Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool festival!

This weekend, Jason, Ed, Jean, and I went to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool festival (one of the biggest festivals in the USA for all things fiber related)! There was sheep shearing demonstrations, sheep hearding demos, llamas and alpacas on parade, an assortment of delicious foods to sample (as well as a hefty done of wine and sweets), and of course, anything you could possibly need for spinning, weaving, felting, or knitting! Here are a few quick snaps from my phone, I'm sure Ed has a lot better stuff (he was taking photos while I was elbows deep in alpaca fleece... we all have our priorities!)

The fall colours on the Hudson river valley were amazing! It sounds like we hit the peak week!

There were tons of beautiful fleeces from all sorts of wooly animals (mostly sheep, llama and alpacas, but there was also goat and bunny fiber!) I got a little overwhelmed and dropped some money on a stunning charcoal baby alpaca fleece (not pictured, I'm silly) and then took it to someone who would wash and card it for me, since I don't have the hardware.

 

I grabbed my friend Natalie a Shark (T)Sock kit! Lisa makes awesome stuff (check it out), and was almost as excited to see me as I was to see her :D

 

 

I also saw the brilliant Jennifer of Holiday Yarns! I suck because I didn't get a picture, but I snagged some beautiful yarn from here (Her stuff can be acquired here)
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I also bought a little bag of merino! It was soft like butter!

 

 

 Mmmmmm merino! Just kidding, it was maple cotton candy (no corn syrup, yay!)!

 

No Rowan, don't eat the fiber!!!!!

 We petted some curly baby goats

 

 And some sheep

 

 

And some llamas and alpacas! 

 

All in all, a great time was had by all (although the crazy knitter in me wanted to go for a second day) ;) 

Smilodon socks

I'm knitting some socks with kitty paw prints on them!

Pattern now available!

Seems like it's been a while....

So as a lot of you probably know, things have been pretty busy for me (Rowan) lately... I have been working on finishing my doctoral dissertation (a 350+ page document of all my research from the last 5 years of my life), finding a postdoctoral research position (success!), and just in general trying to stay sane.

So far, my sanity has been preserved by distractions from work. Jason has been fabulous and we recently had a visit from the Vissers, which was a nice mental break. But still, one needs a daily relaxing ritual to soothe the soul... for me this took the form of simple knitting.... nothing too fancy, straight, plain, oatmeal-in-a-plain-bowl-type knitting, and for some reason my brain decided we needed some exciting colour in there to counted the pages and pages of text and PhD results.

And so.... over the last month or so I have produced two very large shawls that I think are lovely... and huge.... and colourful... but really, apart from the whole rainbow thing... quite plain. No lace, no sewing, no buttons, just straight knit and purl. And they are delicious!

The first I call my Swaley Cross Stratification Shawl (NERD!). The genius of this is a lovely pattern by Veera Välimäki called Color Affection, and in my braindeadness,  I followed the pattern (almost) word for word.

The second I call Stained Glass and is based off of the lovely Daybreak shawl by Stephen West. I made this using some awesome rainbow mini-skeins from Thee Irish Girls, a great group of Indie Dyers and designers!

And now for something completely different....

Well ok, it's still crazy colourful but at least it's socks instead of another shawl!

P.S. Photos are from my great new Nikon AW100 which I love! So far this little guy is amazing!

Resolutions

So one of my resolutions for 2012 (which is not really anything to do with the New Year... more to do with knowing that I will be moving soon and needing to get my affairs in order) is to finish up some project.... So finishing up I have! Both of these have been WIPs (Works in Progress) for more than 6 months and this weekend I finished them!

Cleopatra Tsocks
Complete with headress, asp, and papyrus! These will go to Branwen for luck on midterms

 

Amiga, a very lightweight sweater for me

Oh and I am learning how to spin on a drop spindle :)

Check out my hooters!

Check out my hooters!

The Owls sweater by Kate Davis.... great fun and a very fast knit!

More stuff on Etsy

Many new scarves and shawls on my etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/mountainash

Austrian Knitting

Because it's not just all fossils in Austria! I have also been doing some knitting/designing while I'm in Austria. 

I'm knitting/designing some traditional Austrian Stützen (tall socks). They are knit in green because all Gosau (the place where I am working) socks are green (The colours denote where the wearer is from)!

The stitch patterns all reflect aspects of my thesis such as the sponges on the front or the corals on the side :) More info later when I have the pattern/socks finished!

I have also been knitting a shawl with some awesome yarn I found in Germany! I am extremely lucky to be one of the few PhD students that get to pick the area where I want to do my field work. For two summers now I have spent ~3 weeks in the small town of Gosau in the Austrian Alps. Everyday, on the way to my field site I pass by the beautiful glacial lake, Gosausee. When I saw this yarn, my mind lept to the beautiful colours of the lake and I knew I wanted a simple shawl that I could knit on the evenings with a simple watery pattern. 

An so now I am please to introduce The GOSAUSEE SHAWL

Christmas in July

While it isn't quite Christmas in July, I have a new pattern for sale... because Winter is coming! ;)

The pattern is for colourwork mittens and is called Snowflakes in Starry Skies, for sale HERE on ravelry.

Night Fury

My good friend Jen (aka the yarn fairy) is a dyer of fabulous yarns and wool rovings! She is the force behind Holiday Yarns, and as a flair for coupling beautiful yarn and funky patterns into fun little kits (yarns and patterns paired together to make awesomer stuff)! While her steampunk socks, Romulan shawl, and stellar (literally) clubs are all glorious, I'd like to introduce you to the youngest member of the Holiday yarn kits.... The pairing of Jen's Nightfury yarn with my Hiccup sock pattern.

This colourway and pattern were inspired by the eye of the Nightfury dragon "Toothless" from the movie "How to Train your Dragon". I loved the brief flashes of color that this dyeing process produced and so I wanted to emphasize the color flash as much as possible without covering it up. I love this pattern because it is really easy to remember and it is a great “first sock” pattern even if you have never knitted a sock before, the photos and descriptions should make it a little easier. 

This pattern is free when you purchase a skein of the NightFury yarn. :D

Life imitating Art

So as Jason and I were trekking around Joshua Tree, I was knitting on my Margarita socks, (lime green socks with a Saguaro cactus, lime slices, and a salty rim. Well, as we were enjoying the weekend, life began imitating art!

Photos of the Joshua Tree trip coming soon!