It's my birthday (August 20th), and I thought how lovely to treat myself to a weekend knitting getaway--and with Fibrations happening in Victoria, it seemed like a perfect and easy trip to make.
International visitors to my site, no, Victoria isn't set on a different planet, this is just the colour the sky gets after weeks of horrendous forest fires in our province.
It's an outdoor event, perfect for a late August Sunday, and I was up at the crack of dawn. I went back to sleep, of course (Fibrations didn't start until 10:00 am), but by 9:50 I was at my car, winding through the charming streets of Victoria, reminiscing about my misspent youth—I'd attended university here in the 1980s, for several years.
The vendors were all kind and lovely, and some of them were even kindlier and lovelier than that, which is saying something, even the ones from whom I did not necessarily buy anything! Had a nice chat with members of the Victoria Knitters Guild (which I didn't join—I'm a member of the West Coast Knitter's Guild, which is Vancouver's equivalent and meets at Oakridge Mall).
Isn't that gorgeous! What a fun way to use up leftover yarn. (I'm sure the project on the right is gorgeous too, it's just less obviously gorgeous at this stage of its development).
I got to have fun with swiping credit cards (many vendors had those little attachments to one's smart phone, and one vendor's in particular was a right little rascal—after about 20 odd swipes from various folk, my 2nd attempt made it through, phew), deciding whether or not to accept a bag (I finally broke down and got one on its last legs, feeling pity for it, and the vendor begged me not to tell anyone it came from their shop—but it was a good size, and if you crunched up the top no one could see it was a goner), chatting, perusing, and generally having a good time. And (if you read between the lines, you may have sensed this already): I bought stuff.
My first pick were these two lovely skeins above, from The Spinnacle Fiber Arts. They were her most recent creations, so she was delighted they were chosen so quickly (I guess it shows you're on the right track, right?), and I was thrilled to have come early enough that I got to be the lucky consumer. So beautiful, and with the most wonderful names:
What am I going to make out of "Kelp" and "Here is the deepest secret nobody knows"? I'm not sure, but I can always turn a skein into a hat, so that's my plan B if I can't come up with a cleverer notion.
If you're remotely internet savvy, you can follow her on Instagram: she would like it! Or visit her site at Etsy, which this entire sentence will link to.
Next up, this delightful dash of colour:
It doesn't look nearly as blue in the picture as it does in reality, but I strongly suspect that's because I'm writing on my laptop, and my laptop has this nifty transition after dark where it adjusts its colours to make me sleepy, I'm not kidding. Apparently normal lighting keeps one awake, but you can download a program to fix that, at f.lux (see, I don't make this stuff up). It does, however, make photos of your skeins look not-quite-right at night.
I love the tag on this one—all her yarn is labelled this way—and yes, she did have quite a bit of "dog" available (I know I'm allergic to everything but my Bichon Cody, so I didn't acquire any "dog" this trip), but you could maybe visit her web site and order some for yourself!
Not sure what I'll make out of it yet ... I suppose ... well, it could always be a hat. Yes. Next skein:
It's a lovely grey (well, clearly several lovely greys), and I know from experience grey is a neutral and goes with anything, so it will make a perfect ... hat?
Hard to resist anything named "scrumptious" (which, fittingly, is itself one of the more scrumptious words), and how cute are those sheep on the label? I love that the graphic artist had the gumption to depict several of the sheep with their backside facing us. It's darling. Oh, and husband, if you're reading this, pay no attention to the price listed, everything was on sale at 75% off, swear to God, with fingers crossed behind my back.
My next skeins are hand-dyed by artisans from further afield (back East, and in the Kootenays), so I've saved myself a trip to those places, and therefore have earned $100s and $100s of dollars in savings (that's how my brain works) so I can certainly afford everything I bought today, and then some! Now I have enough skeins to make ... all the hats.
Turns out the purveyor of these fine skeins actually has a shop in Vancouver, so that's delightful, as I can continue to save myself the hundreds of dollars' worth of not going back East (or to the Kootenays) by frequenting her store, The Little Big Yarn Shop (formerly Wool is Not Enough," still their motto, I gather.
Having bought quite enough yarn, I bought stitch markers:
You would never know, but the delightful artisan who created these stitch markers made the castles as an homage to Disney ... the set on the left uses Princess & the Frog colours (if I recall correctly), and the one on the right, which I added to my purchase after discovering this secret, is for The Little Mermaid. Love!
On The Needles
(I will mark with a ! those projects that have advanced, and !! those projects that are new to the blog.)
!!A cushion cover to use as a base for the Iris finished two weeks ago, I'm just making up my own pattern, this isn't rocket science, it's a cushion cover.
!Sophie's Universe crochet project (Part 8: Round 66)
!GGN Norwegian Ski Sweater (still adding the steek stiches while knitting from eventual armhole to neck, I'm 2/3 way through the final chart of the torso piece)
!Persian Dreams Blanket (row 9 of the fourth hexagon)
Poison Oak by Natalia Moreva (barely begun, and I think I'll restart it with more confidence)
Lerro, by Lee Meredith (finished the 2nd diamond in Section One)
A Church Mouse sock (4.5" through the 5.5" of the foot prior to decreasing to toe)