Yarn Orgy!!

Oh yeah baby! I got yarn!

Mary Jane and I did the road trip to Ancaster yestereve for the Needle Emporium's annual tent sale. This is the best yarn event for quality and quantity yarns. I didn't take any pictures while I was there, though I did bring my camera. I was solely focused on the yarns. Even to the point of ignoring knitting friends from London! Kat, Nadine, Kata and Will, plus others, all got there before us and were ready to chat up Mary Jane and I when we arrived. They were quite thrilled with their Noro acquisitions, but MJ and I were all like: "That's nice! Bye! Gotta shop!" Sorry ladies (and gent). I am happy for you about the Noro.

So I know you want to see the haul. (Hi Laurie B! This edition of flash your stash is dedicated to you.)

That's the whole she-bang. I calculate 4 sweaters and 8 pairs of socks are in this. Plus some scarves or hats.

I found a yarn to go with my Noro:

It's called alfa and it's a wool/mohair (85/15) blend. Hmm... I just entered that into Ravelry and it's listed there as a bulky weight. Oh dear. Well, if it doesn't work out for this sweater, 14 skeins ought to make a sweater for Jim.

I got a washable cotton/acrylic blend to make a sweater for Alex:

18 skeins of Schachenmayr nomotta Punto

Jim got a sweater's worth of yarn too:

16 skeins of Elsebeth Lavod Classic Al baby alpaca/wool (50/50)

Now this could be a sweater or a shawl:

10 balls Madil Kid Seta mohair/silk (70/30)

After filling my bag with all this lusciousness, it was time to round off the corners. First with sock yarn:

Then with oddments of mohair, cause it's soft and squishy:

Then just as I was dashing out the door, I saw more red cotton and thought of Mary Jane's motto "Buy it all because you wouldn't want to run out of yarn!" so I stuffed that in there too.

Uh oh! It wasn't till I was out of there that I realized that this is actually a different yarn all together! It's up for trade folks, though it's beyond me what anyone would do with 4 balls of mercerized red cotton.

It's very freeing to be able to grab all this great yarn for such a reasonable price. I'm going to be enjoying this haul for a long time to come. After the sale, Mary Jane and I moseyed over to the Needle Emporium store for a look see. I'd never been and it was worth the trip. Tons of yarn, books, bags and so on. Lots of variety. I was thinking I wasn't going to be able to leave the shop without buying something else, but I was all shopped out.

After that it was time for dinner, and Mary Jane and I had intentions to meet up with the gang, but instead we stumbled on a jewel of a spot, India Village. I almost hate to blog about it, since the dining room is so small, and the food was so good. But you know, they deserve the publicity. They have a tandoori oven on site and made fresh papadum that was light on the inside and crispy on the out. The butter chicken was tender and flavorful. Everything tasted fresh and full of flavour. It was the perfect end to the day.

The only down side of the whole thing is that I have to wait a year to do it again.