It's the Christmas countdown and I haven't nearly enough time to complete my planned gifts. But isn't that always the case? Each year I plan to start earlier but somehow don't.
Rhinebeck was great as always. I came away with an empty wallet but some great goodies. At Windy Valley Musk Ox booth I bought some blue merino to make the cable lace cardigan. I do love their quiviet and recently completed a scarf with some blue duvet I purchased from them at last year's festival. I also scored a Namaste Zuma Bag in Peacock which I love. I'd like to get another one. The closing magnet on it is great as I have a habit of never zipping my bags and have lost items from my bag from time to time. Malabrigo silky merino in Indecito was my next purchase and I bought enough to make the February Lady's sweater. But I have no idea when I'll get to start that. And I bought more sock yarn. All in all it was a wonderful day.
I've been going to Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool now for at least 8 years. It's only an hour from me so that makes it quite convenient. I've seen it grow in size tremendously over the years until now I find it somewhat difficult to navigate. And this year for some reason I ran into a few rather rude pushy people, especially at Briar Rose. Their booth was mobbed the entire day and I patiently waited to get in then found myself pushed and shoved and yarn actually taken out of my hand as I reached for it. There were also two women who were obviously long lost friends who decided to stand in front of the yarn and discuss every member in their family. I didn't say anything but left there disgusted and didn't buy anything. There were a few other times on Sat. I found people to be rather rude as well. Although, waiting in the food line was as pleasant as always. We all chatted about yarn and what we had purchased. I just hope the rudeness I experienced was a fluke and not a trend because NYS&W has always been a wonderful place to share my love of fiber.
I post so seldom these days I never talked about taking a workshop I enjoyed with Jared Flood on Aug. 28th. The workshop was wonderful and Jared was superb. He taught us about EZ's percentage sweater in the round. This was his first workshop to promote his new book Made In Brooklyn. There are 13 patterns in his book and I want to make each of them. In fact I already started on Huron in Knit Pick's City Tweed. Shhhh It's a gift for my cousin Richard who I talked about in my previous post. I'm on the first sleeve and for some reason I hate sleeves but I'm pushing myself as this should be a fast knit in the round.
And then this is a pic of Jared, with Susan Gross owner of Knit One Needlepoint Too, myself and another participant whose name I forgot.
It was a really fun day!
I bought myself a Kromski Symphony a few months ago and she is beautiful. Now I have to learn to spin. Two years ago at Rhinebeck I spun on a Symphony and felt very comfortable. I would have liked to try a few different makes and models but there is no one within 4 hours of me that had spinning wheels in stock. Most spinning stores I found on line sell them but don't have them on hand. They just drop ship them to you after the purchase. Anyway I bought mine unfinished, stained her myself and then hand waxed 5 coats buffing in between each one.
Isn't she pretty!
My IMAC was not working well and I took her in to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store and they felt my hard drive was going bad. The cost of putting in a new hard drive was enough to make me think twice so I waited. Then in Sept. I read on MAC RUMORS that Apple was coming out with a new IMAC and felt I should wait. Each day I checked for what seemed like an eternity. At 2:30AM on October 21st I received an e-mail from Apple. The new IMAC was here. As soon as I could get to the store that day I purchased this new 27" IMAC. AND OMG do I love it.
When my daughter was in Graduate School she started using MACS and then I switched as well. It would be very difficult for me to go back to a PC now. I'm hooked. Here you can see in the center my new IMAC. On the right is my OLD PC that I use for my Pfaff 2170 Embroidery machine and for playing solitaire. To the left is my 20" IMAC that has a bad hard drive. I hope to take the old IMAC into Tekserve in NYC and have a new hard drive installed. And then I would like to buy Windows XP for MAC so I can use the embroidery machine with the IMAC and get rid of the old PC. Big plans!
Unfortunately, I spend way to much time surfing and especially looking at yarn or patterns or reading other blogs so get less done around here. I have to sometimes force myself to leave the computer. It's never for long though because Ravelry or Facebook call to me.
I really have finished a few projects but I forget to take pics of them and then usually gift them. I completed Aeolian for my daughter. And I made a few pair of socks.
A few weeks ago I did a yarn inventory and my stash was bigger than I ever imagined. Using an Excel spread sheet I have 4 pages of yarn inventoried and more to go. I have counted 700 skeins of yarn so far! Is that a sickness? Am I addicted? I think so and I'm almost afraid to count the remainder.
My purpose of making the inventory was to be able to look at the lists and choose from my stash instead of buying more. I resolved to go on a yarn diet. How long do you think I lasted? Not long! About 1 week. But there was good reason. My daughter, Amy, asked for a teal Infinity Scarf for Christmas. I didn't have any teal yarn. Although I do have teal dye and some gorgeous handspun alpaca. But instead I bought Dream In Color Classy Bermuda Teal from Loopy Ewe. They shipped the yarn out so fast and it was at my doorstep in 3 days. And oh is it pretty and soft. Now can I get the project completed by Christmas? We'll see. That kinda blew my yarn diet though.






























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