Brace! Many snapshots coming up. This first one tries to capture the bustling at the convention marketplace. Hanks of yarn, knitted samples, buttons and knitters everywhere.
And here comes glorious koigu. I had no inkling of what the hype was about until I laid my eyes on this treasure:
I promise you, I've not touched up the colours in this photo. Just some sharpening to show through the strands. Resplendence, this!! I could not take my eyes off of this and finally mustered the nerve to ask 'Twisted Sisters' who graciously let me click a photo for keepsake.
And now, the great reveal - my stash of yarn purchased from the knit and crochet show in Oakland.
The 2 mags to the right and the 3 wound balls of peachish coloured yarn came as freebies at the show. The rest took painstaking selection to end up here. The grey and red will be felted, and the taupe mohair-merino blend will be turned into a vest for dad. The blue, pink and variegated are all hand-dyed cotton. I have selected patterns for the former two. The variegated one is a wildcard yarn - to keep my excitement going.
Oh, oh oh and did you notice the little sheep sitting snug on the wagtail yarn? That's my cutie p'tootie inch tape!! Yank the tail and tape comes out. Give a tiny squeeze at the tummy and the tape retracts. Nothing new in the engineering of it - it's old wine in a new bottle. But what a woolly bottle this!! :)
I went against my grain and splurged - on a pattern!! See that little booklet to the far left? That's a pattern from 'just one more row'.
Some obligatory wise words will follow. What came to my aid at the market was the homework I'd done weeks in advance. I'd selected patterns and decided on the generic category of yarn-type. Well, for this to work out, I had to first figure out the different kinds of yarn-types! But anyway, I started out knowing that I needed cotton or cotton blends. I also had a fair idea of a range of different colours that can be applicable to each project I had selected.
So anyway, I first scanned each booth and made mental notes on which booth had what kind of yarn. This show being so much smaller than Stitches West helped - I was positively bewildered at Stitches!! :) During my second round, I selectively shopped at the stalls I'd seen promising yarn. And then, for the final selection, sought help from the kind souls running the stalls - what would I do without their timely advice!!
It's now time to sit back and enjoy the yarn!
And look now - birthday gal in zany green. Happy Birthday dear!!
So thoughtful, so beautiful!
