Westknits MKAL 2016

After some waffling on Instagram, these are my colors - "Enlightened" (green) by Unplanned Peacock (lost label, pretty sure it's sparkly sock?); "Be Happy" (bright multi) by Reflections, "Lemon/Lime" also by Reflections, (both are Petite Sock); and the blue is "Paradise" in Anzula's Haiku.

TNNA!!!

Eeeeeeeee!!! 

... and much more!!!

Quilt Expo, part 3

More from the Quilter's Expo 2016...

It's Flying Geese... with actual geese!!

Just amazing. More tomorrow!!

Quilt Show Goodness, pt. 2

More from the Quilters Unlimited 43rd Annual Quilt Show, 2016:

There are sparkles all over this one!

"Well, they knew you'd never be back." Lol!!!

Quilt Show Photos!!

I'm going to break these up over a few days. These are photos of some of the quilts from the 43rd Annual Quilt Show at the Dulles Expo (Quilters Unlimited).

Close up:

MDSW 2016

If you have Instagram, you can see all my MDSW pics (and many others) with the tag #virtualMDSW . Here are a few of my favorites:

Pre-shearing

swag

lunch

skein & garment competition

skein & garment competition

the shawls of Sheep-to-Shawl

skein & garment competition

alpacas!

bunnies!!

so much to see!!

see you next year!

TKGA/CGOA conference

Registration opens tomorrow. Looks like I'll be doing more crochet than knitting, and have at least one day off to explore.

Yay!

Please pretend this post happened yesterday.

Okay, Monday, take two.

Sunday before last, I went to the Homespun Yarn Party up in Savage Mill, Maryland. IT WAS AWESOME. I wanted to do this whole thing with "here's what it looked like; here's a booth... and look, I bought THAT skein of yarn!" but I got so "omg, I have to edit & mark all these pictures and make sure I credit them properly and stuff"... and I totally missed my Monday post deadline. (Which, in case you were wondering, is 6am or so.)

So, instead, a non-fancy bunch of photos I took!

First, getting to Savage Mill was a snap; getting parking was NOT. My husband eventually dropped me near the front gate and took off for Parts Unknown. I went inside... and OMG PEOPLE. There was a line that went the entire length of the building!!


Seriously, couldn't even see the DOOR to the greatroom from where I came in. OTOH, there was a great jazz band in the open restaraunt, so at least there was good music for the wait. And wait we did - even though the line was moving quickly, it took about half an hour to get down the hallway. Luckily, the end was soon in sight:


Much to my delight and surprise, there were House Cuppers (HPKCHC) all over the place, so I got to see people about six weeks before I'd expected to do so at MDSW. Then - HUGE CROWDED ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE AND YARN!! Eeeeeeeee! So exciting, really it was. The energy was great! My first stop (as planned) was Natasha, aka Unplanned Peacock Studio.


I got a skein of Tabby, but in a different weight than I had for my hat and cowl before (see this post). You can see the skein I got in the photo... it's in the middle cube on the right, on the left side of the cube but one column to the right... um... two down from the top there's a kinda orangey-black skein poking out? That's Mine!!

I then hit Snallygaster Fibers and got two Monster Skeins of ACTUAL FLOURESCENT YARN. This will turn into the most eyeblinding Nordic sweater EVER. I'm debating whether to offset the flourescents with black, which would make it easier to look at... but I probably won't.

I also got a rainbow skein from Wandering Wool:


See the rainbow one in the back row, second from left, with the red on the outside? Also Mine!!

I also picked up some pins (because PINS), and added them to my Cup Cozy of Pins:


And then, on the way out, there was a giant chair.


Really, really, giant chair. I added the ball of North Country Sock from Wandering Wool for scale:


That wee little ball on that there chair is my new shawl, seen here on LAST Monday.

Anyway, it was really cool, and I'm sorry you didn't get the really cool adventure in yarn I had planned in my head, but here are the photos, and you kinda get the idea that Hey, There Was Yarn And It Was Cool.

It was Good TImes, it was...

Blast from the past time - found this little model for a wee cross-stitch kit, one of several that was used to teach cross-stitch to first-timers at the erstwhile CastleCon and EveCon.


Can't remember if I designed this one or if Tammy or Missie designed it...!
I really miss that con...

MDS&W III

Found a nice place to knit for much of the afternoon just outside the 4-H building. There was a conveniently-located traditional/Irish/Appalachian band to listen to, too! Had a nice view of everyone coming into the Festival, or leaving (and all the stuff they were leaving with!)


One of the big bits of fun was the HPKCHC meetup. It was nice putting names to faces. Mom had an event she wanted to see, so we didn't stay very long past 1, sadly. But it was fun while it lasted!!

This was supposed to be a shot of all the people taking pictures of all the people at the HPKCHC meetup. Instead, it's an incredibly short video. iPhone, I love you, but sometimes I don't understand you!


And of course, I got loot. I got a lot of comments on my "Please Don't Let Me Buy Any More Yarn" totebag, too. I'm definitely taking it to shows & conventions from here on out!

First, we got in line EARLY to get t-shirts and a totebag. I was also able to get a pin for this year *and* one from last year (I went, but didn't get pins because the line was ginormous)!



Then, it was on to wandering-through-everything. I knew what yarn I was going to buy from the get go, but the display at Fiber Optic Yarn stopped me in my tracks, because of this shawl:



The pattern's pretty close to Go Fly A Kite, but what got me was the yarn. It looks like it's ON FIRE. I got 2000 yards, and I'm going to design a Girl On Fire shawl with it. (I have the picture in my head, now I just have to figure out how to make it!)


I also got some vintage knitting needle ads (for wall decor), a LOT of music (Maggie Sansone, Walter Turpening), my first set of Signature needles, the 2013 Sheep Incognito calendar, and two hanks of BRIGHT chartreuse ribbon yarn. The Wild Fibers magazine was free, since Wild Fibers sponsored our bus trip. I also got a little pin ("Even if it DOESN'T move, crochet something for it"), and a big pewter pin ("Lost in Fiber Space").

Then, the What-I-Planned-To-Buy: two skeins of Miss Babs Yowza! in Fraser and Oyster to make my Catkin. And six lovely little pewter buttons for it (I'll be doing the six-button variation, clearly).


So... I didn't do *too* badly, all things considered. The most expensive single purchase was actually all the MDS&W gear, which is actually pretty good. Plus, we got surprise gift certificates at Nature's Yarns for going on the trip in the first place!!

Yes, I'll be on the bus trip next year, most probably!

MDS&W II

Today, here's some of the faboulous entries in the Skein and Garment Competition.

This was my favorite sweater and favorite woven thing, placed together by chance (but hey, it made them easy to photograph!).




There were a LOT of yarn skeins entered - several tables' worth. It was all amazing!


This was my mom's favorite sweater. She really liked the yoke design.



I liked these socks:


Finally, there was an INCREDIBLE felted footstool. It's festooned with ribbons, and wow... I think it totally should've gotten them. I was really, really impressed. (At first glance, I thought it was an actual stuffed-like-taxidermied sheep and was a wee bit creeped out. It's that good.)



Everything was pretty darned cool. If you get to the Festival, it's definitely worth putting aside some time to go through and see all the amazing things entered in the contests!