Rhinebeck!

This weekend I went to Rhinebeck with my knitting buddies. We began with breakfast at Pete’s Famous, a tradition Kris has had going for years. Here are Jacie, Jenni and Tracy in front of some gorgeous trees. The weather could not have been better.

I finished my Katarina sweater on Thursday night, and I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Even better, my Slither handspun won second place in the novice class.

What’s that up in the corner?

Jacie’s Valeria shawl won first place for small handspun item!

Jacie continued her streak with a blue ribbon in the spindle spinning contest, and Jenni was third! Go team go!

On day two I wore my handspun Shalom, which was made with Spinner’s Hill fiber that I got at Rhinebeck last year. I went to show the ladies at Spinner’s Hill, and picked up a new ball of fiber.

You’ll see me wearing something blue next year!

Rhinebeck – Part 2

We left the fairgrounds at around five on Saturday, went back to the hotel for a bit, then went to the Ravelry party. It was dark so the pictures didn’t really turn out (Winged Orange has some nice ones), but I can show you the awesome cupcakes:

I had such a great time at the Ravelry party.  The coolest part was talking face to face with some of the knitbloggers I follow, like Peaceful Knitter, Whitknits, Lindsey Rose and Space Kitty. It was sort of hard not to be a geeky fangirl and swoon in the presence of Jess and Casey and the gang. While we were at the party, Allison gave me a spinning tutorial and convinced me to get a spindle the following day.

After the party we went back and hung out at the hotel with the other knitters, and Karen gave a spinning lesson to some of the Taunton gals.

On Sunday, we had breakfast at the hotel with our Southern CT buddies Mary Jane and Daria, then went back to the fairgrounds.

The weather was noticeably colder and wetter, and the crowds were noticeably more sparse. It wasn’t horrible though, it could have been a lot worse. I was pretty comfortable in my green winter coat, with my Foliage set and my Seraphim as a scarf. The upside was that the Sunday Ravelry meetup was a lot less crowded, so we got to talk to Jess and Casey.   I like to think I kept it together.

So, you may be asking, is that a spindle and fiber in my hands? Yes, yes it is. Don’t judge me! I guess I’m easily peer pressured 😉 But as you can see from my coat and my Lexie Barnes bag, that green is totally my color.  My friends told me to get four to six ounces, but as the lady was unwinding that ball I saw that the inside was a different shade.  I had visions of beautiful barberpoled green handspun and I panicked.  I bought the whole thing.  Some time in the next year I hope to have a green handspun vest.

We left the fairgrounds pretty soon after that.  Hooray for a great trip to Rhinebeck, and I’m already looking forward to next year!

Rhinebeck – Part 1

This weekend I went up to Rhinebeck for the first time with some yarny friends from the Connecticut River SnB.

(here you see Maura, Sharon, Allison and Karen)

We had a great time!

We drove up on Friday, and stayed at the Quality Inn in Kingston.  Some of the other folks in my SnB knew two other great knitters from CT, and we also met up with awesome folks from Taunton, MA and Upstate NY.  In the lobby that night, I worked on mittens that I desperately wanted to be able to wear this weekend.  I messed them up, so I did emergency surgery, with Doctor Allison assisting.

There was some scarring, but the patient survived.

On Saturday, we got to the fairgrounds at about 10:30. The first part of the day was a blur of yarn and fiber and cute sheepies. I tend to get overwhelmed at fairs. We really lucked out in the weather department though. They were predicting rain and snow and sleet and utter misery, but it didn’t rain much at all on Saturday, and I was perfectly comfortable in my Lite Lopi Pullover and a Foliage in Malabrigo Bulky (Rhodesian colorway) that I knit for the occasion.

At noon we went to the Ravelry Meetup, which was great. The star of the show was a giant knit Bob head, which is a rather amazing showing of skill and dedication.

(apparently it was designer Ysolda Teague under there, which I didn’t know at the time.  You can also see Laura/Cosmicpluto on the right in the orange mitts.)

Aaron, one of my traveling companions, took the opportunity to re-enact his Remnants thread, “Ask Justonescarf a Question”

In that photo, he’s wearing his THIRD scarf and his first HAT. We’ll have him knitting aran pullovers one of these days.

After the meetup, we went to check on our friend Jacie’s yarn submissions. She won a blue ribbon in the novice spinners category!

Woo hoo! Go Jacie!

After we saw the blue ribbon, I decided to take out my mittens, and work on them as we walked.

People stared a bit, which I thought was odd. Isn’t Rhinebeck EXACTLY the place to work on mittens as you walk? And anyway, I finished them, so it was worth it.

Whew, I think that’s enough excitement for one post. More to come tomorrow!

Missouri and the Heartland

Ok, I’ve fallen WAY behind.  I’ve been having so much fun I forget to post…

Last weekend we were in Missouri.  We started in St. Louis.

It’s a really neat city. The Anheuser-Busch brewery tour was a blast, and I’m not even a beer drinker. Forest Park is beautiful, and we had a really nice walk.

After St. Louis, we went to Kansas City. Our first stop was the legendary BBQ joint Arthur Briant’s. It was DELICIOUS.

From Kansas City, we headed south through Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. All have beautiful scenery.

Kansas

Oklahoma

Texas

We have such a huge, beautiful country.  I hadn’t realized exactly how huge and beautiful until this trip.

Illinois

We’re having a great time on our road trip!  From Niagara Falls we went to Cleveland and saw the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  It was neat, but very boomer-oriented.  A lot of the memorabilia was from before my time, so maybe people who remember the 1960s and 1970s would get more out of it.  It was still a lot of fun, though.  The next day we went to Cedar Point the “roller coaster capital of the world.”  From there we went to visit my relatives in Illinois.

My grandma lives in the far western suburbs of Chicago, and we stayed with her for a few days.  She is very artistic, and her current main hobby is basketry.  She gave me a beautiful basket that she made, that I can keep knitting stuff in.

It’s beautiful, and I’m touched that she gave it to me.

When we were staying with her, we took the train into Chicago for the day and saw the sights.

Millenium Park is really neat.

From there, we went to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins in central Illinois. I hadn’t been to their town in several years, and it was really interesting to see the sites in their stories.

This afternoon we went to the Abraham Lincoln museaum in Springfield. It was great. I would recommend it to anyone. They had very well-done exhibits and presentations. And some disconcerting dummies in the “plaza” area.

From Springfield we drove to St Louis. We’re having so much fun!

Finally on Vacation

To all of you who have commented in the last, oh, month, I’m so sorry.  I’ve been miserable about replying to comments, and I apologise.  I really appreciate it when folks say hi, and I’m going to try to be better about showing it. 

The first two weeks of June were especially horrible – I’m starting law school in August, so I had to start wrapping up at my job AND move home to Hartford.  We had a crazy deadline at work, and I got 5.5 hours of sleep in two days.  Ugh, better not to dwell on it, since now I’M ON VACATION!

James and I left Hartford this morning, and drove 415 miles to Niagara Falls.

It was beautiful. Next stop Cleveland!