Blogging in a Blur

I'm off at Rhinebeck but am blogging to you from the past so I can write about the Stitches East event before I have all sorts of things to say about Rhinebeck, so here we go!

Stitches East market floor

That is the only picture I took at Stitches, there were just too many things to see! It should at least give you a sense of the sheer size of the market floor-- it's at least twice as big as what is pictured. So many wonderful booths and vendors, so little time money everything.

Before hitting the market floor I took a class with Shannon Okey, which was my first ever knitting-related class. It was neat to sit in a room with like-minded people and think about knitting. We looked at images of runway fashions and sketched what knitted versions of those clothes would look like, our own interpretations. I surprised myself by really getting into it! I didn't know I had such strong feelings about runway outfits or about how to reinvent them. It was a really fun thought exercise and was cool to hear everybody's different interpretations.

Alright, on to the yarny goodness. I made my customary stop at the Webs booth to fondle Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn in person. This is a rare opportunity as their yarns are mostly only sold through their website and dyed to order, so it's rare to see a bunch in one place that you could potentially impulse buy.

BMFA Luscious Single Silk, colorway Nisqually

Like that one! Blue-green merino/silk blend super soft singles yarn? Yeah, I couldn't resist. I also caved and bought one of the Sheep 2 Shoe spinning kits I've wanted for a long time:

BMFA Sheep 2 Shoe, colorway Single Cell Dating Pool

I'm hoping that will make some pretty socks someday!

I made sure to stop by the Malabrigo Yarn booth and finally meet some great Malabrigo Junkies in person! Not only did I get to meet some really nice people, I also got a free skein of a very rare yarn of theirs, Dos:

Malabrigo Dos, colorway Zinc

How generous is that, right?

One of my favorite fiber booths was Long Island Livestock Company. I grew up on Long Island and it is not known for its farms so it was very cool to meet the owner who raises her sheep and llamas, shears them herself, and is making a beautiful business out of it. Her booth won an award for best booth, too, so check out the link above to see pictures on her facebook page. I took home a little bit of Cotswald wool (a rare breed I haven't seen before) mixed with some sparkly firetar:

More breeds for my Spinner's Study, yay!

Finally, Zen Yarn Garden . Ooooooh, Zen Yarn Garden. It's probably apparent by now that I'm a sucker for hand dyed yarns, so when I met the owner at lunch and saw her gorgeous yarns firsthand, I really couldn't resist. I fell pretty hard for these two:

Serenity Silk + on the left, Serenity Worsted on the right

These yarns are really luxurious, the left skein being a heavy laceweight merino/cashmere/silk blend and the right being a worsted merino/cashmere/nylon blend. They are hand-dyed by a husband/wife team and are based in Canada. They are gorgeous and squishy and inspiring and I can't wait to knit with them!

Have you discovered any new fiber artists you are excited about lately? I hope you all have a great weekend!