Fiber and Color

What a lovely couple of days. Yesterday was meet-up for spinning in the park, and yummy lunch stuff. I didn't bring my wheel, since I was coming from an errand beforehand, but I brought some knitting with handspun. Mittens in alpaca, in a nicely textured bubbly pattern.

We're getting a bit more formal in our park set-up. Drinks used to mean a thermos of whatever. But this time there was a portable Coleman stove, and a table, and all the fixings for tea and coffee. Wonderfully luxurious, really. And happily, the rain which was threatening held off, but there was enough breeze to keep cool by. Of course, then I didn't notice until I got home that I had a bit of a burn, and a funny one. Heavier on one side, and with the position of the necklace I was wearing clearly marked!

After a quick stop home to drop things mid-afternoon, I headed for Colonnade. Warehouse sale at Wool-Tyme, and I kinda found a few things. 

I have this little problem resisting pretty colors. All fingering-weight alpaca and alpaca blends, and my excuse is that they will turn into colorwork mittens for selling at craft fairs. Having done that damage, I met up with a friend and we did a flying tour to Brockville, as the Thousand Islands Guild was having a quilt show. I forgot the camera in the car, but there were so many pretty things, and we were so pressed for time, that I barely had time to see everything myself, and only glanced at the vendors. Really, the quilters are expanding their creative range as fast as the knitters - every time I see a quilt show there's new and interesting ideas to take in. 

Off again this morning to the annual Glebe Garage Sale. And oddly enough, the fiber and dyeing theme continued here, as I found three books on the topic.

 Casselman's dye book I've heard cited as a good one, the Weaving and Dyeing book looks intriguing, has the old recipes, and weaving patterns, so will be of interest to my mother as well, and Women's Work I had from the library and loved, so was thrilled to find a paperback copy. Besides my book pile, I found a few movies, but nothing big. I did, of course, get some edibles...lemonade from a kid's stand, a hot dog from the Scouts, and half a pound of homemade maple fudge by way of dessert. Really, the limiting factor for the Glebe sale is how long my feet will hold out. Otherwise I could really spend longer there, listening to bands and buskers, nibbling at various bake sales, seeing what treasures people have found, looking at the houses and landscaping...but as it was, I was very happy to get home, and put my feet up for a bit. 

Booty and Booties

I finally sat down and finished the felted baby booties I was making. Not that there was much left to do in any case – I just wanted to do a little ornamenting. I pulled out my felting needles and fiber, waited for inspiration, and ended up with little leaves on the toes. I’m debating whether the leaves should be bigger, but anyway, they’re cute.

In other news, Deb T and I hit the Glebe garage sale Saturday. Despite overcast skies and some early drizzle, there seems to have been a good turnout – it took half an hour to find a parking place, although that had the side benefit of seeing some lovely houses and gardens and parks. But park we did, and then the fun began. We poked through just about every place we saw (with me gravitating straight for any books in evidence), supported a few bake sales and the Scouts’ hot dog stand, and ran into some people we knew. Several hours and about five streets later it was late afternoon, most of the vendors were packing up, and we were quite ready to do the same. My haul for the day? A pile of books ranging from a mushroom field guide to old Nancy Drews, two videos, some sweets, and a dress.

The dress wasn’t a garage sale find per se – it was one of the vendors who sell Peruvian handcrafts and such. Providential, I call it – I have a wedding, a trip to Toronto with possibly dinner out, and Convocation in the next two weeks, and had just noted that the only dress in my wardrobe was the one my mother made for my high school grad ceremony. I keep it largely because she made it, and not because I intend to wear it again. I do have skirts, but most of them are a little more casual, broomstick types. Now to hope the weather will be such as permits a bare shoulder look.