Upcoming Projects

The fun part of designing is getting sent pretty yarn to work with. Although, I don't get to keep the samples, it's still a treat to knit with these colorful yarns. All of these are for upcoming projects that will be published in 2011 and 2012.

It's been raining and overcast on and off since last week. Happy Monday! Hoping these colorful yarns will bring some cheer.

Noro Silk Garden

Knit Picks Swish Worsted

Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage

I need a do over.

The day after we came back home, Melody and I woke up with a cold. Just a small annoying runny nose type cold. By the end of the week, my throat was a bit sore. Then on the next day, New Year's Day, I woke up with Laryngitis. I was not pleased to start the New Year off like this. Since then, I have been a mess. Coughing all night long from the congestion, sinus headaches from being congested, not being able to breathe through my nose when I am sleeping because of the congestion and having that deep croaking voice which no one can understand.

My beverage of choice has been lots of ginger and honey with tea or hot water. The one good thing is that I have been exploring the many varieties of honeys. The Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey above is fantastic. Though these specialty honeys are way more expensive than the standard Clover, Orange Blossom or Honey Bear Bottle honeys from the supermarket, it's nice to treat yourself when you are feeling like crap.

I have been drinking my delicious concoctions with the new mug that my sister got me for Christmas. See that Canon camera lens in the background? It's actually a mug! It even has a lens cap to keep your beverage hot. I love it. You can get a Canon or Nikon one from HERE.

Another present from my sister is the Sundara Holiday Gift Set. 3 skeins of Aran Silky Merino in the purple family. It makes me happy just to see the beautiful colors sitting on my desk. I can't help but pet it every time I walk by.

These 3 books arrived on my doorstep this morning. I can't wait to look through them. They are from my awesome friend, Jennifer, who also happens to be a top notch book editor. Boy, did these cheer me up this morning. Melody came down with a fever 3 days ago and has been extremely sick. We finally got rid of her fever and then the coughing and congestion started. She has been very sensitive and needy because she feels horrible. I haven't had much sleep due to caring for her at night because she wakes up crying from the coughing and congested sinuses. And when I do get to sleep, I cough all night. DH couldn't be immune to all of this forever and he finally complained of a sore throat the other night. Luckily, he seems to be recovering faster than any of us. Ever since I was a child, I have always had a weak immune system. So it's not surprising that I was the first one to get sick and probably will be the last one to recover.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, germ free of course.

Rhinebeck 2010

This was my 4th year going to Rhinebeck (NYS Sheep and Wool Festival) and it seems to be more fun every year. I got up at 4am and met up with my friends, Rebecca and Tomo, to share a car service to Park Slope, Brooklyn to board a bus. It was chilly, but I was so thankful for clear skies. It had been threatening to rain and I was not looking forward to walking around a outdoor festival in the rain. The ride up was beautiful and you could see the beautiful colors of Autumn.

We arrived promptly at 8:55 am and the festival opens at 9am. I was on the 1st bus and arrived a bit earlier than the 2nd bus. Can you spot Rebecca and Tomo waiting to get in the entrance?

Tomo is the one on the left shivering from the chilly breeze. Rebecca, on the right, was dressed in perfect layers.

As soon as we got in, I made a beeline for Brooks Farm. Rebecca and I made our first purchases there. We were in and out and avoided any of the crowds that would soon envelop the booth. They are a very popular vendor, so I always make that my first stop.Look at the amazing colors from nature. The Sheep and Wool Festival is such a perfect Fall activity. It wasn't all yarn shopping. I met many people there that day. People I know in real life and people from Ravelry and blogland. It was a lot of hugging and introductions through out the day. It was especially fun to spot people we have only seen online. Rebecca and I got to meet up with Craftivore! Rebecca has met her before, but this was my first time meeting her. She won a book from my blog contest and I got to hand her the prize in person. Yes, I look like a hobbit standing next to these 2.For lunch, I knew that I would be getting the Chicken Pot Pie. It's the perfect meal for the Fall weather. The line wasn't too bad, but I knew to get in line early. They always sell out every year. Once we all refueled, we ready to see the animals and the rest of the festival.Interesting sheep, no? It gave us a good laugh while we snapped away with our cameras.There was also sheep shearing. I think Melody would have loved seeing all the animals. DH said that maybe next year we could all go and make it a family event.
For my second LaReine shawl, I had knit the shawl with Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors Sock Yarn. Karin saw it on Ravelry and asked me to stop by her booth if I got a chance. Here I am wearing it and that is Karin on the right. The color is called Avocado and it's an awesome variegated green. Karin is an amazing dyer and I am in love with her Watercolors line. She gifted me 3 skeins of a Cranberry Red for my future designs. Thank you so much, Karin. I am currently swatching with it and it's knitting up beautifully. This was my Rhinebeck haul. It is not as much as I normally would buy. Don't laugh. This is the smallest amount I have bought in the last 4 years. I can't wait to start knitting with it. I think over the years, I have become more selective about what yarns I want to buy from the festival. As you can see, I did not buy any fiber this year. I have plenty at home and nothing called out to me this year.

Are you ready for another contest?

Let's get down to business first. The Random Number Generator has spoken and the lucky winner of 1000 Fabulous Knit Hats is Craftivore! Please email me at oiyi.yau(at) gmail (dot) com to give me your mailing info and I will ship the book out to you. Congratulations!

Now for another great contest! My first shawl pattern is scheduled to be released next week. I thought it would be fun to have a giveaway. I will be giving away 3 printed copies of the LaReine pattern (Ravelry link). Plus, there is more!
The original sample is knit with 1 skein of Sena from Okayknits in the colorway, Water Green. I had bought 2 just in case, so I will be giving away the second skein for the contest. Okayknits dyes her yarns in batches of 2 skeins so each color is non-repeatable and extremely limited. I love knitting with her yarns because it doesn't pool and has such depth of color. One of you lucky winners will be getting the original yarn and color!
When Jane of Okayknits heard I was going to be running this contest, she generously offered up 2 skeins of her yarns. On the left is Sawa Sawa in the colorway, Vermeer. On the right is Sena in the colorway, Sweetie Pie.
Wait, it gets better. Tomo from Tomo and Timo wanted to add some more fun to the contest by donating 3 of her awesome fabric covered tape measures. These are the cutest tape measures. She has been selling them at yarns stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan and recently opened up a etsy shop. Her tape measures are also featured in this month's issue of Crochet Today.
There will be 3 winners. Each winner will receive a printed copy of my pattern, one skein of yarn and one tape measure. The one skein of yarn will be enough for you to make my shawl. When I announce the winners, it will be first come first serve for the choice of the yarn color. Whoever emails me first, will get first pick.

To enter the contest, please leave a comment on this blog post by Oct 13, 2010 (12am EST). Anyone may enter, even if you are outside of the USA.

I want to try something different this time. I am offering more chances to win this contest. How? You can increase your chances by blogging about my contest on your blog and link back to this post. For those of you that have Twitter accounts, tweet about it and link back. Even Facebook! Post my contest/link on your status update. And let's not forget about Flickr.

So, you can enter this contest up to 5 times. For each type of entry, please leave a separate comment. For example, if you blog about my contest, please leave another comment with your link. If you tweet about it, leave another comment with a link. For Facebook, it will be an honor system since I can't exactly friend everyone on my personal account. But leave another comment that you wrote about it on Facebook.

Good Luck!

ArtFibers Yarn Tasting

Last Sunday, my local knitting group hosted the ArtFibers Yarn Tasting at Moe's, a bar in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Sarah and Zawadi were the ones that arranged the whole thing with ArtFibers, so a huge thanks goes out to them for their hard work.The limit was 25 people, so the spots were first opened to our knitting group, and then to the rest of NYC. Zawadi posted all over Ravelry in the Brooklyn Groups and NYC Groups to let people know about this event. It was a free and a great opportunity to try out the yarns from ArtFibers.So, for 4 hours, we got to knit or crochet swatches with the ArtFiber's yarns. Each card was labeled with how much yarn to unwind and how many stitches and needle size to make a swatch. After the event, we are given a discount code (15%) to buy the yarns that we like from the ArtFiber's website.The beautiful yarns were overwhelming. The colors, textures and combination of fibers were a delight to behold and to touch.Here is Wanett knitting away on her swatches.And this is Wanett's swatches in progress.
Someone even brought their Weavette Loom to make a woven swatch.
Lissa, who is a crocheter in our group, made crochet swatches. I loved the way they turned out.
This is Sarah's beautiful swatches. It looks like it could be a beautiful knitted wall hanging.
These are the swatches I knitted up while sipping on a Mango Martini. As soon as I find the pattern to go with the yarn I chose, I will be placing my order. I can't wait!!
I had a lot fun and would totally recommend other knitting groups to give this a try. The event was 4 hours, but I could have knitted for another few hours. I also thought it was a eye opening experience. There were some yarns that I didn't think I would like based on the texture or colors and I ended up loving it after I knitted a swatch. It also helped to see what others were knitting with because I was quite surprised at what the knitted fabric look liked as opposed to the yarn sitting on the card. Yes, the adage about "not judging a book by it's cover" definitely holds true to yarn also.

Shopping for her.

The plan was to buy sandals or Summer shoes for the whole family this past weekend. Melody ended up getting 4 pairs of shoes and DH and I got none. Children have very little patience for shopping, so our time was limited before she had a melt down. She is 15 months old now and up to now, she only had 2 pairs of shoes. They were more decorative than useful and I was always sick of looking for a lost shoe because she would kick them off while we were out. She never really needed any because she didn't walk. But now that she does, she has worn out the one pair she wears at the play ground everyday, Bobux soft soled baby shoe. The Bobux shoes helped her transition from walking bare foot to walking with shoes.I wasn't crazy about the selection of girl shoes. It was either all white or white and pink. The navy pair on the top right corner is actually from the boys department. They had a nice thick rubber sole and were very cushy. The white ones will be worn with her Summer dresses and the green ones are for the beach and sprinklers at the play ground. The pink and tan ones I am holding were extra because I couldn't resist them and it was the only pair that didn't have an open toe.Today, she took the Navy ones out for a test run. She had some trouble adjusting at first and stumbled a few times. But she was soon off and running around in them.Her whole outfit today was brand new. I also purchased 3 pairs of shorts because she doesn't have any. I am a practical parent and won't buy something until she needs them. That t-shirt is from her Auntie Jo. My sister had sent her a care package a few weeks ago and she had so much fun opening everything. The t-shirt says, "Don't look at me...that smell is coming from Daddy!". She is looking less like a baby everyday. I see her everyday, but the transformation is still shocking to me. It's her first tooth brush! She has most of her teeth now and we figured we need to start getting her use to the idea of brushing her teeth. We thought she would put up a fight, but she was really receptive to it and was fascinated with getting to hold the tooth brush afterwards. Since the first try on Sunday, I have been brushing a little twice a day with water to get her use to it.
These are the only items I got for myself on Sunday. When she started throwing these balls of crochet thread out of the cart, I knew it was time to leave. I never thought that I would try to crochet with thread, but my friend, Rebecca, lent me Lacy Crochet and I want to try some of the projects. I can't wait to start.

Why is my wallet empty?

Wow, the weather up there is totally different than New York City. It was so cold! When I got off the train on Friday night, I realized that I didn't dress warm enough. My friend did warn me ahead of time that she was not going to turn on the heat. She is running low on oil and is thinking of switching over to Gas Heat, so she was still waiting to decide on what to do. I asked her for a bunch of blankets.We got to Rhinebeck at 9:30am, half an hour after they opened. It takes about 45min - 1 hour to get there from my friend's house in Beacon. The ride up was beautiful. You can definitely see that Fall is here from all the beautiful colors of the leaves. The above photo is the only photo of Rhinebeck I took before the shopping commenced. I took one or two more of the vendors booth, but after that I forgot all about it. I think that all the wooly goodness just puts a trance over you. It got pretty overwhelming with the crowds and just the size of the place.

After I bought my ticket, I looked up and saw someone with a blue hat walk by. It was Julie, so I called out to her and introduced myself. She had told me that she was going to be wearing that hat and we had exchanged cell phone numbers in case we had time to meet. I didn't expect to see her so early, but I am glad that I did since I didn't end up having anytime for meeting anyone. We were only able to talk briefly before we parted ways to make a beeline for certain booths that sell out fast. My two friends that I was with was making a beeline for a booth that they bought from last year, so I had to follow them. It was only 9:30am, and the line to pay was so long already.
I am glad that I made it to the Brooks Farm booth before noon, the booth was mobbed already. This is where I spent the bulk of my money and it was so worth it. A lot of colors were already going fast. Some only had one skein left. My friend and I waded in and tried to reach through people to get what we wanted. The problem is that the line to pay is also inside the booth, so there is not enough room for the people that are shopping and the people that want to pay. Luckily, us knitters are pretty nice people, so no one minded. The above two skeins is Brooks Farm "Solo" in a beautiful variegated greens.Brooks Farm "Solo" in reds, brown and orange.Brooks Farm "Solo Silk", 50% wool/50% silk in purples.And my favorite, Brooks Farm "Solana" in greens. This yarn is super wash and is super soft.Down-Under Wool Yarn in blues, 100% wool.Shelridge Farm is another must see booth. The yarn on top is W4 100% wool, worsted weight, color: cranberry. On the left is Soft Touch Heather, fingering weight, color: Sand. On the right is Soft Touch DKW, 100% wool, dk weight, color: Natural White.I wanted a pair of thrummed mittens for a while now, and I knew that they had kits at the festival. In this booth where I bought the kit, I also ran into my sewing teacher, Cassandra from Purl Patchwork, trying out drop spindles. I then proceeded to ask her for her opinion on spinning wheels. She basically gave me a testimonial to the brand of wheel that I had in mind.This is some rayon chenille that I plan on making a blanket with. I only bought it because it was cheap and the sample blanket was so soft.On the left is called Mystery Bump from Still River Mill. The mystery is that a bunch of different fibers are carded together and the colors may be different inside. It's mostly alpaca. The green ball on the right is Corriedale, 8oz. Don't let the pics deceive you. They are huge!The braids are from Cloverleaf Farms and they are all Merino Top, very soft. And the bag of white is fiber is Cormo & Silk Roving from Foxfire Fiber. These are so pretty. I want to hang them up as decorations.

You may wonder why I bought so much fiber when I clearly don't spin. DH offered to buy me a wheel for Christmas this year and how could I say no? I thought I was going to buy my wheel at Rhinebeck, but no one had the one I wanted in stock. They all offered to drop ship it to me from New Zealand. I saw a lot of wheels and tried 3. One vendor had the one I wanted as a floor model already assembled. I tried out that wheel and noticed two nicks on top. There was no way I wanted to pay full price on a floor model with nicks on it.This pic was also taken before the Yarn Coma set in. I saw these cute Fair Isle hats at one booth and wanted to get one for Melody. My friend insisted on buying it for Melody, but she let me pick the one I wanted.She actually has a pretty big head, but she is petite in body size. I knew the 1yr old size would fit her right now, but wanted something she could wear for a while. I picked out the 2yr old size. It's too big, but at least she can grow into it.

Rhinebeck is so much fun and I am glad that I went. There were lots of cute animals to see there. The Alpacas and Llamas were adorable. I only went on Saturday, 9:30am until 6pm, but enough damage had been done to my wallet in one day's time. My friend didn't want to go on Sunday because she knows she will blow her budget on the second day and she has no will power. She needs to convert her house from oil to gas and that is going to cost anywhere from $5,000 to $7,000. So, in order to save her from over spending, I told her I was not going to go on Sunday and made her buy the one day pass. She would go if I did and I probably would have bought more, too. Knitters are enablers so it's best to avoid the temptation all together by not going the second day.

With the traffic from the festival, we left at 6pm and didn't get back to Beacon until 7:30pm. DH and Melody drove up to pick me up and they were already waiting at my friend's house. We hung around for a bit and then drove home. It took us another 1 1/2 hours to get back to Brooklyn. I was so tired on Sunday, I could barely get up.