Gansey in the snow

Published on Sunday December 4th, 2005

When I promised pictures of my father’s sweater this weekend, little did I know I’d be taking them in two and a half inches of new snow. I’ve given up trying to photograph this yarn indoors, and this was all the natural light that was on offer today. But you can see I’ve completed the back. And I’m happy to report I’m more than halfway up the tree motif on the front now, too. Here’s a closer shot that better shows the design:

The goal is to finish the body and start on the sleeves before the week is out. Of course, that means I have to dream up and chart the sleeve pattern.

So, a quiet day of knitting and watching Horatio Hornblower. I hope it snows again tomorrow. The weather people can grouse about “nuisance snow” as much as they please, but new-fallen snow will always hold a sense of magic for me. It gives me a shiver of delight when I wake up to see the landscape…um, cityscape…transformed.

There was certainly no sign of snow last night when I stumbled in late after the Spiders holiday extravaganza, lavishly hosted by Amanda and Katie. Those girls know how to lay out a spread, let me tell you. They made filo samosas, sweet potato puffs, baked brie with mushrooms, spanikopita, umpteen dips, and let’s not gloss over the truffles and the fudge, nor the signature Spiders cocktail. I foolishly failed to photograph any of ones I drank, but here’s a screwdriver with a spidey twist:

And the gifts we exchanged:

The Spider version of a gift exchange is pretty polite compared to some I’ve attended. I was only robbed twice. Lisa took some yummy Christmas-colored Manos, and Veronique boosted my seafoam Lobster Pot. But I went home happy with a nice score of Australian handpainted laceweight in purples, blues, and teals, and some snazzy stitch markers from Zephyr Knit. (Amanda, you’ll have to tell me the website again – I googled it and couldn’t find it!) A merry time was had by all, including the significant others, who found plenty of common ground in discussing our depravities and founding the Fraternal Order of International Non-Knitters (FOINK), or to be more PC since not all the members are gentlemen, OINK.

20 days and counting. Happy Frenzied Holiday Knitting, everyone!

Festivities

Published on Tuesday November 15th, 2005

Ah, nothing better on a Saturday night than a shindig with your knitting girl buddies. Stephanie has a sweet pad, a godlike cooking husband, and a mean hand with a martini shaker:

And a pomegranate-blueberry martini looks mighty nice with a ball of Socks That Rock in “Jewel of the Nile”, we all agreed. Here’s a peek at a few of the attending Spidies:

Veronique showed off her beautiful Mystery Shawl. We were duly impressed…

…some of us so much so that we pounced on her Merino Oro leftovers during the subsequent yarn swap:

There’s a fir cone lace shawl in Wrap Style that’ll be perfect for this lovely stuff. And can you identify the background in the photo above? Yes, it’s one fifth of Cozy – one ball of interesting nubbly School Products cashmere down, four to go!

Apologies, again, for the delay in the posts. I’m pestering the host guys about it. I have learned the following: my server is named Grizabella. I find this rather adorable. Let’s all send Grizabella some chicken soup and alpaca yarn (knitters’ penicillin?), since she’s obviously a little under the weather. While I wait for her to recover, I’ve reduced the number of posts on the front page to six in the hopes that it will help the site load faster. Check the archives in the sidebar for older content.

Rhinebeck booty

Published on Monday October 17th, 2005

I had high expectations for Rhinebeck. It surpassed them. It was glorious. There were sheep

puppies

sheep dog trials (yes, that’s a Border Collie, a handler, and three sheep in the distance)

featuring Joy and Amanda

and plenty of yarn.

Let’s take a closer look at the haul:

This glut includes three 500 yard skeins of Brooks Farms “Duet”, which is single ply of the world’s silkiest mohair and one of wool twizzled around each other, and three skeins of Blue Moon Socks That Rock. This picture also shows off my snazzy new leopard-print galoshes, which weren’t needed at all because the weather turned out to be gorgeous. But they made me easier to spot in the crowd and drew several compliments – one gentleman told me I ought to be in Vogue magazine. I hope he meant Vogue Knitting. Not pictured here is a luscious skein of Maple Creek DK weight silk/merino that came home with me, and seven skeins of Morehouse Merino 2-ply in “Sienna”, a pumpkin orange, for a husband sweater. O bountiful day. O meager bank account. It’s a good thing Rhinebeck is only once a year. Send a yarn swift!

Rhinebeck bound

Published on Saturday October 15th, 2005

The day has finally arrived, and despite the many posts of New York bloggers confessing utter depression at the recent weather and reduced enthusiasm for Rhinebeck, I feel like a kid on the first day of the fair. Maybe it’s because it’s my first time. Maybe it’s because I love me some sheep dog trials, rain or shine. Maybe it’s because I’m a Pacific Northwest baby and weather like this pretty much rolls right off me, no pun intended. Or maybe it’s because I acquired leopard-print rubber rain boots last night in a perfect little instance of kismet and I’m childishly excited to go slop around in the mud with them.

Anyway, Apricot Jacket and I are bundling our high spirits into Joy’s car an hour from now and merrily driving upstate. There was frantic Lightning seaming last night, as I’d hoped to debut her there. But ultimately I didn’t want to rush the collar, and 65 degree weather isn’t really conducive to bulky-weight alpaca blends. So Apricot Jacket, which layers better, is getting the nod. See some of you there!