Sweatergirl reports back in

I've been delinquent, but, hey - it took a long while to recover from our marathon Maryland trip!

Following someone's advice, we got to the fairgrounds before 8 and got a great parking spot. That's the roof of the gate in the bakground on the right. There's my little VW Golf TDI, which gets great mileage! And I'm the insane person on the left. Some of the vendors were open when we arrived. So we starterd in. TrixieChick convinced me to make one small purchase to overcome the overwhelmed feeling. I bought a small packet of hand-dyed soy silk for $4.50 and was pretty smug. But that just opened the floodgates!

In packing for the trip, I came up with three missions - to purchase a new spindle, to look at Jean Frost's book, and to purchase a tension knob for my Lendrum Lazy Kate (a $2-3 item). Before leaving, I was unable to find my Comet spindle from Tracy Eichheim (my only nice spindle - did I loan it to someone? Or is it just hiding somewhere?). So my next purchase was a Mjolinor (don't make me say it) spindle, made by Greensleves Spindles, and found at The Woolery. I spun and plied 2 oz. of "Mystery Roving" from The Drafting Zone on it over the weekend, and it's a wonderful spindle.

I bought a bunch of dyed mohair top and dyed mohair/Border Leicester curls, and a used Hatchtown Lady Ann - which I heven't figured out yet - but I am going to give it some time.

So - by 10 AM, I had the spindles checked off, and TrixieChick promptly found Jean Frost's Jackets book. I loved it - so bought it. How had I not seen it before now?

I also gave in to Aberlemno from Yarns International. Sweater samples really sel me - I was torn between Aberlemno and Rain Forest - but there was no wrong decision. Both of these sweaters are much more subtle in person than on the web photos. I'm no Wendy Johnson, though (isn't she an inspiration?), so don't expect to see me wearing this anytime soon!

On the Sam saga - I didn't quite finish in time, but look at it now! I actually did the green sleeve entirely at Sarah's house last night. Sarah confirmed that it is really small. Oh well. Now to sew it up, figure out edging, and make some cute booties to match.