Good Morning Everyone!
Where to start? I had an incredible week out in Salida, it was the perfect getaway. It's been a long time since I didn't have an agenda and schedule to keep. It was kind of weird not to have any sense of accountability, no Bernie to walk, eat when I'm hungry, each day a clean slate waiting for me, holy shit, I'm actually all alone. Of course my days started rather early, I wasn't able to reset myself from East Coast time, hence the strange eating times and exhausted by 9:00 p.m. That said, I quickly figured out that hiking first thing in the morning and late in the afternoon left me with an entire day to wander around town and sit by the river to knit. The perfect working vacation, wouldn't you say? I finished my Schieffelin, am inches away from completing the Penthia Cowl, plowed through Louise Penny's All The Devils Are Here, hiked endless miles, AND went to a Fiber Festival (saved the best for last).
I arrived in Salida on Monday and had to patiently wait until Saturday for the Festival to start. I didn't really have any trouble biding my time, the ability to be bored has never plagued me. But the anticipation kept mounting and the closer it got, the more excited I became. FINALLY Saturday came and I was out the door bright and early to go see what the Salida Fiber Festival had to offer. I was barely halfway down the first aisle when I came across Pleasant Journey Alpaca's booth, JACKPOT!! I was trying really hard not to succumb to what I'd just put into my hands, typically I like to circle around and see everything before making a decision. I simply could not resist that luscsious blend of local alpaca and silk, oooh, la, la. It didn't hurt that the owner of these wonderful alpacas was so nice to me and thrilled that I'd come all the way from Vermont in search of a new project.
With one mission accomplished, I continued to wander around and take in all of my surroundings. The one thing I noticed was I seemed to be the only one wearing a handknit garment, my beautiful Tegna. There were plenty of knitters in attendance, I spoke to so many people while exploring the goodies inside each of the booths. But it did strike me that there weren't a lot of folks wearing anything hand knit, not even a shawl. Such a stark difference from Vermont Sheep and Wool where I feel it's sacrilege NOT to wear something hand made (sometimes without the ends being woven in). Seriously, isn't that kind of the point? These festivals are the perfect opportunity to strut your stuff, show off you talent to those that can totally appreciate the efforts of your needles. I'll even take it one step further, although there were samples knit up in the booths, not one single vendor was wearing anything they'd made, weird...I rarely go to work without wearing something I've made, or at the very least, my project bag stuffed with my latest WIP.
Many of you have seen my post introducing my two newest vendors, Haute Boheme Fibers and Six and Seven Fiber. I've already placed my order for some amazing kits from Haute Boheme, Melody will be finalizing my order and getting it ready to come your way. Rachael from Six and Seven Fibers gave me a sample of her mini skeins, and will be sending along all of her information so I can get my order placed. In the meantime, she gave me a lovely sample of her mini skeins to work with, I'm excited to wind up those hanks and get a new pair of socks on the needles. They had a couple of samples knit up that inspired me, the Ocean Drive and Sprocket socks, decisions, decisions...
According to my calendar, I have a big box of Berroco Yarn getting ready to ship out TOMORROW!!! Hopefully this means that those of you who have ordered their yarn for the next KAL, the Marsali in Lanas Quick, will be able to pick up their orders! Stay tuned I'll keep you posted for sure. I'm really excited to see everyone tomorrow evening for Stitch and Bitch from 6-7:30, I hope you can join in the fun. Make it a great day and I'll see you soon!
Katy
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