There will be no knitting in this post

Well, I've been back from Toronto for days now, but somehow taking a weekend off from schoolwork and TA duties has left me playing catch-up this week. Ah, but it was worth it. What a wonderful weekend of relaxing with friends and being a lazy bum. It was just what I needed. Glenna has posted some photos from our adventures. Silly me forgot my camera at home (WHAT was I thinking?!)

I have knitting to show, but I haven't managed to photograph it yet. I finished the back of hubby's cabled sweater on the train ride home, and have knit about three inches of the front. I need to do a little tweaking of the pattern to make the arms fit the armholes, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

The highlights of the weekend for me were getting to know some new yarns, petting lots of fiber at Romni, and making some decisions about stash - spoken like a true knit geek! Actually, the highlight was probably bloating ourselves on dim sum in Chinatown, but who's keeping track?

So, I don't have too many fun photos of weekend frolicking, but I do have a little of the haul to show. Actually, this is the whole haul. I was a very good girl and actually stuck to my plan. And besides, I couldn't find Lantern Moon dpn's in the size I want!

My very first skeins of Lorna's Laces. The colourway is called "Bucks Bar". Lettuce Knit had a whole bunch of Lorna's, so it was so hard to just pick one! I may not get around to knitting this for a while, but in the meantime, I can take them out and pet them every now and again. This was my essential, can't-get-it-in-Ottawa purchase.

At Romni Wools, I discovered that they have a whole basement room full of fiber, so I got to poke and squeeze bags of wool, camel down, raw silk, and all kinds of other delights. A lot of it was way out of my price range, but I found it really great to be able to see what the different kinds of wool are like so that if I mail order in future, I'll have some idea of what I'm getting, and I'll know what to avoid. Who'd have known that Icelandic sheep have coats that feel like plastic easter grass? How do they not make themselves itch?! I bought myself a pound of roving. The brown on the left is fine Shetland, and the white is Corriedale. (I really wanted to try out Corriedale because it seems soft and really easy to fine on eBay. It I like knitting and spinning it, and it takes dye well, there may just be a lot more of it in my future.) Romni was great because they have absolutely everything. I got to see and feel all of those yarns that I read about, but have never met in person. Ah, the Rowan, the Debbie Bliss, the incredibly soft alpaca/silk blends. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. And I didn't buy a single skein - I bought unspun wool instead ;) But honestly, it was a bit overwhelming. I wouldn't be able to just go there and browse for a project. I'd have to have a very good idea of what I wanted going in, or you'd lose me for a week.

We made a return trip to Lettuce Knit where I picked up this little bundle of handpainted merino roving. I keep hearing that merino is the softest but hardest to spin, so I figured that a little 60 gram bundle should be enough to satisfy my curiosity for now. It's sort of something to aspire to.

In keeping with the spinning theme, this is what I've accomplished over the last couple of weeks in my spare minutes at home. Remember the blue faced leicester slivers I got for Christmas? The beautiful, handpainted ones from Fleece Artist? Here's one of them spun into singles...

... and here's the finished product. 100 grams (about 125 m) of 2-ply, approzimately DK weight. The colour is pretty true on the photo below. I'm so happy with how this turned out. I think I'm finally getting the hang of spinning a consistant thicknesss. And it's just so soft. I think this is destined to become a short little Argosy. I think the subtle colour changes will work well with that pattern.

And the big decisions of the weekend? My single skein of Misti Alpaca is going to become a Swallowtail shawl, and also, Glenna's recent scarf has inspired me to use up some more of my worsted wool stash in a stripey lengthways garter-stitch scarf. Simple but warm. And now my must-knit list is growing at a disturbing rate!

Back to knitting content next time, I promise!