The Day After

Yesterday I went into The Big City to attend the Yarn Harlot's book launch at the Isabel Bader Theatre at Victoria College University of Toronto. I thought I'd make a day of it and do some yarn shopping first and also work in some exercise. I walked from Union Station to Romni Wools on Queen St. W., a 3 km walk according to Google Maps. While there I bought some beautiful Noro sock yarn and a ball of Regia Galaxy yarn. The Regia yarn supposedly knits into rings that look like Saturn's rings. However, since I'm knitting a child's sock I'm using fewer stitches and the rings aren't quite working out. Oh well.

Here's my 'loot' including the autographed copy of Stephanie's new book.













There must have been 400 people at the book launch. It was a lot of fun being amongst so many enthusiastic knitters. Jean Waller, a former colleague, also retired, sat with me. I frequently run into her at knitting events in Toronto.

I found Stephanie's talk particularly interesting when she was speaking about various types of brain waves and how knitting is an activity that prompts a particular type of brain activity that is difficult to attain during most other daily activities. She also regaled us with her hilarious description of how she once ended up locked out of her hotel room in Calgary wearing nothing but a pair of powder blue panties with "Cowgirl" printed on the butt and the ensuing series of events which led to her getting back into her room.

I was fortunate enough to sit in the third row so my flash would work - somewhat. Here she is taking the picture of her sock and the audience which appears on her blog today.













And thanks to my 10x zoom:













In less than an hour I'm going to be going to my first 'spinning' class. No, I don't mean spinning yarn, I mean the exercise class where you pedal a stationary bike for 45 minutes. My goal is to get to the end any way I can. A former student, Chandra, talked me into it. My biggest concern is what my butt will feel like afterwards, not to mention my quads. I'm taking my gel seat. Stay tuned.