Me time - Knitter's Frolic 2016

We all need “me” time. Mother or not, it’s healthy and revitalizing to carve out a time to indulge in one’s own interests. Be it reading, working out, meeting friends, sleeping, knitting, if you take this time to yourself, you will return rested and refueled. You may feel guilty about it, and I often do, but I have come to really understand how healthy it is to have this “me” time.

Last weekend, four of us piled into a minivan with a giant sheep sticker on the side and headed to Toronto for our annual visit to Knitter’s Frolic. Annual is an exaggeration, as it was only my second time attending, but I can see it becoming a yearly tradition. (I blogged about my first time at Frolic here)

It was a knit and wool filled weekend, with chats, planning, laughs and a few glasses of wine. I had a blast, and it flew by!

We arrived a day early and our friend Jen took us to Romni Wools. I spent an hour walking around the store in a daze, picking up skeins and whining the whole time that I had no idea what to choose. In the end I left without having bought anything. Sad, but true. My indecisiveness continued the next day at Frolic. 

I found the Marketplace overwhelming. Maybe because I went in without a plan. Who has not felt disoriented when faced with booths and booths of yarn. Oh, SO MUCH YARN! Am I the only one? 

In the end I forced myself to make a decision, and ended up with a kit to make the Sashiko Cowl, 2 skeins of Sweet Georgia, that I am earmarking for Rheinlust by Melanie Berg and a lovely project bag from Sweet Fiber.  

In the afternoon we had signed up for a class with Bristol Ivy. A class on knitting on the bias, which turned out to be much easier than I thought. I found Bristol to be an incredibly confident and lovely teacher. The class felt like a sit-down with friends, we chatted, we knit, we experimented and learned something new. Perfection, right?

When knitters get together

As you know, I am a mom. A mom of 2, whose son is quite the sporty type. We have soccer, swimming, hockey, power-skating lessons... it busy, very busy. And as my daughter grows, it's only going to get worse. So finding a day when my schedule is clear is no easy feat. But it worked, for myself and my knitterly friends. We all cleared a Saturday, and gathered at Lilian's place for an afternoon of ....yarn-dyeing.

Lily and I took a workshop together a few years ago, and since then we've been hooked. And sadly enough it's taken us this long to get organized and meet to do it again. This time around however we wanted to try something a little different. Instead of acid dyes we used natural, plant-based ones. 

We had tea, onion peel, pomegranate, turmeric and cabbage. These were not our snacks, but our dyes. It was fascinating to see everyone's imagination take flight and experiments turn out. 

My inspiration came from a few evenings before, when I was having snack and tried to sneak in a few paragraphs from one of my favourite books. The colour I was hoping for is  a pastel yellow-pink-orange colour, and as you can see, it turned out pretty well. I used a combination of pomegranate dye, and onion peel.

It was so much fun! I came home with my mind buzzing with ideas, and thoughts and questions... I looked up articles and plants, and I am going to try this again. For sure! As soon as I can clear my schedule again! Hopefully it will be sooner then a couple of years from now.

As a side note, red cabbage is not a good choice... I guess there is a reason it does not come up as an example when researching natural yarn dyeing. It smells...

Knitter's Frolic

I recently had the best weekend getaway! 

Picture this: road trip with a girlfriend, uninterrupted knitting time, pedicures, wine and fantastic talks with like-minded people, a wool-festival aptly named “Knitter’s Frolic” and workshops filled with an amazing wealth of information, all new and exciting.

This adventure has been in the works for a while. Robyn, aka knitpurlmama and I had originally planned to go to Rhinebeck, a couple of years ago, but that never turned into reality. Still, we kept the dream alive and finally decided on Toronto’s Knitter’s Frolic. We met up with another wonderfully crafty friend, Jen of Spinnerknits.

I was so busy having fun that I did not even pull out my camera. I do have a few Instagram shots to share though.

Besides the overwhelming amount of yarn, I immensely enjoyed the 2 workshops I took. The first one was with Sivia Harding, who makes these incredible knits adorned with beads. I learned a tremendous amount from her and I cannot wait to experiment more.

The second workshop was with Kate Atherley whose enthusiasm for brioche stitch is contagious! Oh, the possibilities!! So many new things! So little time!!

I came home with what I consider a modest yarn haul, and I am currently obsessively researching and planning stages of upcoming projects.

Now that I’ve gotten a taste of yarn shows/festivals, I would love to check out more! 

Sivia Harding and I

Kate Atherley and I 

Knit-night

Something wonderful happened this week. I made some new friends! And not just any kind of friends, but knit and yarn obsessed friends!

Let me tell you how this came about. A friend of mine, a non-knitter that patiently listens to me prattle on and on about my projects, noticed a group of knitters sitting at Starbucks. She decided that they looked friendly enough to approach, so she went up to them and inquired about the possibility of adding a new member to their group. As knitters are indeed a very friendly bunch, they of course said the more the merrier and gave my friend their contact details.

After being embarrassed at first, I had to admit that I was thrilled at the idea of having my own knitting posse! So I sent out a message and went to my first knit-night yesterday!

I had a blast. They are the most welcoming group of people. We had coffee, and chatted knits, kids and obsessions, I could have stayed for hours!

I cannot wait for the next meeting.