kitchener trip

Whew! Well it was a trip. I met up with the bus at 8:30am on Saturday morning. (Waaayyy too early for me, by the way - I noticed Helga from our Guild came to the show, but much later in the day - smart woman!) Anyhoo, the bus arrived, with the members of the Barrie Guild, and those of us from York Region jumped on, with coffee in hand. Everyone grabbed a seat, and immediately started knitting on something - I was determined to finish the second cotton stripe sock. The drive down was through grey, drizzly weather but the atmosphere on the bus was much lighter - we had draw prizes to give and get! Nancy, her daughter Margaret and I were at the back of the bus, and throughout the draws, we kept commenting on how none of the winning tickets were from the back of the bus. Well! It seems if you comment (jokingly, yet enough times), you actually win! Margaret and I each walked away with $25 gift certificates to Needles and Knits (our fave LYS), and Nancy scored the last two prizes - two skeins of merino sock yarn! (Yes, Nancy drew her own ticket for the last prize - how lucky can one get?)
So we arrived in Kitchener, ready to shop - I met up with LuckyCanuck and TracyKM - friends from the About Knitting Forum, and fellow bloggers. Tracy was accompanied by Megan - cutest baby at the fair! A little 10 month old, quite content to sit in the sling on Mom's hip and look at everything going on. I never would have attempted that with my son when he was small - he'd be screaming after 10 minutes! Way to go, Tracy! They had arrived earlier and already scoped the place out - they led me directly to Pick Up Sticks - an internet business based in Newmarket. Sock Yarn heaven for me. Lovely colourways and delicious merino yarn. I picked up a couple of skeins, and had my eye on some others, filed away for later.



From there, we started back to the beginning and wandered around. It being my first time there, I had fun. I spent a ton, and came home with some great deals. LuckyCanuck and I enabled each other immensely - we both hemmed and hawed over this Atacama alpaca shawl kit at Knitwerx.com - simple pattern, stunning look, delicious alpaca. We both caved and bought - I got this beautiful browns colourway, Lucky got a green, I believe.



I got some great deals at a booth whose name escapes me - too bad, because I will go back there again.
Denim toned hand dyed merino sock yarn - almost 400m in each ball, just $7.00!! Yup! Seven bucks! And I only bought two of the five that were there. Lucky, I'm disappointed you didn't smack me and make me buy them all! Plus, 3 bags of 6 balls of cotton chenille. OK, so I'm not really a chenille fan, but this cotton will be stellar for some face cloths with some hand made soaps at Christmas. Oh yeah, each bag was only $8.75.




What else, what else...
Fleece Artist Silk Kid, on sale:


Some Tibetan Silk in the holy colours of maroon and gold. My sister in law follows the Tibetan holy teachings, and will go ape over a scarf in this - I'm thinking two sided - one side maroon, one side gold. It's not the smoothest of silk, rather rustic, I'd say, but the tag has all the Tibetan info and it's even called "Baby Yeti". She'll enjoy the tags as much as the yarn...



My favourite local(ish) supplier - Wellington Fibres - they raise the mohair goats, and mill the wool themselves. Plus Donna and Lorne are the nicest people on the face of the earth. The blue here is flecked with the pink, so I'm thinking mittens or something...



Hmmm, some linen with a handmade soap - also for washcloths, maybe. Another good deal from the Knitting Nimrod Collective:


More sock yarn - Lindenhof mohair, merino blend. Soft as soft can be, in a very cool colourway of mauves, greys and shots of bright blue.


Good Buy Yarns - you know them - bagged bargain yarns? Buy a bag for a set price? Great deals to be had - people were digging into the bins all day. I thought I had finished shopping when I found these two bags of Dale of Norway Heilo - 10 balls of white, 8 balls of navy, at an icredible price!


A beaded knitting book from Brenda Franklin. I took a beaded knitting class last April at the DKC Knitters Frolic, so this will be great - It gives me all kinds of patterns to use with the skills I acquired, as well as using up the beads I acquired! I've already been leafing through this, marking pages...


Roving - no I'm not taking up spinning - I like making thrummed mittens, and this roving will be great. It's 100% alpaca. Cloud soft doesn't even begin to describe the softness. It's either thrums or some needle felted gnomes for this...


Remember Margaret, the teenage daughter of Nancy, one of my fellow Guild members? Margaret is knitting a blanket and pillows for her bed. Tiny squares, each no more than three inches square. Every single square will be different. Every one. Every. single. square. That's a lot of work, and a lot of single balls of wool. I know I'm going stash diving for her - she can have all my odds and ends. THis is Margaret at the end of the trip. She did good. She also got three squares knitting during the bus trip.


I didn't get a picture of Sue. Sue thought she was done shopping. Elizabeth and I were talking to her and she was showing us a pattern for a sweater that had silk ribbins lacing up the front. She loved it, but didn't know where to find the ribbons. I did. Elizabeth and I grabbed her, dragged her to a booth where I had seen scads of silk streamers, and proceeded to do things ass backwards. We picked the ribbon, then went searching for yarn to match! Which we found(Fleece Artist Country Silk - peacock-ish colours). Sue was thrilled, and I discovered it's as much fun spending other people's money as much as your own!

Then, finally, you know it's a good trip when they start winding the skeins before we leave the parking lot so something ccan be cast on...


So one last thing... knowing me as you do... with all the projects I have on the go, who thinks I started something new? And what do you think it was if I did?
(Yes, I did finish the cotton green and blue striped socks - pictures later.) I won't be posting for a day or so - spending some time at my Mom's. She's having minor surgery today, and my brother is there today - I'll stay over with her tonight and through tomorrow, so I'll be away from a computer for a while...