yeah, that is Denise, the famous Denise! She came all the way from Ohio just to meet me (okay, she has family in NY, but to boost my ego, I am going to say that she came just to see me, ha!). We had a fun time together: we went all over the place together finding other bloggers to fill her Bingo card (I don't even know if she got Bingo, I hope she did). She, like me, brought her family along for the ride and we all (her 4 children and hubby, and my 2 children and hubby and my Momma and brother=12 people) we went out to dinner to a really cool 50's Diner in some remote (remote because I don't have any idea where it was) part of upstate NY. She was the first face that came to say hello to me at the show...she actually ran just to meet me (I think I got her out of the bathroom, hahahaha!). Her entire family is just the sweetest: I don't know whom I want to take home more: Azia because I think my brother liked her, or little Julian because he is just so quiet, and then there is handsome Jaxom and little tazmanian devil Caleb whom kept his Da busy all during dinner. Thank you guys for coming to hang out with us for the evening!
Amy from Knitty--and guess what, I did spot her and Jillian together, (what a shame that I didn't have them on a Bingo card, oh wait, I wasn't playing, hahahaha). Got me an "I love Knitty" button too :)
And also, look whom I got to meet, the bridal shawl--what? did you think I was going to say Steph--well, she is pretty special but look at that gorgeous shawl. She was going to wear that to her wedding and she didn't make that deadline, but she was able to barely finish it for Rhinebeck...so we could all drool over it. (See my big chubby face, I think it is all due to the 2 lamb burgers I had for lunch, or maybe it was the lamb sausage hot dog...or the maple sugar goodies, or the cheeses).
All in all, a very happy day!
We are still vacationing: we have arrived in NYC and are enjoying some of the sites. The kids are not very happy though, little Wonderboy is happy but Beny* is a bit homesick, she wants to go home, we are considering going back a couple of days early.
*Beny, the new name for little Wondergirl. It comes from the Dora show. She loves watching Dora and she insists that her name is Beny just like the little blue bull on the show.
We *love* NY!!! We made it here safe and sound a bit frazzled and a wee bit tired, but we are all happy to be here. The frazzled part was all induced from a one-year old cute little girl who likes to be called Beny and her lack of Zippy cup, blanket, couch and Dora video. Eeek!! Picture it: 5am, child screaming at the top of her lungs her need for "milk, couch, and blanket". I bet everyone in the plane was relieved when the plane finally opened the door...I know I was!
Grandma was at the airport waiting for us...there is nothing better than the feeling you get when you see your Momma with a huge smile on her face and her arms open waiting just for you--I love my Momma--but you already knew that :).
Our trip to upstate NY was without a doubt--horrid! I lived in NY before, however, I rarely travelled in a car through the city or any of the boroughs. It took us about 1 hour to get from the JFK airport to Flushing Meadow park area--horrid! Just horrid! Once we got out of the main areas though, it was smooth travel. The scenery also changed as we traveled, it got more and more beautiful as we kept driving up north, despite the rain.
I am a wee bit tuckered out--I think I am going to go and crash for the night...the kids are asleep...even the hubby.
Tomorrow: Rhinebeck pictures and the stash enhancement...but most importantly pictures of lovely, kind, and huggable ladies and even an author or two :).
Checking out for now.... :)
Random thought of the day: For those whom are familiar with the LDS religion, you know how it says that Joseph Smith walked to a grove of trees...let me tell ya, if you have never been upstate, you probably thought that he had to walk miles and miles, well, after being here for a couple of days, I have come to realize that he probably didn't have to walk very far, he probably opened the door and walk to his back yard, hehehehe. Ok, I am tired and starting to be silly, lol, best go to bed.
I reckon I am a BINGO SQUARE....if you have me on your card and need to locate me. I'll be:
The hottie with the Black t-shirt with the Skully and Needles in the frontage area.
If it is really cold, I will be sporting the "Player Bingo" hoodie (with the black shirt underneath...and a bra, lol, and...well, you get the idea).
And I will be the one dragging these two cuties.
For sure, I will be hanging out at the Golding booth for a wee bit of my stay on Saturday.
Hope to see you there....
And THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all my birthday wishes... :).
Today I will get to eat like a piggy wiggy and not feel guilty
Thankfully, I will have to blow the gazillion candles on the cake first--and that will probably melt off all the fat on the cake...hahahaha!
What are all those papers....looooook! We are all ready to go.....yipppeee!! Look, look closer :)
Hope to see a lot of you at Rhinebeck.
No knitting pictures to show you right now....have been slacking off and working a wee bit on editing the book and looking at wonderful loom knitting drawings for the book.
I do however have progresss report on my "chubby tubby fight": I have lost 5 lbs! Which means that I have reached my first goal! Yay!!! I can reward myself with some yarn now :). I was hoping to reach the goal before going to Rhinebeck. I have also gone down 1" around my waist! I am so happy!! Do the happy dance with me! Yay!!! 4 weeks exercising and eating a bit healthier portions :). Thank you all of you for your encouragement in the Chubby Tubby Fight.
As an ol' timer loom knitter, I receive a few questions every now and then. Most of the time, I have had the same problem and I have been able to find a way to fix it, sometimes, I have been unlucky and I wasn't able to find a solution.
I thought it would be a nice thing to have a Loom Knitting Q & A day addressing some of these questions. Every Saturday, I will address one of the questions and possibly try to find a solution.
If you have any questions on loom knitting, be sure to drop me a note in the comments section and I will choose one or two (depending on the complexity of the questions) and address it on the next Saturday post--a week should give me enough time to research and answer (if I don't have it or get all the visuals ready). Consider me your Dear Loomy--you know, instead of Dear Sally, LOL...come and tell me all your troubles--loom knitting troubles that is, and I will try to provide you some advice.
Don't forget: send me your questions :). I need your input to make this Loomy Q&A column to work :).
Today's question is one that I receive constantly. The problem is seen a lot on loom knitted tubes. It happens quite often when someone is just starting to loom knit. As one gets more experience loom knitting, the problem seems to be more in check as one gets a handle on tension.
Q: How do I get rid of that pesky ladder that is formed between the first and last stitch?
A: It is a problem of tension: tension in knitting over (knitting over: lifting the loops off the pegs to form a stitch).
Details:
This ladder usually appears when knitting one of the variations of the e-wrap stitch (single stitch,
double stitch, chunky braid stitch, etc).
The reason why it happens is that you are wrapping your loom all the way around: for example: the single stitch, you wrap the loom twice, then you knit over the bottommost strand off each of the pegs; the chunky braid stitch, you wrap it 4 times, then you lift the bottommost 3 strands and lift them off the peg, leaving only 1 on each of the pegs.
When you knit in this manner, you are lifting loops consecutively from peg after peg. If there is any excess yarn, the excess yarn is passed onto the the next peg, at the end of the round, you have all the excess yarn on the last peg. All this excess yarn stays there because you start a new round: basically, you pick up your yarn and again wrap the entire loom.
Solution: To eliminate the excess yarn: Wrap and knit over one peg at a time. It is more time consuming, but it will elmininate this slack completely. Remember: *wrap the peg, knit it over; repeat from * to the end of round.
For example:
Chunky Braid stitch: you need 4 loops on each peg.
Wrap the loom 3 times all around. On the 4th round, wrap & knit each peg individually.
Single Stitch: You need 2 loops on each peg. Wrap the loom 1 time all around. On the 2nd round, wrap & knit each peg individually.
I have heard of a different method of eliminating this excess yarn: just start knitting over on a different spot on the loom. Although it appears that this method may work, in reality, it doesn't really cure the problem. The slack is simply moved to another part of the hat.
I hope the above helps to fix the ladder problem :).
I remember being in awed the first time I went to my knitting nite at one of the LYS, most of the ladies were knitting away at socks-some of them with 2 circular needles, others with dpns. I was there loom knitting while everyone else was needle knitting, I felt so out of place. But I resolved that very same day to learn to needle knit. Sure enough, I signed up for my first knitting class, Knitting 101. I was so excited! I showed up the first day of class with a huge smile on my face and eager to learn, then the teacher walked in--my excitement just exploded into jubilee. My teacher was going to be the awesome Mim! I had met Mim a couple of years before when hubby and I were dating...my hubby and BIL tormented her terribly...you know, guys can be so insensitive! To make a long story short--I quickly learned the basics with the help of Mim. I created my very first baby sweater with her help and guidance.
Of course after mastering the baby sweater, I felt invincible and thought that I was ready for everything else...such as socks. I wanted to take a class to learn, but the next class was not going to be til the Fall of 2005, and heck, I am not a patient woman, so I took it upon myself to learn on my own.
When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?
I started in the Summer of 2005, it was my 3rd needle knit project. We were taking a looooong car ride to Mesa Verde and I had the great idea of teaching myself how to knit socks during the trip. I learned from the book Knit Socks by Betsy Lee McCarthy--this book is fool-proof. Betsy walks you step by step through the turning of the heel. It also has great artwork showing the steps for grafting the toes.
I remember getting down to Arches and I was stuck on the heel, it just didn't make sense. I ripped the heel about 20 times, then I remember the wise words of the guru Mim--"just do exactly what the instructions say, it will work". Giving up, I did just that, I followed the instructions exactly! It was magic! .
What was your first pair? How have they "held up" over time?
My very first pair was a pair of brownish wooly socks. They have held up just fine--especially since I don't wear them. They are a bit scratchy so I wear them over another pair of socks, or not at all. They are my camping socks :)...keep my feet nice and toasty up in the mountains.
What would you have done differently?
I would have chosen a different yarn: probably a handyed sock yarn--and superwashed yarn! I love them, but I am a bit lazy when it comes to washing them. I really just want to be able to throw them in the washer.
What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?
I have loved working with the following yarns: Lorna's Laces, Vesper, Yarn Pirate, Sunshine Yarns, Koigu, and Cherry Tree Hill. But mostly enjoyed the unique handyed colors. I love seeing the way the yarn knits up.
Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?
I love knitting my socks with DPNs. I have tried the Magic Loop and it is not for me. I would like to one day learn to knit 2 socks on 2 circulars. I even got the DVD to teach myself, but there is not enough time...nor quiet time.
Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)
I prefer the flap heels :). The short-row (at least mine) end up with tiny holes (even if I wrap & turn).
How many pairs have you made?
I have made about 12 pairs on needles and I have some without mates--3 socks, so if I paired them, I guess I have 13.5 pairs, hehehehe.
My goal during this Socktoberfest is to complete the pairs for the lonely socks...wish me luck.
Meet the newest knitter--my little Wondergirl--isn't she just the cutest (nod your head). Enjoy the video! The high pitched, Rosita-like voice is me, hehehe, not a mouse.
With all these knitters in the house, I am beginning to sense a great drop in my stash...everyone wants a piece of it! Next thing you know, DAman will want to pick up the hobby.....nah!
Speaking of wants: I really, really *need* the Rusted Root pattern--I love the romantic style--cute puffy sleeves, the small lace insert, the square neckline: love it all!! But, I can't get it, you see, I have not lost the 5 lbs yet, sniff, sniff, and thus I cannot buy the yarn....sniff, sniff.
No knitting or loom knitting content today, instead, you get to read my Sockret Pal Questionnaire. I have also put a link to it on the side bar---> under the Sockret Pal button.
I am probably the very last person to post the answers--I blame it all on my my kids! You see, it has been said that with each child, a woman loses 1/3 of her brain power, after having 2 kids, I am afraid I am left with only 1/3--definitely not enough to function properly, and to top it all off, I was already a bit mental.
But since a blog post without a picture, makes the blog a bit dull, I'll show you my kool Rhinebeck Bingo sweatshirt Sweetshirt. I got the "player" one but I am only a square...but I really liked it and I had a coupon for $15.00 off and well as you can see, I was weak. I love it (especially if I don't see myself from the back and see my luvhandles): pictures courtesy of Wonderboy :).
Sock-ret Pal Questionnaire
The basics:
How long have you been knitting?
About 1.5 years
Do you consider yourself a beginning sock knitter, an intermediate, or have you been doing this so long you could probably knit a pair in your sleep?
I consider myself an beginner, but I have tried cables, lace, and I have even ventured out into designing simple socks.
The measurements:
I have a skinny little foot. I wear a size 6.5 in US
(fiber related) Favorites:
What colors do you love?
I love pinks and blues. I have a terrible passion for Neopolitan color (pinks and browns) and the Earth and Ocean colorway (blue and browns) from Yarn Pirate.
Do you prefer solids or variegated?
I like both, but I tend to get self-stripe yarns
What fibers do you most love to knit with?
Natural yarns: wool, merino wool, cotton blends.
Who do you consider your favorite yarn vendors?
Yarn Pirate, Vesper Sock Yarns, Sunshine Yarns, KPixie
What projects (other than socks, of course*S*) do you most enjoy knitting?
Love felting, and I am getting into knitting garments--especially since I started losing a bit of weight.
(fiber related) Dislikes:
What fibers can you not stand to knit with? Novelty yarns, and ribbons—and 100% synthetics.
To wear? I can’t wear wool—it is too itchy, thus I have to wear merino wool or wool that is really, really soft.
What colors would you never wear? Yellow and/or orange
The Tools:
Plastic or Metal? Bamboo or wood?
Hmmm, well, it all depends on the project I am knitting. But I tend to choose bamboo needles and Addi style needles.
Circs or Straights? Always circular.
DPNs or Magic Loop
Are there any knitting accessories you don't have in your collection but would like?
I would love another mini-Kacha, blockwing wires, and a see through Chibi
The Extras:
Do you have a wish list? If so, please share the link!
I do, it is by Amazon, check the side bar, (I don't know how to link it)
Do you like sweet, sour or salty? (or all of the above? *S*)
I prefer sours, but I do love dark chocolate: Love Almond Joys and Crunch--the dark chocolate crunch J
Do you have any allergies your pal should know about? (Certain foods, smoke, pet hair, etc)
No allergies myself, but my family has allergy to pets.
Favorite scents? Scents you can't stand?
Enjoy soft scents like lavender, vanilla. Any strong perfumes give me headaches.
Do you collect anything (other than yarn and knitting toys of course)?
I collect polar bears and little sheep
When is your birthday? (month and day is fine!)
10/17…coming right up and guess what…it is my 29th birthday J
Do you spin? Dye your own yarn?
I have a wheel, but I have not touched for about 10 months.
I do enjoy dyeing my own yarn—so much fun J
Your favorite author/band/vacation spot, anything you think will help your pal know you better...
Favorite Author: JK Rowling, Robert Skye: any other fantasy will go well with me
Band: American Rejects
Vacation Spot: NY—I used to live there and I wish I was there all the time.
Favorite Show: Smallville and Lost but Smallville a wee bit more
Do you remember last week when it was snowing up here in ol' Cache Valley...well, the cold from that day must chilled me to the bone or I must have fallen down and hit my head.
I am never prepared, usually, I procrastinate til the last minute, you must remember last Christmas when all of you had the Christmas stockings ready and then there was me...the one who ended up putting her kids treats in a brown paper bag and on Christmas Day told her children that Santa was way too busy to give them little red stockings full of treats instead Santa was being thrifty. Aye, that's me!
The silly Mom who waits til the last minute to throw her son a perfect birthday party then realizes that she doesn't have any candles for the cake so she rushes to the neighbor to borrow candles....cake ends up with pink candles, good thing Wonderboy was too small to know about colors.
Well for once, I decided to be a little more organized and I started knitting the winter necessities. 2 Celtic caps down, and 2 more to go. There was supposed to be only one--the gray one, but someone forgot to measure the swatch--she checked stitch gauge but she forgot to measure row gauge--which is essential in this pattern! I knew about 10 rows into the chart that the cap was going to be too short for me, but I still kept going--I was holding onto false hope. Ten rows from being done and ready to rip it, I tried it on both Wonderkids and to my amazement it fit them perfectly (relief washed over me as I was reluctant of ripping out all the work).
Celtic Cap details
Pattern: Celtic Cap by The Girl from Auntie
Version: B chart and Rolled Edge: B chart and Picot Edge
Yarn: Gray Hat: Rowan 4 ply soft--1 skein (I had a little bit leftover):
Blue Hat: Joanns Bellezza Tesoro-100% Wool--2 skeins
Size: Gray: Fits my 2 year old and my 4 year old. Blue: Adult
Pattern Adaptations: None--the pattern is very well written and easy to understand.
I would knit it again any day. I love the fluidity of the cables and the different options that come with the pattern.
*Of no true importance but I am so tickled pink--the picture of the blue hat was completely altered in Fireworks. It was taken by DAman inside the house and I took the background out and added a picture of our Cache Valley mountains as the new background. I just downloaded a 30-day Free trial version of Photoshop--so I should be able to do some cool stuff like all of you bloggers out there. Playtime here I come--yay!
(untouched picture)
