Sunday, May 11, 2008

Yarn shopping

I went to the Shepherd's Harvest Festival on Saturday with my apprentice and her son. Since she was still on the mend I suggested we bring a wheel chair and I push her and DJ around so she would not get overtired. It worked really well.

We arrived at 8:45 am and strolled through the vendors booths. We then went to the livestock barns and visited with the llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats and rabbits. DJ was having fun calling to all the animals.

I was fairly well restrained in my purchases. The amount of fiber is overwhelming and I since I can't buy everything, I usually buy nothing or very little.

I purchased 4 bars of MN Summer soap and a tin of Knitters Little Helper hand balm from Shepher's Choice. I didn't realize that they had a shop up in East Bethel. They are hosting a sheep shearing festival on May 31st and I think I may have to take a jaunt over there from TOC. This was the main purchase that I was planning to get at the event. We walked through all of the vendor buildings. In the first building my attention was caught by some hand dyed gold silk. It was such a beautiful color. As we ate lunch, my thoughts kept going back to that silk. I found myself saying that we need to go back to building B so I could visit the silk.

Yeah, I bought it, and a skein of lilac as well. It's a 2/12 weight, the same as the silk I am currently using for the stockings. The silk is from Chamomile Connection, currently located in IN but soon to be moving to NM. They carry naturally colored cotton too and it is just lush! I think I may try to chart the pattern in the 17th. stockings in the MFA and try to make them with this silk. Could be a fun project.

About 1:30 we were all spent and I drove Liz and DJ home.

I joined Setti, G2 and Maddie at the Sheepy Yarn Shoppe in White Bear Lake. I hadn't been there before. It's a really cute shop and I decided to splurge on a skein of Louett Linen and a washcloth pattern.

We went to a local place down the street from the Yarn shop and had lunch. They had a lovely beer selection! Afterwards we headed to G2's place and had coffee and kept knitting. I finished the heel flap and turned the heel, picked up the stitches along the side and started the gusset decreases. My goal is to have the stockings to Drea before Memorial Day and I think I can do this.

1 comment:

Emily said...

I like that you stated that you were just going to "visit" the silk. It looks lovely, though. Sounds like you had a good time, though, and it's great that you've progressed so far with the stockings.