Madrona Marketplace

So it's Madrona Fiber Arts retreat time again, and many knitters around town are taking various classes in knitting and spinning. I wanted to sign up for a class, but they cost quite a bit of money. So I did the next best thing: take a day off work and went to the yarn marketplace with my mom instead.

One of my main objectives was to finally get ahold of some STR yarn. I've been eyeing the Raven clan colours for awhile now and was ecstatic to come home with two skeins of the lightweight in Rook-y and Valkyrie - score!

There were so many different vendors, it was really hard to stick to my yarn purchasing budget (even though I did go just a tad over), but I didn't walk out with one of everything, so I think I managed just fine.

I also got some Shibui knits sock yarn from the Knit-Purl booth (a yarn shop from Portland, OR) in a beautiful colourway that had a nice blend of warm browns and pale blue in color 3001.

My biggest purchase was some natural coloured yarn from a company called Toots LeBlanc & Co. I love the natural wool colours and the yarn from this booth were all so beautiful. I wanted to buy some of their angora blend yarn for a shawl, but had to resist. See all the beautiful natural colours? Love it!

Mom fell in love with a felted purse they had on display. I took this photo so that I can remember what it looked like, as I'd like to knit one for my mom in the future. The bag had the prettiest glass button that we both fell in love with and it just so happened that the person who makes those buttons had a booth too, but I couldn't justify spending almost $30 for a single button - but it was soooo pretty!

So from this booth I walked away with some of their jacob/alpaca blend yarn in the white colour and the dark grey colour. I'm thinking about either knitting a hat or some felted slippers out of this, but not sure yet.

There was another booth I really loved and wished I came back with some of their sock yarn. The company is called Tactile Fiber Arts. Just look at the colours of the sock yarn - can you believe these are all using natural dyes? I was blown away by all the colours! I did read on their website that they'll have an online shop in the next month or two, so perhaps I can still snag one in the near future :)

So as you can see, I didn't get carried away and buy a truckload of yarn, but I came home a happy girl. I petted my yarn and fell asleep on the couch cuddling my preciousses (hahah, not really, but I totally could've).