A Day Well-Spent

The Garden State Sheep Breeders annual festival was held this past weekend and my husband and I went on Saturday. We had absolutely splendid weather; sunny, warm, and breezy. That part of New Jersey completely defies the stereotype. It is bucolic with some old towns punctuating the road there. Granted, it's a stone's throw from outlet stores and what-have-you, but none of that matters when you're among 80+ exhibitors and lots of sheep!

So, what did I buy? The first purchase was a mere 20 yards of wool art yarn from Hope's Favorite Things. It's variegated in bright pastels, and look at all those whorls! It's hard to know what to do with such a small quantity, especially something so bumpy. My first thought was to find a beautiful hook and a place on the wall where I can look at it ALL THE TIME! On a more knitterly note, there is a technique, inlay knitting, which is somewhat similar to stranded knitting. In this case, however, the second yarn is not knit, but woven back and forth between the background stitches. This allows the inlay yarn to go much further and doesn't require trying to wrap the whorls around a knitting needle. It can be used as an accent on a plainer yarn.


The second purchase was from Taylored Fibers, a whopping 600 yard hank of 100% alpaca, not-quite red with a bumpy texture. It is on the table next to me as I type, and it makes me want to keep alpacas in the yard.

I also ran across a vendor I purchased from at Stitches West 2016, Cozy Rabbit Farms, now called Cozy Color Works. I didn't realize that she is located in New Jersey. She had little sample cards of her sock yarn. I can't wait to see how they knit up!

For those of you in the hurricane zones, please stay safe and well. My thoughts are with you.

Until next time . . .