Yarn Me!

I was at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival this weekend, I had briefly entertained the idea of asking someone to go with me - briefly. I am not a big crowd person - I've been to a total of 3 large concerts in my life, the last one when I was around 19 and it was so miserable! Smaller ones I can do, but big stuff for me is no fun.Since I've done this venue before  I've found the best time is to get there right before it opens, I can be done by noon, 1pm and then heading home away from traffic. Pittsburgh is fun in the morning but the afternoon - I went to Whole Foods ONCE on a weekend late afternoon, holy crow is all I have to say. SO, I got there about 8:30 which was great, I had enough time to figure out the parking and to make a memo on my phone of where exactly I parked. I do this all the time since we had that rather horrible experience in Newark airport coming back from Florida. We arrived at night and neither of us could remember which parking area we parked in - and it had snowed!. I parked and then paid ahead of time in the little machine that sucks your credit card in and makes you panic a little that it might not give it back. It did and I went to get a day pass. Fortunately I'd brought enough cash to cover the admission - forgot about that. 

I hadn't registered for any classes and was sorry I hadn't - there were a few I passed that looked like fun. This year they added in quilting and sewing booths and demonstrations neither of which I can do, but I admire those that can. The new sewing machines are expensive - almost $4000, but they are computer driven and can happily embroider without you even being there! What's the point! The knitting  booths were amazing, I found my favorite alpaca ladies- handspun laceweight alpaca yarn in the most amazing shades you've ever seen.I just wish I had remember to bring a little of the purple yarn I had bought last year for them to match it. I ended up buying a beautiful forest green skein of about 2500 yards and have a pattern already to go.  I also bought local but not the booth that sells the brown and beige yarn. I actually was given a skein of that years ago and it's the scratchiest stuff ever and very expensive. Yikes! I just use it for decoration in my knitting room. 

I bought a little of everything - even though I have an extensive collection of books, bags, needles, yarn, etc.... there's always something I don't have. I found the 8 inch double points I was sure they don't make and some cute little stitch markers with little lambs of course. They had a nice coffee and bun kiosk outside in the lobby so I got to sit and drink my coffee overlooking the Pittsburgh skyline, then back in for another round. I left around 1pm and wandered my way home, stopping to take a few pictures. I've been doing that more lately since David bought me a camera for Christmas and so far, I haven't been able to break it. Good on me!