A Wool Gathering 09

I went to A Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs, OH this past weekend. Last year, it was wickedly hot and just after that wind storm which caused us not to have power for a week. This year, on the other hand, the weather could not have been better. It was nice and cool in the morning and warmed up into the high 70s by the afternoon. It was great to meet up with my friend and her mom and to see vendors and other shoppers that I know. It's funny, the more I go to these events in my area, the more people I'm getting to know.

I was very happy that I stayed within my budget but I definitely didn't stay away from sock yarn or fiber.


Yeah, that is 3 additional skeins of sock yarn and a couple of ounces of different fibers. In my defense, one of those skeins was bought by my friend and I'm knitting the socks as Christmas presents for her. I've already thought up a good pattern for the variegated yarn. I should probably cast on so that the socks actually get finished for this Christmas rather than one far down the road. (Not that I've ever done that with a present *cough*) That skein and the other variegated one were from Earthly Hues and are going to be fabulous socks.



I think my best/most favorite purchase was the Greensleeves drop spindle and the fibers from Susan at the Trading Post. I took my spinning and knitting Estonian Lace class at Susan's shop back in April. She has wonderful crack fiber. Back in May at Wooster, I had wanted to buy one of her spindles but didn't make it back to her booth before everything closed down. I made sure that I made it to her this time around!

Purple = Ashland Bay Concord (I think)
Grey = Mongolian Cashmere & Mulberry Silk (again, I think)

I've found that I really like lightweight spindles that will spin a lace to fingering weight yarn. It doesn't hurt that all of the fibers I want to use at this moment really like to be spun thin. Right now I'm spinning the purple merino/tussah silk blend into a 3-ply fingering-ish weight. I'm using that chain plying technique where you spin then ply. The resulting yarn is REALLY nice if I do say so myself!

The other skein of fingering weight yarn that I bought was from Amazing Grace Llamas. Amazingly, I didn't buy any of her soaps this time around. Normally I come home with at least one of her cute shaped soaps but I was fickle this time and didn't find a scent that screamed to me. The ribbed socks that I just told you about were made out of her superwash fingering weight yarn. This time, I bought a semi-solid yellow that reminds me of a daffodil and other spring flowers.


I have a feeling it will be very nice to wear those socks in the middle of dreary winter. I also have to confess that I bought that color for the leftovers. You might be wondering, huh? Well, I don't have many brightly colored squares so far for my sock yarn blanket and I know I will have plenty of leftovers with this skein.

Speaking of the sock yarn blanket, the cat found the squares. . .


She looks really comfy doesn't she? I'm up to 24 squares and haven't repeated a yarn yet. Actually, the full count of squares won't reflect the true number of socks I've made. On some of the socks I had only a couple of yards left and one pair only had an inch and a half.

Oh! I almost forgot! I received the skein of Noro sock yarn in the mail on Saturday. Yesterday, I finished the scarf and started a matching pair of fingerless gloves. I decided to do a garter stitch pair so the gloves would be similar to the scarf. Thanks to ravelry, I found a good pattern and I immediately cast on. The original pattern was written for a heavier yarn so I just increased the number of stitches cast on and did more rows that the pattern called for. I might lengthen the tops of the mitts by picking up stitches and knitting a couple of rows of garter stitch. We'll have to see. I'll still have yarn left over so I am going to have plenty for a fringe on the scarf. Anything to use up the rest of the skein!