MD!

Yes, I do realize what a blog slacker I've been lately! Since I haven't been knitting a whole lot, I haven't had a whole lot to blog about, but yesterday was my annual trek to Maryland.

My friend and I got there a bit later than last year and had to wait a bit before getting parked. We had made plans to meet up with Opal (who was there all the way from Hawaii!) at the Golding booth right at nine. We've been blogging and emailing for a couple of years now, so I was very excited to finally meet her. Anyway, since we were later than expected, Opal had a chance to look over Golding's stock and she may have made an acquisition. (All my fault, of course, because we were late :-)

Anyway, we finally met up and Opal is just as cool as I thought she would be. I'm so glad we finally got to meet and she spent the morning wandering around the main building with us. I had not intended to buy much, having looked over my stash thoroughly before the festival and making sure that I had tons of stuff that hasn't yet been spun or knit. But as I've always heard, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Wandering around with Opal and Melissa is not good on the budget; of course, I returned the enabling favor :-)

My first purchase was my yearly Golding (click any picts for a close-up!):

How absolutely beautiful is that one?! I haven't yet taken it out for a test spin. I'm trying to decide what I want to spin. It's one of the 1.6 oz ones, so not so good for spinning fine silk like I usually do with the minis. Maybe I'll spin the Wensleydale (see below) into a fingering weight for a scarf.

I also got some lovely tencel laceweight from Just Our Yarn.

I'm not usually much of a blue person, but this beautiful bright blue called to me. And the other one, well, it is purple. Funnily enough though, once I got the purple one home and started looking at it closely, I realized something. It is very similar to the colorway that I did my Swallowtail in, only since it was cashmere it was much more muted and subtle. There is a little more blue in this one as well.

At Spirit Trail Fiberworks, I bought this lovely pink laceweight after realizing as much as I like pink, I only have two pink shawls:


I also got some lovely variegated purple Wensleydale fiber, only as usual I couldn't get the purple to photograph well (I'll keep trying). I also got some lovely variegated silk - one is pinks, blacks, purples, and turquoise and one is without the turquoise.

I got a book on graphed medieval patterns to use in just about any needlework as well as medieval mini purse patterns. I got some more hairsticks, soap from Leslie's Garden (love her soap!) and some honey (Fireweed and Orange blossom, both yummy!)

We stayed for the spin-in and got to spend some more time with Opal as well as getting some spinning done. Came home with kettle corn. All and all, a great time!