For those of you who come here for knitting content, stick around.  For those of you who don't, move along; there's nothing to see here. Lots of knitterly fun and games going on this week. At the last minute I decided to drive down to the Madrona Fiber Fest in Tacoma.  It turned out that Sally, the developer of Knit Companion, was going to be there!  How could I pass up the opportunity to meet her?  I quickly contacted Lorette, reserved my room and headed down there.

We all had a wonderful time!  As usual, John and Lorette treated me to high class accomodations and food, including wine and champagne.  On Friday morning we headed to Madrona.  We had a good laugh when Lorette asked me how we would recognize Sally.  I said, "She'll be the one knitting."  Well, that did differentiate her from the ones spinning!  We managed to locate her and headed off to the market, where lots of fun, laughter, and – let's face it, yarn enabling ensued.

First of all, let me say that Sally is just a genius.  She shared with us some of her thoughts on developing Knit Companion and some of the upcoming developments.  I've shared my enthusiasm for this program, but it just keeps getting better and better.  What a treat to spend the day with her and get an "inside" look!

It's really unrealistic to expect one to stick to a yarn diet at Madrona.  I think I did show incredible restraint, however, and came home with only two skeins.  The first is a lovely merino/bamboo blend:

I've been wanting to try some bamboo since seeing it profiled on Knitting Daily.  This is destined to become an Alexandra Shawl.  I'll probably have enough for another project too, because the yardage is incredible – 1120 yards!

And as soon as I saw this I had to have it!

Pink mink!  Who knew?  Sally and Lorette and I are going to host a KAL over on the Knit Companion Ravelry site.  We thought a Pretty Thing cowl and matching mitts would be just the thing.  Did I mention they both bought mink yarn too?  Although not pink mink.

My other purchase was some Chiaogoo needles.  I've been eyeing them online and once I saw them in person, I was definitely onboard.  Here they are on my current pair of socks, Hedera, in Knit Picks Stroll.  

Oh. My. Goodness!  I love, love, love these needles.  The tips are nice and pointy:

The finish is just slightly brushed so the stitches slide along easily, but do not slip. The cables are firm and have no memory and no kinks.  And the joins!  Oh, the joins.  They are the smoothest I have ever encountered.  And the price???  Only $8.00 for a 24 inch.  Bargain! Recently I caved and bought a couple of Signature needles.  Now, they are really, really nice and a pleasure to knit with.  And until I ran across the Chiaogoos I was going to give them a glowing report.  But I honestly can say that they aren't any nicer than the Chiaogoos and much more expensive.  As luck would have it, I happened to mention this at the Knit Companion class I taught yesterday and one of the ladies offered to buy my Signatures.  Deal done, and with the money for that plus my fee for the class, I had enough to buy a set of the Chiaogoo interchangeables.  Can't wait until they get here.  I'll give you a full report.

On the needles now – Evenstar.

It's at the amorphous blob stage right now.  The body to Dark and Stormy is done and sleeves have commenced:

I'm still not sure how the fit is going to work out on this.  This is my first top down adult sweater and I'm hoping the armhole is deep enough.

That's it for now.  Tonight I have to get at least one row done on Evenstar to free up the Signatures so I can mail them to their new owner tomorrow.  But I'm really itching to get back to my socks on the Chiaogoos!