The Rhinebeck Report

Can you say "CROWDED?" I have been going to Rhinebeck for maybe 15 years, and I am blown away by what has happened to the charming 4H event. The parking lot was already very busy at 9am on Saturday, and got progressively worse through the day. By the afternoon, I felt like I was on the Lexington Avenue Subway Line during rush hour. There was a huge line of tour buses. Who would have imagined? That said, it was a cool fall day, the leaves were turning and I was with good company, so I can't complain. I'll cut right to the chase. BadKitten got a blue ribbon for her weaving. Note the large rosette. That would be Best in Show for woven items. Not in the junior class. In the entire show. I will stop bragging now. She also got a fifth for a lovely silk and cotton plaited twill...
On Sunday, we did the Fleece to Shawl event. You can see our sign and team, waiting for the starting bell. BadKitten was weaving.
Here you can see our finished shawl. We didn't place well because we were "short." That means we didn't make 72 inches in length, so we got a huge deduction. I take the blame because I totally under-estimated how much loss in length we would have. We used singles, and the take-up was really crazy. Live and learn! BadKitten was amazing, not only weaving well, but holding up to the fierce pressure of BadCat. We were pretty pleased with our finished piece.

Here you can see dueling Lyras. I am sure you know which is mine! The judges thought I needed to do a better blocking job. Hello? Did you see my blocking job? Did you see LucyFur supervising? I'll shut up now...
Pears came in second in her class.
The Summer Sampler also got a second...
And here is the Best in Show. This is an Estonian sampler. The judges are very impressed with nupps! It was really nice work.

I am almost recovered and I'll be back by the weekend with a materials list for the Autumn BadCat-a-long. Until then, knit on!

Holey fruit basket, Batman!

I took a week off from my day job, and I am actually getting some knitting done! How novel...

Fresh off the needles, I give you "Pears." I started this one with an old French doily pattern I found and totally enjoyed the knit. I liked her so much that I needed her to be bigger, so I added my own version of a classic peacock tail border. I am quite pleased. The yarn looks different in different light, but all these pictures are the same project. The color is a burnt orange, with flecks of purples and browns. Here she is, still wet and pinned out on my trusty white sheet, on my old Persian carpet.
Again, still wet and pinned out, to show the center detail. I modified the original pattern by changing some of the decreases to make them more directional. I thought this improved the outline on the leaves and along the pears. I also made some minor changes to the tips of the branches. These are all very subtle. I am not sure I really improved the design, but those of you who know me know that I can't leave anything alone in a knitting pattern I didn't write. It might be something diagnosable...I'll leave that to the psychiatric clinicians out there.
Here are a few detail shots. Take note of all the mesh. For this mesh, I knit two together through the front legs of the stitch for the right leaning decreases, and I knit two together through the back legs of the stitch for the left leaning decreases. That saves me all the SSKs, which take me more time. I don't think anyone would notice those twists on this mesh. You can also clearly see the two-stitch cables giving texture to the body of the pears.

Here you can see the clean lines of the leaves and also the transition from the original doily to the border.
Here is another look at the border transition and the "feathers" of the main section of the border.
Finally, here she is spread out on my bed. You can see she covers the entire top surface of a full-size bed.
I am almost finished with a few more things...of course I am going back to work tomorrow, so don't hold your breath! Knit on...

A Few Excuses...

Today I thought I would show you my continued lack of significant progress and cast some blame in a few directions. My Conure, Captain Flint, has been working on a new hairstyle for me, without much success. He has had even less luck stealing my earrings, though he will keep trying both. Once again, I have not gotten much knitting done, but we can blame Flinty, right?
He doesn't mind! He is such a good natured and handsome guy. He thinks I am his girlfriend...
My daughter said I should also blame my lack of knitting progress on our recent evening jam sessions. She and I fight over who gets to play the red Gibson. Rock (I mean knit) on...

What knitting?

Much to my chagrin, I have not been getting loads of knitting done. I had hoped to have at least one of my main projects completed and ready to show you, but alas, that was not to be. I find myself distracted by work and life in general. As I mentioned several posts back, my mom has been sick. She started chemotherapy for lung cancer, which she also had surgery for just after the New Year. We anticipate the need for some spiffy faux hair in the very near future. After pondering my options and discussing with my mom, we arrived at some wonderful Italian funfur. When someone in one of my knitting circles saw me knitting with anything that was not lace weight and/or cashmere, they were appropriately shocked...I myself am somewhat shocked.
I finished one hat, and I am partially through a second. I can't really see the stitches with all the fur, but I seem to be doing well anyway! I must admit that these hats are very soft and light and actually look pretty cute, in a darling faux hair way. I got the pattern here. I made the small size a few stitches smaller and made the straight section slightly deeper. You can't go too far wrong with this pattern. My mom really likes them. I am thinking of making one for myself, in purple.
I have a few more rows of Lyra to show, with many more to come, so I might refrain from showing her again until she actually is ready to be blocked. We shall see if I can stick with that concept.
You might recall my French pear doily. The actual "doily" is complete, and I selected a deep traditional style border. Now I just have six inches of several hundred stitches to knit, so I should also refrain from boring you with this until I am blocking it...
And finally, I still have a few points to go on Hecate's border. Are you snoring yet? Goodness knows I am...I better stop yapping and actually go knit something...and by the way, doesn't my new camera rock? You can really see those beads.

The BadCat January update!

So today I have a little of this and a lot of that! I thought I would share a few of the goodies I amassed this holiday season. I also thought I would give an update about the goings-on on my needles.

Shall we start with some books and patterns? If you are looking for complex lace designs, look no more! Here they are. There are so many amazing patterns, I don't know what to knit first. I have a few ideas though...Knitted Lace Designs of the Modern Mode Bk1, by Kazuko Ichida
Knitted Lace in the Modern Mode Bk2, by Naoko Ichida
Tricot Hogar #1
Lavori Artistici #11
These are all available here:
http://www.lacis.com/catalog/catalog.html

Engeln Spitzenstricken: Individual Engeln patterns found by selecting the English-speaking flag on the top right and looking at the lace patterns.
Kunststricken Grobe und Kleine can be found as above, but selecting the lace books!
These are available here:
http://www.bastelundhobbykiste.de/index


The next fine stuff I have to show you came from Colourmart. What can I say? My order arrived in 6 days from the time I placed it and the yarn is perfect. It is hard to get really lovely fibers in very fine weights, so this is a special source for me. Don’t drool on your keyboard.
http://www.colourmart.com/
This is 3/45 cashmere/silk in the Lavender Silk color
This is 3/45 cashmere/silk in the Dust color
This is 2/65 cashmere/cotton in the Slate color
This is 2/28 merino/tencel/cashmere in the Silver color
This is 2/28 cashmere/merino in the Candy color. I also got some 2/28 lambswool/silk in the stone color, but I didn't have a picture to show you. You can imagine... Each of these cones is 100 grams and between 2000 and 3000 yards, which is enough for any of the large designs in any of the books and patterns you saw above. So many fine choices!

I feel like a kid in a candy store. Is this not mouth watering? This lace-weight yarn is not as skinny as the yarns I got from Colourmart, but it is a true lace-weight yarn in the softest lamb’s wool. It has lots of give and blocks wonderfully, so this is another special source for me. My recent Sampler Stole was knit with this yarn and is lovely.

You can see all the new Lacey Lamb colors on the Jade Sapphire website. ENJOY!

http://www.jadesapphire.com/

Don't think I am all stash and no action! Certainly not! I am currently working on two different knitting projects. The first is something you saw a little bit of, way back when I blogged about using charts. This is Hacate:

I have finished the central panel and I am over half-way done with the deep border, which is running down the lower edge. After that, there are just the two side edges and it will be done. Expect to see it again February!

The second piece of knitting I have been working on is this:

This is an old French doily pattern, and I couldn't resist the pears. I am three-quarters of the way through the pattern, and the only modifications I have made are to the double-decreases. I have made some of them directional, where they were originally written as all the same decrease. Once the actually pattern is done, the piece will be too small to be something to wear, so I was thinking of adding to it to get a larger (shawl) piece. It also occurred to me to make sleeves for it…to be continued!

I was gifted with this award this week, from Fleegle, and I am so honored! It seems I must pass it along to ten blogs that make me happy, but here is the rub. I am a bit clueless… I read a small handful of blogs and those blogs have already been honored. I have six blogs I already selected to pass the award onto, but I need four more. Please be kind and leave me suggestions!

My next post will pass the torch! Until then, knit-on.