Stitches Midwest: Plans for Fall Socks

The Incredibly Patient Mother and I went to Stitches Midwest! Her visit was timed fortuitously and I haven't been to a yarn festival since AudioGirl and I went to YarnCon, obviously I was suffering for a lack of new wool in my life.

My first target was Dragonfly Fibers, to show them the shawl, which was very well received. You know dyers know their product line well when they handle a shawl and announce "Ah, Pixie, but where did you get an all black skein?...[Pause as I say Ravelry] Oh...the Shades of Truth kit, right..." They liked it and I hope that means black skeins might be part of their regular run in the future.

From there the IPM and I stalked Franklin Habit for a few minutes. My dear friend who travels so much that with my calendar and his, I can only hope that we'll end up in California or North Carolina at the same time one of these days while he teaches at a yarn shop and I'm giving another presentation on data policy.

I, of course, had an ulterior motive of getting my coloring book signed. For those of you who've gotten a copy, have you found the hedgehog? 

From there the IPM and I strolled through the booths, eyeing some unusual Japanese yarn, noting that speckles are all the rage, *not* going into that booth or that one. [Yes, there are stories, there are always stories. But best told in person with a bubbly beverage.]

My first pass I came away with nothing and felt rather disheartened. Did I truly just own too much yarn?  Had my yarn joy been too dampened by our first errand of the morning [the DMV]? But the IPM wisely suggested a reverse pass through the booths and I found a few delightful things on second glance. 

The lady at Threads and Ewe, up from Texas, was so welcoming. I could have chatted with her the rest of the day and she had some lovely indie dyers that were new to me. 

I picked up a skein of Round Table Yarn in the Camelot base, which is MCN and feels absolutely delicious. The colorway is Agravain and I have a feeling a couple of knitters I know are madly clicking over to see what other colors there are. There was a really great orange too....

Three Irish Girls' booth was mobbed on my first pass through and when we got back the pickings were a little on the slender side. They had a few more tubs with them, some reserves for the afternoon and Sunday, but it didn't look like they would be taking much home.  TIG dyes on purchase so it was lovely to have some instant gratification to go with their beautiful colorways. 

The purple in this is more ultraviolet than it's showing up in the pictures. Adorn Luxe in the Blackberry Cobbler colorway.  It will tone down a bit upon knitting but it's such a lovely skein.

And I grabbed their last skein of Rocket Man, the pair to Space Oddity which is 3/5 of a Flax Light that I'm presently ignoring.  So apparently I'm not over my rainbow streak yet.  

Finally, it was back to Dragonfly Fibers. I'm not sure if I'll get this knit up before Yarn Con, which is when I'm likely to see them again next, but I have hope. 

There's so much color in this skein and that vibrant yellow that I've come to associate with them. No one else seems to be using that shade to such great effect! 

I titled this post plan for fall socks because I got home and, as I reviewed the haul with the Philosopher, I realized that I will probably turn at least three pair into socks. The Camelot will be more flexible but I have the delight in the other three skeins in their present form. I'm not sure I want to see their crazy pooling on some other project. Socks is a good compromise for me. 

Of course, this doesn't sort out my Christmas knitting plans, which had been the goal. Ahh well, there's always next week's Loopy Ewe update, right?