Rhinebeck or Bust

Rumors of my demise…well, you know the rest.

Where have I been this time? Well, a month ago, I blogged about wanting to design a capelet to wear at Rhinebeck. So…I’ve actually been knitting!

Yes, as tends to happen when I’m involved, there was a bit of “mission creep,” as we called it in the Navy–where you start with one job (a capelet) and end up with several (plus hat, plus wristers).  Even if I weren’t from the northeastern U.S. originally, I’d read enough threads in the Rhinebeck group on Ravelry to know there was a chance of temperatures anywhere from the 30s to the 80s…and for the lower temps, just a capelet wasn’t going to be enough.

What also wasn’t going to be enough was the amount of yarn I had on hand. I’d started with 3 skeins, and it was clear that wasn’t going to get a capelet as long as I wanted, let another any additional pieces. I posted a plea for help (and yarn) in the Three Irish Girls Stash Menagerie group. Fortunately, a fellow group member had 2 skeins they were willing to part with, and I was back in business. Back to keeping warm in an uncertain northeastern October…

The best way to keep in body heat, of course, is a hat, but I didn’t want something that would look at home in a January snowstorm–more something that was for fall and spring with the same lacy look as the capelet, and maybe even a little slouchy. I was quite pleased when the hat came together on my first try.

But, with my penchant for overdoing it, I wasn’t done there. After all, Rhinebeck is about the tactile as much as the visual…and I’m not going to be able to tell how wonderfully soft the yarns are if my fingers are too numb, right? For the same reason, gloves are out. Fortunately, I’m one of those won over to the fingerless gloves crowd; I’ve experienced for myself how covering my wrist and the palm of my hand can keep my fingertips nice and warm. So I whipped up a pair–the hardest part was figuring out how to keep a consistent look the pattern without having holes all over the back of the gloves, which would defeat the purpose–and my set was complete!

If you’d like your own Rhinebeck or Bust set, you can find the pattern here (the PDF includes patterns for all three items)…or, you can download just the hat or the wristers if you prefer. Enjoy, and I’ll see you at Rhinebeck! I’ll be the one in the capelet…