Sunday, September 14, 2008

What I Bought at the KW Knitter's Fair

This year, I took my mother to the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair and we both had a great time! Like many mothers and daughters, we used to be too enmeshed and over the last several years we struggled as I carved out my own space and identity. However the experience was worth it because we've both grown. This trip to KW felt like graduation to me because we both had a really good time.

Buttons by mom.

On our way there, we got a little mixed up and my mother said that she was having trouble being the "NAGivator". Ha! I had such a laugh. Freudian slip much? I have a feeling this term is going down into the family vocabulary.

The Knitter's Fair this year was held in two ballrooms at Bingemans and both were filled with vendors. The crowds weren't so pressing, so it was very pleasant. They had a much better set up for food too, but mom is diabetic so we had brought our own lunch.

We shopped, ate, took in the fashion show and shopped again. Here's what I bought:

This Briggs & Little Sport was on sale for $1.50 a skein. Ridiculous! I'm thinking stranded socks. My mom bought a bunch of the Briggs & Little two-ply. Enough for two sweaters for herself. She's got a very deep frugal streak in her, mom does.

But I was on the look out for the Needle Emporium because I had a coupon burning up my pocket and a long-held dream to fulfill.

That's 720 grams of Kauni Effektgarn. I was going to buy 7 skeins (each one is either 140 or 150 grams) but the nice sales ladies told me I wouldn't need more than 5. So I put two back. Which left me a little more money to spend on:

Yeah, I need sock yarn like another hole in the head. But I love the vintage labels on the Kroy and it was only $3.50 a skein. I need plain sock yarn for those lace and cabled beauties. The Noro was on sale for $11. Too good a price to leave behind, even though I still have extras from the other balls. I have an itch to see what this stuff would look like in a stranded mitten pattern.
The Soak is exclusive to the Sweet Sheep and it has a light citrusy scent. I usually use Eculan in lavender, but Jim doesn't like that scent, so this will be good for washing his sweaters.

It was nice to see friends both near (Nadine, Isa, Kat, Lynn, Catherine and Janice) and far (Connie) and maybe I made a new friend. (Hi Pat from Michigan!) The Knitter's Fair feels like Christmas to me, including the Christmas aftermath of cleaning and recouping. Monday comes too soon.

6 comments:

  1. Those are really nice buttons your Mother made.

    Now I'm waiting to see what you do with that Kauni yarn; you made it sound like the woman has a plan.

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  2. Anonymous5:10 pm

    Very nice haul! I'm literally salivating over that Kauni (either that or I'm hungry... maybe both) :-)

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  3. Hey Laurie those buttons your Mum made are lovely! I'm still hunting down some buttons for my Tempest. Can you believe the lady at that Bedazzled booth? She wondered why I wouldn't buy 14 x 1/2ins buttons from her for the tiny price of $6 PER button [laughing].

    Great haul - love the Noro!

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  4. Your mom's buttons are gorgeous - were they at the Knitters' Fair?

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  5. Oh, you bought Kauni yarn - I'm so jealous! The colors look beautiful. It sounds like you and your mom had a great day! Signed - another Michigan friend...

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