Monday, April 18, 2011

Friday's Festival

My favourite thing about retirement is that I no longer need to set the alarm clock.  In my previous life, the work week had two kinds of  awakenings:  The Monday to Friday early,  jangling start and the more relaxed, 'wake when you want to' weekend.

Now, however, the occasional day when the alarm   is set means a special day -  something fun, some special activity,  a day trip.  Friday was one of those days.  At 6 am,  I jumped up at the first jangle because   Nicki, Sharon, Wilma and I were heading to the Creative Festival in Toronto.

Only having been to the Creative Festival  once before,  I remembered it as not a  knitter-specific show.  There were many crafts  featured, but I'm not a crafter, I am a Knitter.  Hoping things had changed, I was anxious to go again.

They haven't.  With only three yarn vendors -  Mary Maxim, Black Sheep & Ewe and Unwind - it's still not a knitters festival.  Dire circumstances for us, but we managed.    Unwind, the shop familiar to Sharon, was our first stop.  There I purchased  two skeins of Americo Cotton Flamme 

with intentions to use it for Amiga, Mags Kandis new pattern in the spring Knitty.

Also on my list was yarn  to knit Afternoon Breezes, a new pattern by Ilga Leja, which I had downloaded just last week.  Once back home, I realized that in my size, both patterns take the same amount of yarn.  At the moment, I am not sure which pattern I will knit in the Flamme.   Probably Afternoon Breezes.

We were soon done with the 'non-knitters'  festival and one of the group suggested we visit the Unwind store in Newmarket.  Nicki, our accommodating driver drove the extra  70K with no complaints.  After all, a yarn store awaited.  The store is lovely. Lots and lots of yarn.  We were able to give a big yarny sigh of relief - our yarny longings were satisfied. 

A great day and an excellent reason to get up to the sound of the alarm.

3 comments:

Sel and Poivre said...

I was at a dinner last fall and the woman who owns/runs that show was at our table. I tried to get a seat beside her so I could pepper our dinner conversation with "information" for her on why she should up the knitting content. Luckily (for her) I ended up on the other side of the table.

I too have tried to give that show another "chance" from a knitter's perspective and come away sorely disappointed. Oh well, good thing the DKC Knitter's frolic is only a couple of weeks away!

Laurie said...

Such a change from years ago when I used to make special trips to Toronto to buy my favorite things - Gordon Lightfoot records and Phildar yarn. Glad you got to have a good yarn shop experience even if the festival was a flop.

Sandra said...

wish I'd known! I was working at home on Firday and could have made the sort trip up to Newmarket to meet you!