MDSW Fun and Some Syncopation

Phew! What a weekend! It was such tremendous fun hanging out with Liz on Saturday -- and extra special fun meeting her Montco Sit and Knit friends! I keep thinking about how much fun it would be to take a trip up to Philly just to hang out and knit with these people.

The BackBou did a great job of just taking the kids away to look at dogs and sheep and funnel cake while I was browsing stalls with Liz and standing for an hour in the Socks That Rock line.


But now I have my first skeins of STR! There are some rockin' BSJs are in my future ...

I won't bore everyone with a stash enhancement report (I did well), instead I'll show you the great picture from the day ...


Aileen, Sally, Lolly, Isel, Liz, a mystery guest, and Jenna. As you can see from the "Rabbits" sign, we were at the packed Ravelry meet-up.

And now for a FO!



Pattern: Syncopated Caps by Kate Gilbert, Interweave Knits Summer 2007
Yarn: Plain and Fancy Sheep and Wool Co
Needles: US 4s
Notes: No pattern mods even though I thought I would need to add some length. However, I knit the women's size and it fit me perfectly. The yarn, as I've said before, is a dream. Knit with it. Love it.



I had bought the yarn so that R and I would have matching caps, but she really, really wants this to be an end-of-the-year present for one of her teachers. I can't say no since I love her almost as much as R does.

BackBou Exposed and some FOs

So the BackBou was outed this week as the obsessed baker that he is. Those of us in blogland (and those of us who happen to live with him) have known about his alternative lifestyle for a while now, but let me tell you, it's generating some interest in his attorney world of work. Read the Home Style article here. The print edition has some great pictures of the kids helping to make the pizzas.

In addition to working on the lace scarf and some socks (I'm unfortunately not the uber-sock knitter that Tiennie is!), I was able to finish these hats (for my neighbor's new twins) over my vacation.


Pattern: Cabled Greenspun Beanie from Nature Babies by Tara Jon Manning.
Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft DK in Mirage and Sweet (I think, I'm not sure about the names of the colors)
Needles: US 6s

Notes: I really liked Nature Babies. I checked it out from the library and really enjoyed looking through it. I think I'm going to try to make the soft play bloxes to sell at a RWS festival. Or maybe the stitched moon and star toys. Or maybe the flannel star babies. Or maybe some elfin bonnets. Or ...

MDSW Afterglow

Well. I had a wonderful time. Here are my new goodies ...

Clockwise from top left: N's Tess sock yarn (good taste my dear), Terra bargain yarn (2 skeins light indigo, 2 skeins sunflower), a big pile of stuff (1 skein Spirit Trail sock yarn, 4 skeins Green Mountain Spinnery Sylvan Spirit Peridot, 1 skein Brooks Farm Acero), new drop spindle with Spin It book, felting kits from Black Sheep Designs (Jingle balls and birds), and N's dye tops from Springwater Workshop (nice color selection N!).

Most fun was meeting Carol (you totally crack me up), Jody, Erin, Nova, Bridget, and Amy. What a great time! The girls came along and did very well. N truly enjoyed shopping for fiber. Scary. She's only 7. I better up her allowance ...

R dug the animals (and avoided Carol's fate). We were all richly rewarded with festival food before heading to the In-Laws ...

Where the BackBou tried his hand at drop spindling.

Then home again for a photoshoot of our kitchen! Fine Homebuilding is going to feature our kitchen remodel in their kitchen and bath issue (out in the fall). We felt like rock stars!

The BackBou demonstrating the usefulness of the butcherblock. With all the excitement of the photos, I knit an entire sleeve of the Spartan with the wrong needles. Drat.

PS: Auntie Lynn -- Sorry we missed you! Thanks for the yummy shortbread!

Postcard from Maryland

Dear Mo,
I'm having a hard time putting together a post about MDSW without repeating everything every other blogger has said about the day: the long lines, the cute animals, the great weather, and of course, all the amazing yarn.

I took the bus from Rosie's Yarn Cellar, and since I have a "in" with a certain bus captain, I managed to snag a seat on the much-coveted Early Bus. This was a great way to travel, since our bus driver was particularly disinclined to sit in the long lines of traffic to get into the fairgrounds, and well, it was a bus full of knitters, so you know that you'll have something to talk about.

I had sort of planned most of my purchases, and for the most part, I stuck with my plans, and gave myself enough room for impulse purchases as well. It did seem for a moment that I bought an obscene amount of yarn, but the Back Bou was kind enough to point out that I spent less on yarn than Mr. S's and my dinner at Tru, and have no useful garments to show for that!

I was also so excited to meet up with certain bloggers and spend time with my IRL knitting friends. I finally got to meet Minty (and her Mom!), and was pleasantly surprised to see Nova there as well (with her absolutely darling son and hubby, too).

But the true highlight of MDSW for me was getting to spend the day with Ann and her family. I could have been absolutely anywhere for the day with her gang and would have had fun. Hell, I could have even been in a yurt and been totally satisfied with my day. Throwing in the incredible yarn was truly just a bonus to a day with my dear, dear friend.

The only thing missing? The only thing keeping the day from being perfect?

You, of course. We missed you terribly.

So do you want to see the haul?

From Tess Designer Yarns

a gigantic hank of Prime Alpaca

Tess Supersock & Baby

From Brooks Farm

two skeins of Acero for some man-socks

Primero

A sweater's worth of FourPlay

The Bargains of the Day

A ton of alpaca laceweight

Two skeins of Terra from the bargain bin

Do you want to know what we bought for you?

Four skeins of Green Mountain Spinnery's Sylvan Spirit

We each got four skeins for our next XRK KAL. This time, it will be a yarn-along! More matching outfits, I say!

There were a couple hanks of Spirit Trail sock yarn that are not cooperating with the camera, but they are lovely as well.

But now I do think it might be time to reinstitute a Summer of Stash...