Where would the Sock Summit be without sock yarn? I didn't intend to buy much yarn, if any, but these skeins started calling my name. To the left is a skein of luscious sock yarn from Ms. Gusset. It's lovely stuff, so soft! Ms. Gusset came all the way from Australia to delight us with her wares. She also had the most beautiful felted necklace that I wish I'd gotten a photo of.
The only Summit swag I ended up with is the knitting bag, which is really well designed and will be my bag of choice from now on. All those outside pockets are just perfect. At the Blue Moon Fiber Arts shop I picked up several skeins of Socks that Rock, some medium weight and some lightweight. I tended to look for rare gems or mill ends, but the red one on the right is ST-2, a special colorway just for the Summit. I also got the Orion sock pattern which is the official pattern of the Summit. I've started it with the red, but will be using another skein of STR that I had at home for the contrast.
I also found lots of neat patterns to bring home. I got a copy of the Australian magazine, Yarn, mainly for the article about Cat Bordhi, but it's also the sock issue. Zoom-Zoom (also from Blue Moon) and Waves in the Square (Sivia Harding) look like fun patterns to knit. The shawl is a mostly square shape, different from all the other ones I've done.
Two Lucy Neatby patterns called to me, the Venus Rising Cardigan (which I'm thinking about doing in handspun) and the Almost Saintly socks. I saw someone working on these socks and they are so cool, and apparently a fast knit.
The Yarnery had the three felted patterns that were just too good to pass up. The designer, Marie Mayhew, has lots more designs available, so check out her website. It was very hard to choose just 3! If you're at all interested in these patterns you have to check out Marie's site to see all the variations. They'll definitely inspire you!
I also came home with several types of fiber for spinning. Above is 5 oz. of Targhee, from Sweet Grass Wool, which has been split from a 10 oz. braid with Sarah. This is beautiful for spinning. They'll also be at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival and SOAR, both of which I plan to attend.
Ms. Gusset also had this Polwarth which was the first time I'd seen this fiber in person. I think it will be lovely to spin.
From Crown Mountain Farms I got some Shetland just to try it and, on the right, some 80% merino/20% cashmere blend. It's just fantastic to spin. The little skein you see here was spun with my new Turkish Delight spindle, seen in a previous post.
I did get some hand dyed fiber too including this 20% angora/80% merino blend from New Hue Handspun. This vendor has an Etsy shop, lucky for you! She was doing the right thing for her customers. She had the dyed rovings, handspun made from the rovings and knitted samples from the handspun. That way you could really see the potential of the rovings. For a new spinner that was invaluable.
Lastly, this is some unscoured Corriedale from Susan's Kitchen. I'm spinning this up right now. I don't know how much I really like Corriedale, it's pretty coarse, but I love the colors and it's really easy to spin. The grease in the fiber feels quite nice on my hands. We'll see what it's like as a finished yarn.
That's really not the end of it. I also got some Lo-Lo Bars. This vendor had a sink and was giving everyone salt scrubs for their hands. The bars are really lovely and you can knit after rubbing them on your hands. What could be better than that? I'm sure there's something else I'm forgetting, but you can see it was a pretty productive time in the vendor hall.
Tomorrow is the Mt. Bacholor Quilter's Guild annual Quilt Show. I plan to be there most of the day and will, no doubt, come home with lots of photos to share!