Mea culpa

I fear the yarn fumes got to me a bit at the Sock Summit marketplace and I’m a little surprised at how much stuff I bought.  I’ve been putting off this post partly because the past two weeks have been incredibly busy, but also because I feel slightly embarrassed by this bounty.  So, please join me in the confessional booth.

Let’s just do it, shall we?  Here is what I got.  First, two really cute project bags.  First, this one from Dancing Sheep: You know how those blue and green combos draw me – and the flash of orange was irresistible. I think this was my very first purchase when the market opened to students Thursday night.  Much later, I spied this one: I have been eyeing this sock monkey fabric for years, just waiting until the right bag made from it came along.  The bag is made by good to be girl but I bought it at The Plucky Knitter booth.

Since we’re already on the topic of Plucky, let’s look at the yarn I bought there.  I was entranced by this booth – the yarn was all dyed in rich shades of semi-solids, and there were a LOT of neutrals.  I ended up getting 4 skeins of Primo Fingering, which is 75% merino, 20% cashmere, and 5% nylon.  I really hope that 5% holds up its end of the deal.  It is a 4-ply with a tight, springy twist, so I’m hopeful.  I got these colors (the green is Wonder Years and the blue is 2Cool4School) to make the now ubiquitous Different Lines shawl. Later, I went back to get yarn for Kris and me to make a pair of socks for Ed, our Portland host during Sock Summit.  Because he has big man feet, I got two skeins – just to be safe.  This is a neutral called M.A.S.H. Tent which somehow contains hues of green, brown, and grey all at the same time.  (Steven: breathe into a paper bag if you need to.) Next, here is Sincere Sheep’s Cushy Fine yarn – 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon (this is a common base and while the cashmere is nice, it’s really the nylon I’m after).  The color is “Winter’s Night” and it is dyed with natural dyes – it is a moody blue-grey.  There is a generous 490 yards in this skein.  3 plies, medium twist: Next, let’s visit Huckleberry Knits.  I was completely overcome by the rich shades of this yarn – and I was eager to try the 80% Blue-Faced Leicester/20% nylon base which she calls “Willow.”  I couldn’t decide what to get so I ended up with FOUR skeins (in my own defense, I was also having a “hungry emergency” while in this booth): From the left, the color names are absinthe, browncoat (a reddish-brown), eucalyptus (it’s green – so hard to photograph), and creme brulee.  Willow is a 3-ply with medium-high twist.

I got this skein of Lucia yarn from Dirty Water Dyeworks – it’s 75% superwash merino/25% nylon and the color name is “Pixie” – this is a 4-ply light fingering that is fairly twisty.  It is also very green and a little more variegated than any other yarn I bought:While we’re doing the green yarn, this is watercolors sock yarn from Periwinkle Sheep.  The color is “juniper” and it’s also 75% superwash merino/25% nylon.  Like Lucia above, it has 4 plies and is fairly twisty.  I’ll bet these two skeins were dyed on the same base yarn.  You really can’t tell from the photo but I swear, this is green!

I picked a lot of sedate yarns.  This Anzula yarn is called Squishy and it’s 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon in a 3-ply.  The yarn base sounds like that used by Sincere Sheep in Cushy Fine, but it feels a lot softer.  I’m guessing that’s the difference between superwash merino and regular merino.  The color is unnamed so I’ll just call it “brown”: Now, on to my WEBS purchases.  I wanted to try this new Lorna’s Laces sock yarn called Solemate – it’s 55% superwash merino, 15% nylon, and 30% Outlast. Outlast is a human-made fiber designed to regulate body temperature (used by NASA originally, I think?).  The yarn is a 3-ply light fingering with decent twist.  I got the colorway “Grand Street Ink,” which also has the Brooklyn Tweed logo stamped on it.  It is a moody purplish-grey: Also at the WEBS booth, I picked up two 50-gram skeins of their own Valley Yarns Huntington, which is a standard 4-ply 75% fine superwash merino/25% nylon with a medium twist.  The color is “mustand” but in my mind, it’s “school bus.”  This yarn is definitely destined for S1’s feet! And here is the only non-sock yarn I bought at the Summit – 8 ounces (665 yards) of a 3-ply DK weight 100% superfine alpaca in a heathery purple color: I plan to make some kind of infinity scarf out of this – for me.  It will be sooooo snuggly warm in the wintertime.  I got this at the Village Spinning & Weaving Shop booth.

I also got a pattern for the Achillea Socks by Kirsten Kapur.  A booth sample seduced me.

That’s it, folks.  I feel like I’ve just finished a huge Thanksgiving meal and I won’t want to eat again for days.  I’m going to try to not buy any new yarn for quite a while.  There are so many socks I’d like to make in a couple of books and this stash should keep me busy for quite some time.  I’ll tell you about those in a future post, though.

Signing off!  I feel so much better now that I’ve told you about this.  And I’m not even Catholic. :)