Lumpy Space! Stephen West KAL

Every summer Stephen West has a shawl KAL and I love joining in the fun! This year, instead of it being a mystery, it was for your choice of one of 3 different designs - each very Westknits-esque. I chose to make the Lumpy Space pattern - I love the elongated shape of this shawl and I couldn't resist the stripes!

Pattern: Lumpy Space by Stephen West
Yarns: a = Orkney Angora dk in neon peach, b = Lopi Einband in pale beige, c = Madelinetosh Dandelion in Nectar, d = Jill Draper Nimbus in Shell
Size made: one size
Alterations: none, although I ran out of my Nimbus yarn so I had to end a few rows early 

Lumpy Space uses four yarns. I decided to use up some stash yarns so I incorporated a couple of yarns I had picked up on my travels, making this an extra special shawl. The neon orange angora yarn was from Scotland and the Lopi laceweight was, of course, from Iceland. The Madelinetosh Dandelion was leftover from my recent Vasa tee and I just couldn't resist using some luxurious Jill Draper Nimbus - a laceweight blend of angora and silk.

In true Westknits fashion, I did some experimenting with various fiber types and weights. For the inner shape of orange and cream - it was a blend of super-soft angora mixed with super-tough lopi. I held the lopi laceweight double to keep up with the dk weight of the angora. The outer stripes are a mix of soft merino/linen and more angora. Here again, I held the laceweight Nimbus double to work better with the Dandelion and to add more angora halo!

I love the shape and size of this shawl. It can be wrapped around several times for extra neck-coziness and it is in-between a scarf and shawl shape - my favorite. I ran out of Nimbus towards the end so I'm short just a couple of stripes, but it is still a great size. I'll admit, I was cursing this pattern during the picot bind off of over 800 stitches, but I'm so glad I persevered! The contrast picot edge give the shawl an adorable frame that really takes it over the top.

Thanks, Stephen for another fun knit! Be sure to stop by the store today from 12 - 1:30 to meet Mr. West in person and see even more of his awesome designs.

Rockwell... talk about Marled Magic!

Jill Draper has done it again! We just received a shipment of her new yarn Rockwell. Rockwell is a DK weight marled wool consisting of 100% Cormo-Merino Crossbred Moorit wool making it so spongy and dreamy to work with! Made with domestic wool from the Northeast, this yarn contains 3 different shades of natural wool plied together then over dyed. There are seven beautifully hand dyed colors and one natural color to choose from. This yarn is minimally processed and retains some of the natural lanolin for extra-farmy goodness.

We have already been busy whipping up a new pair of mitts with the un-dyed color, Naturemade! This pattern is Rathtrevor by Jane Richmond from her Island book. Rathtrevor uses 225 yds so one skein is all you need!

Check back tomorrow for some more handmade delights with Rockwell! What will you make??

NY Sheep and Wool Festival: Report from Rhinebeck

Amber and I just returned from a long weekend in upstate New York where we went to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival which is commonly referred to in knitting circles as Rhinebeck. It was our first time attending and it was amazing. Rhinebeck is a wool festival similar to our Estes Park Wool Market--only times 1,000. There were so many people and so many booths of amazing things to buy! We were a little overwhelmed at first, but we got the hang of it after a bit and managed to find some things that we couldn't leave without.

HOLY SMOKES!

Nice work, nature.

We stayed with the lovely ladies of Kelbourne Woolens in a house in the Hudson Valley. What a beautiful fall setting for a wool festival! We spent a lot of time knitting at the house when we weren't buying fiber and yarn at Rhinebeck.

There were so many vendors selling local yarns, rovings and fibers. Amber and I had recently spun through our stash of roving so it was a free-for-all for us to buy more! We both picked up a sweater's quantity of longwool roving to spin-up during next year's Spinzilla.

Amber's roving purchase matches her Apple Cider doughnut perfectly

Longwool roving was seen and purchased

Loop had beautiful batts and art yarn

Outlander Adventures' Icelandic yarn Poetry mittens

There were plenty of sheep, alpacas, goats and llamas as well! We love seeing all the different breeds of sheep. Icelandic, Shetlands, Border Leicesters, Cotswold - all the sheep were in attendance!

Merlin the Leicester Longwool

Sheep Parade!

Icelandic Sheep Baby

An adorable Teeswater

Llama parade!

Ysolda Teague had some exciting news at Rhinebeck - the release of a new book "The Rhinebeck Sweater"! She was doing book signings for pre-sales of the book which will officially be released on November 6th. We have it on order and can tell you already that it is an amazing book, everything you'd expect from Ysolda with 12 gorgeous sweater patterns by amazing designers.

The best part about Rhinebeck was seeing and hanging out with so many awesome people! Ysolda, Cal Patch, Jill Draper, Maryjane Mucklestone, Ravelry, Sonya Phillip and more were in attendance and we loved meeting up with peeps for hot cocoa and doughnut breaks.

Sonya Phillip and Allison Page show off their Empire yarn from Jill Draper

Cal Patch and Jill Draper help us display all of our purchases!

Til next year, Rhinebeck - it was awesome!

Jill Draper's Mohonk and Nimbus Yarns are Here!

We have a bit of a craft crush on Jill Draper. We fell in love with Jill Draper's hand-dyed yarns when we saw our friend, Stephen, knitting a shawl with Nimbus, a lace weight angora silk. Jill's colors are stunning and unusual, and the base yarns she uses are unique. Jill Draper makes her home in upstate New York and mostly dyes on US grown and milled wools.

Nimbus Angora Silk Laceweight

Mohonk is Jill's 2 ply sport weight Cormo wool made from US Cormo wool. It is springy and soft, perfect for sweaters. The colors are almost solid, but with a beautiful gentle color variegation from being dyed in the skein. The wool is minimally processed--you'll find a bit of hay here and there due to the absence of harsh chemicals during the cleansing process at the mill. This also leaves a bit of moisture rich lanolin in the yarn, the better to knit with!

We love these spacial yarns from Jill Draper and hope you do to!