Well, I Wasn't That Good!

Oh, you wanted to know what I brought home from SAFF?

Everything's relative, after all.

• Intention 1: spend more time knitting and talking with friends and less time buying.
• Intention 2: buy no commercial yarn--what's the point when we have all these wonderful shops in town? At the same time, I had two things on my wishlist, both commercial, for which I would have broken my Intention 2 in a New York minute: TyDy sock yarn (darn you, Debra--why did you show me that stuff?) and Malabrigo Sock. Not just any Malabrigo Sock--I've been craving Archangel ever since Jane showed me a sample earlier this summer.
• Intention 3: take my hand spindle and some roving and spend some time learning to spin.

Okay, so other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Let's do them out of order:

Intention 3: This one never got off the ground--I knew darned well I wasn't going to schlep that spindle around with me.

Intention 2: No TyDy sock, no Malabrigo Sock. Passed up all the commercial yarn, no matter how pretty--only bought indie stuff. Whew! Passed that test (but I can't take credit for that in any way!)

Intention 3: I had a wonderful time schmoozing with lots of different folks and exploring some vendors I remembered or knew about. Missed a couple--I ran into someone I bought a wonderful pin from last year but never got back to her booth. Next year! And I even knitted a good bit. But mainly the point was not to buy a bunch of stuff and I did that, mostly. Here's what came home with me:

Sassafras:

Well, you knew I'd come home with a pair of her earrings, didn't you? Everyone needs pumpkin earrings!

Sanguine Gryphon.

Her colors are gorgeous and this one jumped out at me, screaming, I can be a beautiful scarf--I'd love to give all that black you wear a little splash of color!

Brooks Farm Acero.

I knew if I came home with nothing else, it would be Brooks Farm, and Joyce didn't help. She was practically dragging me down the stairs toward their booth. (Okay, I didn't think you'd buy that it was her fault but I thought it was worth a try.) That stuff is simply awesome and you just don't see it everywhere--they only sell at shows (and maybe online, but with colors like this, I want to see and touch it). Several people begged them to come to Stitches South but there's some sort of a conflict and it doesn't look good. I would LOVE to see a fabulous indie producer like Brooks Farm at Stitches--wow!

The yarn is sitting on a great shawl pattern I bought at the same time. Very simple to show off the color changes and the fabulous texture. And the purple!!!!! Who could resist? I bought another pattern too, a modular shawl that looks a little like one of those old-fashioned granny square afghans your grandmother crocheted. Fabulous!

Knit Witch! We met Brittany and her husband at one of the Yarn Harlot events and I thought they were great. It was so much fun to find them in a booth at SAFF, showing off his ceramics and her hand-dyed yarns.

Finally, YarnMammaTwo. I've been thinking of this yarn since Debra and I saw it at SAFF last year. Three colors came home with me,

but I'm hoping one or two of my lace buddies will be as taken with them as I am. Colors are dark rose, tearose and pear! OMG!

Now, don't you agree that I was a very, very good girl? Thank you--I think so, too.