Yarn Along: new treasures

I am still listening to Outlander and knitting away on my owls cardigan. I have finished the second sleeve and the body is well on its way. 

And since none of that is news, I wanted to share some exciting additions to my stash.  Pete recently had a long layover in Iceland and found these treasures for me there.

Six skeins of Unspun Icelandic, three skeins of Létt-Lopi, and some lovely antler buttons that compliment the Unspun Icelandic perfectly.  I love him so much!

I've been plotting a sweater that will do them justice.  Souvenir sweaters are my new obsession.  I mull over all of the possibilities endlessly.  All the places we are planning to visit, yarn that epitomizes a given location, designers that use their surroundings as inspiration, and sources for local buttons.  And if all else fails, there is so much to inspire me in my own backyard.  There will be lots of NY state sweaters in my future, I hope, complete with local buttons.

Yarn Along: Stashdiving

When packing for this trip, I went a little crazy.  I just finished a big project, so I had to quickly figure out what to make next.  I wound up bringing yarn and matching buttons for three hypothetical sweaters--one for myself and two for Lucy.  More knitting than I would ever need, but it was so reassuring to have options.

The buttons were the real inspiration.  I purchased them at a craft fair almost exactly a year ago and rediscovered them while Lucy was sorting buttons for me.  It seemed like such a shame to leave them languishing, so I hunted through my stash for complementary yarn.

I've been sitting on another treasure.  A sweater's worth of handpun that Marty, who runs the local spinner's guild, gave to me.  She hand-processed it. spun it, and then knitted it into a cabled sweater for her son, who promptly moved to Arizona.  So after several years went by, he returned it to her.  She frogged the sweater, skeined up the yarn, washed it, and swatched with it, only to discover that knitting with it aggravated her arthritis.  I have been giving a lot of thought to what it ultimately should become.  I finally settled on owls, by Kate Davies.  It will be very similar to the first sweater I ever knit, but I'm planning to steek it into a cardigan this time. My handspun owls is well on its way, with the ribbing for the body completed and an entire sleeve finished already.  With all the traveling we have planned in the coming month, I hope to keep the momentum up.  I've also been listening to Outlander, which is great for those long drives.

RHINEBECK!

I wanted to do a quick Rhinebeck recap as well.  Because Sebastian is so little, I wasn't sure if I would make it this year.  But as it turned out, taking a tiny baby there is a breeze--especially when you can leave your toddler at home and bring a sister!  Juliana wore Sebastian the entire time and I was free to wander and find a few treasures.

I vowed not to buy more sock yarn--but couldn't resist stopping by the Socks that Rock booth.  I found some fabulous polwarth roving from Blue Moon Fiber Arts there.  The colorway is so linked to Rhinebeck and this time of year in my mind.

I also picked up a couple of KNIT and SPIN bumperstickers.  Now to convince Pete that they belong on our car…

Cirilia Rose's new book is really exciting.  I can't wait to read her comprehensive essays.

And I grabbed a couple of bobbins for my ladybug.  I can't wait to try 3- and 4-plies!