Stash Enhancements: Vogue Edition!

Ok so here it is!  I spent every penny of my Vogue budget and I don't regret any of it...

Vogue Stash!

Kraemer Yarn and Pattern

 This yarn is Kraemer Stotts Ranch in Camel.  I also bought the pattern "It All Comes Together Beret" from them, written for this yarn.  Julia also got the pattern, with a gorgeous purple colorway.

More Kraemer

Furnace Mountain Alpacas

 Oh how I swooned over this yarn!  It's a sock yarn- 70% Suri Alpaca, 30% Nylon- that sparkles!!  Some of the nylon fibers are actually silver and the yarn sparkles in the light.  I'm pretty set on having some super soft and sparkly socks soon!

Sparkles!

Socks That Rock- My Blue Heaven

 I've never used Socks that Rock before, as this is my fist fiber "festival".  I'm pretty excited to try this one out since I've heard such good things.  I was very torn between getting the lightweight and heavyweight.  I ultimately decided on light since it had more yardage and was cheaper.

All Ears Earmuffs Kit

I can't wait to make these!  As soon as I finish up some of my KAL projects, I want to get working on these. It's a kit to make knit earmuffs with headphones inside!  This is great because the last time I walked to Starbucks (1 hour exactly), I got earaches from having my headphones in trying to listen to my iPod.  This will be such a big help and keep my ears warm!

One thing I wasn't expecting was the amount of yarn shops that had booths at Vogue.  I don't want to say it was a disappointment, but I really thought more booths would be fiber companies instead of shops.  There were plenty of unique fiber companies there and I understand the presence of the New York City shops since they're local.  But there were shops from all over, including I believe Ontario (really not sure...it was definitely Canadian- I can't seem to find it online).  I just wonder if the cost of renting booth space and shipping all your products that far (plus international customs fees I'm sure) really leads to a profit for them.

Two stores had "yarn tastings" - Lion Brand brought their cones of a couple yarns from the Studio.  They have this set up there year round so that anyone coming in to their retail store can test out the yarns.  I think this is a great idea, though probably tough for the average LYS to carry out.  Another store selling either yak or bison (or both?) yarns had small balls of yarn sitting on a coffee table surrounded by couches!  That was great.  But that's not all...the balls of yarn were in margarita glasses!  Great idea for them!

So did anyone else go?  Get anything good??  Share!