Fiber Festival Fun

So last Friday, my friend Lisa was taking a five-day class at the "Fabulous Fiber Fest" in Santa Monica and I met her during her lunch break from class. If I ever mention this plan again, please feel free to remind me that this is a BAD IDEA unless I have recently won the lottery. The following are some of my various "goodies" from my 2.5 hours of drooling.

But first, a side note! The last time I had attended an event at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, it was for the Barenaked Ladies holiday concert. Needless to say, the venue looked quite different last Friday! :)

So I started "small" with two AWESOME pairs of socks produced by Socklady. OH-MY-GOSH! I've been wearing these every single night since I bought them. MOST comfortable socks EVER and the cotton is the perfect weight for out here. I want to get some wool ones as well, but that will have to wait. If you're looking for a GREAT small gift for me, HERE'S YOUR HINT! :)

Next, Lisa and I found a yarn sale. Beautiful Kid-Silk-Merino yarn on closeout. I bought three skeins since Lisa convinced me it would be good sock-knitting yarn, even though it's a heavier weight than what most people use for socks. This is good for me, since needles smaller than a US 7 give me hives. Top is a blue-green vareigated. Middle is a really great forest green. Bottom is a green-purple vareigated.

Before I forget, anyone who has sock patterns for idiots (or sock-knitting novices), please feel free to speak up!

Next, I found a glass jewelry place. I know I don't wear much jewelry, but this particular piece jumped into my hand the second I walked up to the booth and I was totally unable to put it down. I sent Lisa back to get the third small bead to go with it, and will re-string the whole ensemble once I get that. It's hard to tell the scale of this photo, but the "main" blue piece of glass is about 1.25" wide/high

After running out to my car to put more quarters in the meter ($8/car/day for the official lot? I don't think so!!!!), I returned to that evil place and started dropping more money. The worst damage was done at the Carolina Homespun booth. Backpack. "Notions." Lantern Moon DPN's. I was standing there minding my own business and making a final decision on the super-cool knitting backpack when I was acosted by a very nice knitter with three skeins of Mountain Colors superwash wool in her hands. She wanted me to talk her out of getting all three skeins. YEAH! RIGHT! She bought all three skeins. I bought one, then had to buy teeney-tiny DPN's to knit said sock-weight yarn. But it's yummy and is the photo with the single skein.

I hope all of this looks OK on the actual blog post. I'll get to my knitting UFO's tomorrow. Tonight's project? Cleaning off my quilting cabinet so sewing will actually be an option!
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