My favorite yarn is the baby alpaca… I had to go back and get another skein after I bought the first one. It is unbelievably soft… I want to live in this yarn. (as you can see from the picture on Anne Marie’s blog! haha)



Alpaca with a Twist- Baby Twist- 100% Baby Alpaca, 8.75 oz / 549 yards

Dark brown (#0294)

DK weight / 5.5 stitches per inch on #6 needles

Ohmygod- look at the cute alpacas on their site! hehehehe!! I bought this yarn at Red Maple’s booth.

Next favorite?

Everyone talks about Brooks Farm and I can understand why… I love the yarn that I bought from their stall and can’t wait to use it! Maybe a clapotis? Something that doesn’t overwhelm the deep colors…

Brooks Farm Yarn’s Primero- 100% Kid Mohair, 8 oz / 500 yards

(I can’t tell if it is the Copper River 2 or the San Marcos colorway from their website…) It looks a little more rich in person. LOVE it!!!

Next is the sock yarn, Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ Socks that Rock

(I can’t find their website)

100% Superwash Merino- lightweight

4.25 oz / 325 yards

8-10 sts/ inch on size 1 needles

left: Lagoon, right: Obsidian

I have been searching for a needle case that will fit all of my brittany needles for a really long time. They normally don’t have enough slots for all of them or they are not long enough. This case from Crippen Works just made all my dreams come true.

Plus it is super cute.

I may contact Crippen Works to see if they can make me a matching crochet hook and double point case. (next time I am allowed to buy knitting stuff- haha)

I also got a pair of tiny circulars to learn how to knit socks on them, instead of double points. Chelsea was just rolling on a sock using that method and was nice enough to show me how. I can’t wait to give it a shot!

So that’s it!

I did get two more things but I haven’t given them to their owners yet and don’t want to ruin the surprise!

So this weekend… I got some awesome yarn and met some super people but more on that in a bit.

First, the eating.

Oh the eating…

(Are Carrie, Anne Marie and Jen not the most photogenic people you can imagine? Yes, they really are that adorable in person too.)

Along with the consuming of junk food and IHOP greasy goodness, there was a good amount of driving around, illegal U-turns, and stopping at traffic lights on Rt. 9, which is quite possibly the most annoying road on the planet. There are lights every 10 ft or so.

We had to entertain ourselves by taking pictures in the car:

(Again, those girls and the cuteness! Does it ever end?)

In between the eating, we squeezed in *a bit* of knitting (and drinking) in the room and Carrie helped me and my clapotis get along better. Thanks, sweetie, for your patience!

(Cutie Lara and me)

Oh right! There also was this Sheep and Wool Festival thingy!

(Look at those sweet little girls in their ponchos and hats! I couldn’t resists snapping their picture.)

(Lara, me, Casey, Carrie, and Jen. Poor Casey’s head was going to explode from all the pictures- he’s a bit shy and not angry in that picture.)

Along with all the sweet people, there was, of course, so much beautiful yarn and cute aminals.

My favorites were the alpacas and the angora rabbits (although the bunnies seemed to be in very dirty cages- tisk tisk.)

(Look! The alpaca smiled for me!)

Fuzzy alpaca head!!

I’ll post about my purchases tomorrow- I think I may have broken people’s browsers with all these pictures! I looove my yarn so much- can’t wait to show and tell!

If you actually would like to see more photos, go here to see the rest of my Rhinebeck album!

(This weekend was brought to you by Gas-X and peanut butter m&m’s. Don’t ask.)

So is anyone else going to be at Rhinebeck??

weee!!!

The countdown has begun!

Casey did it again!! Spoiled the crap out of me.

(click to make bigger)

It is a guinea pig cake! teehee!!

(Casey and I have this thing- we giggle about the guinea pigs we had as little kids- how you put them in the grass and they don’t run away and just eat a circle of grass. See how he is eating the circle of grass? OHMYGOSH THE CUTENESS!

Also, I GOT THE BEST GIFTS EVER EVER this year!!!

I am so lucky to have such a great husband, family and friends…

Don’t worry, I won’t be able to stop myself from sharing pics of all my loot!

… if I have to watch that Glade air freshener commercial one more time, I am going to scream. Do you know the one I am talking about?

There is a deliberately decrepit old lady on a fake show, ‘Crochet Today’ and she makes a crocheted bunny cover for an air freshener.

I am not even a crocheter and I find it to be extremely insulting and not funny at all. It seems like a bad marketing strategy since who is their ad targeting? Who buys the majority of air fresheners? Women!

Do they not realize how popular knitting and crocheting is right now?

Goodbye, Vincento.

You were a good fish and will be missed.

XOXOX

Once upon a time, I knit this cool strappy tank:

I loved the yarn and the design independently but the tank was just too bulky and warm for a summer tank.

So I frogged it to make a mini-sweater/ boob-holder with sleeves instead.

I quickly realized that I was insane when I originally knit the tank because I ended up with about 20 itsy bitsy balls of yarn.

So I did what any sane person would do. Put it on my head and pouted for a while.

After I recovered, I happily began to knit my mini-sweater until I got halfway through the top part. Then I realized that I had forgot to knit the darn garter stitch border around the top. How could I have missed that? I have no idea.

Frogged it, yet again.

Then I started it up again from scratch and was happy for a little while.

Until I burned four fingers on my left hand on a pan handle. Why do they make metal pan handles?!

I cannot knit with my hand in cold water. No, I cannot.

I will have a mini-sweater. I will not give up! gah!

Maya came over this past Friday and we made a yummy potato pie. It was huge and full of cheese, heavy cream, potatoes, leeks, and parsley…

Casey, Maya and I made a pretty good dent in it. mmmm!

Forgot to take an after picture- we were too busy inhaling it.

Casey and I invaded the lovely Blue Poppy’s book signing at the Trident Bookstore on Newbury Street tonight… it was so nice to meet BP after all this time!

BP is seriously just as sweet and even more sparkly in person- and she knows a ton about this feng shui stuff! I spend the evening making up a waaay too detailed plan of our apartment to see if I can make some little improvements in our living space.

I don’t know if I did it right but I tried… any feng shui masters out there?

Her book is really great- I just started to read it a couple hours ago and it is a very approachable guide to the concept of feng shui. I, of course, had heard about feng shui before but never really looked into it because it seemed overwhelming and complicated. This book great for everyone who lives in a small space, not only for dorm rooms.

I am having fun with this and it gives me an excuse to get to those little piles of junk that I keep ignoring.

I had no idea that this book came out yesterday!

It is a good thing that I am a good girl and have obeyed the pre-birthday moratorium on book buying… otherwise I would be still sitting in store’s parking lot reading it.

For those of you who don’t know, Diana Gabaldon writes these fabulous books called the Outlander series and you should read them. They are super awesome and ridiculously addictive but in a fun kind of way. You laugh! You cry! You throw the book across the room! It is fantastic.

Everyone I have recommended this series to has loved it… give Outlander a shot. They are great books to cuddle up with as the days are getting shorter and cooler. Grab a blankie and have a loved one bring you food.

Gosh, I wish I hadn’t already read it! If only I could have selective amnesia. haha

Here are the books in order:

Outlander

Dragonfly in Amber

Voyager

Drums of Autumn

The Fiery Cross

There is also a companion book, giving us rabid fans more information:

The Outlandish Companion

Louise!! Did you see it was out?! Gee, I hope it is out in Canada. Otherwise, I am super mean.