Day 3 was another fab day at Madrona

The day began at 1:30, Madrona time.  I had a mini class with Nancy Merchant, author of Knitting Brioche.  Another awesome class!  Learned a new cast on and Brioche which I have played around with before but never got past the first few stitches without scrapping. 

Here is a swatch of my work.  I was just starting to work the Brioche in purl form - hence the reason for it all of a sudden looking wonky.

 Day gets even better when I find out that my knitting BFF is coming to meet with me for one last go round in the marketplace.  But before I can even respond to her text - I notice that my name has been drawn for a door prize!  I never, NEVER I tell you ever win anything!  I had quite a few to pick from but after help and guidance from my BFF, I chose the years subscription to Knitters Magazine.  Gotta love getting something in the mail every month!

We head back to the marketplace hoping to find some last minute treasure and low and behold, I found one!  The yarn is from Habu Textiles (NY) (www.habutextiles.com) and it comes on a cone.  It is 100% silk and it vaguely reminds me of thin twine.

Color is a mix of brown and grey with off white flecks.

My intention is to knit this tunic dress (Scarpetta by Kirsten Johnstone).  I wish I had taken a picture of the one in the booth, it showed better than the images below.

So - I spent more money, gained more knowledge and truly had a great afternoon with a friend.

Day 2 of Madrona - and even better!

So day 2 of Madrona started out with a 9 am morning class.  Not only did both girls make the bus - but I also found great parking and had plenty of time to get a cup of coffee and get situated. 

The Instructor was Elise Duvekot and she lives in the Netherlands.  She was an excellent instructor who knew how to run a class! 

Here is a swatch of my work.  I should have photographed the wrongside as I loved the back side more than the front side.  The class was Columns of Cables, knit 1 below and it was a technique that is easy to do once you understand it.  I fell in love with the technique as well as her designs - a few were utterly gorgeous like the sweater that alternated between a lace weight mohair with a bulky wool (it was gorgeous without the weight) and the socks.

 The socks were beautiful and her workmanship is impeccably perfect.  Classes like this inspire me to improve my knitting and try new techniques.  The class was spendy but worth every penny!

I have a mini class tomorrow on Brioche knitting with Nancy Merchant (author of Brioche knitting) and I have high expectations that it will be just as good as my class was today.

Stay tuned....I'll be posting again tomorrow!

Day 1 of Madrona and it was fabulous!

 Day 1 of Madrona is exactly what I expected ----tons of yarn, crowds of ladies wearing their favorite sweater, shawl or scarf and lots of oohhing and aahhing. 


My knitting gals and I love to carpool over and convince one another to buy buy buy whether we need it or not.  We're good at debating over which color looks best on who and what gadgets are a must.  We just like to spend each others money!  There is always one in our group that is easy to persuade and there is always the other one that needs a ton of convincing (that would be me!).  Then there is the one that knows exactly what she wants and she needs no help from anyone! Lastly - there is the one that doesn't think she's capable of knitting this or that and we spend the next hour convincing her that her knitting skills are much higher than she thinks they are!  Sadly - our 5th friend was busy volunteering at the elementary school and missed out on all of the fun!


So - my big purchase was this new yarn (or at least I have never seen it before).  The booth was Angora Vally Fibers & Fly Designs (www.angoravalley.com) out of Tenino, WA.  They had a bunch of machine knit socks and fingerless gloves knit up in this up in this felted Possum yarn.  Supposedly, the more you machine wash it (lay out to dry) - the fuzzier and softer it gets.  The socks were amazing and I couldn't stop looking at them.  So here's the details:
30% New Zealand Possum
50% Merino Wool
20% Nylon
525 yds at 100 grams for $25.00.  Enough to make a pair of socks. 

My other purchase - (don't worry, I still have 1/2 day classes on Friday and Saturday with time to shop some more!) were these stunning buttons from Black Water Abbey (www.abbeyyarns.com).  Now - I wasn't the first to see them - my girlfriend was.  My girlfriend has great taste by the way so when she slipped them back onto the rack - I snatched them up!  It was the last set too!  They say that they are Vintage Vegetable Ivory - whatever that means.  As a vegetarian, that means to me that no elephant was killed during the making of these Ivory buttons!  They are just stunning and I'm sure that I can find the perfect cardigan to go with these buttons.

After a grueling couple of hours of shopping - we headed to the Murano restaurant for some lunch.  It was delicious but the company was even better and we all walked away with some fabulous treasures!