Spring Stash Enhancement

I really don't like having a big stash. Stash feels like unkept promises. But I can't seem to pass up the fun of fiber festivals.

More timely bloggers reported on the Great Lakes Fiber Show last month. Great trip, good company, swell stash enhancement (some blue tweed yarn for a sweater, sock yarn with seaweed, and a lovely padauk wraps-per-inch tool). The highlight was meeting the Cider Moon folks and their entourage; it was awesome -- so much fun that most of my creative knitting energy since has been devoted to them, revising my toe-up socks class to specify using Cider Moon's Glacier. (Trust me, Matt, there are toe-up techniques that aren't hateful and make very nice, perfectly fitting socks).

This weekend, I hit the market at Knitters Connection with Mary, Meredith, and Cat. A small event, but choice stuff, and I think I spent more on yarn here than at Maryland and Wooster put together. Here's today's haul:

• From Neighborhood Fiber Company (aka Micah's guru Karida) three skeins of sock yarn named for D.C. neighborhoods, including one in honor of Micah. (Yes, Karida, I gave the skein of yarn to Jerry to give to Matt; here's photographic proof).
• From Dzined, some sport weight yarn in a wool/hemp blend (Meredith also scored some of this, which may become her first socks ever)
• From Cider Moon, 10 skeins representing their full range of sock yarns in fantastic colorways (I'm all about the names; call a yarn "Rainbow Trout" and have to own it).
  
• From Chameleon Colorworks, 2 skeins of "Evolution" stretched merino in "Earth" (Cat also bought this, so I thought we might do a knit-along of socks with a DNA cable).
• Some Interlacements Tiny Toes (Judy Ditmore has gotten me interested in the possibility of acquiring a sock knitting machine to help work through my piling stash-guilt).
• Some Apple Pie wool/mohair/silk/nylon purchased at the Yarn Barn booth from the legendary Pat (captured Reality Tour style here).

Jerry called later in the evening and said that the Cider Moon, Neighborhood, and Yarn Love peoples were gathering at Joe's Basement. I joined them for a few glasses of wine and fun chat. There was idle talk of indulging in some lesbian karaoke afterward, but the day's work was starting to take their toll. Here's wishing them all safe drives home.