Spin In 2012

Every first Tuesday of October the Warkworth Handweavers and Spinners sponsor a Spin In in Campbellford at St. John's United Church hall.  I have attended a couple of times before and got there again this year accompanied by my knitterly friend, Donna, who knits while we Whitby Spinners spin on Monday nights and Cheryl (of Campkin's of Wellingborough Tea House fame).

There were rows and rows of spinners. We numbered 95 in all. I called this row "Lendrum Way" as there are 5 Lendrum wheels in a row (the slanty ones) and 2 Ashford Joys and a Majacraft Little Gem in the foreground.

On the periphery of the church hall were the vendors. For example, Dyeing for Colour and

,

Harvest Hastings with their lovely squishy batts. I bought two last year and they were a dream to spin up.

And this was Fullin' Woolens' table.

There were lots of yummy baked treats, coffee and tea ready for our arrival. We had lamb burgers for lunch. Then there were lots of door prizes. All the vendors donated an item for door prizes as well as some local businesses (butter tart store). And I won $83.50 in the 50/50 draw! Lucky me!

Donna and I posed for a blogworthy photo.

I put a cropped version as my Facebook profile photo and one of my former students asked, "What's at your feet? You look so happy!!". LOL.

Paula, Joan and Mayah represented the Kawartha Handweavers and Spinners Guild (of which I am an honourary member).

This is some of what I got accomplished. It's from the "Evening Sparkle" silk/alpaca/merino/qiviut roving I bought at the Belfast Mini-mill when I was in PEI a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be sparkly loveliness when I'm finished. :-) 

Next year the Spin In will occur on Tuesday, October 1, 2013. I already have it on my calendar. Hopefully I'll be able to make it. And hopefully, they'll have room for us all.

Yesterday, I spent a delightful few hours at Jennifer's. We both started knitting Swallowtail Shawls and she fed me lunch. Oh yes, I teach knitting for food (and pretty much anything else worthwhile).  This pattern was the very first lace knitting I ever did. I remember having to wait 'til Skip was out of the house, and turning off the TV and putting the cat in another part of the house so I could concentrate. The lace pattern is actually quite easy - only 3 rows of pattern alternating with a wrong-side purl rows. And once one has done a few repeats, it is really easy to read the knitting. There is one trick about this shawl, however. The border pattern doesn't flow naturally from the lace in the body of the shawl and will only work out correctly after 14 repeats, for a small shawl, or 19 repeats, for a large shawl. Anyway, we got ours started and I think I'd finished 9 repeats last night while watching TV.

Back at home, I've been excavating my messy office so the sofabed can be used this weekend for out-of-town visitors from NY state. Tomorrow I will do the cleaning, dusting and vacuuming. It's Thanksgiving weekend here in the Great White North and I'll be roasting a turkey with all the trimmings for Sunday dinner. Yesterday I made the cranberry sauce - my first time ever from scratch. I knew it was easy to make but had never taken the 10 minutes to do it. It is going to be SO yummy at dinner on Sunday (if I do say so myself - ha ha). I'm also going to bake a pumpkin pie and maybe some cookies, too.

This evening I grafted the toe of the second Practice Makes Perfect IV sock. Identical twins!!! I winged the first sock, knitting the cable pattern from memory and by eye. Then I used it as a model for completing the second sock. This Kaffe Fassett yarn is so neat for this type of pattern.

I wasn't really in a hurry to wear them as today the temperature was about 22C and I reveled in being able to wear shorts and a t-shirt. I don't mind the crisp, sunny, autumn days but when we get a bonus, late summer-like day like today, it's great! I got three loads of laundry done and on the line by 10:30. Mmmm, I love the smell of line-dried sheets, towels and clothes.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone!