Change of Plans

While wandering the barns and vendors of Rhinebeck (NY Sheep & Wool Festival), I spotted a woman wearing a beautiful sweater. I ran up to her, asked what it was and she told me the Oak Lane Sweater had just been released. I knew I wanted to make it. Later in the weekend I found yarn for the background at a little booth in the "up down barn" (as we refer to it). The booth was going out of business to the woman's health issues so I bought 4 beautiful skeins of her "Skippy" yarn. It's a fingering weight yarn made up of 50% Baby Doll Southdown and 50% Corriedale wool. I love it! 

Then I got home and went to buy the pattern. I looked at the project pages and paused. I absolutely love the pattern! It's a gorgeous sweater. But I started to think about the sweaters I have been wearing the most recently and I realized the all-over colorwork sweaters were the last ones I go for. I've been enjoying looser fitting sweaters (my Weekender) and cardigans like my Francesca and Quill. 

So, the hunt for a new pattern began. I ended up landing the Eaves Sweater by Kate Oates. I thought I would get a lot of wear out of it. It will take me most of the winter to knit between commissioned knits and farm store knits. It would be perfect. Then I casted on. Let me tell you, it's the weirdest construction I have ever done to start a sweater! I was ready to rip it all out and pick a new one. But I stuck with it. I'm on a roll now and onto the colorwork and I'm going to stick with it. This sweater has a bunch of new techniques for me and it will be great for our New to You MAL 2024. 

It's never a bad idea to have a change of plans if need be...

 

Hello, Holidays

And just like that, it's the holiday season.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I decorated for Christmas, enjoyed time with our middle son home from college, great meal at Homesick in Asbury Park, time with the animals, friends and family.

 

Weekend

Spent time this weekend exploring Asbury Park, prepping for holiday decorating by drying out some ruby red grapefruit, knitting this hat and this one and finished it with some Diwali treats from my friend, Lara. 

This gave me the energy to get through this very busy work week!

Life Lately...

A tragedy struck a family from our town this week and my heart breaks for them. A beautiful girl, only 18 years old was walking on a track near her dorm and was struck in the head by a stray bullet. I just learned she passed away from the injury. Jillian was an amazing musician, studying in Nashville at Belmont University. My middle son has a lot of ties to her and this is breaking all of our hearts. The poor family. It's my worst nightmare. It's senseless. You just never think something like this would happen to you. And then you see it happen to a family just like your own. I'm praying for them all. 

Life lately has been filled with work, knitting as much as I can, animals and cooking. I attempted a dutch baby for the first time. I think I overcooked it. Oops. Wasn't much of a fan. I'll go back to my eggs and toast for breakfast. I finished up another little baby sweater to sell in our farm store. It's a variation of the Panda Sweater. I made the 0-3 month sweater without the stripes. Instead and I embroidered a little bear face on the front. The pattern has you knit a cute little button tab on the back. I knew I had the perfect button for it! After digging through every button box/bag I have, I found it! Isn't it cute?

I started another little hat to sell while I enjoyed coffee with my knitting friends. I love our Monday mornings. I also started a Guthrie Hat (the brown and peach one). It's a Caitlin Hunter hat and I just finished it up. It's blocking now. I might keep it or save for a gift. Not sure yet. It was fun to knit.

I was the lucky recipient of a gift card to Brooklyn General Store. My friend gifted it to me as a thank you for some graphic design help I did for her husband's business. I felt like a kid in a candy store! I looked through the whole site and settled on two skeins. I've always wanted a skein of La Bien Aimee. It's pricey so I always drooled over it but didn't buy it. So this was the perfect time to have one of my own. I bought the Merino Sport in the Clay color way. It's beautiful! I'm going to make a hat for myself. I want to go super simple and make the Purl Soho Classic Ribbed Hat. I just want the hat to be all about the yarn and I think this is perfect. I can wear it all the time and it will match all my winter coats.

The second skein is Biches & Buches Le Petit Lambswool. It's a sheepy wool from Scotland. I've always wanted it but never bought it. My plan for this skein is to use it in the Oak Lane sweater designed by Catherine Clark (the owner of Brooklyn General). I saw the sweater on a woman in Rhinebeck and fell in love with it. I bought yarn for the background and I'm going to use bits and bobs I have in my stash for the other colorwork. I'm really excited about both of these projects. They feel very special to me.

And as always, I enjoy my walks and cuddles with my best Buddy. I love this silly dog more than I ever thought I could love a dog. The farm is looking beautiful in the fall colors. The alpacas are showing off their beautiful fleece and growing that gorgeous yarn we all love! 

The yarn is finally posted up on our  Etsy site. It's beautiful and for sale!