Confessions

A few odds and ends...

Did you see Leslie's blog? She pointed out that we must had been standing next to each other when we took some of our Maryland photos. Isn't that cool?

The spinning fiber... nope, I'm not taking up spinning. It's a pressie for a friend.

Yarns snatched from hands in these shows? you betcha! In the crowded fray, one can focus on the skein and not realised that it's in someone's hand... well that was how it was described to me.

Next show...maybe Rhinebeck 2007... but who knows..?

Now onwards to confessions...

I guess that I might as well confess now, that theMaryland Sheepand Wool Festival was not the only place where I bought yarn when I was in the states. I had taken the precaution to order and have sent to my parents's house some yarn from Knitpicks. Knitpicks is renown for offering some fine yarns at bargain prices, but sadly, they do not ship outside the US.

I managed to get some laceweight yarns to try. It's hard to appreciate colours on the monitor so I ordered a 'selection' of shades.

and some sock yarns. I hadn't realised that the Parade was going to be discontinued but it was at bargain prices.

I love the parade yarn. It's a sportweight sock yarn that's very soft. I'm not crazy about the colours, but the yarn knits up really quickly. Now, I would swear that that greeny pink ball had a mate when I put it in the suitcase. I can only hope the the rifling by security did not result in a ball getting left behind.

The Parade seems to be a higher quality than the Lion Brand Magic Stripes. I found the yarn very easy to work with and it knits up quickly too. The nylon didn't seem to come apart from the wool and the yarn was cushiony. I used 2 balls for both socks and got identical twins. The leg is 6 inches and the sock would fit an US 8. There wasn't much left (about 2-4 meters per ball), so if you have bigger feet, get an extra ball fo yarn.

I started these and in just a few days, it was all mated up. The best bit was that I got to leave them behind in NY so there was no issues with duty.

I took this photo in the parking lot of the hotel that I'd stayed in, in Ellicott City, which also had a yarn shop Pity that that it was closed when I found it.

then I noticed an opportunity for an artistic shot... well all that purple and the pansies seem like the backdrop was made for these socks.

Posted by atu at May 14, 2006 06:55 PM | TrackBack