In Which the Pirate Goes to Rhinebeck.

On Saturday morning, Michael and I got up (not too early) and headed off to Rhinebeck. The trees – ohhh, we don’t have leaves like that here in Virginia. They’re much duller this year. These are just gorgeous!

We went through a few of the buildings and then stopped to admire the alpaca. There was a guy there taking pictures of them with what looked like an original Polaroid camera, which was pretty cool. The alpaca doesn’t seem too impressed, though.

Of course, there was lamb for lunch. Except the line for lamb sandwiches was really long, and really slow, and they ran out of sandwiches before we got there. I ended up getting a gyro, and Michael got sausage, and I guess that was all right. (On Sunday, we made lamb for dinner. That made up for the lack on Saturday.)

The day became a Quest, as my Dancing Cranes stole is still shedding all over everything despite a good soak. Maybe one day it will get past that, but meanwhile I want a shawl that won’t shed. Michael suggested that I get a plummy purple laceweight to match his tie and pocket square, and we began to search for it. I was surprised at how difficult the quest was. There was the right shade of purple, in all the wrong fibres. There was beautiful laceweight, in all the wrong purples.

I did find this gorgeous green semi-solid sock yarn, and bought it so excitedly that I forgot to get the vendor information or any details about the yarn. When I got home and took pictures, I realized that it had no tag, and I paid cash so I have no receipt. I’ve got a call out on the Rhinebeck group on Ravelry, and hopefully I’ll know what it is soon!

Edited to add: It is Oasis Yarn Aussi Soxxi! Many thanks to AnissaH, who was able to solve the mystery.

We stopped at Bittersweet Woolery because she had some beautiful laceweight, and she even pulled out the bins to check Sunday’s yarn supply, but the colours weren’t quite right. Still, that was one of the highlights of the day – because I got recognized! “Hey, you’re KnittingPirate,” gives me such a thrill! Hi, RowsRed – it was great to meet you!

Then, finally, in the last building… the right colour purple, in the right kind of fibre. Lisa Souza “Montreaux” in the Marionberry colourway seems Just Right. I may have jumped up and down a little bit. That evening we checked it against Michael’s pocket square, which of course we had forgotten to bring with us, and it’s perfect.

On the way out I stopped at Fiber Optic to admire the huge gradient shawls, and finally – after years of thinking about it – bought one of the gradient tops, in a light aqua to deep chocolate colourway. It is simply gorgeous. I’m going to split it the long way and do a two-ply gradient, when I get up the courage to spin it.

I’m swatching the purple lace by simply starting the shawl. I’m on the second try – the first one was too loose, and I dropped a stitch that I couldn’t recover, so I began again. The rows are so small at this point that it seems to make sense to just start. (But I did order a slightly smaller needle, just in case.)

There are a few too many projects going on at the moment, and I’m planning to blog about them all! I’ve missed writing, and I’ve missed your comments, and being recognized as me was so exciting that I’m super-inspired to get back here more often. :)