Purchases and Plans

This weekend was the annual Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster and, like always, I HAD to go there to surrender to the wool fumes.

Caitlin and Mikayla joined me on my quest for wooly wonders, and did we ever have fun.

And by fun, I meant that we were all practically melting from the heat.

I broke Mikayla's rule of no buying until we see everything, but I HAD to snag a skein of Destination Yarn's show exclusive colorway, County Fair.

Yes, a single skein. Not my usual two-for-big-shawls.

I had a limited budget this year, and I knew a big chunk of that was going to go towards the yarn for my ceremony shawl, so I mostly bought single skeins.

But rather than let them just languish as "stash yarn," I did something rather clever. I went ahead and paired it up with some other stash yarn and picked out a pattern. In this case, I grabbed my new Leon Alexander yarn and a skein from Bare Naked Wools that I purchased like 3 or 4 years ago.

The 3 skeins are all put together in a canvas drawstring bag and the pattern has been recorded in my bullet journal. Makes for easy project planning!

The next thing I bought were a couple of minis from Redbird Studios.

And these were paired up with the skein of speckled pink Three Irish Girls and some Shepherd's Wool fingering that I had laying around. In fact, the Shepherd's was one of my first purchases from Harps and Thistles FOREVER ago.

Speaking of Redbird Studios, remember the blue skein I bought last year?

Okay, you probably don't, but that's okay!

Anyway, I decided what I was going to pair with that, too!

The pattern I have in mind for this combo I'm so ridiculously excited about. I'm going to get to try mosaic knitting for the first time!

It's another colorwork technique, but you only use one color at a time. It uses slipped stitches to create the designs.

Like I said, really excited to try that.

My last purchase before we get to ceremony shawl yarn (yes, I actually did find some) is the only thing I haven't paired up with anything yet. Mostly because I think I want to just buy a second skein and make something spectacular out of it.

You can't really tell from the above picture, but the yarn is *sparkly*.

You can kinda see it a little bit here. But in person, it's just *shinyshinyshiny*.

I mean, I guess one stash yarn out of everything I bought really isn't that bad.

But let's move on to the purchase we've all been waiting for.

I give you...

The Ceremony Shawl Yarn!

*fanfare and trumpets and glitter and confetti*

I ended up buying these three skeins from Bewitched Pigments in their Magic fingering weight base. The color is called Into The Woods.

It was love at first sight, really. I tried looking at other yarns, but this color just completely captivated me.

Now I guess I need to sit down and actually design the thing.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

I changed my mind again.

But now that I have the yarn, I have a solid plan in front of me and just need to dive in and get working.

Oh, I also picked up my first dyer pin!

Now I just have to find one of them fancy canvas bags that everyone has and start placing my badges of honor on there.

Well, that's all I got. Catch you later and all that!

"WAIT!" you yell. "Did or did you not get Teroldego done in time to wear to the show?"

Listen...

I did.

It was really easy to finish, surprisingly.

But...

I...

Didn't wear it...

I KNOW!

But I didn't have any good outfit choices to compliment it.

So I ended up wearing Celestarium.

And I was stopped every other booth by someone wanting to see it, which is great and fun and totally ego-inflating.

But lest you think this was a unique thing, Mikayla wore that gorgeous purple Boo Knits shawl of hers and was stopped just as often as I was.

Caitlin was the only smart one and didn't wear wool in nearly 90 degree heat.

We stupidly waited until we were about dead from heat to take a picture together, so I'll spare you from that sight.

Instead, I'll leave you with some new flower pictures from around our yard.

If you'll excuse me, I have some yarn to play with.

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Tidbits

I really haven't worked on any sort cohesive projects that require an entire blog post dedicated to it, so I thought I'd just kinda show the little things I've been doing and working on.

I did get one little knit project done a few months ago that I just never shared here.

I made a mini me in a black goat outfit!

I even have a lil tail.

But that's not all.

Afterall, who would I be without one of my signature shawls?

Yep! It's a mini Rainbomb!

And yes, I'm seriously considering making mini versions of all my favorite shawls.


John and I had fun with a quick bit of thrift shopping recently.

My faves were these incredible, brand-new boots.

And these two new purses.

We did our annual clean-all-the-crud-off-the-porch and, damn, it's looking so good.

We also discovered some new residents on said porch when we were cleaning. We're now playing host to a hive of carpenter bees.

If you look closely, there's one on the bricks to the right, as well as one in one of the tubes in the bottom right.

They don't really pose a threat, so we're going to let them do their thing.

We've also been busting our butts on our flower beds, especially the problem one in the front.

I ended up with some new color varieties of marigold in the planter boxes.

The left one is called Fireball and the left is Strawberry Blonde.

I also got these gorgeous petunias.

But my absolute favorite is the coleus we ended up planting in the front flower bed.

This seriously is my new favorite flower bed. Lets just hope that things actually grow like I want them to.


I got a fun new book to read.

I haven't had a chance to really dive in much. I want to take my time and really take it in rather than do my usual C O N S U M E style of reading, which allows me to just get lost in the book and process it all later.

What's that? The project underneath?

Yeah, okay. Teroldego has made it out of purgatory. I've made it to the lace section now. I haven't touched it in nearly a week, though, since we've been working outside so much.

As for Cloud Illusions (the shawl I said I wanted to wear to GLFS)... well, the more I thought about it, the more I kept looking at Rainbomb.

Rainbomb is an absolute spectacle and really friggin impressive. I *want* to show it off. And where better to do that than at a fiber show?

Speaking of fiber, want to see my newest wool pretties?

First up is what I ended up getting at the latest pj party, a pretty skein of TIG Adorn Sport.

I've seen this poor loner on the wall forever and I felt bad, so I brought it home. I just wish I could actually get a halfway decent picture of it. It's absolutely gorgeous in person, but was being particularly persnickety about showing that off.

"But Ashtan! What are you going to do with a single skein of sport yarn? Also... they make sport weight yarn? I thought only bulky, worsted, fingering, and lace existed in your world..."

Yes, yes, I know. But I actually already have a plan in place! There's actually some other TIG yarn in the same weight that is going to pair beautifully with this. So, I got my next purchase already sorted.

The other yarn I got was a Limited Edition color from Leon Alexander Yarns. It was part of their May the 4th collection. It's called Eulogy and it's dedicated to our most beloved Rebel Princess and General, Leia Organa.

I'm kicking myself for not buying a second one. Isn't it just lovely?

And to finish us out, how about I show off the LAST FRIGGIN CHRISTMAS PRESENT I did last year? No, I still haven't managed to send it to Lily. But I at least showed her pictures! So, without further ado, behold! The spider cowl!

This really was a labor of love because there was So. Much. Purling.

But I can't really argue with the results.

I absolutely adore how each spider looks completely different and unique from the other ones.

I actually love it so much that I *may* or *may not* be considering making myself a matching one. Assuming I can convince my hands that all that purling is worth it again.

I think it is. Don't you?
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Like my writing? Why don't you buy me a coffee!

You can do so through my ko-fi link HERE: ko-fi.com/blackgoatknitting

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