First I want to mention that I made a “Grand Opening” colorway. This colorway is going to be available at the shop on November 3rd and 4th (I hope I’ve made enough) and then it will be available online to order. Once the Grand Opening days are done, the colorway will be no more. Do you want to see what it is?

It’s Wool blend in Navajo ply. I have big stripes and no idea what I’m going to make with it. Mittens? socks? Hat?

Now, the rest is only at the shop:
Books are 20% off
Handpainted Fiber and yarns are 20% (not incl., already discounted items)
All Wheels and Looms (over $150) come with a gift certificate (the wheels still have the usual free fiber with them)
All in stock Louet wheels are on sale.
Spindles - spend $50 get a gift certificate.
Knitting Bags are 20% off

There are new products too - Books and magazines from Interweave, Soak wool wash, Meadows wool wash, Locks all washed and ready for you to work your magic. I’ll also have a listing of the classes too. Here is what the CVM looks like drying:

So if you can make it, it’s worth it. There will be munchies and you are all welcome to come and sit and knit or spin or weave. There are more than 10 wheels set up and 3 looms all warped and ready for you to try out. I’ve left Hyacinth, the Jensen and the new old chair wheel at the shop to play with for this weekend, then at least Hyacinth is coming home.

Don’t fret there will be something special for everyone on the web too. I’ll be posting those next week when we’re closer to the update.

**edit - it would probably be good to tell you the hours. These are special hours for the Grand Opening only: Saturday we’re open 10-5 Sunday it will be 10-4.

**edit again - Because Norma demanded suggested, I wanted to post the address. You can get all the info HERE including directions.

This is one of the meals that Dad really liked and wanted me to make sure that you had the recipe for. My Mom was away doing shows for a few weeks and so we’d have my Dad over for a few meals. I cook lots of mushrooms which Dad likes.

Stuffed Mushrooms (or Pork Chops if you like thos things)
Makes 4 Large Portabella caps or 2 caps and 3 chops.

Stuffing
1 large onion
8 ounces of Baby Bella’s cut up
Lots of Garlic
1.5 tsp of Rosemary (I put mine through the grinder but you can just crush it)
3 cups of cubed stale bread
4-6 ounces of Vegetable stock (you can do this with apple juice but it makes it a little too sweet for me)

Saute the onion with the garlic and the mushrooms - When they’ve cooked down, add in the Rosemary and the stock. Then add in the bread. Mix it all up well. I then transfer this to a bowl and I steam the large portabella mushroom caps to soften them up. The cooking time will be lessened if you do that.

I lay out the caps (and chops) then add the stuffing on to the top. So nothing is actually stuffed, more like the stuff is flopped on it. Then bake at 375 until the top is crispy and everything is cooked through.

On to knitting content.
I finished these last week but I don’t think I mentioned anything.

The pink is Alpaca and the turquoise is BFL. The yarn wasn’t spun with socks in mind so they definitely won’t be the hard wearing kind but more of the laze around the house and do nothing kind…. Which I rarely get to do so what will mostly happen with them is that they’ll sit here for a while waiting for the right day. The right day will be the day I can’t stand not wearing them anymore. They’ll wear out eventually and I’ll be ok with it. They were a quick knit and they do feel luxurious on.

Ellen tagged me for the 8 random things meme. I did do this a ways back so I’m just going to link to that now. There couldn’t really be 16 odd thing about me that I could fill it out again???

I’m working on getting ready for the Grand Opening party stuff. I’ll announce all the good stuff soon.

Now with wheels!

But, first I want to give a big shout out to the husbeast. Without him I would not have been at Rhinebeck. He spent the weekend still ill from the cold we caught and he was managed to keep himself, the 2 kids and the dog alive. Not just alive though, they all seemed pretty happy. I think this means I can do this again. ahh the sweet failure of success.

I know it seems late to be finally making a wrap up, but I’m getting out club shipments and I didn’t have photos of the wheels and other goodies. I do now. The wheel I want to introduce you to first is Miss Hyacinth. She has nothing to do with Rhinebeck. I thought buying her would stop a Rhinebeck wheel purchase but I was wrong. She is my most favoritest wheel.

She was taken completely apart then stained, waxed, and oiled all over. I put her back together before I left for Rhinebeck even though she wasn’t completely done. I put the final coats of finishe on her just before leaving. This wheel just purrs when it’s used. It’s a dream to spin on. If you can’t remember what she looked like when I got her you can click HERE. If you ever have a chance to get one of these, do it!

The Tripe Picker. I picked this one up used from another Ravelry member early on Saturday Morning. If you do a lot of fleece, you NEED one of these. Holy cow is it making my life easier. I didn’t know just how much I’d appreciate it. Now I don’t know how I lived without it.

The rest of the day at Rhinebeck is a little blurry. I felt like everything was just wooshing by. I saw so many people I hadn’t met before and got to see many people that I knew and really wanted to see. If I tried to name you all, I’d forget someone and then I’d feel really bad. So I’m just going to say that all of you that I knew and saw again, it was awesome seeing you. All of those that I met for the first time, it was so good to meet you, I really enjoyed talking to you all. I hope I get to see each of you again soon. You all are coming up for SPA in February right?

The first equipment purchases at Rhinebeck were these little guys:

The spindle is a little Purpleheart guy from Golding Spindle and the Lucet is also Purpleheart and is from The Lucette Lady. I had such a hard time picking each of these and didn’t exactly have Purpleheart in mind for either. I didn’t even realize until I took the photo that I even managed to pick both of them up in the same wood.

The next purchase started earlier in the day with a little help from Deb. Sweet Ella stood with me in the long long fleece line (we got their first so you can imagine we had to wait longer than anyone). Then there was the mad dash inside. I ended up with 6 fleeces out of the 8 that I had originally chose. It’s ok, the 6 I got are luscious and I’ll make up for the other 2 when I hit up the farms in Maine for more fleece in a few weeks. There was the little BFL, the Black Romney, the Blue Lamb’s fleece, the CVM, the Black Wennsleydale that had one second place, and finally the one that everyone drooled over (Adrian, you had your chance), the first place CVM. If you want to know what CVM is, click HERE.

I know some of you are wondering what I’m going to do with the tonnage of fleece I’ve acquired this year. Well, I’ve gone through 2 Romneys, 1 Border Leicester, the BFL and I’m working on a CVM today. (that leaves only 9 fleeces to go) I’ll have the washed and dyed locks in the shop. There is no way I’ll use it all and I had planned on making it all into batts. I’ve lately had requests for washed and dyed locks. So it will all get washed and dyed, if you don’t get to it first, I’ll make it into batts.

The shopping didn’t stop there. On the ‘high’ from the batt purchase I found myself in front of the Philosopher’s wool booth. I’d always wanted a kit of theirs. No special reason, I just have always wanted one. I almost ordered one to have it shipped and then on the advice of Ella that it would clash with my hair (we can’t have that), I went for this one:

I’ve been able to resist winding so far, I have to finish a couple of things and then it will be on the needles.

Then the next thing I knew I was talking to Sheila who is my wheel hero. And we both walked over to the Merlin Tree booth together talking about the 2 cousin chair wheels he had sitting there. She wanted one, I wanted the other. And through a little buzzing and thinking, we both told him to hold the wheels for us.

This wheel wasn’t entirely a surprise (I played with her in VT and I knew I liked her). She’ll be living at the shop for now. The speed with which she spins, makes me giggle like a little school boy. The only wheel that would have been better would have been one of the pendulum wheels. Oh my did those make my heart flutter. That wheel however is a space suck and unless I build an addition onto the house, I won’t be getting one.

Just before I picked up the wheel I stopped at Foxhill Farm. I love Alice’s stuff and Alice. I first picked up 2 fleeces from her at Cummington Sheep and wool. After going through half of one of them, I realized that I would be getting many many more fleeces from Alice. She was next door to me at VT sheep and wool but I didn’t get a chance to purchase anything. I figured I needed something to spin on the new wheel so I got these:

Each is 4 ounces. One is all Cormo and the other is Cormo and Alpaca. Luscious stuff. If you ever see Alice at a show, you need to get something.

I never did get to spin because I went to the awesome Ravelry party. I don’t think I’ve ever been to an event like that. I remember years ago talking to Jess on another online board about this idea she had. I had no comprehension of what was to come. I’m glad she followed through and Ravelry is succeeding beyond anyone’s imagination.

I think that’s it. I did haul home quite the car full of stuff. But really the memories are worth far more than if I had completely emptied my personal and business bank accounts getting loot. To everyone I went with, to all my friends and to all that I met, and to husbeast for taking care of the girls so I could do this - THANK YOU for a great fibery fun weekend.

Oh, and if you want more photos there are some great ones on Purlewe’s Flickr.

By Clara Parkes of Knitter’s Review fame.

I’ve been trying to think of what I can write that will give this book justice. I’m not sure that I write well enough to really explain the love I feel for this book. Yes, I had a tiny part in the designing of a few things and that does certainly make it special but it is a wonderful book even if my designs were not there. The book had passed around to all the family and I was putting it onto the bookshelf for safe keeping (If I leave books out that I’m reading they often become coasters and that’s not a good thing). Anyway, as I put it on the bookshelf I was thinking this is my most prized book, and I have several OOP gems.

There have been other fantastic reports on this book
Crafting Jen
Adrian who has 2 awesome designs in there.
And Clara’s thoughts on THE Book

The book really is a gift to all knitters. It’s so well thought out and has so much information. I’m reading through it but it’s going to be one of those books that you can read several times and get more out of each time. It’s got invaluable information on yarn choices. In the patterns sections it gives you examples of patterns for the yarns you have.

The designs are fantastic too. Clara put together an amazing group of designers for her book. Of which, I’m humble to have been one of them. There were 2 designs that I have had yarn to make since the book wasn’t even in editing stage yet. I spun some yarn to make Adrian’s double thick mittens (although now that I want to cast on, I can’t find it) and after finishing one sock in my pattern:

The Guernsey socks, I bought the yarn so I could have a pair for myself. I never started them. I’m notorious for only making one of a pattern but eventually I will make this sock again. I so love it. This is the original “swatch” for it when I was coming up with the right cable pattern:

I could go on about all the patterns in the book and I’d want to take photos of them all. Really there isn’t a stinker in it. I have just a couple more of my designs that I want to mention:
This one was a joy to work on with Clara. It was her vision that really was the driving force in this:

This one used my Spunky yarn:

And this vest is something I had in my head forever. It doesn’t show but the cabling goes around the back of the neck. I love the little design features like that:

I promise the next post will be about things like Rhinebeck and pretty spinning wheels.

my voice is horse, my car smells like a barn, and my checkbook is balled up in a corner rocking back and forth, silently weeping. All indications that Rhinebeck was awesome.

I met so many people and laughed so hard almost constantly. I met so many fantastic people I can’t even list them all. It was amazing to spend the time with my friends and to experience Rhinebeck from the side of a shopper. I had never before been to a fleece sale front of the line. I had always to settle for the left overs because who can leave their booth at noon on a Saturday.

There really is so much more I can say but I’m going to leave you with photos of the car and I’m going to go handle my stuffed to the gills Inbox and get some dyeing done before I open the shop.

I didn’t bring my camera but I had my picture taken plenty of times so my face is bound to be out there lots. And I’ll get photos that friends took at some point. I’m leaving you today with photos of what the car came home looking like:

and

I have a few more detailed photos on flickr, and of course there is more to come.