One last hurrah

We're in count down mode, 9 days to go - and I still don't think I'm going to make it to the actual due date.

Last week I wanted to attend my 'last' knit nights - one on Wednesday in NDG and one on Thursday at ariadne. I only made it to ariadne, since I had what I assume 'false labor' Wednesday evening and all through the night. While not really painful it was very distracting so I didn't go knitting. Thursday morning came and it finally stopped, so I did go to ariadne.



Egg received lovely gifts from very thoughtful friends, look:

Danica gave me this fabulous skirt and look at these shoes! Adorable. (Judging from my shoe size I figure Egg will wear the shoes way before the skirt...)


Sharon gifted Egg with the "Oolong Baby Cardi" - she actually used the pattern of the Oolong socks (how cool is that?) to fabricate this lovely little number:


Robyn had brought me also a gift on Wednesday afternoon - one can never have enough onesies, right? She adorned the white one with a bug herself, cute eh?


Thank you so much, ladies, all of the gifts are appreciated and will be treasured!

Nice weather, eh?

So much for an interesting title. It's true, however, since it is warm, sunny and just a bit windy outside. The sky is very blue on this lovely fall day here in Montreal.

I still haven't told you all about Fibre Fest North. Here's the rest of what I brought home with me:


In the upper left corner you'll find two balls of Jojoland Harmony lace weight. I have been drooling for two years over this yarn and finally got some. In the upper right corner you see something that drew me in colourwise, I had never seen it before and when I touched it I wouldn't let it go again. Morehouse Merino lace weight. (Notice a theme here? Lots of lacy things to come...)
Then there are two skeins of Oceanwind Knits Merino sock yarn. My brandnew friend Lori is just a wizard with colours, I like everything she does. Since I couldn't decide between the green and yellow, I bought one of each.



I told you. They drew me in, these spinners. When visiting the Lindenhof Wool Mill and learning how they make yarn, I had the opportunity to buy roving. Nice roving. The one in the back is a 100% wool in green, in the front there's an alpaca/silk mix in blue-green.



In the meantime I am still using some other wool roving of which I got to bring some home, too. That would be the one on the left. In the other bag there's some brown wool, and the white is some mix of wool and cotton. If I remember correctly. My other brand new friend Lorraine (who is a kick-ass spinner and spinning teacher and has together with her team, the Toronto Spiders, broken the Canadian record in the International Back to Back Wool Challenge, going from unwashed fleece to finished sweater in six hours and 18 seconds!!) told me to write it down and make a note of the ingredients. I think I have that sliver of paper somewhere. I just couldn't find it today. So much for my organizational skills.



And, last but not least, here is my new spindle made by Tracy Eichheim. After Ted (who I like to call "friend" now, too) called my Louet spindle a "boat anker" I kinda got the idea why my efforts alone at home didn't work out that well. Apart from the fact that it's so much easier when you have loads of super-spinners at hand to show you how it works. And that's why I should mention sweet Emma, too. She showed me how to catch the spindle between my knees and...oh, get your minds out of the gutter! She showed me to use the stored rotational energy to spin some more and not have the spindle twist backwards.


Oh, yeah. This is what happens when you try to get a picture of another brandnew friend, Katherine. She tries to avoid being on camera by all means as Rolf found out.


Which, in return, made it all the more interesting to try and catch her unawares. In the end she even let me take a picture of her and me together and allowed me to post it here on my blog. Now, that's what I call courage under fire! And no, I won't post the other picture. Our still delicate new friendship needs to be nourished and cultivated yet. (The whistling gnome agrees.)

It was a long trip

But it was sweetened (at least for me, Rolf was a very good sport!) by yarn buying and very good tart apples.

When I looked up the venue for FFN on the map and discovered that Pick up Sticks is practically on the way I planned a stop in Bradford. Since we left early enough on Friday morning, that was no problem at all. The ladies - Connie and her sister - are very friendly and of course I forgot to bring my camera and take a picture. But here's what I bought:



Then, later on, on route 26 along the coast of Nottawassaga Bay we stopped to buy apples. And some strawberry jam and elderberry jelly. The apples taste great. I bet they would be perfect in a pie.



Upon arriving at the Waterview Resort Ted had a goodie bag for each participant. I almost laughed out loud when I saw the colour of the lace yarn he put in there...(by the end of Saturday, everyone knew of my colour preferences. My, I hate to be predictable...) Well, to own the truth, when I asked Ted about it, he said he had planned to put a burgundy skein in there, but some or other happened to it and so it was...orange! Yay. Couldn't have been a better choice. It's from Shelridge Farms and feels very soft and lovely.



Also, there was, or rather is, a jar of chutney, made by Ted himself (can't wait to try it), very good chocolates from Mill Creek (two boxes, but Rolf and I had one already) and something I always wanted but never ordered so far: coilless safety pins! There was also lots of info about the area and and and...



More fun to come. I bet when I am done you'll wish you were there.

I'm baaaack!

From Fibre Fest North in Wiarton, ON. It was great! I met a lot of lovely people, learned how to spin, stocked up on yarn and roving (yeah, I got sucked in) and bought yummy apples from a fruit stand.

I have to take pictures of my loot, but here are some shots from the weekend:

The resort:



Willie's den where everything happened.



Fibrery invasion.



Me "spinning". (I do better now! and apparently somebody dressed me up with some fibre dreadlocks...)



Ted spinning ever so effortlessly.



Yeah, sometimes it didn't go too well.



DeeDee's fabulous spindles.



Thanks so much to everyone who was involved in planning and organizing this!

No words

I got mail today. Black Bunny Fiber mail. Last Monday in a fit of really not needed retail therapy (combined with yarn therapy) I ordered some more of Carol's much wanted hand dyed sock yarn. Three skeins. If you were one of the unlucky souls who didn't get to order some - blame it on my greed. (Rolf, if you are reading this, I have a good explanation for each one of the three skeins. Seriously.)

This is my loot.

Exciting. Splendiferous, each single one.

And then, then...it happened. There was a fourth skein. One I didn't order but knew about because Carol told me of it. Actually, she said "Hee-hee, I just finished dyeing a laceweight for you. I'll pop it in with your sock yarn." That's what I call a serious yarn teaser. I had no idea what to expect. I took it out of the envelope. I stared at it. I read the label, my jaw dropped, my eyes glazed over, I started breathing heavily and, for one of the rare occasions in my life, I was speechless. And screeching inside. (If I had screeched as I wanted to, my husband would have died of a heart attack.) I think you could call this "la petite mort de laine" - a yarn orgasm indeed.

I was of the opinion that the "Upper Voltage" colourway was as good as it gets a combination - it is in its own way. But, but - again, speechless - look at this!


I-know-it-doesn't-look-it-even-though-I-have-fotographed-it-in-natural-light-and-took-a-lot-of-pictures-to-catch-the-colours-just-right-but-I-do-solemnly-swear-that-Carol-managed-to-get-them-JUST-RIGHT-and-the-yarn-really-looks-just-like-my-sofa.

Excuse me while I catch my breath. That's not all.


How cool is that???

Carol, thank you so much - this laceweight is very special to me and I treasure every yard!!

Sneakpeek

Better, eh?

One person's junk...

A few weeks ago I had one of these "I cannot believe my luck" experiences. Rolf would disagree if asked now, but when I told him then that I found a perfect two-seater on sale for our living room and that it was Danish Modern Design and even drew a sketch how it looked he didn't want to go and check it out because we had the cold spell then and so he just said that I can buy it.

Which I did.

When we went to pick it up, I knew he hated it. He not only said so but his face told me all. I believe there are a lot of people out there who would agree, especially since the upholstery is your favourite 70's brown-orange-goldenyellow-mix (BTW, the fabric may be vintage, but it was put on only about a year ago and it goes so well together) and, truth to be told, a lot of us grew up with furniture like this so there might be some unhappy memory or some or other repressed anger which now is directed onto - let's face it - fabulous design. My sofa doesn't have one screw to hold it together, it's all done in wood. The lines are sleek, it's made of teak and hell, even if there's no famous designer name on it, I do love it.


Guess what. I am going to love it even more. Yesterday I went to Fabricville because I needed some ribbon and on a whim I looked at their upholstery fabric. I found the perfect one to replace the 70's mess and it's on sale for 40% off and then on top of this 40% more (the sales lady had to explain it, I didn't get it, they have confusing signs put up). Can you believe my luck?


Something Saturday

If you are anything like me then you are always on the lookout for the perfect storage solution for all things knitty. If it is unexpected - in form and function - then so much the better!

I found something sitting quite neglected on top of an armoire at my Mom's apartment. You know, one of these things you don't really want but you just cannot make yourself throw out, be it for sentimental reasons or just because "sometime I might need it".

Shortly before travelling to Germany I had acquired a lot of 15 sets of 12" double pointed needles on eBay (yes, dangerous territory, but they already have come in very handy) and they were one more thing just laying around because I didn't know where to put them. Not anymore.

Tadaa!!


It came with a wine bottle when my Mom got it. I guess I'd never buy it, but after having a good look and a go with the measuring tape (I had to put it into my suitcase, after all, so I better make sure of the fit) I decided this is the perfect storage for my new, very long dpn's.


As if it was made for them, no? (Again. I am thrilled.)