We had a wonderful time at the Malabrigo yarn tasting!
When we heard that Malabrigo's founder, Antonio Gonzales-Arnao would be able to join us after flying all the way from Montevideo, Uruguay, we knew it was going to be a special evening.
Here's a look at our event space set up in anticipation, with balls of each of Malabrigo's lines of yarn wound up and ready for sampling, from super bulky "Rasta" through Rios and Arroyo, down to their newest line: Mora, a fingering weight yarn made from 100% pure mulberry silk!
Guests at a yarn tasting are invited to draw out a few yards and experiment with them, to discover a new favorite or try their hand at an unfamiliar fiber without the commitment of buying a whole project's worth.
When we heard that Malabrigo's founder, Antonio Gonzales-Arnao would be able to join us after flying all the way from Montevideo, Uruguay, we knew it was going to be a special evening.
Here's a look at our event space set up in anticipation, with balls of each of Malabrigo's lines of yarn wound up and ready for sampling, from super bulky "Rasta" through Rios and Arroyo, down to their newest line: Mora, a fingering weight yarn made from 100% pure mulberry silk!
Guests at a yarn tasting are invited to draw out a few yards and experiment with them, to discover a new favorite or try their hand at an unfamiliar fiber without the commitment of buying a whole project's worth.
Putting the finishing touches on the setup: We always try to prepare fun, unique homemade drinks at our events. This evening's offerings were a tamarind margarita and an açai lemonade. Here are the terrific prizes that Malabrigo provided for a raffle drawing, wrapped up and ready to go.
The guests begin to arrive and help themselves to a sample of the different yarns. . .
Esther grabs her chance to get to know Antonio, and a guest shares his amazing lace work.
Antonio discussed how he was motivated to launch Malabrigo ten years ago when he felt that Uruguay had superb wools, but deserved more imagination when it came to color. As the man responsible for selecting and desgining Malabrigo's famous dyes, he takes his inspiration for new color ways from the natural environment around him, such as the different shades of pebbles on a beach. For his very first attempt at dying yarn, he used his wife's soup pot in their kitchen. Charmingly, she was worried that her next batch of soup would come out dyed blue!
We had fun meeting some delightful new people, such as Gaye Glasspie (at right) of the awesome knitting blog ggmadeit, and (at left) designer Nancy Ricci of Getting Purly With It, whose beautiful Bethesda poncho pattern is featured in Malabrigo's "Book 8 In Central Park."
After Antonio answered all of our questions, we had a blast distributing the prizes, drawing names from a raffle bowl.
A big thank you to Antonio, and to everyone for coming to the event. We'll see you at the next one!
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