Thursday, May 01, 2008

Fun at the Knitter's Frolic

Saturday, April 26, was the Big Day. My friend, Barb, and I ventured down to Toronto to partake of the delights of the Knitter's Frolic at the Japanese Cultural Centre. As always, it was a delightful day.

Barb and I agreed that we would go around the entire show before we bought anything. Yeah, right. We've all heard that one before. I CAN say, however, that Barb had the first falling down. She claims it is my fault--that I shouldn't have left her alone with the wool fumes. All I can say is this: at our ages, one would think that one of us could visit the facilities by herself and leave the other one to behave herself.

Turns out that I have a major weakness for sock yarns. As if I didn't already know that ... in any event, when sock yarns are available at better-than-wholesale-prices, one should indulge. Especially if the offspring enjoyed receiving hand-knit socks for Christmas last year. I scored one ball of Regia--that's the yellowish one in the upper left corner. (Sorry about the German site.) Then there are three balls of Super Soxx from Lang & Co. Followed by three balls of wool from Lana Grossa. I can feel a little bit of difference in the wools just by handling them, but I suspect they will all knit up in a very satisfactory manner. (Sorry about the lack of links for Super Soxx and Lana Grossa. Just not having a good internet day.)

Having satisfied the sock cravings of the offspring and spouse, I continued to browse. Until I found --
Socks That Rock in the colourway called Calico from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I've heard about this yarn, but never knit with it. So I decided that I should rectify that oversight.

The coup de grace was the Arequipa from Estelle. This is 65% superwash wool, 20% alpaca and 15% nylon. All I can say is this: It feels heavenly. I'm going to make toe-up socks for myself out of this ... toes-up so that I can use every last little bit available. After I spend more time fondling -- I mean -- petting the wool.

(Doug is jealous as he thinks this wool should become HIS socks. I am sticking with my original intention to make socks for ME from this. He can learn to knit his own socks and get his own special wool!)

So much for being the mature one, eh?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm so jealous! I'm dying to try Socks That Rock but I haven't run across any in my travels. I love alpaca too. I think you deserve to make socks for yourself. I'm having trouble holding on to the socks and mitts I've been knitting lately.