Monday, April 29, 2013

2013 Knitter's Frolic: new yarn and fiber

Yay Downtown Knit Collective!  I had another great shopping day at the Knitter's Frolic on Saturday. This was the first year I had the whole day free to spend there if I wanted, and, bonus: Trish was also free, so we got to go together.  Trish's goal was, if I recall correctly, not to buy any new yarn, and I'm very impressed to say she stuck to it even though I set such a bad example for her. 

My goal was to buy more of my beloved Stoddart yarn in worsted weight only, to make more superwarm socks for next winter.  I have plenty in the lighter weights as you may recall from last summer, but only two pairs of superwarm, and hello: Toronto?  You need more than two pairs of superwarm socks to live in an uninsulated house here.

The trick with worsted weight is that to get a proper leg on a pair of socks for a size 7 foot, you really need one and a half skeins, with the half serving as contrast cuff, heel, and toe.  So Trish helped me figure out trio combinations where one colour could serve as the anchor for two others.  It was really, really hard because sometimes we would find the dreamiest colours in the wrong weight, and then I'd have to be firm with myself and remember the goal was warm toes, not just loading up on gorgeousness.

Here is combo number one, with the anchor colour in the middle:


and combo number two:


and then Trish must have forgotten that I really only wanted to come home with six skeins because she found two other drool-worthy colours and then we had to come up with combo number three:


mmmm, new yarn.

It was while I was holding all of it that Silvia, whose yarn it is, came over and gave me a big hug and told me she hadn't even needed to look at my face - she knew it was me because of the armful.  Seriously?  Are other people able to exercise self-control at Silvia's booth?  I think really I must just have instantly recognizable hair.

As we were chatting, I learned several important things, such as

a/ I missed this year's wool share program

b/ Because the farm is so busy, they've closed the online shop for the yarn

c/ Silvia has massively cut back on how often she brings yarn to markets in town

By b/ I was starting to inch back toward the table but when I heard c/?  Omigosh.  I panicked and grabbed the first two hunks of roving that I saw.
 

Because honestly: worsted knits up fast, and I need enough Stoddart stuff to get me through a whole summer at the cottage, at least.

Even though this was totally justified, I did kind of panic when I looked at the haul in its entirety after I got home.


Think I overdid it?

(don't answer that.)

And in case you were wondering: of course I bought other stuff at the Frolic! but I'll show that to you tomorrow, because I'm sure you have many more important things to do right now and even I have to go get a start on my day.

Meanwhile, I do hope you had a marvelous weekend, and that today goes great.  Which it almost certainly will if you give yourself time to knit something yummy, so good luck!

1 comment:

Trish said...

Mary, you didn't figure it out? I didn't buy any yarn, but you bought more than you planned on... I shopped for you!

heh, heh, heh...