VOGUEknitting LIVE! Wrap-Up, Part the Third- The Projects and the Haul

Now I know this is what you've all been waiting for.  Before I show you the goodies, though, here's a look at what I was knitting throughout the weekend.  That's what it's really about afterall.

First, I finished knitting up my BFF Cowl link during my Thursday train ride.  After a couple snags, it was seamed up with the other link.  Which was perfect to wear to the Subway Knits Meetup on Saturday.  Where I saw my two swap partners.

My link was knit out of Noro Taiyo.  It's a cotton yarn I actually like, probably because it's blended with silk, wool and nylon.

Throughout the weekend, I worked on my Hexipuffaday challenge.  I finished 4 (maybe more) during train rides and downtime standing around during my shifts.

So far I have 24 done (and number 25 is on the needles now) for January.

My last project for the weekend was a Pogona, cast on specifically for it's easy and mindless miles of stockinette and reverse stockinette.

I'm using my Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! leftover from my Tempest Cardi.  Speaking of, I can't find this cardigan and have no photo on my project page for it.  Which means it's probably lost on the floor of my closet somewhere.  Ugh

Now, for what you really wanted to see:  the stash acquisitions!  

Siiiiigh.  Blogger decided to rotate my photo.  And it's staying that way.

First purchase of the weekend was from Loop.

Colorway:  Atlantis

Fiber Content:  merino, bamboo, tussah silk, angelina

I can't wait to spin this fiber!  I've heard such great things about Loop and want to start now.  But too many other things are waiting to be finished on Cocinella first.  Like the stuff I bought at VKLive last year...

But that didn't stop me from buying more fiber!  I have to support LI Livestock Co. every time I see them!  I love that my local fiber source is growing.

This roving is 95% llama with 5% Gold Bamboo and comes from the llamas Patches and Butterscotch.  I love this method of naming :o)

Next acquisition was a set of needles from Indian Lake Artisans.  These guys vended Vogue last year, but only had straight needles.  They came to the shop to show their wares but we don't have a market for straight needles.  I heard from MooseManor that they were at Rhinebeck and had finally made some circulars.

And, even better, they have the twisty cables.  Meaning the needle swivels around the cable, helping to prevent cable kinks.  

They even have the size burned/stamped (?) into them.

Once I use these, I'll do a review.  Especially since I also just bought the ChiaoGoo interchangeables this week too.

ChiaoGoo size 4 tip vs. Indian Lake size 4 tip

So far, these ones have a leg up on the ChiaoGoos solely because they are 100% American made.

Now, on to the yarn purchases!  I really didn't want to buy yarn since I have so much already, work at a yarn shop, and still haven't knit everything I bought at Vogue last year :o/

So my only purchases were super special.  Well, mostly.

First up was my purchase from Habu Textiles.  I bought 3 cones of a raw silk wrapped stainless steel in a slate blue-gray color.

I've always wanted to try a steel wool style of yarn.  And since I know I won't go out of my way to purchase it, I took my opportunity this weekend.  Each cone has 575 yards so I have plenty to play with, but I have a sweater idea brewing around my mind for it.  Just have to find the perfect companion yarn.

Next purchase was from The Plucky Knitter.  I don't think I've ever heard of these ladies before, but their colors were amazing!  So I knew I had to try some out.

Primo Worsted in Glacier and Sticky Toffee.  Colors are not accurate- my camera didn't like them very much.

I will most likely do something colorwork with these two.  Not sure what yet though.  I did scour Ravelry Saturday night when I should have been sleeping looking for ideas.  Nothing perfect yet.  I'm open to suggestions though!

My last purchase of the weekend was Sunday morning at Dragonfly Fibers.  I waited to purchase until Sunday because I knew I was going to be dragging purlingswine there to take a look.

This color also isn't entirely accurate.  It's a little more green tinted in person.

I really wanted a variegated color, but I have so many sock patterns that need to be done in a solid that I settled on the bright sea color of Mermaid.

I can't wait to play with all my knew fibery fun stuff.  So, what did you pick up at the Marketplace??

VOGUEknitting LIVE! Wrap-Up, Part the Second

I got up semi early Saturday with the intentions of heading in for some shopping before my commitments for the day but no luck.  I did get up a bit early but vegged around for quite a while before heading to the train.

Once I got to the hotel, I wandered the market for 10 minutes but headed up to the Ysolda lecture very early (so early, I was the first one there).  Since this was my only scheduled event, I wanted to make sure I had a great seat.

The lecture started a little rough.  But after the first couple minutes, Ysolda was on point and did a great jobs, despite some technical and scheduling difficulties.  She had a great "make it work" moment with the help of an attendee with a smartphone.  The lighting was pretty bad for the webcam she was using to project images of swatches on the screen, but the other student used the flashlight app on her phone as a spotlight.  Gotta love us knitters :o)

Overheard at #vklive:  "Why isn't technology instant?  We're in a spaceship.  It should be instant." -Ysolda.

After the lecture, I went and did the majority of my shopping for the weekend (in about a half hour).  You'll see all my purchases in tomorrow's post though :o)

Next I went over to the Subway Knits meetup and met so many listeners!  I saw venusfueri, knityorkcity, kreyoli and stitchmistress.  And I got this picture:

That's Kim, me, and Maria- my BFF Cowl Swap partners!

Does my camera take terrible pictures or what??  Maria got a better one on her camera

In the Subway Knits BFF Cowl Swap, I sent the link I knit to kreyoli and venusfueri sent hers to me.  And I'm wearing mine here :o)

I took a quick trip through the market again before heading to my next shift- Marketplace Doors.  I felt icky through this shift- most likely dehydrated.  But it wasn't terrible.  I got to see lots of people I knew walking in and out and checked out everyone's handknits and purchases. This was my not-so-humble encounter with a designer who thought dropping her name let he do what she wanted and be pushy. Ugh. Not buying her books anytime soon. Seriously people, when you go to these events, wear your badges and don't complain about showing them, wristbands, or tickets. And no, you can't get in without them.  Most popular questions we got:  1- What floor am I on?, and 2- Where's the bathroom? (they were right behind me).  After the shift there was one more quick walk through of the Market and then I headed home.  I was not feeling up to meeting up with anyone and really just wanted my bed.

Sunday morning I got up at the ass crack of dawn because someone, ahem purlingswine, wanted to get on the 7:55 train.  But once coffee was in me I was ok.  We met up with january_one and headed to the hotel.  purlingswine wasted no time in making fun of my tabbed Guide book.  But it was necessary for my shift at the Marketplace Doors!

When the Marketplace opened, I immediately dragged purlingswine to Dragonfly Fibers.  I loved the yarn colors so much Saturday that I wanted to try my best to get them into The Village Knitter.  Ann liked it too so we brought some home to show at the shop.  My fingers are crossed.

january_one was beyond ready to head to The Plucky Knitter and we ran into Thea Coleman of Baby Cocktails over there.  She was a riot and had us almost crying from laughing at her stories.  We even had some photobombing going on.  And this:

Overheard at #vklive: "I knit my own panties" @purlingswine@january_one @babycocktails

Off to my shift, I did some door monitoring for John Brinegar and Vedis Jonsdottir's lectures.  They were both awesome.  And another wonderful overheard:

Overheard at #vklive: "I'm being fondled" -John Brinegar. Can't say I blame the ladies- it was a nice cowl :o)

My last shift of the weekend was what I do on a regular basis:  winding yarn at the Yarn Tasting.  So many friends from the shop came by and heckled me.  Lucky I love them.

I had yet another fantastic weekend volunteering for Vogue.  It's always lots of fun meeting all the other volunteers and just getting to hang out everywhere.  Beth and Erin did a great job and were so awesome to work with.  I was absolutely flabbergasted that Beth knew me by face and name, either remembering from last year or just really good at putting names and faces together.  Either way, it was nice to work with them.  I didn't interact with Gabby and Carol much, but I saw them working their butts off constantly throughout the weekend.  I'm ready for next year's event!  So, when can I fill out the volunteer application?

VOGUEknitting LIVE! Wrap-Up, Part the First

The whirlwind of a weekend is finally over! Once again, I had a ton of fun. Great people, great yarn and so far the best weather yet! 

Because I was volunteering most of the weekend, there wasn't much time or opportunity for me to take photos.  But if you want to see some, head over to the Subway Knits Podcast website.  

Thursday I left subbing an eensy bit earlier to make my train for the volunteer meeting. I was still late to the meeting, but I have to be very thankful that Huntress999 was already in the meeting and gave me a heads up about the elevators. Good thing because I would have been even more late trying to figure them out on my own. The meeting was quick and then we had a brief tour of where we'll be working. None of this sunk in for me and it took me a while to figure out where I was half the time.

Friday I planned to get into the city early but as usual I was running late. Once I got to the Marriott I checked in for my first shift- very easily redirecting people whose class had been relocated. It was a short shift so after I sat and knit with rachmouse for a while. My second shift of the day was helping out at the Cocktail Reception. 

Tables set up ready for the Cocktail Reception Auction

We helped set up the area and then I stood with pepperknit taking tickets at the door. This was fun because I got to see all these awesome handknits as well as lots of designers, many pointed out to me by pepperknit. I didn't know what many of these designers looked like beforehand. Here's some of the people I saw:

Nicky Epstein- sweet as always
Josh Bennett and Brooke Nico came up together. Jokingly, Brooke said "We need tickets?" Thankfully she was joking. Not everyone was always humble. Most, yes. All, no.
Ysolda- looked super cute
Lily Chin-words can never explain this one. Completely ignoring the fact that her hand knit dress reminded me of a flamenco dancer, all she wanted to do was show off her teapot purse. 15 minutes before this, we could see her on the floor below checking into the hotel...in a completely different outfit. This woman is a wonder!
Debbie Bliss- I asked her for a ticket before looking up and realizing who it was. Her daughter was very sweet as well.

I'm sure more came through but these were the ones who stood out for me. 

And yes, I didn't know who Karen Allen was.  I have never seen any of her movies.  I know, I suck.  I've heard it all weekend.  If someone wants to set up an intervention, I won't fight it.

After I finished my shift, I was left with about a half hour to shop. A couple of us meet up and started wandering the marketplace. Until I heard that Loop only had a small and limited number of her fiber bumps. I've only heard amazing things about them so I had to make a beeline and pick one up.  And Steph was super sweet to talk to us.  But of course, because she has the best name ever.

We didn't have much time left after so we gathered our group and headed out for dinner. After walking in many circles trying to find a pub with enough space for our group, kreyoli, rachmouse, Huntress999, daisydeadpetal, MooseManor and others whose Ravelry/Twitter names I don't know (share with me if you want!) settled on Connolly's. Good food and fun. Our waiter, Middle-Name-Brendan, tried to convince us all to knit him a hat. Fat chance!

Come back tomorrow for more wrap up, and a bit of pictures (I promise!)

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.