Back in May I attended the Great Lakes Fiber Fest up in Wooster. It was a great time and not nearly as hot as it was last year. Don't get me wrong, it was quite warm, but last year, it was nearly unbearable. We had a nice time, I bought some great roving and... yarn. I hadn't planned to buy yarn, but the lady that I bought Handmaiden Casbah from last year was there again with the Casbah, so I indulged... times 3! I LOVE that yarn and this past winter made fantastic gloves with it.
So this year, armed with the new Casbah... I shall make another pair of gloves, maybe socks and maybe a shawl, or more gloves....
Somewhere in the May time frame I also decided to order some Bugga, too. I've been hearing about this yarn FOREVER but never tried. Way back in the Sock Summit days, you couldn't even get into the booth! And when you did, it was all gone! Seriously people grabbed armfuls of it, not even paying attention to color, I think, just taking whatever they could get their hands on. Anyway, I was like meh?! What did I know....
Well it's all over the ravelry sock boards all the time, so I'm like, ok.. what is the fuss. Turns out, it's quite similar to my Casbah love. It has some cashmere in it blended with Merino and nylon for a nice sock yarn. It comes in 2 sizes, Skinny Bugga and Bugga. I opted for bugga as I'm tending to the thicker sock yarns these days. I bought three colors, a silvery-grey (gorgeous), dark green and a blue-green (suprise?!).
Although I basically have taken the month of June off from knitting socks, I'm ready to jump back into socks. Still have to pick a pattern and yarn though. I did order the 2nd book from Wendy Johnson, Toe Up Socks for Every Body. That should be in this week, so I might wait. Also... I received sock club shipments this month from Blue Moon (May's came late) and then Hazelknits came. I can't even describe the delicious blue color of hazelknits. It's like a blue/purpley/periwinkle monochrome variagated color. It's so wow! I was in love... and funny thing, the other skein was green (my fave color) and I couldn't even be bothered with it, that's how gorgeous this blue is! Seriously!
And to cap off the last of they buying... knitter's connection was here in Columbus this weekend past. I hadn't planned to buy yarn, just more roving and a spindle. I was successfull, I bought a little simple Shacht spindle. I hit up the Fiber Optic booth before I even BOUGHT the spindle. I picked up all this great pencil roving! OH my!!! I picked up several colors, one for my sister for christmas (I don't think she reads this blog), got one for Liz for her birthday and then I saw her on Saturday, so I gave it to her then. I know she'll make something great with it as she does such an amazing job on everything she makes.
And I kept stopping by the Briar Rose booth. I wasn't going to buy anything... but they have this really cute vest/tank pattern that I've been wanting... and well, I found a really pretty color of yarn to make it with... so... I did it. Bought the pattern and the yarn and on Sunday I cast on! So far, I just love it. I finally remember the repeat and it's easy peasy. I plan to try it on in another few rounds, just to make sure it's going to work. I think it will. I "tried" it on after the first 2 rows and I think it'll be ok, but I just want to be sure. I made need to do some extra short rows in the boobage area, but we'll see when I get there. In the meantime, here it is.
Also, please note the yarn is actually prettier than it appears in this photo. It's hard to get the plum/purple color to show up right and then next to the Olive green. Very difficult.
