Glazed Carrots

Alas, it has been confirmed this morning that my sister won't be visiting me for Rhinebeck this year. While I am extremely bummed, I completely understand. There will always be next year for us to hit up our favorite fiber festival.

In the end, I think things always work out the way they are supposed to and I can tell you right now, I'm not sure if I will even have a sweater completed in time. So now I am off the hook, right?

Let me back up a little.

September was a busy, and a little crazy, month for me. I've been in and out of doctor's appointments, catching up on work stuff, apartment stuff still not done and frankly, when I finally went through my yarn stash, I was completely disappointed and lost my steam for knitting a sweater in time for the festival.

See, I have some fabulous sweater yarn in it that I purchased during my past adventures at  Rhinebeck. When said yarn was purchased, there were no patterns in my mind for them, so I tried to buy an amount that I thought would give me some options for knitting them up.

After I decided I was going to knit Montauk, I proceeded to plunge head first into my stash and when I came up for air, I seriously wanted to weep just a tad. Not only was I about 1 skein short for knitting Montauk, but I also was short for Pinoli.

At this time I am thinking I am still going to Rhinebeck and that I can't possibly go without knitting a new sweater. I searched and searched the interwebs for another yarn choice for either sweater and even another sweater pattern that would fit my yardage. I found a couple of yarns that I liked, but couldn't commit because of my indecisiveness in the colors. I also found another sweater that I like, but I wasn't so sure of the fit for my body. Deflated, I stopped looking for a few days.

Fast forward to Wednesday of last week, I realized that if I am going to Rhinebeck I knew there was no way I would finish Montauk in time. Pinoli maybe, but Montauk? Wasn't going to happen. I was also still not 100% on the other sweater I had found.

So what does one do? I plunged back into the interwebs and perused my friends' completed knits on Ravelry and came back to a pattern that I fell in love with when I first saw it many moons ago. In comes Mod Podge:

One of my dear friends knitted it in 2011 for Rhinebeck and I died and went to yarn heaven! That's how much I loved the pattern and the yarn! I mean, let's just look at how lovely it truly is:

And of course, after exchanging a few text messages with this lady, I realized this was my sweater to knit for Rhinebeck.

Did I think I could finish this one in time? Absolutely and those of you who know me, know I could get it done.

Did I have enough yarn in stash to knit it? Yes, but unfortunately the yarn has too much give and stretches when washed and blocked. I needed a firmer yarn for this style jacket.

I went to Webs Yarn and looked at the yarn Miss Shameka Knits used for hers and they had the color I wanted. The one that I have been obsessed with during the past few Fall seasons. Today, it arrived and looks a little like this:

It's Malabrigo Rios in Glazed Carrot colorway. The color is actually a deeper orange than what you see in the picture. The light shining from the ceiling makes it look like a pumpkin. I am so in love with it. I know this yarn is pricey, but I got a 20% discount and truthfully, I wanted to treat myself just a little, especially after the past month I had been through. This yarn makes me smile and makes my heart flutter.

Even though I am most likely not going to Rhineback, I am still hoping to finish this baby in time for it, just in case I do mange to venture up there for one of the days. There's some big stuff happening for me around that time, so I am not 100% sure if I'll make it, but if I do, I want to be wearing my glazed carrot/pumpkin!