Stitches South! It's a Good Thing!!!!!!!

The very first Stitches South was here in Atlanta this weekend and it was a wonderful thing!!! The market place was big and there was lots to see and buy and do. The very best things I found were from local artists and shops, but there was a lot there and many places to spend money.

Miss Babs is one of my favorite indy dyers, because I just love the base she uses for her sock yarn. So, I visited her booth and bought some sock yarn, but more than that, I bought some fiber to spin. This is corriedale roving - a lovely teal with shades of blue and dark green. I also bought some purple with dark green and bits of other colors because it spoke to me. I thought we might spin them up (there is some dispute as to who will be doing the spinning, but since I paid for it, I figure I get to spin it if I want to) and then ply the two together . . . . Like this:

This is the sock yarn - kind of pinky, that way I'm sure my husband won't try to steal the socks.

And then I found and bought two lucets. I used to have some around here, but dang if I can find them. The girls glommed these and both are currently making cords with them. Sometimes it doesn't pay to show off what you buy!

And next, the award for Best Of Show goes to these wonderful Trindles! They are hand made drop spindles made by a local science teacher - Jeremy Armstrong. He sells them through a local yarn shop and has a new shop on Etsy called Trindleman. These things are so perfectly balanced that if they fall out of balance, he pulls them off the sales floor. (they only do that if dropped and either bent or broken). They are so perfectly balance that Miss M picked one up and spun almost perfect laceweight yarn the first try out of the gate. Now, she had been attempting to learn on the wheel, but had not gotten drafting down yet. So Miss S picked one up tonight and while hers wasn't as close to perfection as Miss M's, it was better than any first handspun I've ever seen and she's never touched a wheel or spindle in her life! And the really good news is that I have 5 - one for everyone!

And this is a free bag I got from Southwest Trading Company, a yarn company that has terrifically soft and wonderful yarn. I want to pick up a pattern and enough of their yarn to make it cuz it was slap-dab gorgeous!

My new shawl pin - very simple but the wood grain is actually quite pretty. Since I usually don't close my shawls, it is plenty for me and it was very inexpensive.

Twined Knitting Patterns for us to choose from! I learned much more than I knew about the technique and so I picked up these patterns as they are probably much more explicit (and more well charted) than what is in either book. Which one will you knit?

Some lovely roving for spinning - more corriedale from Gale's Art Yarns. Miss M is claiming that I said this one was for her too . . . .I did not say that. I'm sure I didn't.