Vacation!

I am currently on vacation, but had so much to share! I just got back to Anchorage from a weekend away in Washington at a small, local, spinning retreat.  A lot of the friends I know from Ravelry go every year, and this was my second time attending. It is so nice to get away for a few days and see people who understand my love of yarn and fiber! I got a LOT of knitting done (but I will talk about that in another post because I have other yummy goodness to share) and I got to meet my friend's baby! She was adorable and we were quick friends. I was very sad to leave her, but I am hoping to get to see her again soon.

The mornings were foggy and cool, but still beautiful

I love the fall colors in Washington! Alaska doesn't have the wide variety of trees that the lower 48 has, so it is nice to see all the colors. 

The last day of retreat the weather was gorgeous. Just crisp enough for a light sweater.

There were vendors at the retreat, but I restrained myself. I haven't been spinning as much as I used to, so I didn't want to stock up on fiber. I have also been very good about only buying yarn for projects I am about to start, and that list is pretty long at the moment.  I was gifted a lovely skein of handspun from my friend, Sue. She said it reminded her of Lucy and she wanted me to have it. Sue is just the sweetest.  Lucy has a hat knit out of another skein Sue had spun for me when Lucy was born. It is a favorite of mine, and I love thinking of Sue spinning it when she wears it. 

Not sure what this will become, but it is Lucy's favorite colors, so I am sure she will love it!

I did make one small purchase for myself at the retreat, from my friend Brittany (Bohoknitterchic on Etsy).  She normally dyes a colorway especially for Tour de Fleece and I was unable to purchase it when it came out. I was very excited to see she still had a 6oz braid for sale and I decided to treat myself as I loved it. 

I can not wait to spin this up!

Sunday afternoon we packed up and I headed back to Spokane with a friend I was staying with for the night. We had to stop at Paradise Fibers (which is mere blocks from where I used to live in Spokane! It wasn't there when I was living there...which my wallet is thankful for!) and I might have treated myself to a few other goodies. I feel given the gorgeous things the shop carried though, I was rather restrained. I have never knit with Madelinetosh yarn, so I decided to give that yarn a try.  I think this will be a fun new hat for me!

The gradient skein is something I wanted to try as well. I keep seeing gradients knit up and love them but haven't seen them available to buy, so I decided to try this one out. It is a DK weight, and I think it will become some sort of scarf for me. There were so many gorgeous colorways of both of these yarns, it was hard to choose! But, I know myself and knitting that is for me gets pushed to the bottom of the stack, so this was enough for now. 

I had such a wonderful (and short!) trip. I hope next time I can stay longer like I did on my first time going, but it just wasn't in the cards this year. I am happy to be in town and get to spend some time with my parents (and see a movie in a THEATRE!) so that is good. My next check in will have lots of knitting. Probably at least one FO! Amazing. 

Happy Knitting!