Rhinebeck Rocked!

Even though I'm not home yet - I had to post pics from Rhinebeck!

I saw lots of friends, bought some cool stuff and had a grand time! Jolene and I flew up to RI to drive to Rhinebeck from Sarah's house. We had tons 'o knitting time in the car and I manged to knit half a sweater and finish clue 3 of the mystery socks! Pics of these items coming soon.

We stayed in Fishkill NY about 45 minutes south of Rhinebeck but it worked out perfectly. We went both saturday and sunday. Saturday was BEAUTIFUL!! I was so worried it was going to rain and or snow but it didnt. Here are some pics of the friends we saw....



They had these cool pumpkin carvings on display there...



And Jolene fell in love with these spinning wheels - especially the yellow one...



Sunday was much less crowded and a but rainy but we had a great time anyway because we got to see the things we missed on Saturday! And we watched the end of the sheep to shawl competition. Here's the winning team (at least they finished first). I loved their rainbow warp!






We also were somewhat restrained in buying... I only got three skeins of yarn - 2 socks that rock mill ends, a skein of angora sock yarn and a bag of merino roving.

Here's all three of our loot combined...



And best of all - I ran into a gal in the artichoke line wearing my Merletto mitts!! I had to take a pic!



After Rhinebeck we went to New Paltz NY to historic Huguenot Street. Pics of that soon!

Fair Fun!

I went to the fair with Larissa yesterday:



It was a beautiful day - not too hot and not too humid with plenty of blue sky and sunshine. We walked around and saw all the animals, arts and crafts and garden stuff and we ate lots of good old fashioned fair food (candy apples, cotton candy and gyros!)

The highlight of the day for me - was tasting all these different kinds of honey! There was clover honey, blueberry honey, thistle honey, and tons more flavors. There were even jars of cystalized honey! This stuff was so amazing! It's thick like peanut butter and tastes amazing! We of course bought some and went back to Larissa's place and tried some on toast. Yum! I can't wait to try some on corn on the cob like they suggested.



I wanted to go to the fair to see my entries in the knitting competition. I entered my Charlotte's web shawl and won a special prize from Ewenique Yarns.



And my friend Jolene surprised me and entered my Merletto mitts! They were a gift to her last Christmas - so she was sneaky! They won 3rd place.



Jolene won some ribbons too! And my friend Coleen cleaned up with three blue ribbons and a red! She then went on to win the grand prize of best of the best for her baby sweater set. Definitely go give her some props!

After the fair and the awesome honey - we hung out at Larissa's place for a bit. I was happy to finally get to meet Elrick - Larissa's dog. Isn't he just precious!



That boy can howl! We had quite a trio going on! He's such a cutie!

I hope you all had a great Labor Weekend!

Thank you :)

First of all - I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all of your prayers and warm notes on the last post.

I spent Sunday morning with Brie's family and friends at a church service where prayers and blessings were offered. There was not a dry eye anywhere. Her memorial service is tomorrow - details here.

I am honored that they asked me to take care of the flowers for the occasion. Brie shared my love of flowers. I brought a dozen or so pictures of flowers to her hosptial room for her to put on the walls so she could have a garden in her room.

I've been having a hard time focusing on anything for very long lately - but I have been knitting and spinning.

I got 2lbs of roving at MD Sheep and Wool to make a handspun sweater.... I finally spun up and soaked my first batch.



I just love the warm natural brown of this yarn.
I can't wait to spin some more.

I also spun up other Loop batt. This was fun to spin!



I love all the little bits of color.




I also joined Loop's Batt of the month club. Next month's theme is butterflies. Steph sent us all pictures of butterflies and we had to chose the one we like best. I chose a Monarch butterfly. I can't wait to see how she interprets it in fiber!


And guess what! My Merletto Mitts are the subject of a June Knit-a-long on Ravelry!

The Fingerless Glove Fanatics group is knitting them. There are lots of great looking mitts being knit over there - go check it out!


I couldn't just sit and watch - I of course started up again on another pair. I gave the originals to Jolene - so I need some for myself!



I'm also still knitting the Printed Silk Cardigan. The entire back is done and I love it! Also - I cast on for a new shawl - the Adamas Shawl. It's all Sarah's fault. No pictures yet - but soon! This is going to be a quicky!

Free Pattern - Merletto Mitts!

At long last I can now finally present (in proper fashion) my latest design.

I give you the Merletto mitts!




Stats:
Pattern: Merletto Mitts
Designer: Me!
Yarn: Any sock yarn (I used less than one ball of Knit Picks Gloss)
Needles: US 2/2.75mm

These fingerless mitts were initially a gift for my friend Jolene last Christmas. I made up the pattern by combining a simple cable with some lace details. Put it all together and the Merletto Mitts were born.

This was such a fun pattern to design! I also had lots of great help too! I have to thank Sarah, and Stacey for test knitting and Jolene for helping edit the pattern.




Those of you on Ravelry - you can download the pattern for free with this link:

Ravelry Download


Those of you not on Ravelry - (what are you waiting for!) you can use this link to download this free pattern:
Click here



Don't forgot - if you're going to MD Sheep and Wool this year, there will be tons of gorgeous hand painted and kettle dyed yarn for you to make this pattern at the Cloverhill booth!

Enjoy!

Handmade Weekend

Saturday was one of the best days I've had in a very long time. I spent the entire day creating art, laughing with friends and exchanging gifts.

First of all - it was extra special because Sarah was in town!!! I missed my Sarah :)

The day started with a little baby shower/onesie making party for Jolene. Her girls came along too and we all got creative! We sewed and painted up a storm! Here is just a small sample of our creations:



These are mainly the painted ones that needed extra drying time.

Most were fabric creations. We cut out fabric, ironed on fusible interfacing and then hand or machine sewed them onto the onsies.



I will have to take some more pictures of the sewn ones - they were amazing!


Can you tell there were knitters in attendence - we had to do a sheepy one!



After the mini shower, we headed out for our Handmade Holiday Tea. Erin arranged for us to get together at Teavolve - a very zen little place on Eastern ave in Baltimore - for a holiday gift exchange. Basically, Erin assigned each of us a secret partner and we had to make a handmade gift for them. It was so much fun!

Here are the girls:
Erin and Jen


Gin and Jen


Jolene, Sarah, Amie and me


Chris and Erin again.


Cheryl was there too - but she hates getting her photo taken :)
We missed you Coleen!


We had tea of course. I had Earl Grey Imperial. It was delicious!

Each one came in a groovy green tea pot with a candle warmer bottom. I wanted to take one home!



And what's a tea party without tea sandwiches!



It turned out that Jolene had me and I had her! I made her some fingerless mitts and a Frenchy bag. I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the bag, but here's Jolene wearing her new mitts.



I designed the pattern for these - and I'll be posting it soon as a freebie. They are really great for that last minute Christmas knitting project! Check back soon for the pattern!



Jolene made me this amazing lace scarf! I love it!



Not only did she make me the scarf...



She included all these goodies too!



The cutest little Scottie dog ornament (pattern by All Sorts) (Which looks just like my boys!)



A gorgeous copy of one of my favorite books - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...


and some handmade soap...


Thanks for an awesome day ladies!

(I haven't stopped wearing my scarf yet!)