Today marks my anniversary for 11 years of blogging. I’m pretty excited that I’ve made it this far. As an additional celebration, this afternoon I am heading to New York with my friend Michelle for the Dutchess County Sheep and Wool festival, that most knitters just call “Rhinebeck” due to it’s location in Rhinebeck, NY. Therefore, this post is also about my Rhinebeck sweater.

Many knitters make sweaters to show off at Rhinebeck each year. Just check out the #rhinebecksweater or #rhinebecksweater2017 posts on Instagram and you’ll see what I mean. This sweater is So Faded by Andrea Mowry, and it became my Rhinebeck sweater this year. I love this pattern for inspiring me to put together some wild colors I normally wouldn’t. That being said, aside from the decorative garter stitch at the top of the shoulders, it’s not super different from many other top down raglans. If you’re a beginning knitter don’t be intimidated by this sweater. This style is one of the easiest kinds to execute and would make a great first sweater if you want to stretch yourself a bit.

I didn’t make many alterations. I made the 38″ size, but I did add some waist shaping in the back to help this be less of a boxy shape while wearing. I made the sleeves maybe an inch longer than specified to make sure they went to my wrist bone. I ripped the Melon Bomb yarn (my final color) straight from the Over the Top Top that I decided to rip out. I’m glad it worked well in this sweater.

The colors I used, in order, are The Lemonade Shop Mighty Sock in Goldfish, Hedgehog Fibres Sock in Charlotte’s Web, Claudia Handpaints Addiction in Jonquil, and Dream in Color Smooshy Kettle Dyed Melon Bomb. I cheated a little bit with my blocking and threw it in the dryer for about 10 minutes. On Wednesday night when I was trying to get it in place on the blocking board it was doing that superwash yarn thing where it’s suddenly super loose and crazy. I knew if I didn’t give it a little boost it might not make it to being dry by the time I left for my trip, so I decided to help it out. All of the yarns are superwash, so I wasn’t worried, much. 

If you’re at Rhinebeck and you see me in this sweater say hi! I love to meet other knitters. Sometimes I get shy about approaching people I only know online, even though I’m pretty extroverted in general. I can’t wait to see all of the gorgeous sweaters and yarns!