a sweater for Rhinebeck

Last night I finished Bryce’s sweater. Its still damp, hopefully it will be dry tomorrow because the boy desperately wants to wear it to school. Right now I have Rhinebeck on the brain, and I want to knit myself a sweater. Last night I gathered up a few possibilities and wound them up, started swatching like crazy. And by this morning the swatches where blocking. And damnit. I can’t make up my mind. (And yet again, I’m a little pissed at gauge.)

swatches from left to right:

• I was thinking of using the dark blue (Bartlett yarns)  or the light blue (Mooreland tweed from Autumn House Farm) for tweedy aran cardigan. Or maybe the light blue for Cassidy (but with out the hood)
• Redish (Peace Fleece) is for 28thirty, but mohair has been making me itchy lately.
• The gray (Greenwoodhill Farm) is/was for twist the collared version but my gauge is off by a quarter of a freaking inch. But really will it matter? My bust size is 34 on a good day and the smallest pattern size is 35. I don’t want it skin tight though, a little baggy.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions cause I would love to use up some of my stash before Rhinbeck and I would love to have a sweater for wear. Christ, I make this hard on myself don’t I? I really should just knit a shawl and call it done. At least I have this lovely handspun cowl to comfort myself with.

More info on flickr and ravelry. Its so comfy and cozy, I just want to snuggle my face down into it! Now, I’m going to go stare at these swatches and hope they tell me something. Or maybe I’ll just light them on fire.
Crap. Wool doesn’t burn.

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OhmyGosh!

Living with an almost teen can be, um, interesting sometimes. Girl’s are very dramatic, energetic and did I mention dramatic? Recently while my parents where visiting we loaded all the kids up in the mini-van (aka the crazy train. Whoot, Whoot!) and we where on our way to drop Corra off at a Birthday pool party for one of her friends and the rest of us where going to DQ. On the way to the party (which was less then a half a mile from the house) Corra kept “ohmygosh”ing everything. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. It was driving me crazy. My darling mother, after hearing me tell Corra to stop “ohmygoshing” started, what else, but “ohmygoshing” me. Then my father started “ohmygoshing”. Then it became a night full of “ohmyGOSH!”ing. I thought my brain was going to explode. My only comfort is knowing that my sis and I get to pick out my parents retirement home. They have to be nice to get windows.
I figured, with all the “ohmyGOSH”ing I’ve heard lately its my turn to start. I have lots to ohmygosh about. First: OhmyGOSH! I finished the body to Corra’s february lady sweater earlier this week

I used a US 8 (5.0mm) for the yoke and then switched to a US 10 (6.0 mm) for the lace. This is crazy, but ohmygosh it was so hard to knit with the 10’s! I had to really watch the stitches to make sure I didn’t drop any. When I first started knitting 10’s where small, but now they are huge! And I prefer to knit with 7’s. Crazy! Anyway, I switched back to the 8’s for the garter on the bottom. I was hoping that using a larger needle would open up the lace pattern for me. But it looks like it didn’t. I don’t anticipate the yarn opening up much after “blocking”, its superwash after all.
OhmyGOSH! I stopped by Susie’s etsy shop the other day and saw this lovely roving that I just HAD to have. She sent along a few gifties too,

on the left 6.0 superwash merino in Drama (I can’t wait to spin this up, its so pretty!) And on the right 3.5oz superwash merino in lipstick and a beautiful orifice hook gifties from Susie. She’s such a sweetie!
Now see here, OHMYGOSH! My first um, yarn? Its a real stretch calling my first skein yarn.

My second one isn’t so much of a stretch,

but both are equally lovely in their own way, they are my first “yarns!” I navajo plied them both, ohmygosh that was hard. My calves where killing me! They both are thick and thin, have spots that are beautifully plied. There are some noils, are over spun in spots and under spun in others, but doesn’t that add character? My second skein is full of energy (clicky here for a pic). Lots of energy, so much that isn’t not balanced. A photo of them together shows how much practice helps.

Ohmygosh! I’m so proud, and loven this spinning thing. I used up all that Corriedale mandaJ and I bought at Silverbrook farms outside of Punxtawney when we got our spindles. Remember that? Ohmygosh that was some time ago!

The Boy is totally fine, ohmygosh is he lucky. He is still missing his lego’s, upset that one of his lego club shipments came and he can’t open it till the lego ban is lifted tomorrow. He’s still fine. Still cute, see?

OhmyGOSH! I have one last thing, remember how I want to knit sweaters for my kids to wear for their school pictures? Well picture day for our school is thefreaking16. I have 9 days to finish Corra’s sweater and start on Bryce’s. OhMYGOSH! I’m totally screwed.
Ohmygosh! Happy MandaJ! I updated my blog, showed my handspun, now oh.my.gosh, where the heck is your blog now?

I’m all ohmygoshed out, I have no idea how Corra can do this all day. Night!

ya’ll knew it was coming…

…. and I’m sorry it took me almost a week to post about it. Its been a crazy week, with the kids first day of school on Tuesday (yay!)

there are more pictures here on flicker here

But what I *really* want to tell ya’ll about is my birthday. First off, I opened up my package from Diane, that has been tormenting me since it arrived.

Isn’t that a beautiful scarf? She spun up the fiber that I sent her (for something, heck if I can remember for what.) and knit up the scarf. Clicky here for a (lousy) pic of me wearing it. (Its been rainy and crappy here, no good lighting lately.) The chocolate was delicious and didn’t last very long! I can’t wait to spin up the roving. Are you thinking: Wait? What? keep reading. You’ll see.

My parents where visiting so we went up to Farmer’s Inn in Sigel, PA. My father enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to me, many, many, many times. But thankfully he was away from the table when the waitress figured out it was my birthday and brought over 2 more waitresses to sing to me. Boy, did the kids enjoy watching that! After brunch, we went over to the petting zoo (which is bigger since we where there 2 years ago(?) and now cost $1/person over 2. Everything that used to be free now costs $1/person. *grumble* However, its easier to stroll around and is a bit bigger with more animals.)

more pictures of us at Farmers Inn on flickr here
The porcupine put on a show for us! He climbed right up the fence and back down. Srsly, I’ve never seen a porcupine move so quickly in the wild. After the petting zoo Allysa and Bryce went to the driving range with Pepe and Corra and Mema played some mini golf, while Kailey and I strolled around. After that we where done for the day, went home for naps. Later we had cake and pizza. It was a nice day. Even if Michael and my parents tortured me into thinking I wasn’t getting what I nagged asked for (I made sure he new exactly what I wanted. Often. ; ) Monday arrived, and with it arrived the hassle of getting everything ready for the 1st day of school. Something else arrived too (after UPS delivered it to the wrong house.) Wanna see?

more pictures here on flickr

a Kromski Sonata spinning wheel. Yippie! My darling Dad put it together for me, (look him all of 20 minutes if that.) he said it was mostly all put together when he got it out of the box. I spun Monday night after I got all the kids in bed, boy was it fun! And its extremely hard to stop too! I’ve been resisting spinning for about 2 years now. Resisted sitting down or touching a wheel, until I visited my parents. And (kinda) went to Egremont Days with Mom. I was good until then, we brought my Mom’s wheel and kind Tina, Michelle and Becky gave me pointers and taught me how to spin on my mom’s lendrum. Thanks Mike, Mom and Dad. Now, I just can’t wait for Rhinebeck!
PS. Thanks sis for the gift certificate, now.. if I could only make a decision.