Rhinebeck Mayhem and Sock(s)!

Now it's time for a game of "Where's Zanti?"

Can you find me? These are the only two pics we took at Rhinebeck (and ZantiMisterKnit took both of them). This was at the Blogger meetup, which was chock full of Knittyheads. Amy Knitty and the Yarn Harlot were both there, but aren't in either of these pictures.

In case you didn't figure it out, I'm in the middle of both pictures, wearing a moss green Odessa hat. I'm drinking from my water bottle in the second picture. I drank a lot of water that day.

We probably will go to Rhinebeck again next year, but we will have a better plan of action.

1. We will need to bring a cooler full of Diet Coke and bottled water. The lines at the food vendors were incredibly long, and kinda expensive.

2. We should pack some sammiches. The less money spent on food, the more money spent on yarn.

3. We should come in on Friday and stay until Sunday, possibly getting the weekend pass/bracelets.

4. Definitely make plans with other bloggers/knittyheads for dinner, drinks, whatever!

I knew it was going to be big, but still wasn't prepared. Dang. It was amazing. I can't wait until April, when Woolfests start up again!

So, I needed a quick, portable project for the car. I grabbed the only sock yarn that didn't need to be wound (Regia Stretch Crazy Color), some dpn's, and my Knitting Sensational Socks book, and swatched for a pair of socks in the "welt fantastic pattern". I didn't start knitting the socks themselves until Sunday, and I had to restart on different needles because the first attempt was way too big. I finished one sock yesterday:

It laddered in a really strange way. These ladders were from needles 2 and 3 -- in the pattern you have to ssk the end of the pattern repeat, and the pattern begins with k2tog. It gives it a dropped stitch/ladder look where the needles join. I have to be careful when wearing shoes with buckles, and probably with washing too, as those ladders could potentially catch on everything.
I did a new kind of heel (for me). I think the author calls it the "afterthought heel". I like the circle effect it gets.
I don't think these socks are as sturdy as my previously made socks, so I will need to use care when wearing them and washing them. The colors are awesome, though. I may get away with only requiring one 200 meter skein for both socks -- how, I don't know. I guess the combination of the lacy pattern using less yarn and the fact that my feet are so little. I only had to cast on 44 stitches on size 3 needles for these, and they are still a little bit big for me! This yarn does have quite a bit of stretch. I'm thinking of a pair of gloves in a similar pattern -- I liked the way the garter ridges looked on my hands. Maybe I can gift someone with a pair of crazy colored striped gloves.