I've increased the fiber in my diet

To say that I've increased the fiber in my diet is an understatement. I just got home from Stitches South in Atlanta. It was amazing!

(Note: If you are allergic to wool, you may want to quit reading and go get a snack.)

Day 1 - We arrived at the convention center, checked in and grabbed a quick lunch. I attended a class on Japanese short rows taught by Susanna Hansson, it was life-changing! (Maybe not life changing but maybe more like technique-changing.) The market opened at 5pm for a 'preview' for those who were registered for classes. I thought I had prepared myself for the sensory overload, nope. I walked around on a meandering route, not really sure where to begin. I stumbled upon the Creatively Dyed booth and was able to get my bearings. Diane greated me with a huge smile and hug! I bought this:



8 ounces of some of the most amazing spinning fiber I've touched. It's SeaWool and is 70% wool, 30% seacell. The colorway was killer and it was the last one. It took me a long time to decide on the purchase. It wasn't easy parting with the cash I'd been stashing away since October.

By this time the market was about to close. I met up with Liana and Martha, we had a nice dinner and then crashed at the hotel.

Day 2 - I'm not going to give you an hour by hour recap of the weekend. I pretty much figure that the only reason you've read this far is because you want to see what else I bought. Let me just say this, after that first purchase at Creatively Dyed, it got easier to part with my cash stash.


Next purchase: a sweater's worth of Kauni. I've been lusting (yes lusting) after this yarn for several years ever since I had seen Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's blog about a sweater she knit out out of it. I know, I know! I live in Nashville, why in the hell did I buy wool? Some things just can't be helped. Let's not dwell on this...shall we move on?





Then it was back to Creatively Dyed for this: Beaches sock yarn. This is amazing. It looks kind of strange in a hank like this, but knitted up, it creates the most stunning pattern. She rocks!



Shopping was interrupted for a class on traditional knitting stitches and then I dodged back into the market for a little something for my spinning wheel from Susan Preuss of Basket Artistry.



Day 3 - YARN SHOP CRAWL! So much happened on during the yarn shop crawl that I'm going to save it for the next post. I hope that's ok, but I don't want to go overboard. (As if...)


Day 4 - The last day. I had another wonderful class on how to calculate the patterning on hand dyed yarn and then it was one last trip to the market. I had one more stop to make--Lisa Souza! I made two purchases. The first was a fiber batt that I'd been eyeing all weekend. A super fine merino in chocolate with sparkles. Can you understand why I had to have it? Chocolate? Sparkles? Fiber? (Duh!) The other is a 1500-yard skein of baby alpaca lace weight. (Yikes! Lace!)



Then we drove home. So, here I am, totally exhausted, wondering what project I'll start first and admiring what a lovely job the elves did mowing my lawn. I got it so rough!