Stash Enhancement at TKGA Show!

Yes folks, I did end up spending more than I had planned on at the TKGA Knit & Crochet Show on Saturday, but still had huge restraint! I could have done sooooooooo much more damage... ooh, SO much more! There was a stunning jacket kit that I absolutely adored, but alas the $200 price tag wasn't in my budget. Nor was the $62 skein of some unusual fiber (it wasn't yak but it was something in that unusual category). So I tried to not set my credit card ablaze be good and only purchase things that were out of the ordinary and not something I could readily pick up at my LYS. Here's what I came home with...

See all the unusual fibers there? HA HA - just kidding. That was the goody bag from Coats & Clark that the first 500 pre-registered attendees received. Its not bad and does include a nice skein of Moda Dea washable wool in what I think is a new shade! Now for the real stash...

I purchased 3 kits... one to make super soft (and from what I'm told, amazingly warm) silk mittens, one for a drawstring bag (knitted with beads - also from AffectionKnit but I couldn't find it on their site to link) and finally, an elegant scarf (also with beads). I tried to show you the gorgeous hand dyed yarns that came with these kits in this pic, but it does not do them justice. Also pictured are some Norwegian pewter buttons, a set of size 7 Fiddlesticks (oh my gosh - these needles are amazing... rosewood with coconut at the top and mother of pearl finish on the ends ... not only do they look great, they are fabulous to knit with as I cast on a dishcloth last night just to test them out!), some absolutely amazing (yet extremely affordable!) yarns from Habu and 2 books - One Skein Wonders and The Secret Language of Knitters. Yes, I do already own the One Skein book - and some of you may even know that it is one of my favorite books - but the editor, Judith Durant happened to be at one of the booths signing her book and well... well, if your are one of the people I get to spoil in my current swaps, you just might be getting my previous copy! HA HA. And guess what? In chatting with the lovely Judith, we found out that the second installment, 101 Designer One Skein Wonders is coming out this fall (and I've already pre-ordered my copy thru Amazon)!!! WOO HOO! Use the stash!!! Here are some more photos from the show...

Close up of the goods.... The gorgeous hand dyed from the AffectionKnit kits on the left, the buttons, needles & scarf kit on the right.



 Signed books for the collection...


Mary Beth Temple ... we just sort of happened upon her signing her just-released book and what a hoot she is! If she happens to be near you signing, go check her out (and remind her she shouldn't sit in coffee when wearing a white skirt...)! She blogs too! I started reading the first few pages of the book and so far, 4 paws 2 thumbs up! Think of Mary along the lines of a Yarn Harlot type of comedy... knitting comedy if you will. I can't wait to read on in the book ... and and get this, she's a dog Mommy too!!! :-) I can't believe the number of fellow knitting (and crocheting) dog Mommies I'm meeting thru blogging lately - its amazing (and I'm not referring to "dog owners" - but true dog MOMS - and those of us who are know there is a big difference)!


Here I am with the lovely Judith (thankfully I found this nifty healing brush tool in Photoshop today that helped to remove some of the awful, awful bags under my eyes... boy were these pictures a horrible wake up call today... anyone got some good beauty cream tips/advice??)...

It was a wonderful day spent with friends and family! Sue came up from CT to go to the show with me (while Matt and his Dad worked on the dog's fence... woo hoo! They got a really great start on it too!)... again, loving that healing brush tool!

Sue is really into beautiful lace shawls and boy were there lots of gorgeous ones to drool over!

We bumped in to lots of other friends throughout the day, including Heather who was my enabler at the Habu booth. I really wasn't thinking of buying anything there until she came by and started raving about it... then I had to have a closer look and ended up with this...

The photo of the booth really doesn't do those amazing garmets justice, but hopefully it gives you an idea. The yarns... yummy, yummy yarns... I got 1 tiny (no joke its about the size of maybe half of the palm of my hand) skein of 100% cashmere (the green) and 2 skeins of the silk/mohair blend. These will mostly likely be for feather and fan scarves. The burgundy color cones to the left at 100% merino wool which will probably turn in to some lace shawl or wrap ... and the lilac color is the silk and stainless steel blend (also destined for a lacey shawl of sorts)! Yes folks, silk and stainless steel - how very cool and unique? Matt was even impressed!


We met this lovely sea lady while walking around...

 

Yes, a felted mermaid that is life size - very cool! Joanne said she was at The Knit-In at Loon Mountain, but I have to admit... I missed her there!

These were some of the garmets on display near the entrance...

 

It was an absolutely wonderful day (even if I did have some sore feet aftewards)... and I got to come home to a half-finished fence for the doggies. WOO HOO! I can't wait until its finally finished and ready for use, but we're much closer now. Matt's Dad even offered to come back up after their vacation next month to help some more (thank you Dad & Sue!!!). Maybe that means Sue and I will have to do a little yarn crawl that day... hee hee.

In doggy news, we picked up our newest houseguest, Bella, on Friday evening. What an absolute love bug and energetic pup! If you know dogs, you know that terriers are known for their energy... multiply that by oh, about 100 and you get Miss Bella! Yes folks, she's either in GO-GO-GO mode or she's crashed out completely... there's no in between with this little cutie pie. She immediately fit herself right in to our pack as soon as she came in and has been romping and wrestling with the big dogs non-stop. When she's not wrestling, she's chomping on a bone or playing with a squeaky or some other toy. She loves the marrow bones we have around, as well as the Orbee toys ... and the squeakies and the balls and the Bobos and the ropes... see a trend here? Yes, this lovebug just loves anything and everything ... and shows you nothing but love and affection in return! It looks like she already has an adopter ... and get this... its yet another Nicole who only lives about 10-15 minutes away! I'm going to be stopping by Nicole & Ryan's place tomorrow to do a home visit and then we'll proceed from there if they are interested in adopting. (I swear there is something ironic about me adopting out to fellow Nicole's - Dustee's mom is also a Nicole and only lives about 10 minutes way too!). So here's my dose of cuteness for you from the first few days of Bella in our lives...

She's always smiling...
 

Two peas in a pod... or Daddy's lap anyway!

 

She loved Bobo so much she chewed his ear right off ... oops!
 

Hanging with her foster brothers & sister...

 

Of course I have plenty more pics, but I'll save some for later... plus this post is getting kind of long... are ya still with me? Huh people??? Still out there???

Footsies, Flowers & FO's --- oh my!

Greetings from a very wet and chilly New England! Our Nor'Easter started out with rain, then turned to snow for a bit and back to rain.... and more rain... and more rain is forecast for pretty much the rest of the week. Hello, Miss Mother Nature... did you miss my last post??? I'll spare you the photos of my wet basement and instead share the view out my window.

So, despite the friggin' stinking, dreadful rain cold and wetness, at least we have power today. I had taken yesterday off with intentions of getting some spring cleaning and other things around the house done... Yea, not so much! I found it a bit difficult to vacuum with no power. Fortunately, we were only out for 8 friggin hours most of the day though... Heather and Joanne didn't get theirs back until this afternoon.

I did manage to get some knitting done yesterday and actually do have 2 FO's to show you! First up, my Cabled Footsies from One Skein in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the beautiful Tuscany colorway. (feel free to ignore the snazzy pj pants!)

After I finished them, I got extra ambitious. I cast on and finished a matching mini sock for my sock blocker key chain (all while the man was still sleeping, mind you!). What do you think?

This was the first (of many to come!) mini socks for me and I have to say, working on size 0 DPN's with worsted weight yarn... not so much fun! Kinda like trying to vacuum with no power. Matt seemed to like the mini sock and even encouraged me to do some for Christmas ornaments ... hhmm, maybe instead of the usual bows & gift tags this year, we'll have sock tags!

So what socks to cast on next? I've already wound up my Sereknity Three Scoops, but now I have 3 skeins of my very own hand dyed yarn to play with too! Decisions, decisions... and back to that hand dyed yarn.... I had a lovely time at the Cherry Tree Hill yarn dying workshop at Yarn & Fiber on Saturday with some fellow ManchVegas knitters, including Heather, Gina, Ericka and Sarah from Pittsfield (whom it was great to finally meet!).

Here's Cheryll from CTH, along with her very helpful daughter!

The class might've been a little big for such an event (a bit over 20), but Cyndi kept the shop together and Cheryl kept things moving along (she started by saying she usually doesn't do classes that are only 3 hours long, which I could see as a longer class may've left those of us who were completely new to dying with a little bit better of an understanding). I do feel like I picked up the basics and had a lot of fun, but as Ericka mentioned over on her blog, I don't think I'm ready just yet to clean and make room to dye in take over the whole kitchen just yet (paging Miss Heather... how about a group dying day?? lol). We got to dye in groups of 7 and here are a few pictures of the action and the patient waiting.

I got to dye 3 skeins - 1 fingering weight and 2 sport weight. Here's how my messes turned out...

The bottom hank (blues, pinks, purples) was my first ever attempt at dying yarn. Cheryll asked us all to name our colorway before we even set foot near the dye table... this is "Jazzy Jewels." The middle hank was my second creation that I'm now calling "Autumn Road" and the top hank was my "mistake" hank (I got 2 wound together and didn't realize it until yellow dye had already been placed on both of them... yikes!), dyed at the very end of the class when the dye was scarce and almost all containers completely empty. I'm calling this one "Madi Gras." So what do you think at my first ever attempts at hand dying?

An interesting tidbit... Cheryl taught us to never throw away the left over water, run off or what one might consider "grime" from dying. What one (or at least I) would think to throw down the drain, she calls "exhaust" and uses to dye her Potluck (one-of-a-kind) skeins, of which she brought along lots for us to browse. Here they are, along with several samples of her work.

I was as reserved as a well trained dog at the White House good and scooped up just one skein. I wasn't even going to get the 1, but it was the one skein I was eyeing while chatting with Gina before class began and it was still there at the end of the day, so...

As you can see, I also picked up 3 skeins of Meditation for what will probably be a scarf and size 4 needles to start my headband (still haven't decided if I will do the Amanda or the Jacqueline but I did wind up my Sereknity "Lilacs In Bloom" yarn last night, so I had better choose one soon). Those purchases don't really count though... you see, the bag really wasn't big enough for Matt to show concern or notice more yarn coming in the house!

Speaking of my honey, look at the burst of color he brought home to me on Friday... I think he was trying to cheer me up from having dropped Dustee (who I got to visit for a bit on Sunday... which made me smile lots!) off to his new forever home the night before. So now I'll share it with my fellow NH knitas, as I'm quite sure you need a burst of color today!

Are you smiling a little bit and trying not to look out the window now? If not, let's try this one... it seems as though whenever I'm trying to photograph for the blog lately, a nose, tail or paw seem to pop up in the pictures... this time I got a little more.

Stay dry... stay warm... and keep this thought in mind... if April Showers Bring May Flowers, just what the heck do April Snow Storms and Nor'Easters bring??