Moving!
I'm almost finished (or at least that's what I'm telling myself -- five moves worth of culling and leaving things behind, and I still have way too much stuff that I don't want to give up) moving from my cozy urban (for Vermont) attic apartment to a roomy house that, while not far from the beaten path, is remote enough to be on a rural postal route. The fella and I are blending our households, which means twice as much stuff, twice as many cats, and a closet devoted exclusively to high heels and firearms (heels mine, guns his). We also have a room for crafts (with a door!) that's off-limits to the cats, meaning both the fiber and the model airplanes can frolic in the open without fear of feline intervention. We're very, very happy with the new place, and looking forward to being completely moved in so we can start enjoying our weekends again.
Rhinebeck!
In the Spring, I thought I might be going to Rhinebeck this year. By the summer, I was worried I wouldn't be able to afford it. A few weeks ago, though, I realized that the stars were aligning in just the right way so I could make the trip and even have a little fun money, so I got in touch with my bestest fiber buddy, Jenny, and we made plans. I came down Saturday night, catching-up was done, hilarity was had, Red vs Blue was watched, and then Sunday morning she and Angie and I went off to the festival. Sheep were pet, fiber was fondled, friends were hugged, money was exchanged for pretties, and the bestest diner food ever was nommed at the Eveready Diner (now within sight of the fairgrounds!!!)... just another Rhinebeck, y'know? I came home with a hand-thrown mug from Brier Street Pottery, four bars of soap from Simpler Thyme, four ounces of undyed Pollworth/silk from The Sheep Shed (which I want Dan from Gnomespun to dye for me), and a bag of maple cotton candy. It was a good Rhinebeck, spent with excellent people, and I'm looking forward to next year.
Knitting!
One of the joys of having a job with an official lunch break is that I get way more knitting done than I used to. The Rose of England shawl was my lunch knitting project for a while, but I've needed some instant-gratification projects to balance out its monotony lately, so... there have been hats.
This is the Druidess Beret by Anna Bright, knit up in Green Mountain Spinnery's Alpaca Elegance in Ceylon. Sadly, the finished hat doesn't look especially flattering on me, but it was lots of fun to knit.
A Ravelry friend mentioned having made this hat for a swap, and I fell in love with the pattern instantly, so I made one...
...and then I made another! The second one I tried to modify a bit, and it didn't work out the way I wanted, so I'm thinking about ripping back and trying again, since I like the yarn combo so much. The first Capucine (by Adela Illichmanova) is three fingering-weight wools from two different commercially-made sweaters (yay, recycling!) held together. The second is a combination of my handspun (Sheep Shed merino/tencel in "Dusk" chain-plied to worsted weight) and Green Mountain Spinnery's Mountain Mohair in Raspberry (I think it was extra-light and I doubled it). I may make a few more of these before the first snow, if I can find/spin the right yarn.
Okay, not a hat, but still something to keep me toasty as the weather gets chilly. This is just a bias-knit piece that I cast on and knit without thinking about it. The buttons were an afterthought to make the seam look more like a design element than an eyesore. It's two strands of Malabrigo worsted held together: white with teal and white with purple. The teal is left over from my Mother of Invention hat and the purple is left over from the tassel hat I made for David (Sweater Project) a while back.
There's also a scarf that I made over Rhinebeck weekend from some handspun BFL (from Spunky Eclectic) using the Harlot's One Row Scarf pattern, but I haven't gotten around to taking pics yet.
*whew!* Okay, now that we're all caught up, I'm going to wander off for another month and leave y'all in suspense about the scarf. I'm evil like that. Happy knitting!
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