SSS-Single Skein September

 Anyone else out there getting ready for single skein September?  This is when you make projects that only require one skein to complete, a good opportunity to use up some lonely yarn in your stash.  Not that my yarn is lonely, it has plenty to keep it company!  I was able to fill a little box with some likely candidates to focus on, and I intend to start on Thursday and cast on for some little projects.  I’m not saying I’ll finish everything in this whole box, that would be madness, and very difficult, but we’ll see how I do.  I’m planning at least two baby sweaters, a cowl, two hats, and a something or other.  To be determined.  The exact hats are to be determined as well, the pattern hunt is continuing!  Now that the yarn is out, I’m itching to start, but I need to wait until Thursday! Oooh, angora, put that down for another two days!

SSS is inspired by the Stash and Burn podcast, and is organized in their group on Ravelry.  I’m still on my self imposed yarn diet, and I’ve only “fallen off the sheep” twice this year, buying yarn I hadn’t planned on to make sweaters for Althea.  I knew this year would be a lean one money-wise, and therefore had planned to knit from stash most of the year.  I am really, really, looking forward to the Boxing Day sale at Pudding, where I will be ending my yarn diet with a vengence!  I’m hoping to get the stash below 40,000 yards by the end of the year, and I only have approximately 4500 yards to go, and four months to do it in.  Go me go!

Saskatchewan Adventures

 A big road trip like my boss and I made last week is always an adventure, but this week the adventure was more of the snowy, icy, I sure hope we don’t end up in the ditch like that guy adventure.  The good news however is that we drove around safely, made it to all of our meetings (mostly) on time, and my boss was happy with all the progress we made.  I’m also pretty sure I didn’t manage to annoy him, or piss him off too badly which is good considering the hours in the car together, and the four business meetings a day we participated in. 

It snowed every day, and the temperatures were down close to -20 oC until it warmed up on Friday.  Christmas is in the air however, and seeing all the old fashioned decorations up already and covered in snow made it easier to believe.

On Thursday we finished our business meetings, had a late lunch/dinner, and my boss made the decision that we could stay in Saskatoon for the evening, heading back to Calgary the next day.  I was happy about this as driving late into the night, through the new snow that was falling, plus the icy conditions would have made for a very tiring drive.  But since we were done so early, and since we were so close(everything in Saskatoon is relatively close since it’s a small place) to the yarn store, could we perhaps stop by for a quick visit?  It worked, and off we went to find the store which is tucked into an older Saskatoon neighbourhood.  I didn’t have a huge urge to visit the yarn store in Regina, but the Wool Emporium is special. 

 They have lots of “regular” yarn and products, but they have special stuff, local stuff that you can only find here from the small farms that dot Saskatchewan and Alberta.  Alpaca yarn so black that you can see blue in it, greys, brown so deep, brown almost orange in tone, and so many variations thereupon.  My promise to my boss of “just ten minutes” made me a focused shopper, and this cream/brown blend was irresistible.  I can’t find a link to Jubilee Alpaca, which seems to be a local company that consolidates fibre from various farms into their yarn.  It doesn’t seem to be one specific farm.  But since the shipment was recent, I had a huge variety to choose from.  It was hard, very hard.  This creamy colour is going to  make a beautiful sweater, soft and warm, and neutral enough to match many outfits.  I’m actually considering remaking one of my sweaters that my Grandmother made, which I wear all the time.  Its getting a bit ratty, but its the perfect length, fit, colour, and design.  We went back to our hotel, I was high on yarn fumes, and I merrily knit away the evening!

Big Merino Candy

Big Merino from Fleece Artist, which lately has proven irresistible.  Huge gauge, easy and quick to knit up, lovely colours, and a low price.  How could I leave without just one or two (or four from the last trip to my LYS to get needles, I didn’t find the needles, but I found the candy!). 

So far I’ve found this hat pattern from Knitty to try out, with plans of using the greens for a big thick chunky scarf.  I’m hoping the blue and pink turn into Christmas presents, that is if I can bear to part with them.

Olds Fibre Fair

The Olds Fibre Fair was a great day out, made more special by not only seeing old friends, but their new babies as well!  We had a car full this year, which made for some lively conversation on the hour long drive to Olds through the green verdant countryside.  Its officially verdant this year due to all the rain, which is good for us, but bad for farmers.  And by good for us I mean I haven’t had to water the lawn at all, and its actually still green and alive.  I don’t have any photos of the fair itself, due to the unscenic nature of the location, in the mechanical shop at the College.  Its in stark contrast to how lovely the grounds are, but it was filled with beautiful goods.  I did one good circuit of all the booths, and then went back for items that caught my eye.  I couldn’t resist the Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit again (on the right), and the middle skein of purply/blue was too close to a smashed blueberry to resist.  I found the colours incredibly beautiful, but on this day I really seemed to be in a blue/purple mood n’est pas?  On the left is some hand dyed Twist of Fate lace weight 100% virgin wool.  I was wondering (agonizing) what to do with the two left skeins, when I remembered Miriam’s Lune design.  Viola! 

With the warmer weather, Mr. J went through a package of popsicles in a few days, therefore I got my families old Tupperware popsicle makers out.  I’m not sure how old these are, but older than I am.  I distinctly remember eating multiple popsicles made out of pink lemonade in the Ontario heatwaves.  We made limeade popsicles, and went through the lot in a few days.  These are definitely the best heatbusters around.  Too bad its gotten cold again, but the weekends have been lovely!

Moab Wrap-up – Part 1

No trip to Moab would be complete without a trip to Desert Threads - which is in my opinion one of the world’s best yarn stores.  This is based on the fact that the owner has excellent taste in yarn and colours, which lines up with mine, because doesn’t everyone think they have the best taste in everything?  Of course.   Over the years I’ve found some great yarn/colours here that have turned into favorite projects.  This year was no different, even though I was actually trying hard to only pick out “a little something” and “not go overboard”.  I fell head over heels with the large selection of Peace Fleece, specifically with the green:

Given unlimited budget and knitting time, I probably could have wiped out the stock of pink and orange as well.  The colours “pop” I tell ya!  And the 70% merino, 30% mohair blend sounds scrumptious.  Oh will power, it had no chance against the green.  I’m seeing a lovely aran cabled cardigan in the future.

Mr. J and I had passed by Desert Threads on the Sunday, and I had immediately noticed a “For Lease” sign in the window.  I had a tense day or two until my rest day on Tuesday rolled around, and I returned to do my shopping.  The owner answered that she is moving, but just across the street, and not closing.  Whew, I was pretty worried there.  I tend to call Moab the perfect town since it contains a great yarn store AND multiple bike stores, and I’d hate for it to lose the perfect town designation.  So fellow knitters, fear not, and support a great little place.

The Rest of the Haul

It seems a bit boastful to be proudly displaying the yarn purchased last weekend, and yet when other bloggers do it I LOVE IT!  Its like shopping for free, so I hope ya’ll don’t mind. 

I think my biggest happiness came in the Lisa Souza booth.  Her base yarns were nice, the colours were lovely, and her prices very reasonable.  Where other booths were charging $28 for hand dyed skein, her sock prices were low at $18.  I came away with:

On the left straight up sock yarn, in the middle Merino, and on the right is BFL.  This latter base is amazing, the BFL is shiny, without any silk in there.  The merino was bought with my last $20, and the colours are true on my style.  I thought the sock yarn with the light green/blue, and natural with spots was pretty cool, and not something I normally would have chosen.  I really couldn’t resist the BFL, with the shininess, and the vaguely purple/blue colour, so I didn’t try!

Next up with Blue Moon Fiber Arts:

I had wanted to find some of the black Raven colourway, and this heavyweight Valkyrie fit the bill perfectly.  It was one of two left in the booth on Saturday afternoon.  It is black with hints of purple and copper/brown.  On the right is a 994 yd skein of Geisha which is tussah silk/kid merino in the silver Winter Solstice colourway.  It’s seriously shiny, and worth every penny.  I really cannot wait to knit this up into some gloriously elaborate shawl. 

Places that I would like to buy from next year (or at a wedding I’m now going to in Boulder Colorado in April)

Wabi Sabi for intense saturation of colours.  I was eyeing their purple (the theme?) and green.

Feministy and Little Red Bicycle are doing some killer colourways.

Have a good weekend everyone!  We’re heading out to Banff for some skiing and relaxing by the fire!

California Dreamin’

When everything here is still frozen solid, and we’re celebrating the fact that the snow piles are only 2 feet tall instead of 4, there is nothing like escaping for the weekend to somewhere warm, sunny, with flowers.  Real live flowers, outside, not inside in vases:

Santa Clara was displaying cherry blossoms, green lawns, leaves on trees, and flowers everywhere.  Picking up for the weekend, and going to something as frivolous as a yarn convention, staying at a nice hotel, even though it really didn’t cost me very much felt so very decadent.  One of the benefits  of using my own credit card for work expenses (linked to travel miles) and traveling for work is excess reward miles.  I felt relaxed, not rushed, and a tad bit spoiled.  It was nice not to have to race to get around, especially since I went the wrong way on the LRT and took a tour of downtown San Jose, before getting some directions from a nice lady at the OTHER convention center.  Another short ride in the opposite direction, and I managed to get to the correct convention center in order to spend two hours at Stitches West.  It was very overwhelming, so much yarn, so many people, so many things to see!  I noticed on Saturday I was only really looking the yarn, when I went back on Sunday I started to notice all the displayed items, and the other people.  I didn’t wear any large knitted item, as it was warm!  I was busy rocking a t-shirt for the first time in months. 

Stitches West was very large, and there were about a million billion things to see.  I had a certain amount of cash in my wallet, and I didn’t spend more than that, which is very good.  One of the highlights was meeting Rachel Herron, author of “How to Knit a Love Song” which is on my must read list.  How could you not like a lady who declared she wanted the Canadians to win in the Olympic hockey game?  You can’t!  (speaking of which, they announced who won when I was on the plane from San Jose-Denver, and I can report that there were exactly 5 Canadians on that plane.  We all cheered.  Loudly.  The nice lady next to me gave me a dagger look, but when I turned to her and said “They can cancel the mass suicide in Canada now”, and “They just ran out of beer in Vancouver, and probably Calgary as well” she warmed up a bit.  Let’s face it; winning meant more to us, probably too much.)

The highlights for me were numerous.  I was happy to find some Three Irish Girls yarn on Sunday:

The blue skein has gone to a new home before I got too attached, and the multi one is staying with me.  It is brown/burgundy/green/teal, which is happily outside my normal colour sphere.

I seemed to be in a purple and silk mood this weekend as that is what I was drawn to.  The smell of silk was in many booths, and it was heady.  I stopped at the Artfibers yarn tasting booth and got a sample of one of their silk/mohair blends.  I can attest that anything from them that contained silk was brilliant!  I felt bad asking for too many samples, so kept it to just one.

I eagerly visited the Pigeonroof Studio booth, and found this nice purpley blend that is fast becoming a lacy baktus scarf.  Jennipoo got a dark purple blend as well!   I did very well only purchasing from vendors that are hard to get in Canada, or are online only.  I stayed away from the mega bargain booths.  Okay, I went into them, but came out empty handed.  I was a bit surprised by the amount of sparkly yarn available, I had thought that fad was over with.  Oh, was I wrong.  I even saw, gasp, fun fur.  Ack.

Other favorites of mine were seeing vast amounts of Blue Moon in person (we have one store in Edmonton that stocks them, but what they have is a bit hit and miss and it sells out quick).  I really enjoyed the Lisa Souza booth, and though she and her husband were very nice.  I intend to take photos of what I got at these two places on the weekend, its lovely and deserves photos! 

The other big news is that I was 8 hours short of my “time outside of Canada” and therefore was required to pay duty on everything over $50.  I dutifully marked that I had items to declare and presented my card to the customs agent.  He let me through without any questions, and I did not have to pay duty.  What a great guy!  He was probably so happy about the game, and looking forward to the party.

A Bit of Sonne, and Baaaad Sheep

This weekend seemed to scream by so fast , and we find ourselves back at work for Monday.  Once again I was up at 5:30 am on Saturday for some skating on the other side of Calgary.  This was a good session however, everything gets a little bit better every time I skate.  Even my spins have improved 100% this year!  In the afternoon I had some fellow knitters over for a “Cocktails and Christmas Knitting” party.  I believe if you are going to have a little party, you might as well have a theme as well, I do love a theme.  It was very nice to sit around and chat, to meet a new friend, and reconnect with some others from last years retreat.  I had a grand plan to make circle cookies (gingerbread and sugar, that part worked out okay) and then use icing to make them look like yarn balls.  Total failure, but the plain unadorned cookies tasted pretty good.  And very unexpectedly one lovely woman brought me this ray of light:

Real, live, in the flesh Wollmeise!  I’m feeling very special today as I show it off, and enjoy the bright orange colours.  Its so very cheerful.  Its going to live on my mantle until I figure out the most perfect sock pattern ever, as only the best will do.

Speaking of socks, store bought ones that is, I have a real weakness for skiing and cycling socks.  I found these over at MEC today:

That little lady is a Baaaad Sheep!  They are wool socks, perfect for winter sports.  This is also why I’m not allowed to look at socks in sports store, due to the afore-mentioned weakness for them! 

I’m so tired from the weekend, I need another one!

Adventure Week Day 4 -Yarn Dying!

Is it just me or is this week passing slowly, yet quickly as well? 

Last weekend we got together and did some natural yarn dying!  We used the Fall/Winter Knit 1 magazine which contains an article giving a “loose” description of how to dye yarn naturally.  It was an adventure as amounts and specifics were glossed over.  This engineer enjoys exact specifications, however I felt very “artistic” with our “just dump a bunch in” method.  First off was tumeric, which looks nice and smells good:

We have some interesting variations in the yellow colour, and some good subtlties.  A good thing to have done would have been to strain the dying solution of tumeric crumbs however, I had to shake them out later, and there is still a ton of particles in the yarn. 

Next up was blueberries:

This photo doesn’t really do the black/purple colouration that we achieved.  It looks much better in person, the photo turned out a bit dark.  This is a very unique colour, I quite like it.

Next up is tea (decaf Red Rose for that oh so Canadian colour)

I find this to be an interesting colour, do I like it or don’t I?  The natural dyes have given the yarn some really interesting nuances, and an interesting feel.  They don’t really look like the photos in the magazine as we didn’t achieve uniform colour.  But I do like some good variations across a skein.  We also cleverly identified one skein of acrylic yarn which is still sadly white!

I’m not sure how well we did with colourfastness.  Is that a word?  What I mean is how well the colour will stay in the yarn the next few times it is washed.  My yarn is superwash that I dyed, but I think I’ll make some lace scarves and keep the washing to an absolute minimum.

Olds Fibre Fair Stash Enhancement

The Olds Fibre Week that is, which even though the Vendor area is in the maintenance area for the College, and the decor is sadly lacking in ambiance, the vendors came through for those of us just up for a few hours to shop.  (Aside: once again the weekend weather was lovely, and the grounds are gorgeous, why oh why does someone not rent these people tents to get them out of the machine shop???) All the vendors has wonderful items on offer, but I spent all my money in two places, which is a tad predictable for me.  I also got to see just how big my shopping bag could stretch:

Erynn from Twist of Fate traveled out from Kamloops bringing lotsa goodies.  Her booth was Extremely Lovely, she brought so much nice stuff.  I managed to get the two presents taken care of early, picked up a beginners spindle kit with fibre, and a Sabine shrug kit:

The yarn is already wound into two balls, ready to go, I’m very excited about this! 

The next rave is about the Wild Geese booth.  The lady who runs Wild Geese was unfortunately at a class while I was there, but her fill in was very helpful.  Working closely with the processing mill in Biggar SK, they have been developing some really interesting yarn.  The first item I picked out was a laceweight: it is a black fibre spun with green fibre.  You can barely see the green, but I think you will see it more once it is knit up:

Can you see just the hint of green fibre peeking out?  Also on display were black/blue and black/purple.  Second up in irresistible treats was some of her worsted weight, I bought a sweaters worth:

I’m thinking an EPS with the pink yoke detail, with some lace thrown into the yoke as well, as I love the fit that that gives across my shoulders.  The beauty of this yarn is the different fibres that go into its construction.  I had to take it outside into the natural light to truly see all the nuances.  Natural grey fibre, with small quantities of blue and pink fibre thrown into the mix:

There seems to be a beautiful relationship going on between the local fibre producers, yarn designers, and fibre mills in this area of the country, and I’m loving it all.  Is it any wonder I was so excited to head up to this show to see what was on display?  I was so impressed by what I walked away with, and by all that I sadly had to leave behind.  Each one of us shoppers displayed great restraint and discipline in that cold, echoing maintenance shop, and I’m proud of us all!