the shopping.

Wow did MS&W have a lot to offer! I barely made it through half of the booths but brought home all this:



The first image is my shopping bag at the end of the day (artfully arranged to avoid a peek at my mom's present). I picked up three skeins of STR mediumweight - Cockamamie, Sapphire and Faulty Dyer. While in line to pay there, we overheard someone talking about really reasonably priced yarn in another booth, so Jamie did some reconnaissance work while I stayed in line. She confirmed the awesomeness, so I went over there and bought the off-white and pale blue Canopy yarn (middle row, right and bottom row, left) by the Fibre Company (Maine, I believe). It is so, so, soft. I'm hoping to make a baby sweater out of the white, and a pair of cozy socks out of the blue.

My next purchase was the massive hank (9 ounces, about 560 yards) of an alpaca/merino/silk blend (bottom row, middle) at Liberty Ridge Farms (N.Y.). What sold me on it was the smell. Jamie and I were oohing and aahing over all the combinations - the single ply varieties were especially soft, but I was worried it wouldn't hold up very well. She picked one up and smelled it ... oh my word, I've never smelled yarn that smelled so amazing. She said it smelled like a perfect sweater and she was so right. I'm hoping it could be a beautiful shawl...

I went to one of the bigger barns to find a birthday present for my mom and instead walked out of the Cloverhill Yarn Shop (Md.) with this electric blue sock yarn (middle image) by Wullenstudio (I couldn't even find it listed on Ravelry!). They had so many yarn brands I oohed and ahhed over - Chewy Spaghetti (I just love that name), Brooklyn Handspun, the Sweet Sheep, Woolgirl. I ended up going back to the Fibre Company to buy some of the $4.50/hank yarn in a beautiful shade of green for myself. And I managed to pick up a present for my mom (and it's not a sheep, like my dad joked). I can't wait to see what she thinks of it!

After all this yarn binging - I have to say, I'm so over yarn buying. I'm really excited about my stash and the many, many things I can make in the months to come. But no yarn buying for a long, looooong time.