knitting in the zone

the last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind as our little shop participated in a regional yarn crawl. usually not the epicenter of activity, suddenly we had all sorts of new faces crossing our threshold—fiber enthusiasts who traveled to us as part of the tour. it was absolutely wonderful to meet and talk to so many knitters and crocheters and introduce them to our yarns and designs.

many had never heard of us before; quite a few do not use the internet or even a computer and yet we had plenty of common ground to share around yarn love, haha.

oooh, speaking of yarn love, the winner of the carol feller book giveaway is andrea m. she has been emailed and her prize is on the way. thank you all for participating in carol’s book release; authors work so hard in secret for so long, it’s a real treat to finally celebrate with us all.

september is harvest month and tomatoes wait for no yarn crawlers—we spent many late nights this month taking advantage of our garden’s productivity to get food stored away for winter.

one night i put up so many tomatoes that i ran out of containers and we had to scramble to make do. i had enough yellow tomatoes this year to do a separate batch of yellow puree. i don’t know what i’ll use it for but it will make a surprisingly vivid sauce for a special occasion. i’m even freezing tomato juice—a personal favorite; i don’t know why i never did it before.

the onions i pulled while david was away have been brushed clean and trimmed; they are stored in the basement with the winter squashes.

the squash plants have mostly died back, but i’m still picking pounds of green beans each week as well as eggplant, peppers, and lots of greens. everything tastes wonderful; we barely buy anything at the store when we shop.

the next harvest will probably be potatoes, leeks, and celeriac, the last root vegetables that i have in the ground. the salad patch i planted does have some beets tho, so maybe a few of those as well.

i feel so lucky this year; we are rich.

and despite all that was going on, i brewed up a bit of a knitting storm last week, which escalated considerably between wednesday and sunday—that’s why you haven’t seen me around here at all (sorry!!). but i think you’ll be happy with my investment.

in fact, i actually took two days—thursday and sunday—completely off from the computer so i could focus on knitting alone. and the big cabled blob benefitted greatly from that concentrated effort. i alternated skeins through the hem and lower body of my project because one of my skeins was darker, having been dyed in a separate batch.

mmm, soft pretzel cables . . . deee-licious in spirit trail vesta, which will be a jen’s new offering at rhinebeck this year (get some at the spirit trail booth in building A).

the knitting just flies along when working with chunky weight yarn and as my piece grew, i became even more motivated to finish ASAP.

by saturday morning my big body piece was off the needles and ready for finishing. after attending to some other things during the day, i fired up the iron after dinner and blocked both this piece and the sleeves.

that night i began the process of finishing—stitching the shoulder seams, picking up the stitches for the collar, and getting a jump on knitting that before i finally passed out.

when i woke up, i put the shell on my dress form; it was so exciting to finally see what i had. the armhole depth was a little too long and needed to be adjusted, but aside from that, it was looking good. phew! there is a shorter, hip-length version as well, which barb is knitting.

i got so many positive comments about pockets on the the pedal pusher sweater that i’m thinking this coat could even have some cool cabled ones added at the sides; what do you think?

the yarn has a spongy, dense, and velvety feel, perfect for a cuddly warm coat. this is a great chill chaser; i’m looking forward to seeing how long i can wear it into the deep winter weather. i’m hoping all the way through, as the fit is super comfortable—roomy through the body and upper sleeves to accommodate layers inside, but snug at the edges to keep out the elements

somewhere in those few days, the buttons arrived from moving mud—at jen’s request, i sent a swatch to sarina and as usual, she created the perfect accent for the front of the coat. i thought the flat style would be best for my purposes, but by all means, round ones would work equally well.

yeah, man . . . they are like little slices of exotic fruit, aren’t they?

and they are just the right accent for the front of this coat—strong enough to stand up to the oversized cable with their stunning gray-green edges.

buttoned all the way up, the coat sports its own slouchy cowl to use as a wind barrier.

personally, i just love the wide, delicious collar unbuttoned enough to spread out over my shoulders in a pleasingly crumpled heap.

it will accommodate a little nothing scarf inside  to add an extra layer of texture and warmth. the pattern for this garment (which includes instructions for a jacket length version) will be released along with the vesta rollout over rhinebeck weekend (october 17th and 18th). it’s in production now and will be ready for purchase both here and in the spirit trail booth—keep your eye out for it.

we are knitting one in chebris worsted as we speak—the frappé shade. mmm, won’t that be a treat? i cannot wait to sink myself into that one, yum yum.

and speaking of chebris worsted, now that the cooler weather has arrive, i can fully indulge the itchy fingers i’ve had for this yarn all summer long. i have been dying to start something and now i have; care to guess what it might be?