New Stash

I spent all day Friday at Madrona Fiber Festival soaking in as much information about Fair Isle Yoke Sweaters as humanly possible, for me anyway. After class I headed over to the marketplace and did a small amount of shopping. This year I took cash with me and had no plan except to not go over my cash budget. It worked! I'm happy with my small pile of purchases and plotting what to make with them. My favorite new thing is handspun from Spincycle up in Bellingham. I always look at their stuff but have never purchased any. I picked up a skein of chunky weight Polworth in Rusted Rainbow. I also snagged a skein of worsted weight BFL in Greed that is far more acidly yellow than my camera accounts for and very soft. My friend, Ariel, went to the market on Thursday and picked up a skein (by request) of GothSocks in a red/black colorway called Imma Bitch. Fun! I heard that the booth was swamped on Thursday at market opening and I'm glad I put in a request since she had practically nothing left by Friday afternoon. Last but not least, I won a door prize for a Fly Designs gift certificate and spent it on a skein of Cashmara in Blood Red. Cashmara is a super soft sock weight yarn in a 80 superwash merino/10 cashmere/10 nylon blend. I believe it's going to be the Gambit scarf from One Skein Sock
Yarn Wonders.

Madrona Loot

I'm still reeling from Madrona. Got up at 7 am grabbed a giant macchiato with an extra shot and drove myself down to Tacoma in time for my 9am class - Lace Basics with Evelyn Clark. This was my first knitting class in the less-than-a-year I've been knitting plus it was my first Fiber Festival/Retreat of any kind. A little overwhelming at first and my mind is still wrapping itself around everything I learned in class: old norwegian cast on, splicing yarn 4 different ways for different fibers, and how lace charts work and how to read them. I'm not going to run out and start knitting shawls right away (I prefer stoles anyhow) but I feel like I have good information and some great advice on techniques to get me started. I like Evelyn a lot and felt really comfortable asking her questions and fondling the shawls she passed around the class. Incredibly beautiful stuff and a great aid for teaching, besides who doesn't like to show off their knitting accomplishments? Class was really great for me and it made me want to return next year and take a few classes and stay the night and totally immerse myself in knitting. Drool.

After lunch with some of the ladies from my knitting group we trotted on over to the market place where a bit of damage was done to ye olde pocketbook. I reigned myself in a bit and only looked at things I couldn't pick up at my LYS. Blue Moon Fiber Arts broke me down and I picked up a skein of sock yarn from the Raven Clan Series and two skeins of Luscious (100% silk) for a Clapotis. The icing on the cake was Tactile - a fiber arts studio from the Bay Area that does naturally dyed yarns and fiber. I think I touched every skein in her booth and ended up with two skeins of sock yarn to make a stole of some sort. The woman running the booth was so nice and we chatted about natural dyes and how they work and I gushed over how intense and varied and beautiful the colors came out. I can't wait for their online shop to open, I think they're a new favorite. All in all I had a fabulous time and can't wait for next year to immerse myself in learning new things and buying new yarn.