Score!

Hey, yesterday was my blogiversary! My very first real blog post was about a scarf I was making from Blithe baby camel yarn, but I didn't tell the story of finding that yarn.

I was in Salem, Mass. for a work thing, and I had the afternoon free. I fired up my laptop, connected to my hotel's free wireless, searched for yarn shops in town, discovered Arbella Yarns, and looked up directions to walk there from my hotel. The shop didn't disappoint. I'm easily attracted to funky fibers, and yarn made from baby camels? Gotta get me some of that.

Expensive stuff, and a total pain to wind into balls, but it made a gorgeous scarf.

Today, while picking through the carcass of the late and lamented "Stitch Stops Here" yarn shop, I found a box of the Blithe baby camel yarn at 60% off. It's mine now.


Fourteen skeins, in colorways brown (5 skeins), straw (7), and cinnamon (2). Anyone have any good suggestions what I can make out of it?

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.

"Here at Reality Tour Headquarters, we go through a lot of vermouth"

Matt posted a great re-cap of the XY Knitters' Trip to Mary Sheep & Wool. Left to myself, I probably would have down-played the farting, but Matt's account does paint an accurate picture. I can only add camera-phone snapshots and these assorted out-of-context nuggets of conversation.

Caution: slow moving wood.

It was an explosion of color. It was nice. (No, Don, you can't write that down; it doesn't count).

Here at Reality Tour Headquarters, we go through a lot of vermouth.

I don't like to crochet blankets when my colostomy bag is full.

Don't eat the brown guacamole.

SSS: Sleepy Sac Syndrome.

I think a booger just fell down my shirt.

I wanna see a full on throw down over some yarn.

Somebody's nuts smell really good.

Really no fun in making up a song about not farting.

Who just put on the peppermint scented Preparation H?

Next year we call it "Maryland Sex & Wool."

There's more in my journal, but it's best not to get too specific since it involves an unfortunate copy of the Koran, obscure snatches of music from West Side Story, or who was going to "accidentally" surprise whom in the shower. None of this comes close to showing how much fun I had. Thanks for the great weekend, gentlemen. All your blogs just got moved from the "Knitting" folder to the "Friends" folder in my blogroll.

Oh, and just to show that the weekend was not utterly lacking in dignity, here's Seamus posing with my traveling sock: