You know it’s been a doozy of a day when you’ve had two Tim Horton’s runs and a latte from home and you’re still exhausted at 7.30 at night. Well, I can report that the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter’s Fair was all that and a bag of roving. Knitters came in droves, filled all available parking lots and every square inch of a rather large ballroom. And boy did we shop.
So… the damage...
All in all, I managed to hit the jack pot on the bargains. As far as the list goes, well… I did manage to check off a few things and then there was that caveat about being able to buy things that I just couldn’t leave behind…10 1/2 skeins of heavy worsted hand-dyed wool in various shades
of blue and purple... over 2000 yards of wool for $10 Canadian.* See what I mean? A bargain that can't be passed up. It looks like this was a bag of leftovers and it's on the scratchy side and contains a bit of vegetable matter funkiness, but I'm thinking I can do some major felting here. And for $10... can't resist...
The same booth also supplied some really cool green, blue and teal Handspun Silk Noil, 410 g of 
unidentified yardage/weight. This will take some swatching (and a nice bath of some sort).And since I was already clearing out their clearance bin, I snagged two skeins of lt. lavendar fingering wt merino just so I can try out my new Flower Basket Shawl pattern and blocking wires. I mean, I had to buy it because you know I just don't have any lace projects around here. *cough, cough*
And the bargains... they just didn't stop...
9 skeins of Briggs & Little Regal for some sort of dark grey cabled 
cardigan/hoodie with teal blue accents. It works in my head... and for $27 Canadian, it'll work on me too!
Lest you think I've become too wool-oriented (is there such a thing?), the softest yarn ever award 
goes to this little purchase... 2 skeins of angora for this scarf (go to the scarves link and check out the cabled goodness). So unbelievably soft (And no, I didn't pay $65 for the yarn... only $14. And worth every penny.)
But wait, didn't she go up there to buy sock yarn?
Well, seems solid color sock yarn isn't exactly the thing to display at a knitting festival. I guess it's kinda boring or something. But when a girl's gotta have socks, a girl's gotta have socks.
It was a challenge, but I did find some patterned yarn that I just had to adopt... 4 skeins of Scheepjes Invicta Coloris (one of which will be making its way to the contest winner... announced below). Initial impression is that it seems a lot like the Opal I've been using recently, although perhaps a tad softer.
And if you've got to just force yourself to buy multi-colored yarn (because you can see how much I have to struggle to make myself buy yarn), you may as well do a teency bit of splurging...
Sweetgeorgia Superwash Sock in Paris
Sweetgeorgia Superwash Sock in Marina
So... to sum up...
Sock Yarn: 8 skeins
Total Skeinage: 30
Lone Knitter, great guess! There will be some sock yarn headed your way. (Hope you don't have to use your twine yarn retrieval system on this one!) And since I did go off course a bit, I'm going to send a prize to CJ as well for coming closest to my total purchase of 30 skeins.
All in all, it was a terribly fun excursion and the bargains were a pleasant surprise. I feel rather hedonistic right now with my haul spread out all over my bed, but so far no buyer's remorse has set in. I'm pretty sure that petting the angora will cure any if I do get a case!
Oh, and if you are planning your own international yarn excursion, don’t worry about any border delays. On both sides, we were let through immediately when we said we were in Canada to attend a knitting festival. I’m not sure if the friendly guards were reminded of grammies and past Christmas gifts or if they just thought we were too bloody crazy to be a danger, but they gave us a blank look and a big wave as we went about our way. Good thing too, I needed to get home and start knitting!
*I suppose right now the exchange rate is so bad that there isn't a huge difference between the Canucks' dollar and ours, but I still remember the good ol' days when it did. It was like walking into Ikea and having everything be on sale. Rather than actually doing the math (because English grad students don't do that, ya know), we could just walk around and say that everything was about $20. Funky pillow? $20 Kitchen utensil set? $20 Uncomfortable but hip looking couch? $20 Meatballs? $20. See, it all evened out in the wash.
4 comments:
Wow, the bounty. Hmm, I had thought about skipping the local sheep and wool tomorrow, but now I am rethinking that decision... But instead of going in the morning, maybe I will wait until the afternoon and score some bargins...
BTW, I think the new beta is just not letting people post using the non-beta user id. I am going to investigate further.
All of your new booty is pretty amazing but I really love the handspun silk.
Yay! Looks like you totally got some great bargains. All of the yarns in your stash enhancement are beauties. I'm so happy to have guessed the correct amount of sock yarn you'd buy. Well, it wasn't a strict guess--there was a huge scientific basis for it that I'll share with you one day.
Oh wow. Thank you very much for the prize. The pouch is a perfect size for holding the roving for my spindle and the stitch markers are lovely! Thanks for letting me play. :)
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