And here it is! This may seem like a lot but believe me I was quite restrained compared to last year! The combs will be used shortly as soon as I start washing the cormo fleece! And then spin, spin, spin!

STR in Lagoon

Spinner’s Hill batt, 1lb

Llama roving

Cormo fleece and Pucker Brush roving

5 skeins of Cormo yumminess!

Pair of Viking Combs from Indigo Hound

I’ve been dreaming of Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival for months! Then it came and now it’s gone. Things were quite hectic leading up to last Saturday’s event and still are, but man I had so much fun! The ladies were a hoot and great partners in this yearly adventure. Our troop ran into Dani, Holly, Jasmine, Shanti, Kel, and so many others!

Now before you get too excited I don’t have pics. Yes, I suck. I do, however, have a list of my purchases and pics of those will come soon. In the meantime, just dream and wander over to the ladies blogs and laugh at the sillyness. Ooohhh I forgot to mention that I met Alice Field! Alice is the shepherdess behind Foxhill Farm, and the award winning Cormo fleeces. She won last year’s Grand Champion prize and I’m pretty sure she won this year again!

- 5 skeins of worsted weight Foxhill Farm’s Cormo cross from the American Cormo Association booth in brown

- 3 1/2 lbs of yummy Cormo fleece (Foxhill Farm) from the American Cormo Association booth

- 1 lonely STR skein from The Fold (thank you Holly, you rock!), Lagoon

- 4 ounces of Llama roving from Briar Patch Llamas

- 1 lb of Spinner’s Hill wool/silk batt in lovely blues/teals

- 3 ounces of wool/mohair roving in blues (can’t remember vendor’s name but I’ll find it) from Pucker Brush Farm

- A pair of Viking double row wool combs from Indigo Hound

- 1 bar of soap from Leslie’s Garden

And I think that’s it. I think. Next time I must focus on books! and more equipment like a Woolee Winder, handcards and a diz.

What did you get?

Or I should say oohh Cookie! Cookie A has launched a new site dedicated to selling her sock patterns. Yipppee!…Now this is old news considering I started this post over a week ago and never got around to pushing it live.

Fast forward to today. I’ve finally recovered from our NYC trip! After two nights of no sleep, and two days of running ALL OVER the big apple, I crashed *hard* Friday night and slept away Saturday. The gals and I went up to NYC to hear the Yarn Harlot speak at FIT in support of her book launch. Of course, the excuse was to hear her speak but we all knew we were there to shop, and shop we did!

—> click on image for more photos at Flickr
1. Our room at the Edison, 2. Elspeth in our room, 3. Erin’s tonsils, 4. Elspeth and Maeve strutting into FIT auditorium

Thursday was spent trolling the Garment district checking out the numerous fabric stores. We also hit some knitting stores in Upper East Side (Knitty City) and Upper West Side. On the Upper West Side we checked out String, home of cashmere delux. Their selection of cashmere is wonderful and the staff was equally fabulous. They have some wonderful patterns that they will modify for you, but you have to purchase along with the yarn. Foooey! After hitting String we needed a little sugar pick up and headed to La Maison du Chocolat. Can you say deadly?!!! The evening ended with the Yarn Harlot speaking, and us heading to Lombardi’s for dinner.

And then came Friday. Oh Friday how I love thee. First up breakfast at Grey Dog, yummy yummy food. And so the yarn crawl began…

1. The Point - Not much to say about this place. The atmosphere, or lack thereof, didn’t do it for me.

2. Purl - Love, love, love! Amazing how small could be and still retain the wonderful sense of excitement! Their yarn selection is large and beautifully organized. I couldn’t bring myself to buy any but I’m sure in the future I’ll be captured by their Lobster Pot cashmere.

3. Purl Patchwork — oh my god! The fabrics! I came home with some Japanese prints. Lovely.

4. Downtown Yarns -lovely staff, and cute doggie! Small and quaint.

5. School Products - the legendary store never lets me down. I got 1lb of merino lace for $26 with over 3400 yards. Yup.

6. Habu Textiles - ohhh if only I was rich I would shop here each time. I’ll have to wait until they have their yearly sale again.

Project update

Remember the merino/cashmere handdyed top? Well, it’s all plied and ready to be knit. Wanna see? This is about 760 yards of laceweight yarn.

I need to get the WPI and update.

I’ve also started my next spinning project, but I can’t tell you much about it. It’s a secret! I can, however, show you a sample. This is the CVM/Rambouillet I bought last year at the MSWF from Robin Nistock at the fleece sale.

I’ll leave you with some cuteness…Lobo hiding behind my spinning wheel and Pikachu protecting the wheel.

A little bit of a flash back for you gals…I present you my Prince album. Yes, LP. Not just any LP but THE Purple Rain LP. It even has the poster inside. I HEART IT very much. This got played today while I exercised towards the 100 miles by April 1st.

After a night of drinking, swapping, eating, and chatting with the gals I felt I needed to work off the extra pounds.

Yarn Swap

The local DC knitters gathered last night to swap yarn, do some drinking, and knit. Here’s Ann, Erin, and Sarah the hostess.

And the pile just got bigger

And no one could tear themselves away from the yarn so the knitting was delayed…

And then the swapping ended and I got more yummyness

And the stash room got bigger

I would like to point out though that there’s more fiber than yarn. So obviously, I have more yarn to add to this pile. Now go check out Yarn Tales and see her yummy Angora rabbit and recent fiber accumulation.

Actually this weekend began with Stitches East, and continued on to some dyeing action.

Not much to say about Stitches East, except it was disappointing, and not unique in any which way. There were some great vendors (Blue Moon Fiber, Black Water Abbey, antique button lady, etc), but it was also full of the generic yarn stores that really should just stay at home unless they are selling their own yarn line. I don’t know about you but I don’t go to Stitches East or MSWF to buy Rowan or Debbie Bliss. That’s why I have the internet or my LYS.

My purchases were quite small (my wallet thanks me), and just right. I got 2 skeins from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Queens Rock and Obsidian. I also got a huge skein of undyed laceweight Merino, and a few patterns. Best of all though, I got to meet up and hang out with some great late night irregulars, and shop with Maeve and Erin. Afterwards, the gang of Stephanie, Aimee, Jasmine, Courtney, Erin, Maeve, and I headed for food and wine. Thanks Stephanie for the great spot!

Now for the real fun! Maeve graciously offered her stashola of dyeing chemicals to Erin and I. Erin has some yarn and roving to dye, and so do I. But Maeve could dye yarn for another week and not be done! That stash is huge. The girls got together yesterday afternoon, and spent the day analyzing yarn, colors, more yarn, knitting up yarn, and dreaming about the next dye job. I’m Hooked!

Here’s how it went..

Step 0

Thank you Maeve! I owe you big time. Let’s see I think I heard “I’ve never knitted with handspun”. Well, keep your eyes open.

Step 1

Find fiber, aka yarn or roving, to dye. I present you some of mine:

Foxhill Farm: Sock Yarn, Cormo and nylon

Paradise Fibers: Merino/Cashmere roving

Step 2

Dunk in bath of chemicals

Step 3

Paint…doh! Erin has pics, but come back…

Step 4

Let your yarn/roving dry, and fondle. Click on pics for larger images.

Roving, aka yummy fiber goodness

Same roving different lighting

Foxhill Farm sock yarn

Step 5

Don’t let Cricket eat your roving:

Step 6

Thank Maeve again! Thank you!! and start knitting or spinning.