The Ewe Haul, Cashmere Pressure, and What The Cool Kids Are Doing
I am glowing. Yeah, seriously. Put me in the dark and I'll light up the room... practically.
My friends, Tara and dkzack, and I went on our yearly trip to Olds Fibre Week yesterday. And yeah, it's a yearly trip now, because this is the second year in a row the three of us have gone, and the third for dkzack and me. It's practically a tradition now. I won't lie: I'd been daydreaming about it for the past week. It did not disappoint.
We packed into my car and drove off in the morning with knitting projects in our bags, snacks to sustain us, and tons and tons of excitement. I might have made up a song in the shower that morning about alpacas. I might have stayed up the night before choosing what knitted item I was going to wear. I bet the others did the same.
Tara, the new owner of her very own drum carder, bought a bunch of cool stuff to make fibre batts... sari silk, curly lamb locks, and a whole alpaca fleece. I might have to put together a fund to get some of that good stuff from her... or get a second job...
dkzack got some amazing stuff, too... a huge skein of worsted weight yarn called "Honey and Toast" which was a beautiful dark amber shade, another skein of fingering weight called, "Succumb to the Plum." She's a sucker for names, that one, and I can't say I blame her. As I walked through the merchant area, I kept finding skeins that made me say, "Oh, dkzack would love that." At the end of the day, I was delighted to see I was right. Do I know my girl or what?
I had such a good time meeting all sorts of interesting people and seeing all sorts of interesting things, and I can't even really remember all that happened. My hazy memories include the three of us simultaneously squealing "SHEEP!" when we saw a flock in a field on the side of the road.
I might have rolled on the grass while doubled over in laughter after hearing Tara shout it again after seeing a trailer marked, "Ewe Haul" driving away with sheep in the back, and hearing the subsequent startled scream from dkzack.
I might have crowded around the Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts table like a fangirl to show off my camel cowl to them, since they sold me the camel down and tahkli spindle I used to make it last year.
I might have committed to helping organize a fibre event in our town after chatting with a member from the Hand Weavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta.
We might have bought a bunch of novelty items from the interesting coin-operated machine in the bathrooms at the local Boston Pizza. We may have actually gone back twice...
And well, I might have dropped a bunch of cash on some goodies as well... all things I knew that were special and that were only available to me at those prices at Olds Fibre Week:
My first two skeins of Handmaiden Fine Yarns: a laceweight silk skein and a gorgeous gold fingering weight skein in a silk/camel blend:
The huge 1093 yard skein of Blue Faced Leicester from Fleece Artist in light fingeringweight that I wore around the Merchant Mall like a beauty pageant sash and thus gained notoriety as a true yarn zealot among all the vendors:
Another two skeins of Fleece Artist Merino that begged to come home with me:
A couple of bags of alpaca/silk roving from a business I purchased from the year before. It spins like buttah, that stuff. Turns out all three of us bought the green roving, cuz that's what all the cool kids were doing:
A few skeins of laceweight wool from Paternayan that I circled three times like a shark before I took the plunge:
My first two bags of cotton roving, a natural brown and a long-stapled white cotton:
And this skein of 100% cashmere laceweight. Man, I crumbled under the pressure to buy that one. And I'm so glad I did. I might have to sleep with it for the next few days...
We had an interesting chat on the way home about the joy we all get from dreaming about the possibilities for the yarn and fibre we purchase. Because it's not just about the yarn.... it's about the days and days of searching for just the right thing to do with it, the nights I spend falling sleep with the ideas floating through my head, and the joy of wearing our finished objects around people who appreciate them...
Like my girls, dkzack and Tara.
Gotta go. Must knit.
My friends, Tara and dkzack, and I went on our yearly trip to Olds Fibre Week yesterday. And yeah, it's a yearly trip now, because this is the second year in a row the three of us have gone, and the third for dkzack and me. It's practically a tradition now. I won't lie: I'd been daydreaming about it for the past week. It did not disappoint.
We packed into my car and drove off in the morning with knitting projects in our bags, snacks to sustain us, and tons and tons of excitement. I might have made up a song in the shower that morning about alpacas. I might have stayed up the night before choosing what knitted item I was going to wear. I bet the others did the same.
Tara, the new owner of her very own drum carder, bought a bunch of cool stuff to make fibre batts... sari silk, curly lamb locks, and a whole alpaca fleece. I might have to put together a fund to get some of that good stuff from her... or get a second job...
dkzack got some amazing stuff, too... a huge skein of worsted weight yarn called "Honey and Toast" which was a beautiful dark amber shade, another skein of fingering weight called, "Succumb to the Plum." She's a sucker for names, that one, and I can't say I blame her. As I walked through the merchant area, I kept finding skeins that made me say, "Oh, dkzack would love that." At the end of the day, I was delighted to see I was right. Do I know my girl or what?
I had such a good time meeting all sorts of interesting people and seeing all sorts of interesting things, and I can't even really remember all that happened. My hazy memories include the three of us simultaneously squealing "SHEEP!" when we saw a flock in a field on the side of the road.
I might have rolled on the grass while doubled over in laughter after hearing Tara shout it again after seeing a trailer marked, "Ewe Haul" driving away with sheep in the back, and hearing the subsequent startled scream from dkzack.
I might have crowded around the Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts table like a fangirl to show off my camel cowl to them, since they sold me the camel down and tahkli spindle I used to make it last year.
I might have committed to helping organize a fibre event in our town after chatting with a member from the Hand Weavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta.
We might have bought a bunch of novelty items from the interesting coin-operated machine in the bathrooms at the local Boston Pizza. We may have actually gone back twice...
And well, I might have dropped a bunch of cash on some goodies as well... all things I knew that were special and that were only available to me at those prices at Olds Fibre Week:
My first two skeins of Handmaiden Fine Yarns: a laceweight silk skein and a gorgeous gold fingering weight skein in a silk/camel blend:
The huge 1093 yard skein of Blue Faced Leicester from Fleece Artist in light fingeringweight that I wore around the Merchant Mall like a beauty pageant sash and thus gained notoriety as a true yarn zealot among all the vendors:
Another two skeins of Fleece Artist Merino that begged to come home with me:
A couple of bags of alpaca/silk roving from a business I purchased from the year before. It spins like buttah, that stuff. Turns out all three of us bought the green roving, cuz that's what all the cool kids were doing:
A few skeins of laceweight wool from Paternayan that I circled three times like a shark before I took the plunge:
My first two bags of cotton roving, a natural brown and a long-stapled white cotton:
And this skein of 100% cashmere laceweight. Man, I crumbled under the pressure to buy that one. And I'm so glad I did. I might have to sleep with it for the next few days...
We had an interesting chat on the way home about the joy we all get from dreaming about the possibilities for the yarn and fibre we purchase. Because it's not just about the yarn.... it's about the days and days of searching for just the right thing to do with it, the nights I spend falling sleep with the ideas floating through my head, and the joy of wearing our finished objects around people who appreciate them...
Like my girls, dkzack and Tara.
Gotta go. Must knit.
Comments
Oh and cashmere peer pressure can be impossible to resist, so I've heard.