Yesterday I went to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival. It was a gorgeous day and I had a great time! I am crap and forgot to bring my camera (again!) so no pictures of anything, except what I bought – which is not as much as I would have thought! I had to do some hard thinking here – what did I NEED? The answer was, not much at all. I still haven’t even touched some of the yarn I bought last year, namely that giant hank from Briar Rose Fibers. It’s funny because it’s back at the time of year that I was wishing for the cardigan I had intended to knit with this wool. I think that’s a sign that I should get moving on that! Anyway, I decided that if I was going to buy anything, it would have to be something “different”, in that, I’d like to focus on buying things that I had never used before. I had only one yarn requirement – some sock yarn for Maelstrom socks.

The first stand I took my wallet out for was Creatively Dyed Yarn. She had SO much yarn and fibre. She had a particularly gorgeous braid of Tencel/Wool.

Tencel is something I’ve never spun before, it’s blue, and it was only $15 for 4oz! Fitted my requirements perfectly. It’s SO soft and shiny…I’m a magpie at heart, so shiny is always good.

Next, I acquired a Bosworth Spindle:

It’s a Mini in Ceaderwood, weighing .6 oz. It has a lovely smell, and is so smoothly polished. I couldn’t wait to start spinning on it, so I took out my newly purchased wool and started this while we rested for lunch:

Wow – I don’t know if it’s the wool or the spindle, but so far it feels like this stuff is spinning itself. It took a little getting used to, but I really do like this spindle. I’ve found this with all my spindles so far – they each have a way about them that takes a little adjustment, but once you get into the groove it’s effortless. I’m happy to say the same about this spindle.

Next I found myself at Shadyside Farm, where I bought some roving in Maryland. They had a lot of the same stock, but this time my eye was caught by some Alpaca/Silk. This stuff is simply stunning in real life – they took chocolate brown alpaca (70%) and blended it with Tussah silk that had been dyed in the most brilliant colours.

This one is Pumpkin:

And this one is called Soleil:

They’re both just enchanting to look at – look how the silk shines against the dark matte background!

I think they’re both absolutely amazing, and thus, irresistable. I have never spun alpaca before! I’m doing some reading, as it’s my understanding that it can be tricky to get the hang of. Some think it’s no problem though, so I guess I’ll have to test some of it out and come to my own conclusion.

Finally, I needed to find that sock yarn. I really wanted something in blue, but I was not having any luck. At Ellen’s Half Pint Farm, there was lots of sock yarn of many blends…nothing in blue, however. I was looking for solid or semi-solid, which is more challenging to find since the variegated yarns generate more oohing and ahhing, therefore probably sell better. My eye was caught by this beauty though:

It reminds me a lot of Colinette Jitterbug, if anyone is familiar. It’s 100% Merino, and should do the job nicely. If I do happen to find some blue yarn for the Maelstroms, this can always be used for another detail-intense sock pattern. There are plenty of them out there!

So, that’s it! A small handful of purchases, but I love them all. I think I’m going to take a serious stock of what I have, and what I intend to knit…I will probably post it on here too, just to publicly shame myself enough to get busy. Once I finish the second Christmas shawl,the Manon, and possibly my nearly-finished unnamed grey cardigan that I am making up as I go, I should get to work on my big cardigan with the yarn from last year. It’s just time to get rid of the old so I can get on with the new.

Oh, and a little maintenance note – it somehow has completely escaped my notice that WordPress has a plugin that can handle spam. I am giving it a go, so for now the annoying word-verification thing has gone bye-bye. Apparently, Askimet has been quite successful in blocking obvious spam. WordPress.com uses it and they extend the service to self-hosted sites as well. So, I hope it works because I hate to put people off by typing in verification words.