Woodstock Fleece Festival and Beyond

Marion and I got up early and made our way to Woodstock (Ontario) today for the Woodstock Fleece Festival held at the fairgrounds.

There were 62 vendors, many of whom were new to us. When we first went in, we went directly to the Needle Emporium booth as I knew they had the new (to North America) Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe in stock. It is more than double the cost of the regular Kidsilk Haze because of the Kaffe Fassett colour design. I bought three balls:

Circus,
Twilight and
Forest.
On the inside of the ball band is the pattern for the "1 Ball Scarf" which is also a free pattern from the Rowan website. Basically it's a stocking stitch scarf with a few rows of moss stitch at the beginning and end and 5 sts of moss stitch on each side to keep the edges from rolling.

Of course, I had to cast on and get the scarf underway.
I also picked up a skein of Fleece Artist Maseru - 66% mohair, 24% wool, and 10% nylon in a jewel tone colourway.
At another booth I snagged a pound of mill ends BFL roving, perfect for spinning and dyeing.
Somewhere else I bought a shawl pin.

 This is only the third year for the Fleece Festival but I deem it an unqualified success! Unfortunately, next year it will be on the same weekend as the NY Sheep and Wool Festival. I'll only be able to be in one place. However, if, for whatever reason, I can't attend Rhinebeck next year, I'll at least have the WFF to attend.

After lunch we drove to Guelph to visit Greenwood Quiltery which had not only a staggering array of quilting fabric but a luxury yarn shop in the back. There, I bought three skeins of Koigu to knit the Churchmouse Linen Stitch Scarf.

I know they look really random but with blue as the common colour to all three, I'm pretty sure they'll look good together. However, I know it will be a project that will seem to never end with the 400+ stitch rows. The gal at the yarn shop suggested that instead of turning at the end of the knit (right side) row, because you change colours every row, just cut the yarn and slide the project to the other end of the circular needle, attach the new colour and just do the knit row again. What a great idea!

I also splurged and bought two more skeins of Koigu to knit myself a pair of Paraphernalia socks. I ♥ the asymmetrical cables.

Finally, I bought two skeins of Regia Design Line Random Stripe socks in the Anthracite (2903) colourway - nice manly colours for a pair of socks that I'll be giving as a gift (note: I didn't use the annoying gerund - 'gifting' - ugh).

I bought more stuff today than I did in two days at Rhinebeck! I guess I'll be knitting from my stash for a while.