Maryland Sheep and Wool 2015

So as we catch up on the blog I decided to  talk about my trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool this year. I say my trip, because this year Jess didn't go. I had a nice time, but I definitely missed having my bestie with me.  I hadn't planned on going either until a friend of mine posted on Instagram that she was wondering who was going.  In the end it was the two of us and another friend who got up early on a beautiful Sunday morning and took the 3 hour drive to MDSW. Of the three of us, I was the only one who had been to the festival before.  I went with a game plan in mind. I needed buttons for my Grandpa Cardigan. I knew I wanted to look at Into the Whirled's booth, and see if we made it in time for Miss Bab's special colorway.  I had a few other places I knew I wanted to check out.  The only thing I needed was buttons.  This is what I came home with that day:

Can you see the buttons? They are next to the pink yarn...

I got a bag of Odds N Ends from Into the Whirled. I am looking forward to spinning these up for Tour de Fleece this year (Fiber Fangirls will have a team again this year too!) I visited the Little Barn booth (not in my original plan), and got three bags of fiber for about $16! I plan to somehow spin that fiber up into either corresponding skeins or some kind of gradient.  I managed to snag a skein of the Miss Bab's MDSW colorway in a fingering weight yarn.

So bright and lovely. In the past, I have knit up socks with my Miss Bab's yarn, but this skein is all merino so I am not sure what I will make with it. I picked up a skein of Marigold Jen yarn. This is a new to me yarn, and I know I will knit it up to make a pair of socks as a gift.

The pink yarn is an unknown yarn that I saw at the Sweitzers Countryside Fiber Mill booth.  It is 4 ounces of many a DK weight yarn and the color drew me right in.

I got a gradient set from Fiber Optics yarn. I bought a braid from them last year and now that I know how to n-ply (thanks Julia!) I can spin that up. In the mean time, I can knit up this lovely gradient set that has cashmere in it....

Chocolate to Aqua

I also got a needle felting kit for sheep from Going Gnome, a lamb cookie cutter, some cute sheep cards and an adorable yarn bowl and necklace from Jennie the Potter. I don't have a great photo of my buttons, but will post them on my sweater when I get them on there.  It was a fun day, and I got way more yarn and fiber than I intended, but it is MDSW and only comes once each year.

Rhinebeck 2014 Roundup

This weekend was an event that we look forward to every year. An event that people will travel thousands of miles to go to, the Dutchess County Fiber Festival, better known as Rhinebeck!  A good friend of ours moved to New York a few months ago, so Jess and I headed up on Friday and stayed the night with her.  She lives outside of Albany, so we went there for dinner to a place called the Recovery Room that is on the hospital campus.  

The next morning we headed out bright and early to Rhinebeck!!! Jess took some great pictures of the trip there.

We made it in pretty quickly and I sprinted to the Miss Bab's booth. Thanks to our friend Yana getting in line for me, and a woman giving me a skein out of her hand I got one of the Rhinebeck 2014 exclusive colorway skeins! We then headed to Into the Whirled, where I got some Falkland Fiber to try out.  So in less than 30 minutes I had gotten all the yarn and fiber that were on my list. The rest of my haul included a Sheep Incognito print! I have been wanting one of these and now that I have a craft room I decided to get one.
While Jen and Yana made a mad dash to Miss Bab's, I ran to the bathroom.  When I made it to the booth, Jen had already grabbed the Polydactyl Set for me that she knew I wanted.  I purchased the Coffee Break set so I could make a tubularity.  

Jen's Sheep Incognito print

I participated in a recent Kickstarter for Going Gnome and received a cute hedgehog kit.  So I was eager to stop by their booth and see all the new packaging.  I came home with a little mushroom home kit, it is an advanced kit so I plan to do the hedgehogs first and see how that goes hehe

One of the most fun parts of Rhinebeck is meeting knitters from around the world.  I was super excited to run into the ladies from the Must Stash Podcast!

Stacie and me!

Steph and me!

I even managed to get a skein of the awesome Must Stash yarn. It is self-striping, Martian Rainbow #12. I cannot wait to knit it up!

When I ran into Stacie from Must Stash, I asked her if she had a booth so I could try her yarn.  She didn't have a booth, but she had a few skeins on her to sell.  I purchased a skein of the coveted Dark Side of the Moon and am really looking forward to knitting a pair of socks with it soon.

Jess and Stacie

Jess and Steph

Must Stash-Dark Side of the Moon

I ran into so many Ravelry and Instagram friends.  We got to hang out with sarahbee for awhile.  It's always nice to see her each year.  We have been Ravelry friends for a few years, after being paired up together in a swap.  I also got to meet Vintage Rose, which was exciting for me since we are now pen pals!  We got to meet the Stockinette Zombies after Miss Babs.  Sadly, no pictures of them since the building was super crowded.  I also met Karen from Knit 1 Geek 2.  Finally, I got to meet Diane, from Knitabulls podcast.  I have been trying to meet her for the past 3 years and was on the lookout for her.  It was so nice meeting her in person.  She is one of the sweetest people and I adore her.

Me and Vintage Rose

Me and Knitabulls

Me and Karen from Knit 1 Geek 2

We ran into other fabulous knitting friends, but I do not have the pictures on my phone.  It almost feels like a reunion every year.  I am also proud of myself that I remembered to get a pic with Jess! We go to these events together and have very few pictures together.

It was perfect sweater weather and even though there were a couple of raindrops, the day was perfect.  I am currently in a Rhinebeck hangover and am having fun looking at everyone's photos from the weekend.

MDSW 2014 & Modular Mondays in May

This past weekend was the 41st annual Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival in West Friendship, Maryland.  Jen & I drove down Friday night and came back Sunday afternoon.  We have been going for a few years, but in my opinion, this one was the most successful for us.  We both got everything we wanted on our lists (and more!), we didn't feel rushed and the weather was beautiful.  

Friday night, Cephalopod Yarns was having an open house from 4-8:30.  When we got there, we shopped a bit and then met and knit with noman, largosmom, and NekoMich.  They are lovely ladies and so much fun to talk to!  

We got to take a tour of the studio and got some info on something they will be announcing on their site shortly (!!!)  During the tour, one of our friends, lipsral, arrived.  I am so happy that I got to meet her!  We have been friends for a few years and it was great to get to meet her in person and give her a hug.  She knows we have been working hard on our sock yarn blankets so she brought each of us a special cup filled with mini skeins.  The cup has the tree and moon logo that is on the South Carolina flag.  Every time I drink from my cup I will think of Renee.  

Saturday, we woke up early and headed to the fairgrounds.  We got there around 8 am and the booths didn't open until 9.  We headed to Gourmet Stash because I have been dying to try to spin punis and there was a limited edition Maleficent colorway that I needed to get my hands on.  I also got some punis, which I have never spun before. I was nervous, but am always looking to get better at spinning.  I bought the MDSW exclusive set in the colorway "Spinner's Hill."  Also in the booth was The Vintage Rose.  She has so many amazing themed sets of stitch markers.  I am kicking myself for not getting the Sherlock set or the Harry Potter set. I snagged a set of Game of Thrones stitch markers that are awesome, a dragon, a castle, a sword and more!   I'll have to check out her etsy shop soon to see if they are available.  I did get myself a spinning wheel stitch marker to remind me of the amazing weekend I had.  

Next, we headed to to the Bosworth booth so I could get my own spindle.  I have been borrowing Jen's mini for months.  I got myself a zebrawood midi.  It's 32gm/1.13oz and gorgeous.  I tested it out that night when we went to the spin-in and I am in love with it.  It spins for miles and is so smooth.  

We wanted to check out Miss Babs, but the line was super long so we skipped it on Saturday.  We both scored at Into the Whirled.  I got some beautiful Corriedale in "Blink".  I was trying to decide what  to get when I saw a fiber called "Godswood."  So that was my second Game of Thrones item for the day!  I got it in Polwarth and it is gorgeous!  One of the booths was selling 4oz of targhee for $3 so we each picked up a bag.  I've never spun targhee before so I'm looking forward to trying it out.  I have spun Targhee before and really enjoyed it so I was excited to see the great deal that we got for it! Plus, since we got natural colored fiber I may try to dye it as well.

There was an HPKCHC meetup at 2pm so we headed over to the hill outside the main building.  It took a few minutes, but we eventually found our group in the crowd.  It was so nice to put faces to all of the ravatars I have been seeing for 7 terms.  

Hufflepuff Hoggles in the back!

We each scored a gradient batt from Loop to spin, mine is even Hufflepuff colors! (that is not what they call it but I am heh).  I bought a gradient braid from Fiber Optic Yarns too.  I have looked at their yarn and fibers before, but have never bought any of it.  I went in thinking I would buy the Chocolate Covered Cherry colorway, but left with a gradient that looks more like peacock colors to me.  After more shopping, we decided to head back to the hotel, refresh and go to dinner before the spin-in.  

The spin-in was pretty fun.  When you came in, you got one raffle ticket.  Throughout the evening, they would call out random numbers and if your number was called, you got to go to the table and pick a prize.  They held contests for who could spin the most in a minute on a drop spindle, on a spinning wheel.  Who could spin the most blindfolded.  The had a word search contest that Jen won.  After Jen won, she gave me her ticket and her number was called so I chose a t-shirt. 

At the spin in, Jess with her new Bosworth and Jen with her Lendrum

Sunday we woke up early and went back to the fairgrounds.  We decided since we still had an hour before the booths opened, we would head over to Miss Babs to see if we could get the MDSW exclusive colorway.  We were 8th in line, chatted with some nice people and got our yarn.  

After Miss Babs, we stopped at Jennie the Potter.  They were sold out of the MDSW mugs but we each got our first Jennie mugs.

The rest of the morning we just walked around, looked at animals and then sat and knit/spun for a bit before heading home.  

Jessica's haul from MDSW

Jen's goodies from MDSW

Jessica's sock yarn blanket with 62 squares so far

Jen's blanket with 126 squares

For the month of May we are celebrating Modular Mondays!  When we say modular we mean anything that you put together to make something else. Like blanket squares or hexipuffs. You have seen our sock yarn blankets here before, but we want to know what modular items that you like to work on.  Each Monday we will share our progress on our blankets and at the end of the month we will give a prize away in our thread on Ravelry. We will send you a set of sock weight mini-skeins that you can use on your own modular item.  All you have to do is leave a comment (with or without a picture) of something modular that you have made or want to make.  You must be a member of the group, and only one comment per person. We will select a winner using a Random Number Generator after midnight (Eastern Standard Time) on May 31, 2014.

Stash Enhancement Sunday 4/27

I am so excited about the first item that we have to share this week.  Jess and I are planning a trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool and wanted to be able to get the word out about the blog.  So we designed business cards to hand out with stitch markers on them!  Jess and I took some photos of my sock yarn blanket to use for the cards and this is how they look!

Each card we hand out will feature one of these (this isn't all of them, I already started attaching the stitch markers to the cards last night).

The stitch markers were easy to make, and I can see how addictive it can be.
The next stash enhancement shows just how little will power that I have. I am going to be at a fiber festival for an entire weekend and still managed to order over a pound of fiber!
A few fellow Puffs were chatting about some new fibers that they wanted to try and they said that they were ordering from Paradise Fibers. I have never ordered from them so I checked out the site.  Not only were they having lots of sales you could add a 20% coupon to your purchase. I am a sucker for a good deal so I ordered a pound (yes a whole pound!) of Merino, and another braid of Malabrigo Nube. It was so yummy to spin up the first time that I knew I wanted to spin more of it.

I am hoping that I have enough yarn with that pound of merino to make a garment. I am not really good at making my yarn any weight that I want when I spin it so hopefully with some practice I will get better at that. 

Those are all the enhancements we have to share this week, next weekend is Maryland Sheep and Wool so we should have plenty of goods to share then.  If you see us at Maryland Sheep and Wool be sure to get a card and a stitch marker!

Stash Enhancement Sunday 4/6

Remember when I said I was going to try to behave until Maryland Sheep & Wool?  Yeah...about that.  Monday, I decided I wanted to knit a laceweight sweater. (since I totally won't go crazy knitting a plain, stockinette sweater out of laceweight, right?!)  I placed my first Eat Sleep Knit order and bought 5 skeins of Malabrigo Lace to make Adrift.  I plan on doing the 3/4 length sleeves version and might add an inch or two to the body. Since I want this to be my OWL assignment in the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup I can't cast on until May 1st.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to consume lots of adult beverages in order to salvage any amount of sanity I have left while knitting this...

Malabrigo Lace-Indigo

The next stash addition came from Jen.  She just got back from New Orleans and brought me some wonderful gifts! For local treats,  she brought me back a box of pralines, which I have never had before.  They are FANTASTIC!  She also brought me back some Hurricane mix (most likely to be made while making my Adrift cardigan)  Along with the yummy treats, she also gave me this sweet little cross stitch kit that is Cafe du Monde themed with coffee & beignets and a gorgeous skein of Malabrigo Rios in a colorway that reminded her of New Orleans.

Pralines & Hurricanes.  Check out the bag from the quarter stitch, with teeny paper hearts in the bag!

Malabrigo Rios in Arco Iris and Cafe du Monde cross stitch kit

Thank you so much, Jen! <3

The final addition came from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  They recently released a Tea Time cross stitch pattern that I fell in love with.  (I fall in love with all of their patterns) I was going to wait to buy it since I never finished my Gingerbread Lane or Halloween Sampler, but watching Jen stitch yesterday enabled me to just go for it.  I bought the pattern and we went to Michael's so I could get the DMC floss.  I already started it last night and hope to have a good amount of it done to share on Wednesday.  
-Jess

So I have a few things to add to my stash.  Only one skein of yarn so not too bad since Maryland Sheep and Wool is less than a month away. This skein of yarn is totally worth it too, it is a skein of The Cyborg's Craft Room Assockilate - Lagoon. It is self-striping, and looks just like summer to me.  This yarn will make a bright, happy skein of socks.

The Cyborg's Craft Room - Assockilate - Lagoon

Jess had a present for me too when I came home from New Orleans. This adorable needle minder which I have already used on my April square for the Once Upon a Time sampler.  

Oh, Needle Mind

Jess knows how much I love matryoshkas so she picked this one out special for me.  I love it. It is so light and small, but the magnet is so strong that it works perfectly. I love seeing it on my project while I work.  Since I started using needle minders I have not lost a needle while I work either.  
While in New Orleans I visited a knitting shop called The Quarter Stitch. It is a cute shop in the French quarter.  They have so many lovely yarns from such great brands as Malabrigo, Colinette, and Koigu.  I loved that the shop had cross stitch patterns as well. The shop started as a stitching shop and added knitting supplies later.  I love that two of my hobbies can coexist happily together in this wonderful shop. When you buy something, they wrap it up for you like a present, no matter what it is.  I bought items for Jess, so they wrapped hers up separate so I could gift it to her just like that.

I did not purchase any yarn for myself, but instead bought a New Orleans theme sampler. I thought that would make a great souvenir from our trip.  

This pattern features all the great things from New Orleans, the St. Louis Cathedral at Jackson square in the French Quarter, the mule drawn buggies, Cafe du Monde, and the food! I love buying local items when we travel and this pattern was designed in Louisiana. Just a few small stash enhancements for me this week.

Just a reminder that you can enhance your stash by winning our giveaway!  We have a great skein of Dancing Dog Dyeworks Tweedy DK in the Kiwi colorway to give to a loyal reader.  

All you have to do is become a subscriber to the blog and leave a comment on the giveaway post. We will randomly select a name on April 16! Thanks for reading!
~Jen