A Great Big YES!

It was the knitter's equivalent of Christmas.  Remember as a kid, counting down the sleeps till the Big Day?  Do you remember wondering with excitement what presents you might open that morning?  Speculating on if you might get that big item you've always wanted, but hardly dared hope for?  The thing your secret heart wanted, but you never spoke aloud because you knew it was so unlikely you'd ever get it.

Saturday was the Kitchener Waterloo annual Knitter's Fair.  This is my Christmas.  The day that gets me excited and happy and is full of fun. This year I headed down with Isa and Barb which made for a very fun road trip.  I had a pocket full of guilt-free cash and a resolution to only buy what I loved.  Again the Fair filled two large ballrooms at Bingemans and again it was packed with wonderful vendors and happy knitters.

I had resolved not to buy sock yarn, but there seemed to be an awful lot of it this year and some of the prices were too good to resist.

The Noro Silk Garden was only $7 a skein and since I love my Silk Garden socks so much, I just had to get some more.  The natural yarn is also a silk blend I want to use for dyeing. Then there's the Starry Night.  Who could resist silver in your yarn?  I later noticed that a lot of vendors had hand-dyed skeins with silver in them, but none had as good a price as the Needle Emporium. And finally the wool-hemp is for swatching for a sweater idea.  I think I can make a swatch cap out of this big ball.

I also bumped into a ton of good friends at the Fair, both new ones I've made at the K-W Knit and Chat evenings and old ones from London who were so wonderfully enthusiastic about my return to the London knit group. 

One of my new friends is Pauline from All Strung Out.  When I was asking around for a spare bedroom to rent for my over-nights in Waterloo, she volunteered her place. What luck! (Jim quaked a bit when I told him I'd found a room with a lady who owns a yarn store.  I was thinking how jealous my knit-friends would be. :p) Pauline had a booth at the show and I stopped to say hi, and meet her mom, and ask about her vacation, and we both said how much we were looking forward to our own knit nights when I start staying with her. (Have to wait till after Pauline's mom's visit is over.)

As I was leaving, Pauline happened to ask if I spin.  "No," I replied.  "Why do you ask?"

"Oh," says Pauline. "Because I have a spinning wheel you can use if you want."

My heart leapt!  My heart knew what it wanted!  Oh yes.  A big YES.


So now I knew what this Christmas-Fair was going to bring me.  I headed over Gemini Fibers and came away with book, spindle, and fiber.  I said to the cashier that I felt like I had a new baby.  I guess it's all so new and exciting and a bit scary too. 

At a different booth, I purchased some fiber to aspire to, which is the superwash merino pencil roving in those pretty pinks and oranges.  

I believe it was Wendy at Gemini Fibers who guided me through spindle selection, and the very beginnings of a tutorial.  She was very helpful and encouraging.  My learning fiber is Coopworth and my spindle is by Thomas C. Forrester.  It's a Linum whorl, made of maple.

I started spinning right there at Bingeman's, and then again when I got home even though I was so tired.  I always said I'd wait to learn to spin till I had more time, but with weekly access to a wheel...  Seriously, how could I say no?

Today, I feel like the happiest kid on Boxing Day.  All set to play with my new toys.  But first I had to show my friends what I got for Christmas.