Li's fault

Last week, Li posted her latest FO - a cashmere scarf. I spent Sat at work thinking of the yarn I could use to knit myself one. Right after supper, I dug around in the stash and settled on a skein of Malabrigo Sock in Cote d'Azure.


The scarf is more than half way done and I'm loving it. Thanks for my latest obsession, Li.

Today, I went to our one and only local fiber festival. It's teeny but worth the one hour drive. I scored some SweetGeorgia sock yarn:


And a skein of undyed silk/cashmere (still blaming you, Li):


And that's it for me. I bought a drop spindle & some roving but it's for a friend who wants to learn how to spin. I was very restrained. Probably because this arrived in the mail this morning:


This is my hubby's yarn stash. It's his because he ordered and paid for it. This yarn represents the Whistler sweater (made famous by the Yarn Harlot) that I'm supposed to be knitting for him. Am I insane for agreeing to knit a huge (hubby is 6'4") fair isle sweater?

I don't have any good cat pictures to share with you. Phoebe is pretty much glued to her heated bed and Ricky's taken to sleeping under the quilt on our bed. They're not very photogenic. So here's a gross picture:


It's a paper wasp nest that hubby found in our crawl space yesterday night. I sent him down there to see if there were any foundation issues (no leaks so we're keeping the big maple tree) and he found this under the wood floor near the fireplace. That explains the occasional buzzing that I heard last summer. Ewwwwwww!

therapy

I've heard that shopping is good therapy. Well, I got a lot of therapy yesterday. Here's a close up view of my haul:


At the top is some roving from the Knitopia booth - dyed by West Coast Colour. I'm using this to make thrummed mittens with the skein of dark grey Cascade 220 just below it. To the left are 2 skeins of Cascade Fixation (from Woolaroo) for a secret project. At the bottom (l-r) are: West Coast Colour merino/bamboo/nylon superwash sock (for Gladys), Twisted Sisters alpaca sock yarn, Araucania Ranco (col 109) and undyed superwash merino/bamboo from Fun Knits, and mystery sock yarn (most likely Fleece Artist or Handmaiden) from Birkeland Bros.

This year's venue was much smaller than the Tradex and it was sorely lacking in the food dept. There is a nice cafeteria at the Tradex but the new place just had a catering truck parked beside one of the side doors. I'll bet the line-up for food will be long today.

I definitely liked this year's vendors. There was a greater variety of fibres and there seemed to be more yarn to tempt knitters :)

I finally ordered my new glasses this week. I bought a new pair in Dec but after 4 different lenses and two months of going back and forth, I finally returned them. I was completely unhappy with the quality. So I was looking around and I found the frames that I like at Costco. I explained my problem with the other place and after looking at my history, the optician advised against hi-index lenses. So I get to have thick lenses in partially rimless frames - ugh. I'm going to look ugly!

And another ugh... After 7 years, we think our expensive front loading washing machine needs repairing/replacing. We bought our front loader way back when they were first being sold in Canada. We've heard that a small leakage causes washer failure just after the 5 year warranty period. I noticed today that it was particularly noisy during the spin cycle and Gladys thinks the drum needs replacing. She has a similar model and her washer's drum was replaced last year. Sigh... I'll go console myself by fondling my new yarn.

short & sweet

Just a short post before a much needed nap...

I picked up Kyndra early this morning and we went out to the Fibrefest International in Abbotsford. Got off at the right highway exit but was in the wrong lane so I had to turn myself around. Then I totally missed the turn for Old Yale Road. Ugh... It's actually called Cardinal at the intersection. We got there fine and in plenty of time to be one of the first ones inside.

Here is my loot:


It's not all for me. One skein is for Gladys. Can you guess which one?

There wasn't any Cascade Fixation at the show so we drove out to Woolaroo which happens to be just a few doors down from Countryfolk Fabrics. I picked up the Fixation that I needed from Woolaroo and some fabric from Countryfolk.


The one in the center is my favourite. I wish they had more because it would've made a great backing fabric. They also had some Arctic Bamboo batting (half bamboo, half cotton with a little bit of poly binder). It feels very nice. I wonder how well it hand quilts. I don't like Arctic Cotton because it's too stiff.

The first Rivendell sock is done (except for darning in the ends). I love this sock so much that all I could think about at the Fibrefest was buying more yarn to knit this pattern. Pathetic, eh?

fibrefest loot

*yawn*

Well, it was lots of fun. I went with Grete (pronounced Greta) and we went a little crazy. The first booth I saw was Hamels Fabrics which set my quilting heart a-flutter. I zoomed over there and Grete ditched me to look at yarn. She came back awhile later and said, "you're still here!". My relationship with fabric runs deeper than my relationship with yarn. Fabric always trumps yarn. We decided to split up and meet for lunch at 1pm. I bought some co-ordinating FQs and 2 other FQs that I need for another project.



I eventually stumbled over to Fun Knits and found the Addi Turbo lace circs that I've been looking for. I also bought 2 mini sock blocker kits. Aren't they adorable? Fun Knits has the Regia Canadiana line of sock yarn but they're still out of the Vancouver colour.


Gladys - Since you had to miss out, I bought one of these for you. Which colour do you want?

One of my favourite dyers had a booth - Trish of Indigo Moon. She didn't have any fingering weight sock yarn. I did get some yarn although, I didn't pay for it. And no, I didn't steal it. I'm going to do some sample knitting for her. I told her about the socks that I knit for Sivia out of her yarn. Trish is a weaver and not a knitter so she doesn't have any knitting samples to show off her yarn. I'm knitting her a pair of simple socks and I'll knit a small lace sample with the leftover yarn.


I wandered around some more. Pinched and squeezed a lot of yarn - cashmere, angora, and buffalo to name a few. I found this great skein of suri alpaca at the Dovecote booth and when I pulled it out of the bin, the tag said "not for sale". ARGH! It was soooo soft and it was a lovely grey-blue. I was going to buy it regardless of the price but it wasn't for sale. I asked about it and was told that I could contact them after the show to place an order.

I eventually strolled into the Homespun Haven booth where I found some hand dyed Bambu 7 100% bamboo. The yarn should be renamed "Bambu Heaven". I didn't buy anything during my first visit. But after lunch, I zoomed in there and bought all the indigo bambu (5 skeins; approx. 600g/2800yds) and one skein of blue/purple bambu (approx. 120g/550yds). Several booths had bambu 7 (Jane Stafford Textiles and Fibres Plus) but Homespun Haven was the only one that sold hand dyed bambu. I have no idea what to make with the yarn. Suggestions?

Now that my wallet was tired and empty, I went looking for Grete and found her at the Jane Stafford booth buying her second batch of Euroflax linen (hey - it was on sale). I had to laugh. I think she bought a total of 9 skeins. She also bought 10 skeins of black shetland/alpaca from Shepherd's Cottage Wool. The yarn's not black-black but more of a dark-brown-black. It really depends on the lighting. I can't wait to see what she makes with it.

You're probably wondering what the damage is and who won the contest... I spent a whopping $130.82! What can I say - there was fabric. And the winner is - KnitNZu. Congrats and thanks to everyone for playing.