Needle Emporium Tent Sale (or Yarn Heaven)

Today my Knitting Group took a road trip to a yarn sale! It was the annual tent sale at the Needle Emporium in Ancaster, Ontario. I have never been before as it is usually on a work day for me but I have heard tales of deals beyond belief. And not just bad dye lots and odd balls, but real silk and merino and lots of it! So off we went, arriving at the opening time of 5pm for the first evening of the sale. It had grown so big over the years that it outgrew the "tent" and moved into a local church hall nearby. So we hit the front door with the thoughts: take no prisoners, every knitter for themself, set your radar for Merino and Silk, and leave the acrylic alone! The deal is this... they have 3 sizes of bags and you can fill them with whatever you want for $40 or$75 or $150. The only exception is Colinette yarn for $10 a skein! Within minutes I have 2 lots of NORO and 2 lots of Colinette, all enough for a full sweater each (4 sweaters). Moments later ALL the Noro was gone and most of the Colinette picked over. I got Silver Thaw and Blossom (Noro) and Tagliatelli and Chrysalis (Coli'). i also fit 5 balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Dk, and 3 more balls of Blossom and some sequin accent yarn (usually $25 a ball) and some mohair scarf yarn. All in all about $700 retail price worth of yarn for $175. Wowweeee. Each of us bagged lots of bargains and although the suv was not FULL, you can see we did well. We stopped for a nice patio supper at a nearby pub, and met up with 2 other tables of knitters still on their tent sale highs, all chatting of the bargains and the possible patterns they will be using.

Sock Dying Extravaganza (party)

SOCKS.

Last tuesday we finally had our sock dying night. Instead of meeting at our usual Club for knitting night, we gathered at mine for an evening of winding, eating (and drinking) and dying. My friends had never dyed anything before and had asked me how I did it. We started with 10 balls of elann sock it to me 4 ply sock yarn in natural. Each 50 gram ball is 210m, 75%superwash wool and 25 nylon for durability. It takes 2 balls to make a pair of socks (knit on 2.5 mm needles) and each ball costs around $2.50. Perfect price for me and my newby dyers.

We started by taking the balls and winding them into skeins. The photo shows 2 swifts, one umbrella style (mine) and one antique winder (Susan's). You can see Susan's moves so fast, that the yarn is a blurr. Wow. When we had 5 skeins (2 balls in each) done, we paused for some food and wine, then setup the kitchen for dying.

Plastic covered everything and I mixed the dyes (I used Rit as it is readily available in this area). Then they wet the skeins and lay them on the plastic. With sponge paintbrushes, off they went. We ended up with 5 skeins, all with different colour combinations. What a blast. All skeins were then rinsed thoroughly and put to dry. The last word...remember the long winding of the self striping yarn from here... The end result is four colours, each 10 feet long, which will result in approx. one inch stripes when knit into socks! Yellow, blue, tan and burgundy.

Cool.

Winter Wonderland

It is March. almost spring really, and we have made it through the worst winter storm of the year - of the century- and now there is only the clean up.... Here is Rick, shovelling the driveway, and a photo sent by my favorite Aunt in Ottawa that expresses our sentiments at this point.

ENOUGH already.

On a knitting note, I am almost finished the next project, the Superwash Bamboo vest. Touch and Go if there will be enough yarn for the ribbing to finish it off, but I love a little suspense and have a Plan B if I get snookered.

The yarn dying party with my fellow knitters of the StCG&CC Knitters, will be Tuesday, and I am doing a little preliminary work. First is the winding of the sock yarn to make the self striping socks. It involves winding the sock yarn into a 40 foot loop skein. I use this wonderful peg board originally used for weaving... to make long warp strands. The idea is that you tie it off into 10 foot sections and dye each section a different colour. Photos will follow Wednesday...

Anticipation-Coming Attractions....

I have finished the front and back and am well underway with the first sleeve. So my question at this point is put out to you out there in the knitting universe. Do any of you want me to attempt to publish this pattern in more than one size (that is the size that fits me.. a medium 37 inch bust, finished to about 40 inches). I could do it with small, medium and large (to fit 34, 37 and 40 inch bust, with a usual, not too tight fit)??? I would love feedback on this, as I finish up the sweater, and start to gather all the pertinent pattern details... Still anticipate publishing on Sunday March 2. Email me, or leave a comment (even without registration - I will get it!).



In other news, one of our StG&CC Knitters has had a bad fall and broken her arm and has been put on the injured reserve list... SHE CAN'T KNIT! It breaks my heart and makes me wonder.... if it were me, could I somehow figure out how to duct tape a needle onto the cast and work the yarn with one hand. Hmmm. Let's hope I never have to find out. Let's all have thoughts of quick recovery and return to the needles and yarn for our friend in stitches, Brenda!