Tuesday, September 16, 2014

At the fair

This past Saturday was cold, rainy, and grey: perfect for curling up with some knitting and hot tea.  So naturally Trish and I got up before dawn and drove off to Kitchener for the 2014 Knitters' Fair.

Trish and I had agreed that neither of us have room for any more yarn whatsoever and would not be buying at the Fair - just looking (in my case, at least until after the move).  But the display at Sericin Silkworks and the feel of these so, so gorgeous fingerless gloves nearly made me break my vow.


Here is the deal with the gloves, which are easily the most Mary Must Have I've ever seen, anywhere: they are made from finely handspun yarn in a variety of five super-luxurious fibres.  That little bag on top of the glove samples?  That's the Clouds of Luxury kit from which you spin the yarn.  The pattern comes with it.  The kit is available in the Sericin shop at Etsy.  If you get there before I do, let me know how it goes.


At the booth for the Freelton Fiber Mill, Trish and I were both Wow'd by some giant - and I mean massive - spools of sooper soft yarn that turned out to be alpaca over a cotton core, the better to crochet an insanely soft throw carpet for the side of your bed.  I didn't pick any up because: moving day! but I found out I (or you) can go to this page to order the yarn later.


I spotted from an impressive distance three sets of precious original-style square knitting needles and raced to Wellington Fibres to snap them up.  (and then I went back to get the biggest square crochet hook they had in stock - 6mm.  I have a plan.  I'll tell you about it another day.)


Wellington Fibres is a wonderful place, by the way. I always find beautiful things there and see many other people doing the same every time I visit.  In this case, I'm most excited about the two sets of 6mm double points because I am pretty sure these babies will be perfect for knitting up the super warm mohair mitts I wanted to get at for this winter.


Another Wow spot was the Georgian Bay Fibre Company... where you can buy Blue-Faced Leicester fiber (my favourite) blended with silk (omigosh the soft) in a.mazing. colours.

I will be doing this online, post move.  But you don't have to wait, right?  Click on the colours you like to find out all the amazing fibre and yarn base options that are available to you.


After we had visited every single booth I turned to Trish all smug and said Trish, did you buy yarn?  (she had bought 3 skeins to top up some existing yarn for a sweater.)  I didn't buy yarn, I said.  And then I saw that we were going to have to walk past Waterloo Wools to get to the exit.

Now, I don't know whether you remember this but I certainly recall buying some lovely fibre there in the past.  I made a little cowl for Leslie, and some fingerless mitts I still have to knit the matching pair of, and overall I just really like the whole package there.  So I suggested we stop and just enjoy one last look.

Which I quickly learned was for real a last look because IT'S CLOSING.

CLOSING, people.  Not only closing, but advertising sale prices.  Not just last-chance fibre and yarn, but discounted last-chance fibre and yarn.  Fibre in particular that I know will enrich my life and those of friends just as much as my original purchases did.


Lesson learned: never smug too soon.


Nine braids, folks... I bought nine braids of fibre, completely refilling the roving bucket I'd emptied with such effort in July.  I mean, I haven't even plied all that yarn yet, let alone prepped it for knitting.  AND I rejoined the Twisted fibre club for this fall, too.

And I don't regret a thing.


How was your weekend? 

2 comments:

Trish said...

And let's not forget my 3 skeins of yarn for my colour affection. *sigh* We were THIS close...

Mary Keenan said...

Oh, that's right! I must have distracted by the aftereffects of all that fiber, to forget all those great colour combinations we looked at :^)