Knit City and a fabulous Saturday

Yesterday, I went to Knit City, a knitting convention in Vancouver, BC. I went for the marketplace as there weren't classes I wanted, and  it was for a day trip only. Although small (50 booths), it was very professional looking and lots of beautiful yarn was to be had.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics...and I didn't buy.any.yarn (!). I know, this is a first for me. I think it was a confluence of events...I went over with a new friend in my group who was on a budget. Also, I ran into quite a few people I knew at the show and chit-chatted. I had pre-cased the list of vendors, and thought I'd be in and out of there in a half hour..but it took me about a half hour just at the first booth - Melissa's bags - misocraftyknits.  I snapped up 2 large sweater box bags, and a small zip bag.





zip bag:



Then, took pics to send to a friend in Chicago who was also lusting after a bag but didn't know for sure which one she wanted.

After that, I met up with a gal from my cpa swap group on rav who had brought me yarn I won in a lottery swap..a skein of Tri'Coterie Merino Tencel in Quoth the Raven, and a skein of BFL self-striping in White Walker:




so I did receive yarn and have yarn to squish through the show..but I didn't buy any there. I think that helped..just having yarn in my bag.

I also bought a pattern book Cascadia on behalf of someone in our group who couldn't go

I met up with Emma at Everything Old Crafts who showed me a lovely new BFL-silk blend which is dark, but soft and shiny. Next to her booth, I spotted bottles of Soak Wash, and replenished my supply with a large bottle of the Celebration scent.



I had planned to be tempted at Sweet Fiber, but she didn't bring the bases I was looking for - the cashmere dk, and the heirloom. Also, Sweet Georgia but there were only a few single skeins of the Merino Silk Fine..so nothing to buy. They did have knitted up swatches of the tough love sock..so that was interesting to see how some of the colorways looked. For some reason, the end booths didn't get as much light as the middle of the show, so the yarn was on the whole, hard to see.

I also picked up some business cards for a few booths where I'd was interested in getting a custom dye or other project:

Pokdej - interesting and compact interchangeable needle cases. These were about the size of a small book (~ 4" or 5" square) had little pockets for needles 4 to 10.5, and a mini notions cases included for $48.

Kattikloo - hand dyed yarns from Saltspring Island. This lady was the most laid-back i've ever seen. She didn't want me to buy yarn unless I was really interested in it (!) Turns out I fell in love with one color she had (which was red-pink-purples, no surprise there, on a base she didn't have it in.....Merino-Silk DK yarn was to die for...a very soft hand. All of her skeins were $25 which seemed very inexpensive for hand-dyed yarn.

Dragonfly Dyewerx - had some lovely fingering merino-silk in beautiful blues..but I resisted because I already have a lot of single skeins in my stash and didn't have plans (I know, weird for me, right?)

The organizers did a great job of making sure that people selling similar stuff were not co-located..but the booths were narrow and skinny which made it difficult to get into some of the booths.Melissa's was a bit challenging, for example, because the booth next to hers was pottery and I feared tipping any of it over. It was exhilarating seeing all the colors, and feeling the yarns...seeing friends.

Near 2:30pm (about 3 hours), I made it through all the booths, and had put my name in for the swag bag draw. I hadn't eaten since early morning. My Chicago friend got back to me about the bag..and I went back and purchased another large box bag from misocraftyknits to send to her:





Most of her bags were cleaned out by then..and lots of empty pegs. My feet hurt, and I'd been texting friends (former victoria bees who moved to vancouver) to meet up.

We walked back to the car, and then, went down the street to the an Indian Restaurant to meet for some food. My friends was just walking randomly down the road and found the place - Siddhartha's  - it was amazing. I (and 2 friends) had the Meat Platter for $10.99, and 1 had the veggie platter. It was just the right amount of food and tasted really good. 3 little portions with rice, chicken, and naan on the side...and I had the masala chai which really hit the spot. They apparently do facebook discounts if you live locally.

After that, a short visit to Canterbury Bookstore up the street, and back to the ferry. I think I knit part of my right sleeve of audrey in unst.  All in all, a fabulous day, great conversations and company, and saw some amazing yarns.

I think I'll plan to go next year again.

Lavaliere is done

Lavaliere is done..blocked..but I couldn't find my sewing / blocking pins so the front band is still a bit curly.

and I discovered on my Audrey in Unst that I was only not paying attention on one sleeve, as the left armhole is 7" as per the pattern, and the right armhole is 6" hence the need for the extra math.
so, once i'm done the right arm fix..i'll see if I can follow the pattern instructions for the other arm.
6" is snug but not too snug.

pic to come.

Fall is here

Fall is here, and I'm finally zooming through Lavaliere.. I've done the body, and sleeves to the elbow matching the smocking pattern that I had on the back. Just need to do the front band. It required blocking, so I've blocked it and need to do the pick up of the front and knit the smocking pattern on the front band.. So, that's at 90%  (Yay I passed the 70% mark)..and the yarn is so soft. so, i'm happy there.

While that was blocking, I re-picked up Audrey in Unst.. Do you remember ? The lovely blue that taunted me earlier in the year ? The body is done, and the sleeves top down were pretty frustrating, as my armhole was 6" in height, instead of the minimum 7" called for in the pattern.  I tried a bunch of iterations but none of them worked. Happy to have internet, as I found short row sleeve instructions here which appear to be working.

UA = Underarm
T = Total stitches to pick up
C = Cap

C = T-UA = 72-13 = 59

Split 59 stithces in 6 sections - 10 9 10 10 10 10 
(Folded fabric of armhole in 1/2 and then, folded that in 3 and added stitch markers and did the pick up.

Short rows from beginning to end of 4th section, wrap.
Return row to end of 2nd section, wrap.
Continue until I'm at the end of the 5th section, and 1st section.
Then, continue in the round.

So far, it looks really good.
I also did not hide the wraps on this method and it seems to be fine.

It's been foggy and overcast the last couple of days..fall has set in.
I'm still hopeful on a few good sunny days..but it's been sunny without warmth for a few weeks now.

Should we update with a few shameless yarn pics ? Ok!

Cephalopodyarns had a flash sale a few weeks ago 10% off..so I bucked and bought this gradient set i'd been eyeing:



Really, the only colors I'm interested in are the 2 at the outer edges, so I'll likely use the middle ones either for shawls or minis. Also, they have changed their yarn base on the bugga so that it's way softer and it's 400 yds now per skein, instead of the 380 yds that was originally introduced. They're also dye-to-order, so you can get whatever you need, whenever you need it. They've also introduced a frequent buyer program so you collect 10 stamps (1 per skein purchased) on the bottom of your invoice, and trade that in for credit for 1 skein. Nice. They are also offering double stamps on particular colorways updated on Rav each Monday.

Mondegreen is back at Verdant Gryphon. Here is Sturgeon Mary, it's a dark blurple (yep, purple-based blue):



 and from EverythingOld - I bought this skein of Kashmir Sock at Fiber Fest in August: