Knit City 2012 - Vancouver, BC

I had the opportunity to go to Knit City yesterday and I'm glad that I did.  I'm also glad that I only made one impulse purchase as there were many, many things that I was tempted to buy.

A few highlights...

As one of my newest dreams is to raise alpacas, start spinning, and eventually open my own yarn store, I really enjoyed the opportunity to try my hand at spinning!  Harmonique Spinning Wheels and Looms had some wheels set up and staff there to give you a mini lesson.  I probably could have stayed there all day...but moved onto the needle felting demonstration.

I believe that the needle felting table was sponsored by Baaad Ana's.  At this table, I made a needle felted owl (and some holes in my finger), free of charge.

I was amazed by the felted masks at the Soul Fibre booth.  You must go to her Facebook page and check out her photos.  The masks blew me away.

Tin Can Knits had the Pacific Knits and 9 Months of Knitting books and samples on display.  I have to say that I think owning the Pacific Knits book my be in my future.  I have been admiring the Antler Cardigan as it's been appearing at the top of my Ravelry patterns page for the last couple of weeks.  It's even more wonderful in person...and the wonderfulness was doubled by the fact that the sample was knit in Madelinetosh Vintage.  I also have my eye on the Low Tide Cardigan, Campfire, and Urban Hiker patterns from that book.  The patterns are written in sizes for toddlers to adults, which is an added bonus.

Of course, a booth full of Sweet Georgia Yarns is always a good thing and it took a lot of willpower on my part to not walk out of that booth with a bag full of yarn.

On to what I DID buy.  I went in with three patterns I wanted to buy yarn for.  I was able to find what I needed and only had one impulse buy, as I mentioned before.

I was on the hunt for some neutral-colored yarn to make the Winter Baby Boots in.  I found a colorway that I liked in superwash dk at the Sweet Georgia Yarns booth.  They only had one skein left and it was 50% off because it was a bit loosely spun.  You can see in the picture below how the weight of the yarn changes in a few areas.

The girls working there, as well as one of my expert knitting friends, said that it likely wouldn't show in the project I would be using it for.  I figured for 50% off it was worth the risk!

The next project needing yarn was the Baby Merry-Jane Booties.  I found some gorgeous baby alpaca/silk 4 ply and baby alpaca dk at the Pollika booth.

I am a complete sucker for baby alpaca yarn.  This is what led to my impulse buy...two skeins of chunky 100% baby alpaca in a beautiful pink color.  I knit the Burberry Inspired Cowl for my mother-in-law in similar yarn and decided that it would be a good idea to make one for myself in this new yarn.

Finally, I have been wanting to make Owlet for a while.  It's something I'd like to make in a toddler size and keep for my own 'collection'.  I picked up a skein of undyed Ecological Wool in shade 9004 by Cascade Yarns from the Valley Yarn Ltd. booth.

I also found out that Valley Yarn Ltd. is opening a retail store in December about 10 minutes from my house.  This could be a very good but dangerous thing.

I was very tempted to invest in some handspun yarn as there were quite few booths that had skeins calling my name.  However, I promised myself that I'd stick to getting only what I needed for the three projects I had chosen (considering my stash at home is a little bit out of hand).  I'll be sure to put some handspun on my list of things I'm allowed to buy next year.


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