Madrona

I know it's been several weeks since Madrona, so this post is a bit overdue. My excuse is that I ended up getting sick right afterwards. And then I had final projects due for the classes of the photography program I'm in, plus a photo show to hang. The final class and the show hanging were both yesterday, so I'm finally able to give a report.

I took the class "Designing Lace Triangles" from Evelyn Clark. We used her book Knitting Lace Triangles as a textbook, and you could pick up most of what she taught from the book, but seeing things demonstrated was certainly worth it. Evelyn also brought an impressive store of shawls that she had designed and knit with her, and they were passed around the room, much to our delight. Her Hyacinth Lace Shawl, Dancing Leaves Shawl, Seafoam Lace Scarf, and the truly amazing Labryinth Lace Shawl are all on my to-knit list now.

And I spent a bit of time (and money) in the market. The rule I set for myself was no buying anything I could get at one of my LYSes. I was on the lookout for something special and unique. From Crown Mountain Farms, a Washington-based company, I bought a collection of leftover handspun Sock Hop sock yarn:



Crown Mountain usually sells their sock yarn in pairs, but the skeins I picked up were orphans and most were less than the standard yardage, so I called them leftovers. The colors look amazing together. (I took lots and lots of pictures of this yarn. More on my Flickr.)



I'm thinking they'll eventually make a wonderful shawl, perhaps the Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl or the Feather and Fan Triangle Shawl (both Ravelry links), although I don't have enough yarn for either. A few more orphaned skeins of handspun in complementary colors would nicely round out a shawl, and looking for a few more skeins is a task I'm happy to take on. ;-)



Heady with the first purchase, I went looking for more handspun. I bought one hank from Tactile Fiber Arts, a two-person studio up from California. The skein I bought was a naturally- and hand-dyed mix of Blue Faced Leicester wool, Tussah silk, Merino wool, carbonized bamboo, and alpaca. I think it would make a lovely hat or neckwarmer.



And there was another shop that I kept going into every time I did a circuit around the market: Butternut Woolens. A one-woman studio from Oregon specializing in angora yarn and naturally hand-dyed yarn and fiber, her yarn was incredibly beautiful. I kept waffling between a blue-green silk/wool blend and a purple-blue-green superwash sock yarn, because I wanted them both. But I don't like purchasing yarn without a project in mind, and I couldn't figure out what the project for either would be. Then I remembered Jeanie and I purchased three skeins of the lovely Indigo-Dyed superwash sock yarn.



Unfortunately, the pattern calls for 1350 yards and my three skeins bring me to 975 yards. So I'll either need another skein or another project.

I really enjoyed Madrona, and hope next year to be able to go for longer and take more classes. The classes fill up pretty quickly, so I missed out on the Weaving for Knitters with Syne Mitchell or the Yarn Harlot's offerings, but hopefully next year...