Back From Vogue: Stash Enhancements!

And now for the fun stuff!!  Aka, the stuff I spent all my money on.

Well, I didn't actually spend my money on this one.  This was a gift from Vogue for volunteering.  And right after I got it, I went to have it signed.

Kaffe Fassett's autograph

Kaffe Fassett signed it first.  I love that he put the year under his name.  He was still chatting with someone else at the table when...

K-Brandon Mably's autograph

...he turned the page and started to write his name again!  Luckily, Brandon Mably is a quick thinker and turned Kaffe's "K" into a "B" for his own name.  I love that my book is so unique now!  I also love that each of the guys wrote their own intro for the book, and therefore had their own place to sign it.  I don't know if they planned it that way, but I like it!

Stashed here

This stuff was super soft.  It's Leicester Longwool from Solitude Wool.  I was very excited to find two of the same color/fiber so that I could make something a little larger and still do a 3 ply yarn with it.  I was debating between and a blue, but I've already spun something blue and decided for something different.  There was also a grey with bits of green- perfect Slytherin colors!  But I didn't like the feel of the fiber so I passed it up.

Solitude Wool is a small duo- two women who each own their own separate farms in Virginia, but combine their efforts to create wonderful rovings and yarns.

Stashed here

I also bought this from them.  I was so drawn to these natural colors twisted together.  I really wanted to make a cowl with this.  I changed my mind later- it will become a hat and another yarn I bought that is close in color but softer will become a cowl to go with it.

Explore their website...cuteness will ensue!  I love seeing all the animals in the pictures, especially those little baby lambs.  I tried hard to only buy from smaller companies or very unique items.

Stashed here

This is what I'll be making my cowl out of.  100% Llama and 100% from Long Island!  Yay for the locals!  I've seen LI Livestock Company at various events in my area, but did not recognize owner Tabbethia because she's usually wearing a jumpsuit, hair tied back, shaving some hairy animal.  She was so sweet and talked to me for a bit.  I just love this company so much!  I told her I'm going to move to her farm.  So far that's 2 fiber animal farms I've invited myself to live on locally.  Eventually I'll get my animals :o)

Anyway, this yarn is made up of fibers from Lily, Pumpkin and Nala, all llamas on Tabbethia's farm.  She shears them all herself and actually travels up and down the east coast to do shearings for other farms.  I really can't wait to knit this one up.  I have a feeling it won't be in my stash for too long.

Stashed here

This is a 100% llama roving.  I've never spun llama.  At all.  So this will be a new experience.  It's from a llama named Ernie.  He's very soft!

I love the various colors in the roving.  It should create an interesting yarn when it's done.

Like it needs any introduction :o)

Woot!

What Would Madame Defarge Knit?  Edited by Heather Ordover

This isn't exactly your typical knitting book.  There are no pictures of a finished product in here.  None.  Zero.  There are simple hand drawings, such as the one on the cover.  Because of Ravelry and to keep costs down, Heather opted to not include pictures.  You can see the patterns here though.  Instead, space is reserved for each designer to write about the project, the story that it is derived from, and their inspiration.  I started to read it Saturday evening but was too tired to take any of it in.  I'll definitely have to read through this one!

It says "Toujours en Tricot!" which GoogleTranslate "still knitting."

This is the fiber I bought for Julia since she 1- loaned me her unlimited MetroCard and train ticket, and 2- missed Vogue to go on vacation with her boyfriend.  It's colorway is "Alcohol".  I had to buy it for her when I saw that name.  Her story about vacation told me I chose well :o)

Stashed here

This was a fiber for me.  Both this and Julia's Alcohol were purchased from Creatively Dyed Yarn.  Such pretty colors :o)

Oh and did I mention it's a merino/silk/cashmere blend?  My hands were in love <3

Stashed here

So I have a confession to make.  I only bought SweetGeorgia Yarns' Tough Love Sock because I wanted the bag that comes with a Knitty City purchase.  BUT that does not mean I didn't want the yarn already :o)

Maria of the Subway Knits podcast raves about this yarn, and Julia recently used it for a pair of socks.  Both have lots of good things to say about it so I've wanted to try it for a while.

I fell in love with this colorway.  Apparently Dino approved.  He interrupted my photography session to lick my yarn.  Yes, I said lick.

See that tongue?!?  On my yarn!

Oh Knitty City bag, how I love thee!  I got one of these bags during this past fall's NYC Yarn Crawl.  I love to use it for my lunch, but I have a tendency to spill my coffee on it.  When it's in the laundry (which could, um, take a while sometimes), I have nothing but regular plastic shopping bags to use.  So I felt I needed another one.  And bought me some yarn so I could get another awesome lunch bag.

Is he not the cutest thing ever?  I got this little guy from the Mother Bear group.  I first heard about Mother Bear from Dr. Gemma on the CogKnitive Podcast.  I have yet to make one though.  Actually, I have to purchase the pattern too.  I was very happy to see they had a booth at the Marketplace and stopped by to check out some of the pictures and bears they had displayed.  They were selling kits to make bears for $20. But the kit really had stuff I didn't need- acryllic-ish yarn and needles.  I have needles and lord knows I have plenty of yarn.  But I still wanted to contribute, to make sure their time at Vogue was worth it.  So I saw these little bears hanging on a display.  One of the girls working the booth made them all, using the Mother Bear pattern and sock yarn (instead of worsted, which is used to make the regular bears).  I really love this idea.  You can buy them here if you want one too!  Money from the sales goes towards shipping the bears over to Africa.  I didn't even hesitate to fork over $20 for him. Obviously he's something I could make myself and cheaper, but the point of this booth was to raise money for the charity.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned that my friend Megan from college went to Uganda for a year to work at an orphanage.  Many of the kids there had HIV or were orphaned because of AIDS.  After all of her stories from her trip, I have felt a more personal connection to the children in Africa affected by this disease.  I really want to help and urge all of you to help as well.  Hell, I'd even knit these little guys to sell as future fundraisers for them.

Megan and one of her kiddies

Ok the PSA is over and now back to the yarn!  I had to get some of the yak yarn from Bijou Bison Ranch.  I've never used yak before.  I really wanted one that had bamboo in it, but this one was $5 cheaper and I had to let my budget make some decisions for me.  I persuaded myself with that "limited edition" on the label and the fact that it has camel in it too!  I think it's going to grow up to be a shawl someday.  Maybe a Stephen West shawl...something simple and not lacey.

Lion Brand was giving out free bags!  They make a great bag.  I use one (bigger than this one, if you can believe it) for some yarn storage...mostly my Cascade 220 stash.  Not sure what this one will be used for just yet.

And there it is...the sum total of my stash.  I threw my volunteer badge in there.  If I'd done my laundry yet, I'd have put my t-shirt in too, but like I said earlier, that can take a while.