16 & on location

We interrupt this countdown to bring you a report from Madrona market in rainy downtown Tacoma at the glass-art-filled Hotel Murano. Natalie went with me to visit with some friends and to hunt for some goodies. (Just to prepare you--the reason I look inebriated in all of the following pictures is because I was up from 2-4 A.M. not sleeping again. Be kind--no finger pointing nor laughing, please.)

First we stopped at the NW Handspun Yarns booth to say hi to the very nice Nancy Bjerke. Her booth is always filled with the most beautiful spinning and weaving supplies. Nancy is a treasure. Go by her store next time you're in Bellingham--it's in the cool, old part of town.

We actually went round and round the market floor several times and bugged Shelly of (oft-mentioned here at figknits) Butternut Woolens too many times. She was very gracious and patient, however.

I also got to meet Ialiuxh (pronounced Aleah) of Lollipop Cabin. She let me try out a couple of her beautiful skeins. She had a never-before-seen 9-ply I had to scoop up and I also got some of her Organic merino.


See below? There they are on the right posing with some Black Water Abbey sport weight and worsted given to me the lovely Marilyn King. She was much too busy to pose for a picture but we had a very nice chat! I also had a chance to get some advice from Fontelle in the Great Yarns booth.

At the Carolina Homespun booth, I found far too many tools that I needed. I was actually on the hunt for some of those ChiaoGoo crochet hooks (everyone I asked just said, "spell it" and acted confused) and some of the Knitifacts rubber bumpers. I found the latter at the CH booth, but came away with no ChiaoGoo. Sad. Also sad was that it was so crazy in that booth (there were 5-6 people behind me in line!) that a pink aluminum Wanda (see below) and a green needle gauge charm did not make their way into my bag even though the price of them did make its way onto my credit card. They'll be getting a call from me!)
Not sad is the rest of this loot. More cable needles! Now I think I have every kind in existence. I also brought home some HiyaHiya tiny size 1 short dpn's, a set of Wandas (hook on one end and pick on the other) in rosewood, some hugeriffic Lacis crochet hooks, also in rosewood, and a square wooden handled crochet hook made by Kollage. Kind of a substitute for the ChiaoGoo (You wish I'd hush about those, doncha? I'm not gonna.)

Score! It was a good morning.