Happy Halloween!

Last week was mostly spent working on Seth's costume, which came out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. All of the staff at Seth's office were supposed to dress up as bugs. Seth insisted on being a praying mantis....so after a trip to JoAnn's and some internet research on praying mantis costumes and images of real ones, this is what we came up with:

The back...I sewed the wings and Seth painted them 

The armbands were sewn with spandex material (holy crap, hard to sew!) and since he couldn't have big claws, we decided on "fringe" hanging off his arms. 

The whole ensemble. The head was the most difficult and time intensive part, but I think it came out great! 

I think that he had the most intense costume out of everyone at the office...but would we expect any less from Seth? Nope.

On Friday we went over to Kara and Derrick's house to carve pumpkins with some of their soccer friends and another Doc from the office. I don't have pics of the whole gang, but will get some from Kara. Seth and Derrick each managed to cut themselves during the process, but neither required any medical attention besides duct tape. Boys. The little kid who was there managed to carve his pumpkin without harming himself, but two grown men...not so much.

My pumpkin is the one that looks like a 5 year-old carved it (Left) and Seth's is the super intense one that has various layers to it. He takes Halloween very seriously.  

Seth and Sailor posing with the pumpkins. 

Of course, we decided that Sailor needed a costume for today. And, what better to dress up as than a Doctor? 

Poor, patient Sailor.

Okay, maybe not so patient. Sailor decided it would be fun to eat the mask. 

I have some knitting to share, but I think I'll do a separate post tomorrow. Especially since most of the knitting I'll be doing from now until December will be secret! 

Happy Halloween!!

Love,

liz

FO Friday!

I have THREE, yup THREE finished knits to show off! Two of them have been done before we went to Rhinebeck, but I was lacking photos of them until now!

First up, Castle Pullover:

Pattern: Castle Pullover by Cecily Gowik MacDonald 

Yarn: MadelineTosh Rustication Worsted (100% Cormo Wool) in Fig

Modifications: I wasn't able to get the gauge that the pattern called for, so I followed the directions for the smallest size in order to get the 34" size. The shaping in the body is achieved by changing needle sizes after the waist. I knit for longer than the pattern called for to fit where my waist actually was. I also shortened the sweater from the pattern specifications because I knew the lace portion would grow when I blocked it. 

close up shot of the lace work

The Tosh Rustication is a more rustic wool that is bought from the Elsa Wool Company, and then dyed by the lovely folks at MadelineTosh. It was a little stiff before blocking because it was knit at a fairly tight gauge, but after blocking it softened up beautifully. I had considered adding 3/4 length sleeves, but after wearing it a few times (including to Rhinebeck over a long sleeved shirt, but under a warm jacket!) I think I'll keep the short sleeves. 

Second up, arm warmers:

Pattern: Albina Armwarmers by Verabee 

Yarn: Handspun Superwash Merino

Buttons: Natural wood buttons from ButtonBoy

Modifications: The pattern is written to be used with handspun yarn (or any weight of yarn for that matter). It is more of a formula with fill-in-the blanks. I figured out my gauge, plugged in my numbers and knit away! 

Our friend Polka Dot came back to visit again yesterday! 

I will definitely be making more of these, possibly as gifts. They knit up very quickly (I was able to knit one up in a night), and can be worn a bunch of different ways. Not to mention that you can make them out of any weight yarn you want!

And last, but not least...The Elephant Sweater:

Pattern: Elephant Pullover by Roo Designs 

Yarn: Berroco Vintage in Fennel, Limone, and Chocolate

Modifications: I used a larger than called for needle size and followed the directions for the 6 month size in order to get closer to a 9-12 month size. 

I had a total "knitting fail" moment on this sweater. It looked like I was going run out of the main color yarn and bought an extra skein that was not the same dye lot. Instead of using up the scraps of the old skein, I broke into the new skein and knit the second sleeve with it. As I was in my parent's basement weaving in all the ends, Kaitlin came down and asked me why one sleeve was a different color. Oops. I waited until I got home because I was sure I had a second matching skein of the main color. After digging through baskets of yarn and coming up empty, I decided to rip out the sleeve and knit as far as I could with the 3 mini balls I had left over from the initial skein. I had just enough to do the second sleeve and sew up the sweater! Go figure. But now it's done, and adorable, and I hope that Eric and Becky love it! I will demand that they take pictures of baby L in it :) 

Well, there you have it. All 3 newly finished FOs! I feel so productive! 

I'm dying to spin up some of my Rhinebeck goodies, so I think I'll start something on the wheel later today. :) 

Love,

liz :)

NY Sheep and Wool Festival (aka the Rhinebeck Recap)

Charlotte, my dear, it was soooo lovely to spend time with you last weekend! I thought I'd do a Rhinebeck recap post with some photos from the weekend and of the very small large amount of yarn and fiber I bought. :)

So, without further adieu...the Rhinebeck Recap:

Friday afternoon I hopped into the car with my Mom and her good friend Teena and we drove down to the Holiday Inn in Kingston. Shortly after we arrived, Aimee (yay!) arrived as well and we headed across the parking lot (by car, of course) to the pizza/italian place in front of the hotel. After dinner, my Mom and Teena headed straight to the Holidome (the big gathering place in the middle of the Holiday Inn) while Aimee and I gathered up our knitting stuff. I received a text from my mom saying, "FREE ROVING, COME QUICK". Someone had brought 20 lbs of superwash merino pencil roving and was giving it away! I scooped up some blues and greys and Aimee requested that I also gather up the NEON yellow/green to spin for her. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this because it is still at my parent's house. My Mom will bring it with her at the end of November when she comes to visit (I have plenty to keep me busy until then!). A little while after we started knitting, Carrie of Cosmic Fibers Yarn emptied an entire suitcase of hand-dyed yarn and fiber onto a table and folks went to town! I ended up with 3 skeins of yarn.

Pictured from L-R: Cassiopeia (a merino/cashmere/nylon blend) in "Amethyst in Shadows", Lyra (superwash merino) in "Everything Goes Black and I Wake Up Surrounded by Body Parts", and Orion (merino) in "The Woods Outside Merlotte's" 

The latter 2 colorways are dyed and named after the "True Blood" series on HBO

After a bunch of yarn buying and knitting we went to sleep and woke up early on Saturday to get some breakfast at a nearby bakery and head off to Rhinebeck! While we were waiting in line I got to meet Lily, who is in a few of the same Ravelry groups as I am and who also shops at the frequently mentioned Purl Diva! Our first stop as soon as we were through the entrance gate was the Briar Rose booth. Whoa boy. There were gigantic skeins of yarn hanging everywhere, buckets full of lovely fiber, and samples galore. We all ended up with quite a haul at our first stop. So much that my Mom and Teena ran out to the car with our bags. Here's what I ended up with:

These all deserve their own picture, I think. Did I mention there would be tons and tons of pictures?

6.5 ounces of Blue Faced Leicester Roving

Charity, 100% Corridale Wool- 900 yards

Grandma's Blessing, 600 yards of sportweight merino

Aimee and I wandered from booth to booth and from barn to barn for a while, picking up special yarn and fiber as we went. I think that my next purchase after Briar Rose was from Periwinkle Sheep.

Watercolors Superwash Merino in Sweet Plum

Sometime around 11, Aimee and I heard our walkie-talkie ring and lo and behold, Charlotte had arrived! We did some more walking around, grabbed lunch, and headed over to the KnitSpot Ravelry meet-up. It was a pleasure to meet Anne Hanson (who I'm related to, which is totally fun!) and see lots of folks wearing her designs. She's as wonderful and lovely in person as she appears to be from her awesome blog!

After much prodding, we dragged Charlotte over to meet Anne! :) I think she has some creepy stalker pictures from afar that she'll be sharing soon. 

We spent the rest of the day walking through all of the barns and drooling over the yarn and fiber. Charlotte purchased a sweater's worth of yarn from Briar Rose and picked up some awesome buttons from Jennie the Potter's booth. While Charlotte was making her button decision I met up with some lovely ladies from the Yarn Hoars group on Ravelry! It was just a quick meeting, but hopefully there will be more meet-ups in the future at other yarn related events!

Aimee, Charlotte, and I also stopped for some Cider Donuts (and hot cider, but unfortunately they were out) and I snapped a photo of the two of my bestest friends who I am so glad are also knitters:

Aimee and Charlotte in the Cider Donut line wearing their fabulous handknits!

Now, onto the rest of the stash enhancement....in no particular order:

4 ounces of BFL swirl in colorway "Velvet Elvis" from Gale's Art

100% Cormo Cross wool from Foxhill Farms 

 2 ounces of Merino/Cashmere roving (I bought 2 of these) from The Sheep Shed

1/2 lb. of Merino/Tussah silk also from the Sheep Shed 

 Two, 2 ounce braids of Merino/Silk (50/50) from Cloverleaf Farms

Merino/Silk (80/20) from unknown vendor (it isn't labeled and I can't find my sales slip) in Chili Pepper 

Merino/Cashmere (80/20) roving from Spirit Trail Fiberworks...If I make another Rhinebeck trek next year, I will definitely spend a good portion of the budget here. They had really, really gorgeous stuff.

I also bought 1/2 lb. of undyed Cormo roving to blend with some of the Alpaca that I have yet to process as well as another skein of the Cormo blend to make Judy (who watched Sailor) a scarf. 

Oh my, my, I bought a lot of gorgeous stuff! It's going to be very hard to concentrate on Christmas knitting with all this gorgeousness begging to be knit up/spun up! 

Saturday night, Charlotte, Aimee and I were exhausted! Charlotte decided to wind up one of her giant skeins of yarn from Briar Rose by hand. All 750 yards of it. We also ordered dinner from the pizza/italian place and sat in bed and knit!

I believe that this is Abundance from Briar Rose. This took 40 minutes to wind by hand!

Phew. 

Rhinebeck was such a wonderful experience and I feel very lucky to have shared it with my Mom, Aimee, and Charlotte!

I have 2 new FO's to show off, but I'll wait until tomorrow to do a post about them!

Love,

liz :)

Oh boy oh boy.

It was excellent to see you my friend!!  I hope your travels home and visit with Eric's wee one were lovely.  I loved my inaugural visit to Rhinebeck, what great weather, friends and yaaarrrrnnnn!!!!  I'm still finishing up the vest.  Tragic but true.  I've got one arm to go- I had to rip out the neck twice because it didn't look good (the middle v with the decreases just look sloppy.  Not sure what to do about it, it's just not my favorite...) and then of course I bound off way too tightly and there was no way I could fit it around my head, let alone Drew's head!  Then I'll probably block it again, to really finish it and then send it on it's way...  Pictures to follow.  Can't find my phone in my nest of blankets, it's cold today! 

What I do have photos of is this:

Yup.  He's halfway there.  I just keep cleaning up the dust!  Sheetrock is not the kitchen's friend! 

He moved the wiring and put in a new header... next step is to sheet rock, then put up the trim boards and paint!  Did I mention that I still haven't painted the bathroom yet?  Woops.  It appears he's a tad bit more motivated than I am :)  Photos of that later!

I read more of the reviews of the sweater patterns and some folks modified it slightly on the yoke- think I'll do the same.  I like the look more.  I'm going to my parents tomorrow, so I'll have my needles and can do a little swatch... which will result in a call to you about fixing it!  I feel like I need to read a textbook on knitting in order to get the gauge issue...  I'm also bringing back some important things that have just returned from the Ohio Garage!! MY SLIPPERS!  Oh and a winter jacket, thank god, and quite a few pieces of clothing I have forgotten about completely.  And my teapot.  I miss my teapot. 

Okay, I'm off to shower and get ready for day three of the hoodlums. Today is library with Eddie.  I like Wednesdays. 

Love you!
cb

A whole lot of pears, a kitty cat, and a little knitting.

In addition to our apple tree, we have a pear tree in the backyard. Seth climbed up in the tree (surprise, surprise) and picked all the ripe pears last weekend. On Wednesday we canned them. All 16 pints of them. Phew.

We gave a jar away already and Seth opened one of the quart sized jars. 

Thankfully, I think we're done canning for the season. It's definitely worth all the work, but we're running out of room to store things! Hopefully next summer our tomatoes will do better and I can make and can some tomato puree for sauce. 

In other news,  Sailor has had an exciting few days! One of the neighborhood kittens has decided that our backyard is an awesome place to hang out. This pleases Sailor to no end. This morning I woke up to him barking like a crazy dog and clawing at the sliding glass door because the kitty was in the yard. It has certainly made for some good laughs. 

When the kitty (Seth has named him/her Polka Dot) came around this afternoon, I took the camera outside to snap a few photos.

The first thing Polka Dot does is jump up on the fence and hide behind the shed. Big Dumb Dog (sailor) has no clue that the cat is up there.

 Polka Dot peeking out from behind the shed.

 Pretty Kitty. 

Sailor watching me pet Polka Dot. He was surprisingly calm. 

Polka Dot clearly isn't phased by Sailor giving him the stare down. 

Impressively close to the kitty...

And....chasing Polka Dot.

Silly Pup. 

Now time for the knitting. I actually have TWO finished projects to show off. 

Seth's mom asked me if I would make a baby boy sweater and hat for her to bring as a gift to a baby shower she is going to in a couple of weeks.

Pattern: Manda Ruth by Jane Richmond 

Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Happy Forest

Modifications: A whole bunch. Ummm, let's see. First, I used a smaller gauge than called for in the pattern which resulted in some creative math being done to make sure it didn't end up as doll-sized sweater. I also skipped the hood and made a collar instead. 

Pattern: BuzzBee by Woolly Wormhead (this is from her pattern book "Wee Wooly Toppers"- a good investment for 10 ridiculously adorable baby hat patterns)

Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Happy Forest

Modifications: None. Followed this exactly as written and it's adorable (even Seth thinks so!).

How cute are the planes, trains, and automobile buttons?? 

Well, I think I've inundated you with enough pictures for now! 

Love,

liz :)

Poor Neglected Blog!

Sheesh. I've been neglecting the blog recently, and I feel badly that I don't have more exciting things to show off!

I have finished my first Christmas gift...but that will have to wait until after the holidays. Don't want to ruin the surprise! But it's awesome. That's all I'll say about that.

The Salem Hooded Jacket is still in the time out bin, but I did start a new sweater that will hopefully be done in time for Rhinebeck. No pictures yet, but once I get a little bit further I'll post some pictures...or you'll just have to be surprised in a couple of weeks!

I've been doing a bit of spinning and finished a skein of yarn this weekend. It is 100% superwash merino and is really, really soft.

It's really yummy....and I've already started knitting with it (I have start-itis). The skeins are in the process of becoming a pair of Albina Armwarmers. One can never have enough pairs of fingerlesss mitts. :)

In non-knitting news, Seth and I walked in the Walk for a Cause 5K this weekend. We brought Sailor along and bought him a pink bandana:

side note about this picture: this was Sailor sulking after he jumped OVER the back of the couch and almost ran through the screen door because there was a cat in the backyard. He went out in the yard and the cat had vanished...though he made a valiant effort to find it.

Seth was walking as part of the hospital's team and I signed up at the last minute. There were a TON of dogs, so Sailor thought it was pretty great. There were even dog bowls with water and someone handing out dog treats at the halfway point.

Hmm, what else?

Oh- I received my second shipment of the Three Irish Girls yarn club the other day.

Three skeins of Sprinvale Super Merino in Illusion, Slight of Hand, and Smoke and Mirrors (from L-R)

These will most likely become a pair of Portland Mittens with the leftovers becoming a hat and possibly a scarf.  

Ah, so much yarn...so little time.

Seth's mom asked me to make a baby sweater and matching hat for a baby shower she's going to in a few weeks...so today I'm off to hunt for some yarn to use for that. How is it that I don't have any superwash merino in boy colors in my stash?? Ah, well. 

Off to do a little yarn shopping....

Love,

liz :)