purchases from Stitches South

So I think I mentioned that some friends and I headed to Atlanta last weekend for a little girl's trip. We went to check out Stitches South, a knitting conference and yarn shopping paradise. XRX (a knitting publisher) has been putting these conferences on for years in other locations throughout the country. They finally added a southern conference last year. We had a blast shopping all day for lovely yarns. They offer classes as well, but we stuck to just shopping. There really were some beautiful fibers and interesting gadgets to see. Moriah wound up buying a really cool drop spindle so she could learn to spin yarn. I can't wait to see what she creates.

I thought I would share a few pictures of what I bought and my ideas for what to make with them.
The picture above is a gorgeous baby alpaca and silk yarn from Lisa Souza. I have ordered her lace yarn before and she just dyes some of the most beautiful colors. It's hard to see in this photograph, but there are slight purples in this lovely gray/brown color. I think I'm going to make this shawl out of the yarn.

The pattern is called Laminaria by Elizabeth Freeman from Knitty Spring 2008 (www.knitty.com). This version is by Nasseknits on Ravelry. I love it! The yarn I bought is bigger than the lace weight the pattern calls for, but I will just do fewer repeats of some of the sections of lace.

The next thing I bought is this lovely, super-soft merino. This was from a company that sells lots of qiviut yarn (yarn made from the muskox!). Qiviut is so incredibly soft! They must have learned how to make their merino even softer because this that I bought is amazing. I couldn't afford the qiviut, but maybe next time :) I purchased this pattern they had to make a lace wrap. I think it will be a great sweater to slip on with a nice dress, tank, etc.


The last yarn that I purchased was this silver merino from Louet Gems. It is very Koigu-esque in it's texture. It was on super sale at one of the booths and I bought two bags (5 skeins per bag) to make the cardigan below. The cardigan pattern is Pas de Valse by Marnie McLean from Twist Collective Fall 2009 (www.twistcollective.com). I love the fluttered edging and the softness of the cardigan.





We had a great time at Stitches South. I encourage you to go next year if you're at all within traveling distance of Atlanta. It might be fun to stay for a class or two as well. We wanted time to hit up Crate & Barrell and Ikea, of course :)

Off to crochet more on the baby blanket. Photos soon!!!

xoxo