Knitters’ Day Out 2010

This year both of my classes were on Saturday.  I arrived a little early and had a few minutes to buy raffle tickets and dash into the marketplace.  I managed to snag a scarf pattern (very simple, so simple I probably didn’t even need the pattern, but profits went to ovarian cancer research so I bought it) and a ball of sock yarn.  I had heard about this Debbie Macomber Blossom Street Collection Petals Socks yarn (a mouthful) and was interested to see it in person.  Its fiber content is 50% fine merino superwash, 20% angora, and 30% nylon, and it is unspeakably soft.  Touching it sold me.  Hopefully the nylon will hold up its end of the deal because those other fibers are quite delicate.  All the colorways are very pastel and the yarn self-patterns in a subtle, tonal sort of way.  I got the blue kind (big surprise, I know): My morning class was called “New Ways to Knit.”  Our teacher was unable to be there due to a family emergency, so we had a last-minute substitute.  No handouts, no lesson plan.  That was a bit disappointing.  But I did walk out knowing how to knit and purl Portuguese style, as well as knit backwards.  I may actually use these techniques.  I think it would be fun to do an entire pair of socks using a different knitting technique.

Kris and I popped into the marketplace before lunch and did a little damage at The Mannings booth.  They always stock a good selection of Cascade Heritage sock yarn, both solids and handpaints.  I found a skein of David’s Eyes, which is dreamily beautiful.  Kris is making a pair of Night Gulls socks out of it, and I just had to have a skein for myself.  See? They also had Knit One Crochet Too’s Crock-O-Dye sock yarn, which I hadn’t seen before.  It is 65% superwash wool, 20% nylon, and 15% silk.  I got a soothing green color (Kris got a great brownish-mustard colorway):All this sock yarn was sitting next to a pile of patterns for Candace Eisner Strick’s Swip Swap Socks.  I bought the pattern last year but hadn’t yet figured out what yarn to use.  It calls for a solid and a handpaint.  Hmmm, can you see where this is going?  Pretty soon I had picked out two more skeins of Heritage to go with the pattern: Cinnamon and Olympic Forest: Since I was already firmly committed to four skeins of sock yarn, Kris (wisely) made me put down another skein of Heritage I was clutching.  Actually, she took it right out of my hands and reshelved it.  Thanks!

At lunchtime, I met up with Kris, Julie, and Allison (Kris and Julie are Gettysburgians and Julie’s sister Allison always drives down from Brooklyn for this event).  We made some new friends at our lunch table, and Connie (whom I met at the Anne Hanson class in Frederick earlier this year) also joined us.  We had fun comparing notes and showing purchases.

It was almost time for my afternoon class, but I popped over to the marketplace to check the raffle ticket winners.  Guess what?  I won second place!  The prize was $50 of KDO money to spend in the market.  KDO money is kind of like Monopoly money:Wow!  Too bad I couldn’t apply this “vendor tender” toward my previous purchases. 

Off I went to class, mightily distracted by my unexpected luck.  My afternoon class was Slip Stitch Sampler with Kathy Zimmerman.  I thought that slip stitches would be a fun way to introduce more color to my knitting.  Here is the sampler I started: I may use this technique when it’s time to knit my Cap for Kids for next year’s KDO…  It is fast and fun.  I’d like to see what happens when I use 3+ colors.  The very top section uses 3 colors, but the rest use only 1 or 2.  I can see this technique using up a lot of small amounts of my stash yarn.

Speaking of Caps for Kids, here are some shots of the winning hat donations: After class, I returned to the market with $50 to blow.  First, I indulged in some fiber: This is 6 oz of “Magic Wand,” a blend of 70% wool, 20% kid mohair, and 10% silk from Steam Valley Fiber Farm in Trout Run, PA.  Because of the mohair and silk, I’m hoping to make a sock yarn from it.  (The quest continues…)

I returned to The Mannings booth and got that skein of Cascade Heritage Hand Paints green yarn that Kris made me put back earlier: And I also succumbed – finally! – to the Crazy Zauberball craze.  This yarn has very long color changes and knits up rather like Trekking XXL, which I also like.  And it is wound so fetchingly into balls.  The KDO money seemed a good excuse to splurge on a ball:And after that, I bought a diet Coke and headed home.  Another great year at Knitters’ Day Out!  This is such a nice event and I look forward to it each fall.  Next year it comes a little earlier than usual: September 9-10, 2011.  Mark your calendars.  9-10-11, easy to remember.