It’s been a while since I have written a “What’s on my Needles Wednesday” post. It has also been far too long since I posted regularly here.
Today was one of those days where I was able to spend the entire day knitting and making significant progress on my current pair of socks.
I had started this sock before I finished my last pair. Though most of the progress I have made has been since I finished that pair.
I am currently working on this year’s “Road to Rhinebeck” sock set from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm. This colorway is on the Coquette yarn base.
The Coquette yarn base happens to be my favorite from Bumblebee Acres. It’s thick for a fingering weight, making it warm and cozy. It makes the perfect cold weather socks.
This past week I started watching Rhinebeck videos. I quickly realized that I need to go next year. I also realized that I really have no idea who anyone who is anyone in the knitting world is. That is another reason I need to go to Rhinebeck and other fiber festivals back east. That is one of the crappy things about living out west, we don’t have many fiber festivals and really none of the big names in the knitting world come out here.
Today I started winding up my Bad Sheep Yarn hanks. I had to stop after 3 hanks as I started not feeling well and needed to lay down. I did take some videos to put up on TikTok and my Instagram stories.
I love these Alaskan themed yarns. I am excited to see how they knit up when I get to them.
In order to go to Rhinebeck next year, I need to allow my PTO at work to accrue. I want to be able to get paid while taking time off work to go. In the mean time, I also need to watch more Rhinebeck videos.
This morning I finished up the first sock in the pair of “Road to Rhinebeck” socks I am currently working on.
This was a sock set with a main variegated hank and a smaller contrast / coordinating tonal hank for at least heels and toes. I have gone on the conservative side and not tried using the contracting tonal for a top rib in the cuff. I may kick myself later for that, if I end up with a decent amount left over. I just wanted to make sure I had enough for the heels and toes for two socks.
This sock, seriously evokes all things fall for me. Cozy Sweaters, Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes, turning leaves, fires in the fireplace, Gilmore Girls, Mel in Virgin River – the scene from the first episode or two when she is walking down the street in Virgin River talking to her sister on the phone in the cute sweater and boots.
Yes, one sock made me think of that. Well, it did have the help of visiting two local yarn shops yesterday. Those made me think of rainy Portland October days, with a cup of tea, hunkering down in a cute yarn shop working on a knitting project, or squishing the yarn. For me, Starlight Knitting Society was the coziest and most inviting of the two. It also really made me miss Happy Knits. Happy Knits was a yarn store here in Portland, on SE Hawthorne Blvd, that I fell in love with. They closed a few years ago (Pre Pandemic) they had a very light, airy, welcoming shop that wasn’t super crowded but had an amazing selection. In the back, they had a large table to sit around and work on projects as well as a couch that faced the natural gas stove. It was amazing in the colder wet months to go hang out, look at yarn, squish yarn, get inspiration, work on projects. I miss that space.
I have known about the Rhinebeck sheep and wool festival for several years. It is the big festival. I really want to go, and I want to try to make it happen next year. This year isn’t going to work for me, since I have other things I need to deal with first. Rhinebeck is one of things that I feel like I should experience at least once.
We don’t have many fiber festivals out here on the West Coast, and the ones we do have aren’t on the same caliber as the ones that take place back east.
All the smaller indie dyers I follow and typically buy from are from east of the Mississippi River, and the “better” fiber festivals are part of the circuit that most of these dyers go to.
Which is why I would love to go to Rhinebeck, especially, as well as some of the other fiber festivals back East and find more small, Indie, US based dyers who have amazing yarns.
The Knitter's Notes 
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