Saturday, March 3, 2012

Stitches West 2012 Goodies

Last weekend I went to the annual fiber love fest that is Stitches West. I went on Friday to avoid the weekend crowds. I actually did not buy much this time around. One thing I did buy was a new swift. I had a small umbrella style swift that had some issues, so I thought I would try one these from The Oregon Woodworker.

I've used it a couple of times, and it seems okay so far.


I got only two kinds of yarn. The first is this ginormous skein of 70% merino/30% nylon yarn from Newton's Yarn Country.
I've never heard of that brand, and the yarn is labeled as "generic superwash merino". The company is really a yarn wholesaler and their yarns are usually re-packaged and re-labeled by other yarn companies who sell it on the retail market. The yarn looks black in the photo, but it's really a very dark purple made with a twisting of very dark blue and dark red fibers. My other purchase was 14 skeins of washable merino from Fibranatura.


I didn't know if photos were generally allowed, but at the Lion Brand Yarns booth, I got permission to take a photo of "yarn man" sitting on a yarn covered chair.

4 comments:

Kitten With a Whiplash said...

The swift looks nice, hope it lives up to your expectations.

Ellen Bloom said...

You're so lucky to close by Stitches West! I wanted to go this year, but just couldn't make it. Newton's Yarns comes to many of our festivals in Southern California. I LOVE their yarn! It's so springy and what a great value! Can't wait to see what you create!

yoel said...

Looks like fun! I have heard that the tabletop swifts make yarn cakes with a more even tension than umbrella swifts, but don't know anyone with both to compare. Keep us posted!

betty said...

I'm afraid I cannot compare this new swift with my original umbrella swift because I have already donated it away. It was too small to hold some of my skeins well, so since this one worked, I did not feel like I need to keep the other one.