This past weekend was the Great Rhody Yarn Crawl and while I could only stop at 3 stores and the culmination festival at Mount Hope Farm, I still somehow managed to make off with a respectable haul (imagine that).

The aforementioned haul.

I was so overcome by the lovely little project bags sold by Dancing Threads RI that I couldn’t decide between the zippered pouch or the drawstring bag… so I bought both (woops). It couldn’t be helped. The fabrics were essentially made for me and I’m always short a project bag or two. I have a sock in the zippered pouch already. I feel like they could each be just an inch taller in size but overall I love them. I especially like that the drawstring on the bag is a nice solid canvas rope and not a dinky ribbon that my cats will chew through the second I turn my back (ooooh, Darwin).

Cashmere and possum and silk, oh my!

At Eneri Knits I purchased a new purple Knit Kit (the measuring tape on my old one recently bit the dust) and an exquisitely tiny and luxurious ball of Zealana Air laceweight. I’d been intrigued since I read about the yarn in one of Clara Parkes’ reviews. I’ve been wanting to make the Yarn Harlot’s Pretty Thing cowl for a while and this itty bitty skein of luxury yarn will be just the right match.

Branching out into more plant-based fibers. Here – linen.

At The Mermaid’s Purl I snagged a couple of skeins Shibui Linen yarn. It’s a fingering weight, chain construction yarn that should be interesting to knit with (to say the least). I might go back and get another white or exchange the green for the white as I’m not quite sure what I want to make with this yarn yet, but I know I’d like a summery little scarf/shawl of some kind. I’m considering the two-color slipped-stitch shawl Bryum, but I think I’ll need another skein for decent yardage. We’ll see!

Ahhhhh, pretty pretty Anzula.

Turns out that deciding to visit Love 2 Knit at the last minute was an excellent idea, since in addition to taking part in the crawl they were also having an Anzula Yarns trunk show! There were so many lovely skeins there, guys. SO MANY. All luxurious, all wonderful. It was ridiculously difficult to choose just one, but I managed. I decided to take home Oasis, a 70%/30% DK-weight blend of silk and camel. It is delightful and I’m already eying up the Amalthea pattern for it.

Shiny!

My favorite part of the yarn crawl weekend is the culmination festival at Mount Hope Farm. There’s a big barn full of local-ish vendors (half of which I know by sight if not by name now from the RI guilds!), people everywhere sitting around knitting and spinning, a food truck, and usually some fiber animals lurking about. One of the vendors I can never resist purchasing from is Christee of Play At Life Fiber Arts. Her gradient colorways are just SO FUN, I love them. In fact, I had to click away from her Etsy shop quickly before I bought something else (oh boy). Pictured above is a super shiny blend of 50% superwash Merino wool and 50% Tencel. Should be a fun and slippery spin!

Big box of Louet fiber.

And if all that yarn-y gluttony wasn’t enough, tonight I came home to a big ol’ box full of Louet fiber — FOUR POUNDS worth! There’s some gorgeous merino/silk top as well as some of their breed-specific Canterbury Prize wools including Jacob, Shetland, and Perendale (which I’m especially excited to work with because I’ve never even heard of that breed). I am going to have a lot of fun playing with these different fibers, keep an eye out for reviews! I plan to start spinning one of these breeds for the April Spring Training challenge… but how to choose?!

Hope you had a woolly and wonderful weekend, too!