bamboo who?

I went to The Knit and Crochet Show last weekend, which is sponsored by a big trade association (TKGA). Since I won't be going to Rhinebeck this year, I was hoping for something great - to ease the pain of missing the Duchess County Fairgrounds in mid-October. It's so beautiful up there that weekend. Sigh.

The marketplace wasn't quite as exciting as I'd hoped. There were booths for most of the local yarn stores, and new-to-me West Coast independent vendors. Of course, my only yarn purchase was from the New York-based Habu textiles - super thin bamboo and over a 1,000 yards of it! I never made it to the store while I lived there, and thought that I need to correct that (in)action in some way.

I did also buy the pattern for Chrissy Gardiner's Path of Flowers Stole (Ravelry link), and got to meet her. She's Portland-based, so I managed to do some buy-local shopping. I'm hoping that next weekend's Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival will help to lessen my Rhinebeck heartache...

doing my part

I did a little to help the economy of St. Helena, CA over the weekend. While most of our economic stimulus check was spent on the (very dull) rent, I did buy some new sock yarn. I only had three skeins of Regia sock yarn in my stash! It was necessary!

I do love Regia sock yarn, and I've been very good about knitting from my vast stores of stash for quite a while. And Hubby says that he will knit the Kaffe Fassett yarn into socks for himself, so long as I do the hard parts. That's a deal I'll accept any day!

While struggling through some computer problems this week, I needed a little project to keep nearby, as an attempt to keep my cool. I found this hat upstairs, with about 8 rounds completed. Technical difficulties continued, and I finished this earlier today. It's Silky Wool, and an improv-ed pattern. I grafted the last stitches, and it seems to be a good solution to prevent a bump on the top of your noggin. It fits me well, very snug, and I think it will work under my bike helmet when the weather gets chilly. I'm going to try and keep working on my languishing projects from upstairs throughout the summer. The yarns aren't in my Ravelry stash, so I won't have the pleasure of marking them as used, but it'll be good to get finished objects more quickly! Instant gratification...

prize winner!

I acquired a cold on Thursday night, and I've been trying to recover ever since. What really lifted my spirits yesterday morning was finding my prize package from the 2007 Spin-Out! I made a donation to the Heifer Project, and was lucky enough to win one of the prizes. When I got the email, I was a bit nervous that I'd open the box in a few days and find lots and lots of roving, or some other spinning supplies that I can't use. Happily, it's all knitting here!

There's a beautiful skein of sock yarn from Mama Blue Knitting Goods in Lagoon, which I think are destined to be the cabled socks from the IK holiday issue. (The varigated yarn used in the magazine was a poor choice, and I think that these are going to look much better.) There's also a beaded shawl kit from Ellene Warren, and a collapsable yarn basket. Thank you to all of those who donated gifts, those who made donations to Heifer, and to Cara for organizing the whole event!

the haul from rhinebeck

We still didn't have sunshine today, but there was enough light to quickly take some pictures... through the rain!




Sock yarn was, of course, highly desirable. The top two skeins are very squishy and lovely. The denim yarn just above here is from Sliver Farms. I got some last year in purple, and liked it so much that I went back for more. The barely varigated colors are a pleasure to see.


Morehouse laceweight, 440 yards. It's lovely. Though I said that I wouldn't buy any laceweight, it's Morehouse, so I made an exception.





And four skeins of stunning hand-dyed Morehouse three-strand merino. They are going to be lovely scarves or mittens. I'm sad that they are closing their store, but very glad for them that the internet business is doing so well.

This wool is part of a mitten kit that came with roving to use as thrums. They're going to be very, very warm.

And I can't wait until next year!

more yarn...

Isn't Hubby's hat the greatest? He's working on it for his brother, and I'm starting the Backyard Leaves scarf for his wife. Apologies for the icko pictures: there's no light coming from the sky today.

I tried to focus my vacation purchases on local yarns, and succeeded! (You can see the details on Ravelry, if you are a member.) We visited a number of yarn shops on vacation, listed here in (I think) the order visited:

Windsor Button, Boston: I wish there was a place like this in New York. What a great variety of stuff. All the rumors are true - it's great. Hubby got his Malabrigo here!

Newbury Yarns, Boston: They were reorganizing the store when we popped in, so it was pretty hard to see what they had in stock. Also, there were no prices anywhere... which raises my suspicions. No opinion.

Seed Stitch Fine Yarns, Salem MA: The shop was lovely and spacious, and had a crazy awesome display of giant knitted flowers. (There's a reception with the artist this coming Friday.) Prices seemed quite reasonable, and the owner was very friendly.

Yarn Sellar, York ME: Located in a strip mall, the store was pretty small and carried a lot of very large brands, and didn't really emphasize natural fibers. There was locally dyed sock yarn, though, so I got a skein. Again, very friendly staff.

Yarn Basket, Portsmouth NH: Yay! A teeny-tiny shop, but packed with good stuff, including customers just stopping by to knit and chat, and also to scold the owner for blocking my way to one wall of yarn. The owner was chatting with another customer, and one of the knitters told her to get out of my way. It was pretty entertaining. More locally dyed sock yarn ended up coming home, along with some J.Knits laceweight and an on-sale skein of superwash Brown Sheep.

Loom with a View, Newburyport MA: After returning home, I discovered that the shop just opened in July. The owner was, again, excellent, and showed off some yarn I'd not seen called Mirasol, from Peru. (They have it at Webs, too.) I stocked up on some of my favorites for an EZ marathon: the two-needle baby sweater and a surprise jacket.

Yarn for Ewe, Rye NH: While the shop was quite large, the yarns didn't call to me here. (Perhaps it was yarn overload from all the other stops we'd made?) My research said that this was a favorite, so I was pretty surprised. Maybe I was tipsy from the discovery of the Mirasol earlier in the day?