Knit And Crochet Show

07-15-06_1225.jpg
Originally uploaded by jwordsmith.

Lovely Husband (LH) set me free this morning to take a swing through the Knit And Crochet Show at Valley Forge. I didn't sign up for any of the classes and, frankly, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had been to the Computer Show and Sale here and it was grim. And smelly. I was expecting better of the Knit and Crochet Show. I was not disappointed.

Last year I heard the owner of my Walking-Distance Yarn Store (WDYS) telling a customer that ye-as, she'd been but really she hadn't seen anything new and, blah blah, generally sounding unimpressed. So really, I wasn't expecting much.

But when I tell you that my usual haunts for yarn are the WDYS, which has lots of utilitarian yarns and a few scrumptious things that, in that context look like forbidden treasures; the local general craft store (acrylics and fuzzy yarns, ahoy); and very occasional trips to a better Local(ish) Yarn Store, you might get some idea of how unprepared I was.

Acres of gorgeous, touchable wool and wool blends; polished wood needles; hand-dyed yarns that smell a lot more amazing in real life than they look on the Internet; gorgeous examples of knitted garments (which look SO much nicer in 3-D than online)...

I was very restrained and only bought two 250 yds skiens of a natural wool/alpaca blend, after talking to the woman whose farm it came from, and one ball of Trekking sock yarn. I justified both purchases by noting that I couldn't get either of these things from yarn stores nearby and the wool/alpaca I would never have fallen in love with, without touching.

I also bought a pattern for an amazing cabled coat with a box-pleat in the back (which you can see in the top left of the picture). One day it will be mine...But not until I've made some more practice sweaters. And raised the kids.

I also got some nifty tools for pinning your seams together while you sew up. Since I am way too lazy to fart about with pins while sewing up, I usually end up with badly sewn-up garments. These are kind of like hair clip (claws). I'll post pictures or a link when I get a chance.

I also spoke to the daughter of the designer of Knit Stix, which have rulers printed right onto them so that you are never without your ruler. Brilliant!

There's more, much more, but I'm trading on the good will of LH pretty heavily at the moment, so I'm going back to mommyhood now. More knitstuff later.