Great Lakes Fiber Show '11

This year I reigned myself in a little more. I actually made a list of rules about yarn I could and could not buy. For example- no brown yarn. I have a ton of brown yarn in various weights. Sock yarn was on the OK list- but it needed to be solid or semi-solid. No single skeins without a purpose!

So here is what I ended up with:

From Knitting Notions (a perennial favorite) I purchased a skein of Classic Merino Supersock in Redwood. This skein had the added bonus of being on sale.

A new vendor for me: Grouse Ridge Farm:
These 4 skeins are for colorwork mittens. The greens are all naturally dyed.


Then a sort of purchase for me: roving. These small balls were $1 each from Valhalla Acres Fiber Farm (whom I have purchased from before). I bought six total for thrummed mittens in two different color ways.
While I have plenty of wool to use for the thrummed mittens, I decided to get one skein specifically for the purple thrummed mittens. I chose this gray wool/mohair blend from Ohio Valley Natural Fibers:

This was my last purchase at the Fiber Show, but not my last purchase of the day.

My sister and I left the fairground and went downtown for a bite to eat for lunch and then stopped at Calla Lily to look around. I ended up getting another skein of sock yarn. This is Cascade's Heritage Silk sock yarn in red. I really don't have enough true red socks considering how much red is generally a part of my wardrobe.


Overall I think it was good show. It seemed a little different this year. I'm not sure if that was because I was more restrictive about what I was OK to purchase or if it was because I went on Sunday which I usually don't do. Not that it felt picked over today- but the atmosphere is different and definitely less crowded on Sunday than it is Saturday. I did kind of think there was less yarn and more fiber this year. Maybe it only seemed that way, but it was a sense I had. I think for sure there was less sock yarn than I usually see. Then again, maybe I was just overlooking a lot because I was looking for more solid colors so that I could knit socks with lace patterns. Then I kind of ran into the problem that a lot of colors I liked were colors that I already have. A lot of yarn was really expensive too. That isn't a complaint I usually have. I am used to what I consider the usual price range of $20-25 for sock yarn, but really unless it has super special fiber content, I don't want to pay more than that. It seemed like I came across a lot of yarn that was pretty and nice, but not super exclusive fiber content or lots of extra yardage that was in the $35-$45 range and that is just way too much for me.