I have a midterm in my programming class today, and this week is going to be a busy one, so I thought I'd talk about Maryland Sheep & Wool and the goodies I brought home in stages.

So what was in the top of my little black travel bag?

Koigu Kersti, Zircote Lucet, Dzined Hemp Sock Weight Yarn and Some Luscious Mohair from Brooks Farm

Originally, I promised myself that I wouldn't bother fighting off the crowds at the Koigu booth. Most of Saturday there was an almost impenetrable collection of people tucked into their stall. After all, I figured, I can order almost anything Koigu from ThreadBear. But the opportunity to buy small hanks of Kersti at about half the cost per gram as retail was too much for me. I bought four skeins in colors that I think might be compatible with my skin tones so that I can swatch for a turtleneck sweater that I would like to design for myself.

From left to right the colorways are K801, K513, K105 and K823. K105 is my favorite, but the colors in it are a bit yellowy. I'll be swatching these little samples when I need a break from other projects so that I can do a color check and plan for how much Kersti I might want to order. Kersti is lovely and definitely not cheap, so I want to make sure that I don't order more than I need and that I absolutely love the way the color will look on me.

Next in my circle of goodies is a new tool/toy that I've wanted to try ever since I saw Claudia talk about them in a post that I can't find quickly tonight -- a lucet. This particular lovely lucet is made by the folks at the Rouge Lucet and it's made out of a wood called "Zircote" from Mexico. Lucets are used for making a firm cording. I've tried playing with it a little bit already, but have decided that I need to set aside a little more time to be focused with it before I say too much more about it.

I encountered Dzined when I went to the Michigan Fiber Festival last summer. I haven't knit with the skein I bought there yet, but I couldn't resist this skein with it's lovely harvesty colors -- sagey greens, golds, berry purples, teals and indigo blues. It's really hard for me to turn away from hand dyed sock yarn. Yarns from Dzined are wool/hemp blends and Bonne Marie swears that they wear like iron, which would seem perfect for a sock experience.

The last skein up there is much more impressive in person than in the picture. It's a very subtly colored (blues, muted purples, greens, soft teals) 100% kid mohair yarn from Brooks Fiber Farm in Lancaster, Texas. Forget everything you ever thought about mohair being scratchy, this stuff is completely soft and neck-skin friendly. And the sheen of the yarn is just out of this world. It was one of the last things I bought on Sunday -- at a point when I had decided that I was finished buying. But it was just love at first sight when I found it and I had to bring it home with me. And at $30 for 500 yards (8 oz) it seemed like a real bargain. It's destined to become a lace scarf of my own design once fall rolls around. If you want to see a somewhat better rendering of the color (and the email address and phone number of the Brooks folks), click here.

That's it for tonight. But it's definitely not all that was in my bag. More to come after my midterm exam!