vogue knitting live 2016

Hi friends!  I hope you're having a wonderful, relaxing weekend full of all of your favorite things.  I certainly am!  This morning, I woke up early and cleaned my apartment, did some yoga, and headed out to Brooklyn to meet up with my brother.  We had a delicious brunch at The Bounty, which is a completely charming restaurant.  We actually tried to check out a few other places first-- one was closed, one was closed down completely, and one had a very confusing ordering system and there wasn't much seating.  It worked out for the best, though-- both the food and the ambiance of The Bounty were perfect for a relaxed Saturday morning.  Zach ordered the mackerel and scrambled eggs on toast, and I had biscuits with sausage gravy.  Both dishes were yummy, but we both agreed that the biscuits and gravy were hard to beat.  Definitely a good choice if you're looking for a cozy, reasonably-priced-for-New-York option in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The other reason I was in Greenpoint was to meet up with some knitting friends at Gauge and Tension!  I spent an absolutely wonderful afternoon knitting with Jennie and Devon from the Tiny Paper Foxes podcast, Jaclyn from the Brooklyn Knitfolk podcast, Denise from the Yarn Geek podcast, Michael from the Penuin Coffee Klatchd podcast, and Allison, who works at Gauge and Tension.  Jennie, along with Eric from the Sticks + Twine podcast, hosted a meetup after Vogue Knitting Live a few weeks ago, so I'd already met a few of these lovely people, and it was great to have some more time with them, as well as meeting a few new friends!

Speaking of Vogue Knitting Live, today I'd like to share my VKL purchases!  I went to the VKL marketplace with my friend Kristina, who is incredibly fun to shop with.  Our tastes in color are almost complete opposites, so we're never competing for the same skein, and we are both expert enablers.  As Jennie would say, it was a Festival of Woolpiggery.

First is this beautiful skein from Narwhal Needlework.  Look at those colors!  The blush, the raspberry, the deep brown-- the speckles!  For crying out loud, the speckles!  I fell in love with this skein from a few booths away and zoomed right over to purchase it.  This is a superwash merino and nylon blend, fingering weight, and the colorway is called Coffee Date.  Too cute!

Next up is this beautiful tweedy skein, also from Narwhal Needlework.  Every once in a while, I run across a dyer who just speaks to me with their color sense.  Narwhal Needlework is definitely one of those dyers.  There was nothing in their booth that I wouldn't love to knit.  This is another fingering weight, in the colorway Marooned.

These two beautiful skeins are by Hedgehog Fibres, purchased at the StevenBe booth.  Both are in the colorway Opalite, but I couldn't choose which weight of yarn to get, so I decided to get both!  The sock yarn is a superwash merino/ nylon blend, and the merino singles are, obviously, merino, in a worsted weight.

I think I picked up and put down this yarn about five times before finally committing to purchasing it.  There is a lot of tonal blush yarn in my yarn stash, and I wasn't sure I needed another skein-- but I kept picking up this one and squeezing it and rubbing it against my cheek and even sniffing it (it's so sheepy!), and I finally decided to buy it.  After all, the reason I have so much tonal blush yarn in my stash is because I love tonal blush yarn.  This is Mohonk from Jill Draper Makes Stuff, a gorgeous sport-weight Cormo wool, in the Tiny Dancer colorway.

Last but not least are these two gorgeous skeins of sparkly fingering weight from Holiday Yarns, in the colorway Silver Screen.  I purchased these as an option for my Crazed Scandinavian Cowl, but ended up choosing the darker gray from my last post.  I'm so glad I bought these though, because they will look lovely in a colorwork project with some lavender or pale blue-- ooh, or yellow!  Wouldn't these be lovely paired with a mustard color?

Well, lovelies, I hope you have a fantastic Saturday night!  I'll be spending the rest of the evening knitting, snuggling Bucky and Cocoa, sipping tea, and reading the latest issue of Artful Blogging magazine.  Maybe I'll do a little journaling, too.  Getting wild and crazy over here!

♥