Bounty from OFFF

Okay, here come a lot of pictures. While I feel like I restrained myself at OFFF, I still put a big dent in the pocketbook. Imagine what could have happened if I hadn't tried restraining myself! Scary stuff, that.

We got there by 11:00, but the mill ends rack at Blue Moon's booth had already been picked clean. Fortunately, they still had some goodies left, like this skein of STR lightweight in one of the Rare Gems colors. Rare Gems are skeins that were overdyed because the original intended colors didn't come out quite right. Most are one of a kind and all are wonderful. This one pretty much screamed at me from the bottom row of the rack, so I grabbed it. The picture doesn't do justice to the variety and intensity of color. I love it.

It was tempting to grab a TON of things from the Blue Moon booth, but I was trying to hold back, remember? Nevertheless, I did snag this hu-yoooge skein of Great Wall (60% merino, 40% bambu) in a color called In the Navy. It's a gorgeous blend of denim blues with subtle variation and has 1,240 yards. I want to make a warm shawl for the winter and I think this will fit the bill very, very nicely.

I had a list (yes, a list but that does not mean I'm an organized person. You should see my house!) and on that list were several shops I knew I wanted to visit. Next up was A Swell Yarn Shop where I spent quite a bit of time sorting through the XXL skeins (extra yardage for extra-large feet like mine) before picking out this color. You get 475 yards of loveliness, including a contrasting color for heels and toes. Believe me, there are a lot of gorgeous colors. It was hard picking just one.

Whew! It's a good thing fiber doesn't weigh very much or I never would have made it back to the car!

From here, the day sort of becomes a blur. I wandered from one place to another, pausing to watch the spinning contest, get some lunch, and generally enjoy everyone's company.

Butternut Woolens, however, was on my list. Took me a while here, because the sock yarns were lovely. But I finally could not resist two skeins of 50% angora, 30% merino, 20% nylon yarn in a color called Hydrangea. Sooooo soft.









I got sidetracked on a trip to the restroom when I saw this. Hey, in my defense, you would have stopped, too! From Fresh Yarns, 400 yards of Berry Bramble, 100% merino superwash sock yarn. The colors remind me of a Victorian Christmas and this may become some mini socks to hold lottery tickets or other small goodies.






Then there was a visit to Chrissy of Gardiner Yarnworks. Chrissy is moving from retail to wholesale with her pattern design business and was clearing out sock yarn. This skein of Zen Yarn Garden just had to come home with me. It's 50% superwash merino and 50% tencel in a color they call Teacup. Look for Chrissy's excellent patterns at a shop near you, or join us on the Sea Socks Cruise in May and learn more directly from her while enjoying a cruise to Alaska!

As I've mentioned before, I'm going to learn to spin soon. So Bobbie helped me find some good roving to start out with. To start off, I got a full one pound of superwash roving for just $14 from Mountain Shadow Ranch. There's blue, turquoise, brown, black, white, and magenta in the bag. Plenty for me to experiment with and, at this price, I won't mind if I make mistakes while learning.

Once I've learned, however, I bought two ounces of merino/silk roving from Aurora Colony Fiber arts (sadly no Web site). I definitely won't try spinning this until I'm sure I can get something fairly consistent. It's too pretty to mess up.


By this point, I was starting to get low on funds. But in a walk-through of the main building earlier in the day, I had spotted something I just had to have, so I went back to get it. I wish you could pet this stuff, because it's very, very nice. It's six skeins, 350 yards each of superwash lambswool, purchased from The Fiber Addict for a pittance -- just $3.50 per skein! I got plenty of it because I'm not sure what it will become and I wanted options. At that price, I could afford it, too!


And then I saw a beautiful shawl on display in another booth and just had to have the pattern. It says "for experienced knitters" on the front page. Hope I can live up to that! This picture doesn't do it justice, but it will give you an idea of how pretty it is. Pattern is from
Toots LeBlanc & Company and designed to be knit in their angora blend yarn. Who knows what I'll use. I think we know I have options in the stash!


As you can imagine, my bag was getting full by this point. But there was one more booth I wanted to visit and thus this lovely skein of sock yarn found a nook in the bag just the right size and jumped in. It's 546 yards of superwash merino from Angora Valley. The color is called "Reserved" and probably wouldn't have caught my eye except that they had a sample sock knit up in it and it looked great. All that navy blue with an occasional dollop of bright red to accent it. Something just felt right about that combo.