Here's the situation:
Looks pretty bad, right? It is, but I can explain.
First... the large plastic-wrapped package of NINE SKEINS of Berocco Fiora. Yeah, I didn't buy that. I won it as a door prize. It came along with a book of things to knit out of the yarn (which is a cotton, bamboo, acrylic, merino blend and will be nice for summer things), and since I'm such a tiny individual, I think I should be able to knit two of the sweaters out of it. It's a great neutral, so I'm pretty excited. This is now the highest yardage item in my stash, so I imagine it means it will shortly be occupying my life. Which is fortuitous, because seasonal knitting!
As for the rest.
I didn't buy anything I could pick up from local yarn stores.
I didn't buy anything I could easily order off the internet (although let me tell you, the Grinning Gargoyle and Alicia Goes Around booths were hard to walk away from)
I set myself a dollar limit, got cash, gave Jonas the credit cards, and stuck with it.
I only bought things raised/spun/dyed within 400 miles of home.
Here's what that works out to:
Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mills Shady End Yarn in "Wild Aster". American grown and spun and dyed in Mt. Horeb, WI. I actually bought a pattern at the fibre event I attended last year that called for this yarn, so I figure I might should get the yarn. It's a gradient yarn, which I usually shy away from (shush...don't talk about all the Kauni), but since I have a pattern that's supposed to use exactly this much of the yarn in a gradient pattern, I figured it was a win-win.
Roubaix Wool Company CVM-Romeldale/Alpaca Worsted in the Prairie base. I hear Jasmin from Knitmore Girls talk about CVM fleece quite often, so I was excited to get the chance to knit with some. They had their yarns dyed in beautiful muted earth tones, but I chose this natural grey/tan so that I can dye it if I choose or just leave it as it is. I'm thinking this will become mittens or a cowl to keep me warm in the winter. The alpaca adds just the right amount of softness, but this is still a sheepy, rustic yarn from a U.S. heritage sheep breed raised and spun in Minnesota.
Gale Woods Farm Finn/Icelandic wool in a worsted weight. This farm is actually run by a local park district manned by the county I live in and four surrounding counties. The farm is actually in my county (it's a REALLY BIG county). The yarn I bought is actually smaller skeins than they usually sell, but they were selling them for 50% off because they're old stock, so I ended up with roughly the same yardage for half the cost, which is pretty great. I'm excited to work with the Finn/Icelandic sheep a whole lot. I may dye this...I may not. It's not as soft as the new stock, but it's still pretty nice and really delightfully rustic. The sheep are raised on the farm and the yarn is spun in southeastern Minnesota in one of the few still operative woolen mills in the United States.
Indieway Yarns First-String PLUS 2-ply sock yarn in the Waves of Superior colourway. Not (necessarily--IDK it might be, it doesn't say) raised or spun in the US, but dyed close to where I live. The colours are beautiful and all have a delightful nature/Lake Superior/northwoods theme to them. The only thing I'm sad I didn't have enough money to buy is an additional colourway of this yarn called "North Shore Lupines" (because I'm a sucker for native plants), but I had to get this colour because I'm such a ridiculous sucker for blue/brown variegations and everything about this is so very lovely. The yarn is an 80/20 SW Merino/Nylon blend and will, of course, make some lovely socks (I need a sock yarn intervention).
ilLOOMinated Yarns Warrah Base (British Falkland Merino/Tencel) in the Storm Clouds colourway. Again, not raised or spun here, but dyed in central MN and definitely absolutely beautiful colours.
Last, but certainly not least, Carlson's Loveable Llamas. Rick (a delightful older gentleman) had a table with a bunch of different yards and fibres in all manner of different natural colourways. The yarn is delightfully soft, as well, but what really sold me is that each yarn had a photo of the llama it came from. I don't know what it is, but I'm such a sucker for seeing a picture of the animal that created my fibre. I waffled a bit on purchase, because each skein is only 150yds and I didn't know if I'd be able to actually do anything substantial with that little of an amount, but when the gentleman told me about the llamas and how excited he was to see what colours the fibres would be from the new babies and then told me that each skein comes with a photo of the llama, well...I was sold. The farm is about 35 miles south of where I live and they do cool things like tours and petting zoos and birthday parties and they spin the yarn themselves and sell the fibre as well. It's just a super cool place and I really want to go visit the farm sometime.
So that's my haul from the weekend. I set myself back nearly 2 months of destash (3791yds/3466m), although if you discount all the Berocco I got for free, I only purchased 2577yds/1442m. Which is still bad, but not AS bad, right.
Anyway. I'm very shortly about to be at grad school without a car, so I imagine my yarn purchasing will soon slow significantly. I hope. I really, really hope.
But I feel like I stashed smartly and I feel good about all the local yarns and supporting local farmers and fibre artists. And I'll sure be warm come wintertime!
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