I have been eating my bodyweight in apples over the past few weeks, as the last of nature's honest bounty ebbs and we enter a long couple of months of grocery shelves stocked with finger-sized zucchini, cardboard melons, and sawdusty apples. The breakout stars of my Fall have been gingergold and honeycrisp apples. There was an instance of foraged crabapple crisp on Cliff Island, which also turned out splendidly.
The temperatures have dropped and the cranberry bogs are flooded. That means we are entering the season of hardcore gratuitous knitting. I know you are all still on the edges of your respective seats (or laying in bed and not really caring, but still reading because nobody has updated facebook in the last 7 minutes) but the sweater is still a WIP. I do however have a picture of my progress thus far!
I still have to finish the sleeves and the shawl collar, but i could totally wear it as a sweater vest with arm cuffs right now. Right?
This has been one of the most picturesque falls of my life. Mostly because last weekend, Dave and I ventured to Dutchess County, New York for the Dutchess County Sheep and Wool Festival, AKA RHINEBECK. A two-day freakfest of fiber. We only attended Saturday and that was plenty enough to send us both into sensory overload. The people, the colors, the food, the sounds, and yes... the smells. I drove us out there starting at 5:30AM in Providence and we arrived just before the opening bell at 9. We were completely underdressed. Not that we didn't have enough layers on, but people were covered in knitwear. 80% of it was beautiful. 10% was a good attempt. The other 10%? Well, let's just say I pointed out something I called "urinal hat."
We first went to the fleece sale, and I picked up a 7lb natural-colored Romney fleece. I have spent the last week picking out all of the hay, dingles, and second cuts. I started scouring it yesterday. It's going to be a long process, but hopefully very educational.
Then we went to see some animals. We walked around the sheep, and the angora goats (which produce mohair, for those non-fiber friends). There were goats for sale!!! But I found the angora goats too fearful of people (could have been stress from the anticipation of the Goat Show) to be considered to take home to Nanny right then. However, look how majestic:
It's looking at me! I think... or not. I think it's just looking at its hair. Also- Dave is creeping in the background. He was a trooper that day.
There were mohair fleeces for sale. Angora goats have hair, not fleece, but the table full of bags of hair were at the Fleece Sale... so just roll with it. I always found mohair a bit too fancy for me, but I wanted to sample goat fibers, so I was able to purchase 4 oz. of mohair roving from the Fiber Kingdom booth. I spun this fingering weight yarn this weekend. It's my most consistent, finest yard to date! I can't wait to knit with it.
2 oz. 160yards 2 ply. I used a 5 euro cent to show diameter, because it's bigger than a penny, creating the illusion of finer workmanship. Fiber arts is 10% what you do and 90% how you photograph it for the interwebs. I just don't know what I'll knit, because again, I'm weary of the aura that mohair has in a finished product.
We'll see what else comes of my Rhinebeck fiber purchases. Preview: 7lbs of Romney Fleece, 2 oz. chasmere roving, 1 oz. pygora roving, and 2 more oz. mohair roving.
