Just For Fun

The ACRYLIC!! 'just for fun' kit I bought at the Knitters Fair on Saturday was a quick and easy two-hour knit. Perfect for lazy, Sunday evening knitting after a busy, busy weekend.

Without the 12mm needles called for, I subbed in 10mm and it seemed to work out nicely.

The pattern is a variation on the typical, triangular, garter stitch, dish-cloth- style shawlette. This pattern starts with 10 stitches. In Row 3, those stitches are doubled, then in row 5 they are increased by 33%. After that there is a increase at each end of every row.

You cast off when you run out of yarn or you can't stand it any longer. And my trick for a loose enough cast-off is to do a KF&B every tenth stitch in the row preceding the cast off row. This increases the stitch count by 10% making for a nice, loose, cast-off edge.

My ACRYLIC!! 'just for fun' shawlette is either a dust cloth

or

an artistic, stylish topper for my black coat.

Point of view matters.

Restraint

Great restraint was practised by 'yours truly' on Saturday at the Knitters Fair. Rather than my normal three or four sweaters worth of yarn, I came home with two balls of yarn a couple of patterns and some very knitterly stationery.

It wasn't that there was nothing that appealed. It wasn't that there was nothing affordable. It wasn't that I didn't have enough time. What restrained me was my full, yarn room -a room with three or four sweaters worth ahead of me - and a strong feeling not to become overwhelmed.

So, sadly, Canada's economy didn't get it's expected boast from Brenda at this year's fair. In fact, I doubt I even came close to cracking the $100 mark - my normal marker for taking a deep breath and slowing down down a bit.

But what I did get was pretty special. One ball of Kauni

and a pattern for the 'Holey' scarf.

Kauni is a yarn I have read and heard much about on blogs and ravelry. It isn't sold commonly in my neck of the woods, so when I saw the yarn and this glorious pattern, I knew it was time to lose my Kauni virginity. The pattern gives directions for four different scarf widths - the widest being more of a shawl. I'm thinking scarf width for myself and yes - this ball has all those colours in it that you see in the pattern.

From the sublime to the 'just for fun'. At Grand River Yarns, I bought this ball that came complete with a pattern for a little shawlette.

When our group met for lunch, Ingrid hauled two skeins of this same yarn & pattern out of her bag. In her delightful German accent she said
"Look what I bought. It's not wool. It's not Alpaca. It's not even cotton. It's ACRYLIC!! Can you believe I bought this?"

I hauled mine out of my bag and said - and " It was only $10."

Money sure does talk.


Tanis Fibre Arts was selling great knitters stationery.

I love this kind of thing and often send little notes to friends on stationery that speaks to my love of knitting. The colours on these cards, like the colours of Tanis' yarns, are gorgeous.

Part of the afternoon I spent at Glenna C's workshop on design. I've read Glenna's blog for some time now and it was great to meet her in person and hear her highly intelligent, focused approach to design.

All of that plus the great company on the drive, our picnic lunch, and a day surrounded by colour, fibre and creativity - what a day!

Exciting Times

Wow! Blogland and ravelry today are full of knitters - Glenna, Sandra, Deb and Nan to name a few - excited about tomorrow's visit to the Kitchener Waterloo Knitters Fair. Me too. Sandra says it marks the opening of knitting season for her. Indeed. Let the season begin!

As for knitting - the colour work on my 50th Anniversary cardigan is coming along.

I'm on row 31 of the 42 row yoke pattern and past the first decrease round. Two more decrease rounds in the last 11 rounds - so the speed should pick up considerably. It looks lovely - IMHO.