Whirlwind Week...

Wow! So much happening, and when you include the fact that my stupid computer wouldn't recognize my camera till late yesterday, well, there's plenty to tell...

And what happens so that suddenly the computer no longer recognizes the camera? It's not like the camera got a haircut or put on a disguise... they've met many times before... I do not appreciate the temperamentalness (not a word, but I like it) of the thing...

but I digress...

we start with the Burlington RibFest from last weekend, which, according to the signs, is the biggest in Canada - it's held at our lakeside park, about three blocks from home, and apparently hosted over 145,000 people over three days - lots of ribs! I know I'm getting old, because I find it crowded, hot and loud (you know, I love Stevie Ray Vaughan as much as the next guy, but not blaring into my head through 18 speakers while being performed by a mediocre imitation). However, I do love the signs... they remind me of hot sauce labels, another favourite thing of mine...


Thanks to Ben for taking the pictures while I waited in a long, hot, crowded, noisy line for ribs and pulled pork... no diet food here...

We went from that to the first day of school, which I am still in denial about - I just can't believe it's already done, summer vacation is already over... 'fast' doesn't even begin to describe the past 2 months...

which takes us to yesterday, to the Kitchener Waterloo Knitters' Fair, which certainly helped to take the sting out of my back-to-school-blues (and I am not exaggerating, I find it most depressing - most other parents at school were smiling, and even dancing a little, as their children shuffled along in line - I came home and had a good cry, as is my annual tradition).

The Fair this year was the biggest yet, more vendors, several I hadn't heard of before (not that I'm so knowledgable or anything, but it's nice to find fresh meat), and the crowds? Well, my mom and I got there shortly after 10, and it was PACKED - hard to get close to anything, and it got worse over the 2 hours we were there. Amazing!

The basket guy from last year was there - remember him? - this year he was charging $18 rather than $15, and hardly anyone had one - moral of the story? Recognize a good thing when you have it, and don't get greedy...

I made a few select purchases, items which I've not seen anywhere else, which to me is the real point of the show. If I want to go to a LYS to buy something, I will - this show gives me access to the smaller independent merchants, who make things like this from Knitwerx, and this from Sheepstrings, which I think you have to get naked and roll around on to fully appreciate
and these, too, from The Black Lamb, where I also bought this pencil roving , with the owner's confident declaration that this would have me spinning successfully within two hours... I LOVED the owner of this place - didn't get her name, but it was 10:30 and she was apologizing to those of waiting in line that she hadn't thought to bring beer or tequila to make the wait easier...

couple of new patterns to assist with my destashing efforts, and finally, the piece de resistance, I picked up my Autumn Rose fair isle kit from Anne at She Ewe Knits
Since I had already paid for this, it does not count as a purchase made yesterday, so really, I was very restrained. And there was a lot of lovely stuff there. A lot. I fell in love with a Prism wrap at the Village Yarns booth - the colour, the yarn, the whole thing - until I overheard it being priced at $350.00 for the kit... I moved on. I slung a Namaste Everyday bag in burnt orange over my shoulder - it fit, looked fabulous, would hold a shitload of stuff, which is what I typically travel with - a shitload - but I couldn't bring myself to pay $80 for a bag - this one I am actually regretting...

there were kits, and buttons - oh, I did get three very cool buttons which I'll post later - but the big thing this year was shawl pins - wooden, pewter, precious stone - whatever you might have wanted was probably there... and there was more, so much more...

which brings us to today - rainy, cold, very fall-like (blech) - perfect for cleaning small animal cages and doing homework and playing video games (the boys), or knitting and listening to a new book and drinking coffee (me)...

happy Sunday!

We Survived!

Yes, we survived 2 1/2 hours of what would only be one hour on TV, with commercials - we survived...

American Idol Live! (and please - couldn't they manage a more kick-ass sponsor than Pop Tarts??!!)

It was about what I expected, the 10 finalists singing the songs they did on the show, a few group numbers interspersed with lame repartee - the kids and I were actually ready to go at the end of the first hour, but we stuck it out...

my biggest beef? My camera was confiscated upon entry, because the zoom lens is too - high? close? big? Maximum zoom allowed was 175, mine goes up to 300, so I had to check it at the front gate. Was I happy? Pissed beyond words was I. I had brought it intentionally, not to take oh, so fabulous pics of the performers, but so one of the boys could use it to see the stage, while the other used binoculars. This was the first time I even brought a camera to a concert - I didn't even bring one to see Colin James some months ago, and he would definitely have been worth photographing for posterity...

so here is the only picture I took all frigging night, shot from a moving vehicle...

sigh...

today I will be looking into Skydome (yes, I know, it's now the Rogers Centre, but as Wannietta and I have agreed, it will always be Skydome to we die-hards) policies around cameras to determine if this was concert or venue-specific, and I expect I will be sending an email to whomever I can to vent my frustrations, which were large...

In other news, my mom found a sweater that I made, oh, 20 years ago maybe?, which my aunt has long coveted and will be receiving shortly:

Remember when these were popular? There's a black sheep on the back, which I always found funny - I am just impressed with how well it has held up, and how neat the stranding on the inside is - shoot, I should have taken a picture of the inside (smacking self upside the head)...

knitting pictures will follow soon, but I do have stash pictures to share...

These are mostly sock club installments, and are quite yummy...

However, I am finding myself feeling more than a little overwhelmed right now because of this sudden influx of yarn, so I am going to put this in writing now, and look to y'all for support and ass-kicking where needed:

As of September 1, unless it is specifically for gifts, I will not be buying any more yarn for AT LEAST 6 months. I will let my current sock clubs run their course, maybe keep up with one or two of them, but nothing else will be purchased. I have to get a handle on what I have, and stop being so damned acquisitive. I know why there is more yarn of late... there is a direct correlation for me between level of stress and depression, and increases in yarn piles around the house - it's better than booze or drugs, I know, but I am dangerously close to losing control altogether...

so I will try to take it by the horns and get myself back in control...

famous last words

As an aside, I have to thank Sheri at The Loopy Ewe for a fabulous sock club package - in addition to the gorgeous Claudia Hand Painted yarn you see, Sheri also included a couple of cute stitch markers (one of them is a donut a la Homer Simpson), a packet of cider mix, candies, a tiny reference booklet, and a poem tying it all together, all tucked into a clear plastic notions pouch - absolutely lovely!


Now, off to have a little 'chat' with the folks at the Skydome...

New Books!!

Oh, don't you just love new books? The smell, the gentle crack of the binding as they are opened for the first time, the possibilities inside?

The sale prices???

Knitpicks is offering all of their books at 40% right now, and I figured I should take advantage to get some books which I have been eyeing for some time - hey, it's educational!

And it's supposed to rain and thunder all afternoon, the boys are cramming old Harry Potter books in preparation for Saturday's launch - I CANNOT WAIT!!! - so, really, it's destiny that I have a stack of books to peruse...

weeding this morning, between rain showers, and just wanted to share this flower, this coneflower, that has thrived so far this year - I've never seen this colour before, and am going to try to make cuttings so I can have them all over the place - I may need a sweater this colour...

Also, I think I figured out the macro setting on my camera, and had to give it a go...
Thank you for your indulgence...

My other project this morning was to dehair Charlie, at least a little - Maggie's breed does not shed, which is lovely, but I am honestly amazed that Charlie has any hair left...

so I read about "The Furminator" at Knit and Tonic - at this point I will try anything, I am so tired of picking dog hair off socks and clothes and furniture - well, I am amazed!
Almost half a pound - HALF A FRIGGING POUND - of undercoat from only half of his body! What's left is his black, silky hair, and the kaka is gone.

And he liked it, more than normal brushing. My sense is it's like someone with long fingernails scraping through his fur - when I get someone like that washing my hair at the salon, I get goosebumps, so I totally get it (no, I don't think that's weird... well, not really... maybe a little?) So I will finish him off now, and see if it does, in fact, reduce shedding as claimed. So far, so good...

now, to make lunch and read of things yarny...

Frolic-ing through fields of...

well, yarn, of course...

Just in from the DKC Knitters' Frolic, and my goodness, how it has grown! I last went maybe 6 - 7 years ago? And it was in a church, I think, downtown, maybe 15 - 20 vendors, some workshops - just a nice, small, local-feeling kind of event.

Today's yarn-stravaganza was held at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, with over 70 vendors selling all manner of yarns and tools and books and just STUFF - way overwhelming! And of course I forgot my camera, so you will have to rely on others' reports for the visuals...

But I started off with a 9a.m. drop spindling class, taught by Lorraine Smith, who was just wonderful (the link takes you to a recent article she wrote for Knitty)!
I have tried this before with absolutely no success, but for some reason this time there was a little more clicking happening. Maybe it was the new drop spindle I had to buy for the class, made from cocobolo wood:.

Maybe it was the myriad of fibres we were invited to play with, ranging from shetland wool to merino to alpaca to silk/wool hand carded rolags...

or maybe it was finally explained to me in such a way that I GOT IT... yes, I made some kaka yarn:


Actually, there are some patches in the second attempt, the bicolour, that look like real yarn - very exciting!

So a very satisfying morning - and then, of course, there were the vendors...

and I was SO GOOD - so well behaved, so restrained...

I HAD to get this - the colours are just too rich, too wonderful, and the jacket will be the perfect thing with my 'uniform' of jeans and t's:


I think this is the jacket that Tanya was working on in a KAL at her LYS...
And, of course, the mandatory sock yarn purchase... because, as we all know, sock yarn doesn't count as stash... and this is one I don't see in shops, so it was totally okay:
The yarn is from Seacoast Handpainted Yarns, and the colourway is Sea/Sky/Sand - how summery is that?

You know, for someone with only two feet, I seem to have an awful lot of potential socks...

The other thought that crossed my mind was how much smaller the world seems because of blogs. They seem to create an overfamiliarity which strikes me as kind of funny. I poked around the Lettuce Knit booth, saw some scrumptious yarn which I did NOT buy (although it pained me physically to put it down) after asking the price - I then realized that I was speaking to Laura Chau of Cosmicpluto Knits! fame and was all set to start chatting with her when I thought for a second, hell, I don't really know her, I just read her blog faithfully, but I feel like I know her. She doesn't know me. I wonder how many well-known bloggers find themselves facing people who think they know them so well, and how they feel about it. This sort of instant comfort must be nice on some level, but maybe a little unnerving, too... I don't know, just wondering...

so there's my Saturday morning - came home to find that Maggie had eaten a WHOLE loaf of bread and an ENTIRE package of hot dogs buns, while foregoing the cookies and chocolate on the same counter - she is the Carb Queen, and unfortunately, on her hind legs, is tall enough to reach right to the back of the counter... naughty girl...

one Bemidji done for Artisan Knitworks, another blocking and the third of this batch about to be cast on - pics tomorrow - I must go and spindle... I'm so afraid I'll forget, and it won't work anymore!