Caitlyn & I (and a bunch of fun ladies from the knitting guild, including Beth, who helped set up the trip and took some great pictures) made a trip on the Amtrak Stitch & Ride train to the Knit & Crochet show on Saturday.

Here’s Caitlyn working on her sock - the lucky girl won a great door prize on the train!

And these are the fun gals who shared a table with us in the knitting car. They were both working on neat beaded Koigu purses. So pretty!

I worked on the Backyard Leaves scarf on the train. Note to self: charts + train + crazy chatting knitters = much frogging. Oh well, it was fun anyway. And you see that little spot of pink behind my right shoulder? It’s Nancie!

Yes, that’s right, I got to meet the author of my favorite knitting book (which also happens to be the most useful knitting book that I own) - Nancie Wiseman!

Unfortunately, neither Caitlyn or I took pictures at the knit show itself, even after we each mentioned several times that we should take pictures! I’d be a horrible photojournalist. You’ll just have to imagine a big room in a convention center filled with yarn and fibery goodness everywhere. And knitters. Lots and lots of knitters.

The show was great, but I didn’t have much luck finding patterns. I was hoping to find a lace pattern that hasn’t already been knit to death, but patterns were in short supply at the show.

There was one beautiful display of Russian Lace shawls (yeah, yeah - no pictures… sorry), but they were all for sale, and the booth didn’t have any patterns available. I did manage to find some very pretty yarn for my next lace project from a different vendor.

As far as I can tell, this yarn isn’t available anywhere except for from Yarn Place, and it doesn’t even show up on their website. It is a gorgeous deep red tencel/merino blend, and I would guess that it is cobweb weight or maybe even finer (no gauge is given on the yarn band). Seriously, it is a very fine yarn. Smaller than some thread that I’ve used. There are 3000 yards of yarn in this 4 oz. hank! 3000! Crazy.

How long do you suppose it will take me to make a lace shawl on tiny (00? 0? 1?) needles with 3000 yards of yarn? I’m guessing a reeeeeallly long time. Any ideas for patterns? I love Eunny’s Print O’The Wave stole- and this is enough yarn to make 4 of those! Yikes!