Fiber Fool

I do not think I mentioned here on the blog the cool Christmas gift my mom got my sister and I. It involved excuses to visit with each other, learn, and play with our cameras — she got us Nikon School classes. The first of two we took here in Denver this past Saturday. In October we’ll take the second one in Minneapolis! How cool is that? As of this morning my sister is headed back to Minnesota after an exhausting, but exhilarating week here in Colorado. Her first visit since my wedding nearly 7 years ago!

Last Friday we went to the Denver Zoo and took photos, on Saturday we took the all day class. On Sunday she took some portraits of Drew and I together as we had no quality ones and she is a very experienced portrait photographer. Monday we ran a few errands I couldn’t put off and then went shopping. Tuesday we went to Rocky Mountain National Park for more photography. Wednesday we had to recover and had a mostly PJ day with *many* chick flicks. And our final full day we browsed Jax’s photography section, visited the Poudre River Arts Center Gallery and the Center for Fine Art Photography followed by some playing around with her close-up filters and using my remote for the first time. Then we ended the day with some night photography up by Horsetooth Reservoir. It has been one mighty packed week!

The photocentric nature of the week’s activities means I’ll have many photographic blog posts this coming week! Yay! Pictures! That’ll beat this all text post that I’m too lazy to look up links for (hey, it’s late after taking night photos and Amber has a shuttle to catch in the morning) :-)

That is all that came home with me from Brown Sheep! Can you imagine?

Okay, that isn’t *quite* the whole truth. I also brought home an “order” of yarn for two different sweaters for Amanda. She’s even planning on knitting of them for the Ravelympics! Go, Amanda!

Really, seriously, the 13 skeins of Top of the Lamb Sport seen above are the only things that came home with me to stay. I bought them to make the Gathered Pullover from the Winter 2007 IK (rav link). Amanda got yarn for that as well so we might do our own local KAL on that one when things for me slow down enough that I have time/energy to knit just for me.

The trip was fantastic though! 26 people were a part of the trip. It started at Sheila’s home with a fantastic breakfast on china and crystal. She has the most fantastic garden and fun and energizing home as well so it was a great way to kick off an early morning departure. I rode in the vehicle that she rode in so we were a bit behind everyone else so none of us got to take a tour, but we had all been on a tour not that long ago so it was no problem at all. Then there was a catered lunch with a deli tray and salads and two gals had birthdays on either side of our trip so there was also birthday cake and cookies.

Everything went so smoothly it was amazing. There was a Brown family emergency the day before our trip that kind of threw some of the plans out of kilter, but duties shuffled around and they pulled of a great day. I even got home early enough to run an errand and eat dinner with DH before going to SnB!

I went up to Estes on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I caught a ride with Amanda. We arrived just in time for the vendor barn to open and dropped off some things for Laura at the Textiles a Mano booth before cruising the vendors. The vendors were mostly the same as previous years - Intelacements, Brooks Farm, Textiles a Mano, Wooly Designs, Magpie Woodworks, Susan’s Fiber Shop, Red Barn, Bliss Merino, La Plata, Shuttles, Switzer, Northwest Looms, as well as some breed associations and a handful of finished woolen wear booths.

I did most of my shopping damage on Saturday. I went with a shopping list to pick out some yarn for the scarf grandma ordered for Christmas and some fiber for a commissioned spinning and design project (above). I got both of those things and two impulse purchases - an 8oz red alpaca roving bump from Stargazer Ranch and some mohair locks (below) so I have something to process whenever I choose the hand combs mom said I get for Christmas last year.

I ran into quite a few people while roaming the vendor barn. In fact, pretty much everyone I had hoped to see at the blogger meet-up. So, when it came time for the blogger meet-up I was my usual wallflower self and just watched it for the most part. I know Kristi, Alyson, and Becky got a kick out of being a part of the meet-up on lookers as others were taking group photos and the like. Alyson in particular was amused that the “organizer” was looking on rather than participating. I didn’t even take photos of the group photos being taken :-) Oh well!

While the meet-up was taking place Amanda was helping the overcrowded Textiles a Mano booth. Once she could get away from there we headed through town to eat at the Big Horn restaurant (that wasn’t a specific destination, just an uncrowded option that had good greasy spoon sort of food). After that we wandered next door to the Glassblower’s Studio where I think I made my favorite purchase of the market - yes, not at the actual market.

I think they may become closures on some felted bags at some point in time.

After that we headed back to Fort Collins where the flurry of the market got me to pull some handspun off the wheel (that has been there since December I believe) and get it oiled and ready to go again. Tomorrow I’ll share Sunday’s unexpected excitement…

One last post on my Minnesota trip. So when I finished the Birthday socks so quickly I was in need of more knitting. I couldn’t knit at Amber’s because of Mr. Pissy Pants, but I knew I couldn’t get through the return trip to Colorado without knitting. This is where number ten - “Always pack additional sizes of knitting needles” comes in. I had one heck of a time trying to locate yarn appropriate for socks and thick enough to warrant US2 needles. I ended up settling on some Paton Kroy from Crafts Direct in St. Cloud on our way to Plymouth where we were taking in a performance of Church Basement Ladies: A Second Helping and spending the night before my return flight.

What you see atop this post is what I completed by the time I reached my door back in Colorado. I have had to neglect it since my return. Now that I pulled it out again to photograph I’m thinking it may get frogged. The fabric is really looser than I care for when it comes to socks and I stuck with the 60 stitch count because I figured the cable would snug it up, but it still feels kind of big. We’ll see though. I won’t get to touch it until at least June, probably longer so I’ll probably wait to decide whether to frog or not at such time that I need my US2 needles or I have time to knit just for me again. But, I am liking the colors very much :-)

While in MN I did of course visit a couple of yarn shops. It was my birthday trip and I can justify yarn shops as business too :-) My first stop was to drive north for about an hour or so to Gallery of Dreams in Alexandria, MN. This yarn shop is in an older house. I love that sort of set up of yarn shops. It gives you so many rooms in which to display yarns and projects and allows you to take in a little of the shop at a time instead of being overwhelmed by a massive amount of yarn. The selection of yarns was quite varied of good quality. They had a really wide variety of the Malabrigo which none of my LYSs carry. In fact, I’m kind of regretting not bringing some home. There was even a whole room dedicated to socks! Woot!

I used this first yarn stop to replenish my sock project bag with the tools I forgot at home. I got a fun new tape measure and of course more Chibis. I had the first sock nearly completed by the time we got there and did not have any needles to do the sewn cast-off with. But, of course I couldn’t leave a yarn shop without some new yarn. In the sock room I saw this silver glittering yarn sparkling at me and had to bring it home. It’s Kertzer, which I haven’t seen in my neck of the woods. It’s 75% bamboo which is what gives it the metallic looking sheen in the gray color. It’s also very economical.

My other yarn stop on my trip to Minnesota was Uniquely Knit in New London. This is only about 40 minutes or so from my parents and I had been there a few years ago before the store changed owners. Despite the change in ownership it felt like the same shop. It is attached to a very large gift-like shop called The Mercantile. In fact, if may be easier to find if you just look for The Mercantile as their sign kind of overpowers the knit shop’s. What I loved about this shop was the bright lighting and white walls and shelving. This was highlighted by the fact that it was raining when my sister and I were there.

It is a small space, but I am amazed at the selection that is available. There were many great sock yarns to choose from, including Alpaca Sox, Mountain Colors Barefoot, more Kertzer yarns (including the Bamboo like I had purchased in Alexandria) and the Aloe infused one shown above right. They also had the new Berocco sock yarns, Trekking, and a few balls of the Crystal Palace’s Maizy (which of course had to come home with me as well - I’ve seen it around here, but never in colors that interested me or not in matching dyelots, plus no sales tax on yarn in MN!). For non-sock yarns there were many high quality acrylic and blends great for kids knitting, I also saw Lorna’s Laces, more Mountain Colors, and of course a good selection of felting yarns.

I got meet some great ladies who are regulars at the shop. They were still high from their spring retreat the preceding weekend. And, I may be at their fall retreat. I’m still awaiting more detailed information. You will soon be seeing my patterns at that shop as well.