Rhinebeck Knitting, and a Spinning Weekend

Now, just in case you were in any doubt, I am definately not Stephanie, aka Yarn Harlot. I love her, laugh with her, and certainly share her obsession with knitting and fiber, but putting aside the fact that she's Canadian, petite, and naturally very funny (and I'm not any of those things), don't let the title of this blog entry fool you - I would not even attempt to knit a sweater in the two weeks before the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival so that I could wear it to the festival.

Nope, my Rhinebeck knitting is making a hat and fingerless gloves from my Tunis handspun for the featured breed competition. I've never entered anything at this show before, but the Tunis competition gave me a great reason to try out a breed that I hadn't used before, and I have had a lot of fun with it. The dyeing, spinning, and knitting is all done, and I thought I would block on Sunday, but once all of the ends were woven in (I din't mention that these are Fair Isle, did I?), I decided that the bind-off is too loose on one glove, so tonight I will frog the last inch or so and re-do. Pictures in a day or two.

The Rip Van Winkle spinning retreat sponsored by Countrywool on the previous weekend was great fun, and while I didn't get a lot of spinning done, I blended some beautiful sock fiber from dyed odds & ends, with dyed Dorset from the Philadelphia Zoo sheep as a base. I also had way too much fun dyeing, egged on by Claudia and Kirk to use up all of the leftover dyes. There were familar faces, and new spinning friends to meet, with spectacular fall weather and good food.
Almost the whole group is shown here, I think the pictures are a little dark because of the bright window that's in most of them.

Some of the people on the side of the room that aren't in the previous shot, except that I still missed Barbara (maybe she was dodging the camera?)

Claudia and Kirk, Claudia is spinning on her Elizabeth 2, which is a very nice wheel, and is a better "fit" for many people than the first Elizabeth.

Joanne selecting colors for blending on hand cards

Kirk carding angora from his bunny, Butterscotch.

The results of the late-Saturday dyeing experiments that Kirk and I did. He got the idea to spinkle Cushings dye powder on wetted fiber and roving, so we got some interesting results. I think these experiments might have taken place into our second beers.

Anyway, lots of pictures, and Rhinebeck items will be coming soon.