fiber spoils of maryland

One of the most fun aspects of the festival this year was that the weather was good for actually wearing shawls.   That meant lots of people asking about my shawls, plus not feeling like I should be wearing something I'd made, because I was.  (It's certainly nice when nonknitters compliment my knitting, but it's even nicer to get positive feedback from people who know what they're talking about.) 

I went to Maryland with a short list of things to look for: small amounts of greenish fiber for the freeform blanket, a niddy-noddy, maybe a heavier spindle, and maybe some incredibly nice yarn or fiber for a sweater.  I think it worked out rather nicely.

Here are pictures of the spinning fiber I bought:

This is merino-mohair from The Fold--three ounces for the blanket.

My only other fiber purchase on Saturday was this (pound of) cormo/kid mohair.  I think it's going to be at least most of a sweater, possibly with the addition of the chocolatey alpaca blend I bought last year.

On Sunday, with the much-reduced crowds, there was room to comfortably stop at Handspun by Stefania, where I bought these:

This is either coopworth or jacob (I thought it was jacob, but the sales slip says coopworth) dyed with indigo and osage orange.  I bought three ounces, and it's going into the blanket.

This is corriedale-silk dyed with madder and I think something else; four ounces for something like a lace scarf.  (I used my flowerbasket as a scarf on Sunday, and it was nice enough that I want more things I can use like that.)

We stopped by the cormo booth again, and I picked up this blend of wool from white and black cormo.  I may use some of it for blending and dyeing experiments, or maybe I'll try to spin sock yarn from it.

Then, on probably our third stop at Spirit Trails, I finally bought something:

This is an ounce of what I think is wool from a merino/shetland/dorset/cheviot cross sheep with 10% angora added in.  (It's also possible that there's wool from two or four different sheep.  Either way, it's really soft and a gorgeous brown.)

The sheep/goat/rabbit/llama/alpaca pictures are still stuck on film, but I'll share them when I've gotten them developed, hopefully later this week.  My purchases other than spinning fiber did not photograph well the other day, so I'll just tell you about them: one kromski niddy-noddy, one louet sheepy spindle  [pics found via google images], one set of felting needles, and some peace fleece sport in sheplova mushroom, for a sweater.

Comments

[Laurie]

Lovely choices! You are SO weakening my resolve for this weekend in NH. *sigh*

Fiber is intoxicating.