Warm hands, warm heads, warm hearts

Barbara was planning on making a scarf with this fingering weight yarn but it turned out to be too narrow and so "Plan B" has been initiated and it will be a headband instead. It will be lovely with those cables.

Today was a bit nippy out so she wore her hand knit cowl. I don't know about you but I love when the weather turns cold and I get the chance to wear all my shawls and scarves I've knitted over the years.

 Kathleen was absent the last three weeks so she brought many items that she finished over that time. She just kept pulling things out of her magic bag!

 First up was a warm woolen vest.

 These mittens will go into inventory for our future donations as they are probably too small for our current needs. 

 I like how the yarn makes a pattern on these matching woolies.

 These mittens will be just right for the ladies at the homeless shelter.

 Love that April Showers scarf.

 One of Kathleen's daughters gave her a set of light up knitting needles. I guess they come in handy if you have a knitting emergency when you're at the movie theater!

 We were busy bees tonight too.

 Maureen's cowl is very pretty with the two tone pattern.

 Beth showed us her Hanne Falkenberg sweater that she made from a kit. She said it took a year to make but when you take into account how many other things she knitted that year too it most surely didn't take the whole year.

 The sweater uses three colors of yarn held together for some rows and used singly for others to make this interesting texture. It's really pretty!

 Carole's scarf is growing longer while her cabled cowl awaits a quiet time so she can kitchener stitch the ends together.

 And Beth's scarf is progressing nicely too.

 I'm in the home stretch of my scarf also. There isn't much yarn left so it should be done by next week.

 I started a cabled cowl also. This has a provisional cast on so I can kitchener stitch it closed when it's long enough. Depending on how bored I get with it, that might be sooner than later! LOL!

But it has just enough going on in the pattern to hold my interest for now. And it's easy to knit when I'm a car passenger. 

Well, it's not too late so I think I'll get back to the striped scarf so I can finish it off before next week. Keep your needles clicking!

Latest Project Finished

There was a mysterious skein of pretty turquoise wool in my stash and I have been waiting for the perfect pattern to cross my tracks for it's use. I recently came across the Cashmere Neck Warmer from 101 Luxury Yarn One Skein Wonders and the two ideas came together. It worked up so quickly that it took two days to make the first one and there was enough yarn to make another which I finished in one day.

The second neck warmer, which will be donated, will have buttons instead of a scarf pin, but I haven't picked them out yet.

If you like this pattern, you can find it as a free download on www.ravelry.com listed as Cashmere Neck Warmer by Sarah Keller published in Knot Another Hat and 101 Luxury One Skein Wonders. Enjoy!

Interview with the artist

Here is Kathleen with one of her knitted gems.

And here is the Blue Ribbon Winner!
If you look a couple of posts back you will see the one about Kathleen winning a blue ribbon for her hooked rug at the Newtown Hooked Rug Show in Connecticut. I asked her about the work that went into making one of these beauties and was surprised at the answer. It was quite the undertaking, not at all like going to the craft store and choosing a canvas and the cut pieces of wool in the colors you need.

Kathleen took lessons from Anna Walsh of Delmar, New York back in the 1950's while she was also raising five young children. She took advantage of afternoon nap time to work on at least five different Currier and Ives still life designs. She said someone would draw the design outline in black on burlap and then the canvas had to be tied with old nylon stockings onto a wooden frame, which Kathleen's husband, Tom, made for her. Then the real work began. Kathleen took old clothing and cooked it on the stovetop in Tide detergent to remove all the color. She said the whole house would smell like cooked laundry! Then she had to use a special kind of dye and make the color swatches she knew she would need to color, shade and highlight the subject of her hooked painting. Those swatches became the pallet to which Kathleen referred when dyeing for the actual rug. When she finished dyeing the fabric , she then had to run it through a device with cutting wheels of different widths to get the desired width strips for hooking. It took Kathleen about three months to complete her Blue Ribbon Masterpiece.

Before her husband retired, he had one of her art pieces hanging on the wall of his office. Her children and her sister have some also. One time, Kathleen's daughter, Pat, was browsing through an estate sale and found a print of one of the rugs Kathleen had hooked. So as a surprise gift to her, Pat had it framed and Kathleen still has it with the rug.

We should have known that Kathleen would win a Blue Ribbon. She won first prize for an art project all the way back in 5th grade while growing up in Kansas. Kathleen we would love you even if you didn't win a Blue Ribbon. That just puts the icing on the cake!

Feel the Fiber, Smell the Fiber, BE the Fiber...

It was a glorious day at the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, New York. The air was crisp and cold, the sunshine was warm. Elaine, her friend Jill, and I arrived at 8:45AM before the all traffic jams.

We pushed on, head first, into the wonderful world of colors and textures.
Elaine and Jill were absolutely giddy with delight at the prospect of all the selections.
My first purchase was a cute little angular scarf pattern. I was trying to start out with some restraint. HA! That didn't last long!
We saw cuddly soft baby alpacas...
regal llamas....
the sweetest little sheep...
cutest little lambs....
and the most beautiful colors of all were from Mother Nature herself.
We stopped in to say hi to Karin as she worked the Sliver Moon booth. She's on the left advising a customer on some yarn selections.
The rovings were dyed with breathtaking colors. If I were a spinner I could easily be tempted.
Some of the ready made garments were spectacular too.
I was sidetracked watching the spinners working their delicate craft.
And saw a mother/daughter team trying out some modern looking wheels. Start them young!
The live entertainment by a Peruvian Pipe band was a perfect compliment to the excitement in the air.
We stopped for lunch of delicious pot pies and lamb sandwiches. But this wasn't it! LOL! Someone was dyeing wool with all natural ingredients.
The talent overflowed everywhere as can be seen here in these hand felted blossoms.
Handmade baskets were everywhere too. I had a hard time walking away from this booth.
We stopped for a moment to admire the babbling brook, which even at the end of the growing season still looked beautiful and inviting.
And I have no words appropriate to give justice to the beauty of this gossamer lace shawl.
By 12:30PM we had seen all there was to see, touched all the fiber our hands could handle, and admired some of the most beautiful handmade sweaters, shawls and scarves that fellow knitters wore to the celebration. It was time to go home, although the pull was strong to stay a little while longer. There is something special about the art of creating. It brings the best out in people. And the Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck is the best!