Close to my Heart

Fibre Acquisition Disorder

Thought I'd show off the lovely fibres I have accumulated the last couple weeks, mainly at the Victoria Fibre Fest.  I haven't bought yarn in months, but have been somewhat obsessed by pretty fibre.

After the spinning nirvana I experienced spinning the silk/romney blend I showed you in the last post, I was most interested in finding more similar fibre from Hummingbird Fibre Arts.  I was not disappointed, and brought three pretty rovings home with me.  The first two are a BFL/silk blend, while the third is superwash:

Knotty by Nature is a new business that is hoping to open a storefront in the Victoria area.  Stephanie and Ryan are a super nice couple, and I really hope they succeed.  The Victoria Fibre Fest was I believe there first outing.  I picked up a gorgeous Falkland Roving from them:

Another new to me Fibre business and new to the fibre fest this year is Twist of Fate, recently moved from Alberta to Kamloops BC (which coincidentally is where I graduated from high school).  From their booth, I picked out this bright and cheery fibre:

Looking at the pictures of the last two rovings, they look quite similar, but are not in real life.  The Knotty by Nature is a bit more subdued, while the Twist of Fate is very bright and vibrant.

And there are my Fibre Fest purchases for 2008.  I showed some restraint, feeling guilty about my big wheel purchase the previous day.  In retrospect though, I wish I had bought more fibre!

Here's a couple non Fibre Fest purchases to finish off this post.  First, this pretty braid from Yummy Yarns:

And this pretty BFL from Fleece Artist:

Well I'd best get to spinning now.  Problem is, I can't decide which fibre to break into.  There may be more in my stash that I haven't shown you yet, I honestly don't recall what I have blogged about (although all but today's has been inventoried on my Ravelry stash page) and there just might be still more on the way.  I am so weak!!!

Basking in the afterglow

After waking early the last few days due to excitement and anticipation, I was really looking forward to sleeping in today.  That never did happen, because my mind is still busy re-living the most wonderful weekend in Victoria at the Fibre Fest.  I almost opted out of this year's event, but am so glad that I didn't.  It was a fabulous weekend filled with friends, fiber, and fun.  Fiber people really are the best, and I almost feel bad that non fiber people don't get to experience this!

I arrived in Victoria for a late dim sum lunch, one of my favourite things.  I then set off on foot to wonder around downtown.  It was a warm sunny day, and there is nothing nicer than Victoria on a nice day.  Soon it was time to go check in at the hotel, in anticipation of the arrival of Uli and family.  Later Uli and I set off for the weekend's kickoff event, a fashion show.

On Saturday we combined kid friendly activities for Uli's family, with our need to find spinning and fiber supplies.  We headed out to Sidney, and eventually found ourselves at Honeysuckle Fibre Arts.  Honeysuckle is owned by Diane Cross, who is a very lovely and knowledgeable spinner and weaver.  Her studio is located in the front of her home, which is surrounded by the most beautiful gardens.  I wish I'd thought to take a picture.  While there, two other Ravelers came into the studio, and we kept running into them throughout the weekend.  Always neat to meet other fiber enthusiasts and realize that we had already "met" online!

I had in my mind that I would like to get another wheel this weekend.  I love my Louet S71, however am finding that it has some limitations.  Well at Honeysuckle, I met and fell in love with  a Lendrum DT Folding Wheel.  Almost immediately, while trying it out in the studio, I was able to spin thinner than on my Louet, with almost no effort.  After lots well really just a little bit of mulling, I decided to bring her home with me.

I already fired her up last night, and I think we will be very happy together.  I am going to keep my Louet, I still love her as well, and with her bigger bobbins, she will be a great plying wheel.

Saturday evening was a talk by renowned lace designer Sivia Harding.

I feel privileged to have met Sivia.  I learned that she has only been knitting for about seven years, yet she is one of the most amazing designers in the knitting world.  She is also modest and unassuming; truly a wonderful person.

Sunday was the biggest event of the weekend, the Market and Knit out at Saxe Point, a beautiful setting on the ocean:

The ocean made a lovely backdrop for Sivia and her Harbour Lights Shawl, designed especially for this event. 

I believe the pattern will be available for sale today on her website.  I'll edit this post with the link when it is up.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the vendor booths, however I was somewhat preoccupied by all the fibery goodness.  Here's one shot:

And yes, lots of fibery goodness came home with me!  It's going to take me a while to photograph it all, LOL!

And finally, I had no idea how cute llamas are:

Well I'd best get on with the day.  I'm off today, back to work tomorrow for what is going to be a crazy busy week both at work and personally.  I need to get some errands done today, and a nap just might be in order too.

Recap of Last Weekend

Other than the Harlot post, I've been quite negligent about talking about the wonderful weekend I had (already a week ago) at the Victoria Fibre Festival.

It started off with a Fashion Show Friday night.  The best part about this was being able to spend time with other knitters, especially Shelley, Megan and little Meika, who is definitely going to be an up and coming knitter.  She has to, it's in the genes, her Mom, Grandma and Great Grandma all knit!  The fashion show had it's high and low points, there was a little too much fun fur for my tastes.

Saturday morning found me trudging off in the rain to attend a spinning class.  It was awesome to meet a few other knit bloggers, Raven, Michelle and Chris.  We've all been in touch a little during this week, and Michelle and I are already making plans to meet up again when she visits my community in August.  The spinning class was excellent, and proved to be just the hands on instruction that I needed.  I'm happy to report that I just finished my first post class session with my spindle, and I'm very pleased with how it went.  Hopefully there will be lots more spinning content here, there has to be as you'll see when I show you shortly the roving that I purchased!

Following the spinning class, Raven and I grabbed a quick lunch in Chinatown (just up the street from the class) Raven went to a weaving class, and I headed out on my own for a mini yarn crawl.  In one of the stores, I spotted someone who looked familiar, and quickly realized that it was Lizz and her mother.  She recognized me right away too.  We've been reading each other's blogs for a few years now, so it was nice to finally meet.

I thought I showed great restraint on this little yarn crawl.  I was saving my money for the Knit Out the following day, so all I bought was this roving:

and this sock pattern.

Before long it was time to head to the ferry to pick up Uli (great seeing you again, looking forward to seeing you and your family again next month!), back to the hotel, met up with Shelley and Megan and headed out to find the venue for the Yarn Harlot talk.  We parked the car, grabbed a quick supper, and then back to the Community Center to hear Stephanie.  It was so awesome when we walked into the gymnasium to find it full of people knitting:

Once again, it was great to connect with other knit bloggers.  Gina was behind me in the book signing line up, and I enjoyed chatting with her.  Sorry I didn't say goodbye, I got rather excited and distracted later!

Sunday was the Knit Out at Saxe Point Park.  Unfortunately, the weather left a little to be desired that day, but didn't stop me from some Stash Acquisition.  I bought some pretty superwash roving that is going to take me a LONG time to spin:

There's way more roving there than it appears in this picture.  If I do run out though, Hummingbird Fibre Arts is located in Nanaimo, not far from my parents' house.

The remainder of my weekend fibre purchases came from my favourite LYS, Fun Knits:

There's some Sweatermaker Roving, Tofutsies, Opal Feeling. Lorna's Laces, and Sweatermaker Island Hues Sock yarn.  This should keep me busy for a while!

Phew, this post has been a long time coming.  A direct result of the weekend was that I've been completely obsessed with knitting, crocheting, and spinning.  I chose to spend my week off doing those three things rather than blogging.  Today was a productive chore day, and now my final two days off I can get back to the Fiber, as well as some papercrafting that has a deadline attached.

And for now, better hit the pillow.  Thanks if you've made it this far, this ended up being quite the long post!

An Evening with the Harlot

I'm back from Victoria, where I had the most awesome weekend.  I'm going to compose my thoughts in the next few days, but for now, wanted to post my very own pictures from my evening with the Yarn Harlot.  I am now one of many who have met Stephanie and heard her talk.  It was an awesome evening.  She is as friendly and approachable as everyone has said, just like most of us knitters are.

Here's the obligatory picture of my sock WIP at the event (if you squint you can see Stephanie):

Stephanie during her talk:

And me and Stephanie (I got to hold her sock, but forgot to have my own with me at that particular moment):

When I first met Stephanie, I told her that I had knit the Very Harlot Barbie Poncho a few years ago.  She said that she remembered it and had the picture on her desktop for a while.  I thought that was pretty neat.

We had excellent (second row center) seats for Stephanie's talk, because Fun Knits was the main sponsor of the Fibre Festival, and we were part of the Fun Knits Entourage.  That also garnered us an invitation to the after party at the Canoe Club.  And guess who drove Stephanie to the Club and back to her hotel?  Why, yours truly!  We had a blast at the Club, you can read more about it here.  Let's just say that the Knitters took over!

We will not however speak about the one little incident after the party where this tired driver became a little disoriented (not drunk, I didn't touch even one drop!), okay Stephanie, Shelley, Uli and Megan?

I'll be back in the next day or so to share more of my weekend with you.  Time to figure out something for dinner now.