(Photo courtesy of
Glenna C.)
That's me, chatting with
Jess of Ravelry. Sitting beside me - a little obscured - is the lovely
Cathryn Bothe of Signature Needle Arts. I was their demo bunny at the show. The Signature team - Cathryn, Laura and Danielle - were a joy to work with, and they made me feel so very welcome. I was honoured to be helping them out.
I spent the weekend doing three things - talking to knitters in the Signature booth, drinking coffee, and buying goodies. I hardly got any actual knitting done (Cathryn was entirely correct on this score), but I had a marvelous time anyway.
The people I met. Ann Budd. Cat Bordhi. Jess of Ravelry. Jeni C of the cast off (you'll know more about this soon). Judy of Judy's magic cast on. Judy Sumner. Amy Dentjen. Lucy Neatby. All lovely lovely people.
For those of you who weren't there: It was awful. Really. Had a dreadful time. Nothing good to buy. The pizza in the convention centre was oddly floppy.
Actually, that's really the only bad thing I can say about the entire weekend. Floppy pizza.
As to what I bought... I think I was pretty restrained.
On the yarn front:
All sock yarn, naturally.
The aforementioned
Cake or Death.
A skein of Blue-Face Leicester from
British Yarns. In a colourway called United.
A skein of
Yak from Bijou Basin.
And a
Zauberball. This is an odd duck - another single with nylon, like the Noro. Unsure how it will wear, but I love the long lengths of colour.
For tools, I bought this lovely antique darning egg. As much as a showpiece as anything - I just like the idea that there is a tool specifically to help you darn socks. And beside it,
the Wanda (scroll down on the page). Very clever. A combo crochet hook cable needle thingy. I've been told these are genius for picking up garter stitch. I think it's an elegant solution for when I don't want to carry my big toolkit.
And the best $5 of the show - a Stitch Saver from
5elementknitr. A little (both in length and diameter) crochet hook on a keyring that attaches neatly to your project bag. I used it within an hour of buying it to pick up a dropped stitch. It hasn't left my side since.
I was going to blog about something else, but then I tripped across this... Mind if I rant and rave for a minute?
I'm thrilled to announce that I will be teaching at the upcoming Creativ Festival in Toronto this October.
There are two yarn stores in the world called The Naked Sheep. One of them is right here in Toronto, one is in Bennington, Vermont. There's been some confusion out there because of an email that went around about a closing sale.
The aforementioned Cake or Death.
And the best $5 of the show - a Stitch Saver from 5elementknitr. A little (both in length and diameter) crochet hook on a keyring that attaches neatly to your project bag. I used it within an hour of buying it to pick up a dropped stitch. It hasn't left my side since.
The Basic Ribbed Sock - Women's sizes - a 3x1 ribbed sock designed specifically because I find k1 p1 ribbing oddly boring, and it doesn't look good in a self-patterning yarn; k3 p1 ribbing runs all down the leg and the foot
The Reverse Basic Ribbed Sock - because in some variegated yarns, the reverse side of k3 p1 ribbing looks better.
The Christmas Sock - they don't have to be for Christmas - they look just as good in a single colour, or in other colour combos. Mock Cable rib all along the leg and down the foot make them fit well, and look a bit more special than your everyday socks. And no cable needle required!
I'm excited - and yes, perhaps a little nervous. I'm heading west this week, to Sock Summit in Portland.
