The Straggler of Rhinebeck Posts

Fig and Plum is honored to bring up the rear of the bevy of Rhinebeck posts this week! As you've read, the weather was perfect, the company fabulous, and the sheep bleat-y. And the fiber... well, you might remember that I have walked away from Rhinebeck for the past two years virtually empty-handed. It's so overwhelming, and so much of the yarn is impractical - lots of hand-dyes that are stunning to look at but sit sad and unused in my stash. Not so this year! I credit the squad of attentive Spiders who fanned out across the festival providing intelligence on caches of the good stuff. For instance, my first treasure was purchased on a tip from Lisa, An Abundance of. Behold, the coolest yellow you ever did see:

It's fingering weight Nature's Palette(which, incidentally, Purl just started carrying) in Acacia. Nature's Palette uses natural dyes, and the results are truly stunning. I was just complaining that it is difficult to find good yellows in yarn, and many yarn lines don't offer it at all. Marie tells me that this is because people don't buy yellow. Well, you yellow haters have never seen a yellow like this! This yellow gives yellow a good name. I'm going to use it for some textured socks, likely out of Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.

Next up, in the "yes, I know it's extravagant" category, the yarn for my niece Lorin's belated birthday sweater:

So, I had ordered some Knitpicks Wool of the Andes for her sweater, and the gauge was too small for such a rustic sweater. Then I tried Knitpicks Sierra - right gauge, but the purple and green colorways were just a bit bleh. Much duller than they appeared in the catalog. Then, at the Morehouse Farm cocktail party after Rhinebeck, this purple Morehouse Merino 3-Strand took hold of my heart and wouldn't let go. The colors of their yarns are amazing and this purple is indescribably so. Plus it's soft as a dream (in fairness, so is the Sierra). Sure, she's seven. But if I'm going to knit her something for her birthday, it should be something downright awesome, not something half-assed! Though she'll surely grow out of the sweater in a year or so, she'll keep it forever. And so this is how silly people come to make children's clothes out of expensive yarns. I am now that girl.

And finally, the treasure first spotted (she admits modestly) by me and subsequently purchased by a total of three Spiders, the Thrummed Mitten Kit from Greenwood Hill Farm:

Frankly thrummed mittens always struck me as dorky. But that was before I slipped one on! It's like having a cat curled up around each of your hands. Call me a little mitten obssessed (this will be, what, my fifth or sixth pair, and second pair this year?), but thrummed mittens are the holy grail of mittens for the cold-of-digit. True, they're not so conducive to maual dexterity. I'll live with it.

But the real selling point on these for me was the yarn. Looks rough, right? Rustic? Scratchy? It's not. It's so totally soft, you won't believe it unless you have the opportunity to touch this yarn. I love Beaverslide and Blackberry Ridge, of course, but compared to other "natural" yarns produced on small farms, the softness of this leaves those in the dust. It's merino, of course, and more expensive, so arguably not comparable. Also, as merino goes, it doesn't have that overly refined, smooth look that some merino can take on. I really got these mittens as a test run for a larger garment using this yarn.

Catty did get to the fleece before I did, though, so it's a bit ratty. I don't think there was enough of it in the first place, frankly, so I'll have to spring for a bit more.

So Rhinebeck this year? Thumbs up! Special thanks to Carrie for driving up, and to Virginia and Marie for being entertaining car-mates. Virginia's set up a nice photo albumtina of our day that captures a few of memorable moments, such as "EWEWHO" and the fork in the road. Enjoy!

Oh, and next time, on Fig & Plum:

The EZ Norwegian Mittens are blocking on my living room floor - if it ever stops raining and dries out around here, they'll be ready to show in a day or two!

Posted by jess at October 28, 2006 10:28 AM | TrackBack