How I Did

I think I did pretty well yesterday at the festival; for the most part, I stuck to my plan to buy only yarns that I couldn't get locally. All told, I got a lot of yarn for my money. Wanna see? Picture-heavy post follows ...

First up, yarn I technically could get locally, but I got it at a better price:

Two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, in the colorway Vera.

This next yarn drew me in because of the yardage for the price -- 400 yard for $12:

This is called Aussi Sock. It's 90% superwash Aussi merino, 10% nylon, and the colorway is called Faded Valentine.

This yarn I looked at, considered buying, and then walked away. But I came back about 10 minutes later to buy it because I kept thinking about it.

100% superwash merino, hand-dyed sock yarn from Knitting Notions. The colorway is called Hydrangea. I'm going to use these two skeins (approximately 840 yards) for a shawl.

This last batch of yarn was the real steal. It was from the booth from the Otter Creek Store (which is now closed) and was a steal at 8 skeins for $40.

This is all Cascade 220 Heathers, destined to be a seamless yoked (stranded) Elizabeth Zimmermann sweater for me, but not for a while.

Although the shopping was fun, the real highlight of the day was the beginning spinning class. I had great fun and kind of got the hang of the wheel. Here are my first handspun yarns!

This is a two-ply yarn from the 100% wool batt that we started with. The instructor told us after the fact that this wool was probably the hardest things to spin.

This is a two ply from a wool-alpaca roving. I was especially pleased to discover it was well balanced when pulled off the niddy-noddy.

This singles yarn was spun from alpaca pencil roving. It's definitely the softest of the bunch, and it was far and away the easiest to spin.

So, what's the verdict on the spinning? I won't be buying a spinning wheel -- yet. But as soon as we buy and move into a new house, and I've saved up a bit, a Lendrum Original single treadle is going to be mine!