Constant knitter, sporadic poster
One of the tasks I set myself last year was to hold off on buying yarn while I knit through my stash. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be; I'd already been in the habit of curbing the impulse buying by purchasing yarn with specific projects in mind, and then (duh) knitting them. Between holiday gift socks, Oblique and Komon, and then a bunch more socks for myself, I actually managed to get the stash down to two batches of cashmere lace-weight, a couple more skeins of sock yarn* and a small bin of crap novelty yarn** left from the very beginning of my knitting life, before I realized it wasn't good for anything but funky scarves (and got sick to death of knitting funky scarves).
Thus it was that I headed off with saoba this morning for the Oregon Flock & Fiber festival with a clear conscience, a reasonably generous yarn budget - and a shopping list.
The list was actually a book: Knit Kimono, by Vicki Square. I love the one project I've knitted from it, and there are four more I want to make. So I took it along, with PostIts marking the patterns in question. The goal: To acquire sufficient yarn to make one of them.
No surprise that I found what I wanted at Blue Moon Fiber Arts; I *love* Morgaine's color sense, and she's one of the few vendors who not only puts up her yarn in generous hanks but brings along enough of it that a person can actually buy a garment's worth.
The patterns I'm interested in call for bamboo or bamboo-silk blends. Which means drapey, soft, and not very elastic. I looked at (and petted) some bamboo, but it was mostly lighter gauge than I needed and none of the colorways rocked my world.
Then I spotted the LSS (Luscious Single Silk), a 50-50 merino silk single that feels like butter and has the most gorgeous luster ... in a burgundy/silver grey/golden colorway called KawKaw. *Drool* Checked the gauge, checked the yardage and the deal was done:
Acquisitions. Click through to my Flickr gallery for pictures of the festival and some cute fiber-bearing animals.
That accomplished, I had enough left in the budget to let some sock yarn and lace-weight silk jump on me, as well as an enameled shawl pin, before our feet gave out and we called it a day.
I've just balled up the first hank of LSS, and I'm going to take it downstairs and knit a swatch while I watch a movie. I just finished my most recent pair of socks, and I'm ready for something more challenging.
* Socks have become my default "I want to knit but I don't know what" project, so I figure being 3-4 skeins ahead of myself isn't a bad thing.
** Anyone want some novelty yarn? It's a real mixed bag of full and partial skeins, but I'd be glad to send it to the first person who asks for it. Claimed by txanne for some middle-school knitters, who will probably love it.
Thus it was that I headed off with saoba this morning for the Oregon Flock & Fiber festival with a clear conscience, a reasonably generous yarn budget - and a shopping list.
The list was actually a book: Knit Kimono, by Vicki Square. I love the one project I've knitted from it, and there are four more I want to make. So I took it along, with PostIts marking the patterns in question. The goal: To acquire sufficient yarn to make one of them.
No surprise that I found what I wanted at Blue Moon Fiber Arts; I *love* Morgaine's color sense, and she's one of the few vendors who not only puts up her yarn in generous hanks but brings along enough of it that a person can actually buy a garment's worth.
The patterns I'm interested in call for bamboo or bamboo-silk blends. Which means drapey, soft, and not very elastic. I looked at (and petted) some bamboo, but it was mostly lighter gauge than I needed and none of the colorways rocked my world.
Then I spotted the LSS (Luscious Single Silk), a 50-50 merino silk single that feels like butter and has the most gorgeous luster ... in a burgundy/silver grey/golden colorway called KawKaw. *Drool* Checked the gauge, checked the yardage and the deal was done:
Acquisitions. Click through to my Flickr gallery for pictures of the festival and some cute fiber-bearing animals.
That accomplished, I had enough left in the budget to let some sock yarn and lace-weight silk jump on me, as well as an enameled shawl pin, before our feet gave out and we called it a day.
I've just balled up the first hank of LSS, and I'm going to take it downstairs and knit a swatch while I watch a movie. I just finished my most recent pair of socks, and I'm ready for something more challenging.
* Socks have become my default "I want to knit but I don't know what" project, so I figure being 3-4 skeins ahead of myself isn't a bad thing.
** Anyone want some novelty yarn? It's a real mixed bag of full and partial skeins, but I'd be glad to send it to the first person who asks for it. Claimed by txanne for some middle-school knitters, who will probably love it.