Even though I haven't spun in what feels like forever, I spent my time at Stitches drawn to my companion and roving...
FiberFiend.com -- 100% merino, "Mars" 4 oz
(from the BayAreaKnitCoop.com booth)
I think splitting this and spinning it from the fold will give me some amazingly awesome stripy socks. I love the depth of these colors... too much roving I see is almost pastel, and this definitely isn't :) It was the last one left, otherwise I'd have bought a set and tried for kneehighs... still though, with my track record on finishing spinning just 4 oz of yarn, maybe that was okay :)
Not that I didn't fool myself into buying just a bit more than 4 oz...
CarolinaHomespun-- 70/30 merino-silk, 8 oz total
This is a softer color than I usually like, but there's bits of orangish in the pink that made my knees weak. The silk helps, too :)
And more of the same... (couldn't get a long shot, so two closeups)
Angora Cottage-- 70/30 merino-silk, "pewter" 4 oz
I think this is the same wholesale base as the Carolina Homespun stuff, feels the same. A little poking around online today and I think they're both from Ashland Bay-- pricing was still good on both I bought though and I'm happy.
And... that's it!
Seriously? Yup. I didn't get the fire frenzy like last year-- partly because in reorganizing my (sock) stash into Ikea furniture and boxes, I realized that a lot of yarn I'd bought last year was still there. Partly because I really really loved everything I had stored away, just never enough time to knit it all. Its not like I didn't look... I walked the entire floor* but I just wasn't grabbed by the need. Funny since I'm not participating in the knit from your stash-along, but I've bought very little yarn since the new year-- not that I haven't coveted it, but I know that for almost anything I want to make (sock wise), I pretty much have it. Maybe not quantity yarn for knee highs, but then again I didn't see much quantity wise I wanted at the Market.
I guess this means I have to start spinning soon :) I should have looked for more bobbins, I need some more for the Joy to just make my life happier. I also didn't find the color of roving I wanted... a deep, deep burgundy red. I may dye up some roving this week and try and hit that sweet spot color I have in the back of my mind... or try and find it online :)
Speaking of roving (sorta)...
Lime & Violet (etsy!), grape fizz batts. 3.5oz of various wool and locks, and sparkle!
Accidentally liberace, I'm thinking :) Can I spin this into socks? (Can I spin the silk/wool into socks, also?) How do I spin from a batt? More importantly, what am I doing with all of this fiber when I don't know what I'm doing? :) Stay tuned...
* A little insight into the monkey on the keyboard here. I walked into the marketplace on Saturday, and if you were there you know its shaped oddly and was just crawling with people. I tried, I tried my hardest to walk it in some sort of order... but there was too much going on-- too many people, too many things, too much overload. For a girl who spends most of her life in quiet mode (for reals, its not always outside vox with me!)-- it was too much. I had to leave after 6 minutes (it felt like hours) and sit in the lobby to catch my breath and wait for someone to walk the floor with me so I wouldn't have an agoraphobic usually-happens-in-ikea-on-weekends breakdown amongst all the fiber. What a way to go though, eh?
FiberFiend.com -- 100% merino, "Mars" 4 oz
(from the BayAreaKnitCoop.com booth)
I think splitting this and spinning it from the fold will give me some amazingly awesome stripy socks. I love the depth of these colors... too much roving I see is almost pastel, and this definitely isn't :) It was the last one left, otherwise I'd have bought a set and tried for kneehighs... still though, with my track record on finishing spinning just 4 oz of yarn, maybe that was okay :)
Not that I didn't fool myself into buying just a bit more than 4 oz...
CarolinaHomespun-- 70/30 merino-silk, 8 oz total
This is a softer color than I usually like, but there's bits of orangish in the pink that made my knees weak. The silk helps, too :)
And more of the same... (couldn't get a long shot, so two closeups)
Angora Cottage-- 70/30 merino-silk, "pewter" 4 oz
I think this is the same wholesale base as the Carolina Homespun stuff, feels the same. A little poking around online today and I think they're both from Ashland Bay-- pricing was still good on both I bought though and I'm happy.
And... that's it!
Seriously? Yup. I didn't get the fire frenzy like last year-- partly because in reorganizing my (sock) stash into Ikea furniture and boxes, I realized that a lot of yarn I'd bought last year was still there. Partly because I really really loved everything I had stored away, just never enough time to knit it all. Its not like I didn't look... I walked the entire floor* but I just wasn't grabbed by the need. Funny since I'm not participating in the knit from your stash-along, but I've bought very little yarn since the new year-- not that I haven't coveted it, but I know that for almost anything I want to make (sock wise), I pretty much have it. Maybe not quantity yarn for knee highs, but then again I didn't see much quantity wise I wanted at the Market.
I guess this means I have to start spinning soon :) I should have looked for more bobbins, I need some more for the Joy to just make my life happier. I also didn't find the color of roving I wanted... a deep, deep burgundy red. I may dye up some roving this week and try and hit that sweet spot color I have in the back of my mind... or try and find it online :)
Speaking of roving (sorta)...
Lime & Violet (etsy!), grape fizz batts. 3.5oz of various wool and locks, and sparkle!
Accidentally liberace, I'm thinking :) Can I spin this into socks? (Can I spin the silk/wool into socks, also?) How do I spin from a batt? More importantly, what am I doing with all of this fiber when I don't know what I'm doing? :) Stay tuned...
* A little insight into the monkey on the keyboard here. I walked into the marketplace on Saturday, and if you were there you know its shaped oddly and was just crawling with people. I tried, I tried my hardest to walk it in some sort of order... but there was too much going on-- too many people, too many things, too much overload. For a girl who spends most of her life in quiet mode (for reals, its not always outside vox with me!)-- it was too much. I had to leave after 6 minutes (it felt like hours) and sit in the lobby to catch my breath and wait for someone to walk the floor with me so I wouldn't have an agoraphobic usually-happens-in-ikea-on-weekends breakdown amongst all the fiber. What a way to go though, eh?
20 comments:
I totally know what you mean on the overwhelmed feeling. Used to be really bad in college...
I started to get it also at Stitches East, but I had Slim with me (his daddy was deathly ill with the flu), so anytime I got a little out-of-breath I focused on him.
Glad you found some treats!
The Carolina Homespun makes me weak in the knees ... and I'm not even a spinner. Ooooo, I can see it as wonderful sock yarn. And BTW Aija, I shop on line lately to avoid the crowds ... altho I do love my LYS.
Gorgeous colorways of those fibers! I too would have felt just like you!! I've heard it was quite overwhelming! I also heard good things about a certain person's stitchmarkers too! ;) Yay!
i liiike that grape fizz stuff. would make lovely socks.
wish i could have gone, though i can't handle being around loads of people either...
I was totally overwhelmed at Stitches this year too. I took an hour lunch with some knitbloggers I met for the first time. It was so needed. I was beginning to get a little dizzy.
This was my first time for Stitches West at the Santa Clara Convention Center, and after seeing the immense Market space, I know that SW will never return to Oakland. Too bad.
On entering the Market area, I found myself literally walking in circles. It was only after spotting the "Aisle 600", "Aisle 500", etc. signs hanging from the far-distant rafters that I could walk the floor systematically. My hat is off to you, that you conquered your agoraphobia in that vast space.
Gorgeous fibers! I do love, too, the light colored one that isn't your normal. It's very pretty. Maybe one day I'll take up spinning.
Gorgeous fiber! You got a real variety of colors. I didn't find Stitches East overwhelming but only beacause it was really spread out.
There actually is one more 4 oz. Mars roving, if you feel you need more... it just wasn't on the rack. ;)
It was my first time at Stitches West, and I spent so much more than I thought I would. OK, no, I knew I would, I just was deluding myself.
To spin from batts, I generally open up the batt, tear strips off and spin them. Works great.
looks like you did pretty well! the red/black roving is beautiful - yay for no pastels!
i felt that exact same way at my first MD festival - I literally sat down in the middle of it and had my sister 'talk me down'. Then, I went on and had a blast! Glad you found someone to guide you!
I don't have the luxury of such events over here in Belgium, hopefully one day soon I can afford to come to the US for one. I know craft fairs are usually extreme busy. If I can I go on week days (like next week), otherwise I prefer going on my own so I can skip the booths I don't like and go at my own pace.
As for spinning from batts, I just roll it open and make strips (someone already said this) and then I predraft when needed. I recently started to predraft everything very well, and my spinning has improved a lot! I have little baskets in which I predraft all the fiber, and then I start spinning (I predraft about half of the fiber I want to spin, if I make a 2-ply for socks, so I know every bobbin has exactly half of the yarn - well, in weight that is, the thickness isn't always stable so the yardage may varry).
Oops, I'm rambling. I'm not an expert in spinning myself.
Oh, and I spin all yarn for sock, no matter. If it's like a merino/silk blend those will just become home socks! Or maybe a hat or mittens, but in essence all my yarn is spun for socks (unless I spin bigger amounts or I have a certain project in mind). My goal is to spin fine singles so I can make 3-ply sock yarn that's thin fingering weight (my preference for socks).
Greets from Belgium!
Someday we WILL meet! I totally get what you mean about being overwhelmed. I took a break and wandered around some, but it was fiber and people overload.
oh my! I see that this is even more addicting than knitting! lovely stuff!
maybe I should not have signed up for the sit N spin afternoon...
yeah, I had to take a break too. By the time I left on Friday, around two o' clock, I was DONE with people. And done with yarn, actually, for a few hours. Instead of going home to play with my purchases, I went to my studio to paint.
Oh, that first stuff is lovely! I bet it will make amazing sock. I think that Stitches is just too big and crazy for me - I'll probably stick to smaller festivals.
I'm finding the same thing - I'm not in a formal destashing-along, but I'm buying less yarn - probably less yarn than I would if I were in something formal (based on my previous experience with Stashalong).
Beautiful stuff!
those batts are beautiful; you can (and should) spin whatever the heck you want with them! go for it be fearless! hahaha! just a little EZ there, to spur you on!
I am so jealous that you got to go to SW. Sigh. They used to have both Stitches East and the TKGA convention in my area, but they both moved to different states. Now I am fiber festival/convention challenged, lol. I still enjoyed drooling on.. er... over your fiber frenzy! :)
I got the same Ashland Bay roving, same color, at the CH booth at SW! Considering how many colors they had, that's pretty cool.
I was so lost in there-- I thought I was going systematically but I kept ending up at the dog-hair booth. I wanted to check it all out before I decided what yarn to buy, and at the end I was so overwhelmed that I left without buying any yarn.
My husband wandered around for a while... he said the only time he saw yarn cool-looking enough to reach out and touch, a lady grabbed it out of his hands, and he sat in the lobby the rest of the time reading a book. :P
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