Oh my GAWD

It's happened. I went to Herrschners to pick up some Mirasol Hacho to finish my scarf. I had PROMISED myself that I was ONLY going to buy that yarn, and NOTHING ELSE. I was quite determined, I swear.

But the bus only came every half hour, so I had to wander around the store for a little while...

It's not ...a LOT of yarn, right?

I swear I don't know what happened. I was just wandering around, and then when I went to the cash there was all this yarn in the basket! I blame the sale room in the back. And the sale on the yarn in the non-sale room. Oh dear...

This is neat though:

It's like a cheap acrylic version of Noro! The colour aren't as nice, and it is acrylic, but Kureyon is always rather rough feeling anyway? It's nice to have cheaper alternatives, this was only $5/skein.

Also, new glow-in-the-dark needles!

I think my stash has grown significantly in the last month. In addition to spending FAR too much money on yarn today and yesterday, this magical box arrived in the mail:

Wait till you see what's inside:

I swear I got tingles when I opened it. 2lbs of fibre I got from a lovely person who was destashing on ravelry. Gosh, there are soooo many wonderful inside it! Happyhappyhappyhappy.

Happy.

Happy!

:D

I am using things though! I made a hat with some of the yarn from Michaels last night, it knitted up super fast because it's sooo chunky. I like it! It's a cloche (and looks a little large here because Cassie has a tiny cute head!).

Also, some handspun:

I spun and dyed it yellow in the summer, but I was unsatisfied, so I resist dyed it the other night, with elastics. I like how it looks spotty, so I call it "Spotted Frog." I plied it with itself...plying from either ends of a centre-pull ball works, believe it or not. (I was sceptical, I thought it would turn into a tangled mess, but no!)

So yes, a good day. Despite my COMPLETE AND UTTER unfaithfulness to my purported yarn diet. Oh well, I sort of knew it was lies.

But now I'm on a yarn diet FOR REALS THIS TIME, I swear.

Unless, you know...

Something comes up...

Woodstock Fleece Festival Part 2

What a horrible week. I was going to rant about the fleece festival (rest assured, I still will), but I ended up with four assignments and a midterm due this week, severely cutting back on my internet time. I've hardly had ANY time to craft this week, it's super upsetting!

But on to better things.

That is what I bought at the fleece festival! I might have got a liiiittle overexcited, but it was my first fibre festival and I just couldn't contain myself. Plus, it was (almost) all really well priced! I haven't quite worked out what I spent yet, I've been avoiding thinking about it. I might have spent all my grocery money for November. Well, if I run out of food I'll just go to everything on campus with free food, that's the best way to deal with that problem, right?

Now I'm not going to go on (and on, and on) about everything I bought, but I have to share a few special things.

I WON this! I had my eye on it when I entered the raffle, and it was still there when I won! So so so so exciting. The price tag said $50, crazy eh?


This is really cool, it's two skeins of different fibre dyed to match by Fleece Artist. I don't have any fixed plans for this yet, but it was too nice to pass up! One skein is merino, the other is "angel hair" - 70% kid, 30% nylon.


These are also fleece artist, lovely laceweight purple! 66% Mohair, 24% Wool, 10% Nylon. I got one dyed straight purple, and one that was varicoloured with sections of the same purple, I'm planning on using them for a lace shawl, because I am sort of in the mood for a lace shawl.


4oz of border leicester locks. They have fantastic texture and colour variation!


This bag is a pound and was $10. For dyed wool! Oh man! They had all these bags with different colours and you got to pick your own, it was super exciting. I also got some bamboo-merino blend from here.


I got a new spindle! It has a really wide whorl, and it's pretty heavy. I really like the grain of the wood that's visible! I actually sanded it down a little because the varnish was a little bumpy in places, but for $22 I'm definitely not complaining!
The fibre is merino-viscose, and I am entirely in love with it. It drafts beautifully, is wonderfully soft, and I love how it's dyed! I'm going to spin it all into a lace/fingering weight single, and make something lacy with it.


This was my particularly indulgent purchase. I'd told myself NOT to buy any yarn that was more than $20/skein, but this was so EXACTLY my favourite colours, and it felt soooo nice, and the stall took credit cards....
I have no regrets. The fact I only bought one is a credit to my self-control.

Even apart from all the gorgeous fibre, the fleece festival was thoroughly enjoyable. After I'd spent all my money I wandered around with my new drop spindle and chatted to people. So many people who love fibre in one place! Wondrous. I'm going to start saving for next year RIGHT NOW. Well, maybe after I've saved enough for this one yarn I really want...

Yarn Shopping in Ottawa

Oh. My. God.

SO MUCH YARN.

I have had the BEST day! I'm in Ottawa, and I went yarn shopping. I went to four stores, all around downtown. So exciting!

The first place I went was Yarns, Etc, right near the Rideau Centre. A tiny little shop, but they had a great selection of yarn in a variety of qualities, for pretty reasonable prices! I was surprised how much could fit. The owner was super nice, too, I had a lovely chat with her. I'd definitely go back there again! The only thing was that they didn't have any spinning stuff apart from a couple bundles of roving (which looked a bit bedraggled). There was a lot of embroidery stuff there too, which is useful to know if I take up embroidery again. 4/5 stars.

Yarn from Yarns, Etc.

The second store I went to was Yarn Forward, in the north part of the Glebe. They had a really large space, but somehow it seemed like they had less selection than Yarns, Etc. That said, there was some great yarn there! The only stuff I really wanted was too expensive though, everything was a bit on the pricy side. They had a few colours of roving (more than Yarns, Etc), so I got a bit of that. The staff were pleasant but not really friendly, I felt a little awkward there. 3/5 stars.

Fibre from Yarn Forward.

The third store was Knit Knackers, farther north on Bank. This store was AMAZING, look at the pictures on the website, it is GIANT! And all for yarn and fiber! I am still buzzed from going to this store, and it's nine hours later. It took me at least an hour to go through all the yarn they had; a fantastic selection, from cheap to gorgeous expensive. There were some great bargains, I couldn't believe the prices on some things! They also have bags of yarn to buy in bulk with ridiculous savings; I almost bought a bag of 10 skeins of bulky wool for $80, cut down from something like $150. And the fiber they had! Some of it I didn't even know existed, like fiber from milk and corn?! They had a crazy variety, including llama, several types of wool, alpaca, silk in different forms, cotton, linen, soy silk, angora, sea silk, the list goes on, it's just so wonderful! Most of it is undyed, but there's a wall of dyed wool top in loads of colours (and I think there was dyed silk as well?). PLUS (I discovered by accident), if you buy more than a kilo of fiber, you get 10% off your fiber purchase; and if you buy more than 10 skeins of yarn you get 10% off that too! The staff were super friendly and patient (and they had to weigh a lot of fiber for me) and helpful, happy to chat and really eager to help! I just can't express how excited about this store I am!! If I still lived in Ottawa I would be here all the time, and spend all my money. 6/5 stars!

Yarn from Knit Knackers.


Fibre from Knit Knackers and Wabi Sabi.

The last store I went to was Wabi Sabi, in Hintonburg. I used to live literally right around the corner from here, but I don't think this store existed then. This felt very much like a Fiber Art Store (with the capitals), not a yarn or knitting store. There was a decent amount of yarn, mostly Berroco. It was fairly pricey though. There was a nice selection of dyed roving, including a lovely wool-silk blend (that I bought some of, it's the blue fibre in the top left corner above) in a bunch of different colours. They also had needle felting and other fiber art supplies, plus some lovely finished artworks. The owner was busy but nice and happy to help! The railing in the doorway had been yarn bombed, which I was excited about! A lovely store, but limited amounts of yarn, and a bit above my price range. 4/5 stars.

And then I went home because I had spent all my money at Knit Knackers. Oops. Heh. There are a bunch more knitting shops around Ottawa, but they are farther away and difficult to get to without a car. But I am definitely satisfied with what I got.

Discoveries

I've found out that Harvest Festival and the Knitter's Fair are on the same weekend!

VS.



THIS IS SO UPSETTING.

It makes me wonder if anyone else has this dilemma, though. I'm going to Harvest since I haven't been to a festival ALL SUMMER, plus I shouldn't be spending all my money on yarn (which I totally would).

Plus, I really want unspun fiber more than yarn at this point (though a nice large batch of white wool would not go amiss...) and apparently the vendors have been told to focus on knitting, not spinning (so sad).

PLUS, I found two more yarn/fiber/etc fairs coming up soon that DON'T conflict! The Woodstock Fleece Festival is in October, and the KW Weavers' and Spinners' Guild Show & Sale in November. So exciting!!!

I also found this wonderful site today, it maps yarn stores and has reviews of them. You can also save "crawls," mapping a set of stores you want to go visit. I've made one of the yarn stores in Ottawa, since I'm visiting there soon! I found a yarn store RIGHT around the corner from where I used to live. Such a waste, I didn't knit then! Heh.

I navajo plied my remade yarn: