bright sides at knit city

so much from my fall plea.

it was a dreary weekend.

the light from the autumn leaves almost made up for it. 

but the rain would just not let up.

 

yesterday, however, the wife and i journeyed three bus rides from my home to east vancouver to attend knit city, vancouver's first fibre festival.

walking into the knit city venue was immediately pulse-quickening. all that yarn. some of my imaginary blogger and ravelry friends. all in one place. i almost didn't know what to do with my terminally shy, excitable self.

some of the offerings were just incredible. frankly, i was a bit too overstimulated to take photos of everything properly.

thank goodness for the wife, who kept both my personality disorder and my spending habits, in check.

i did take a photo how ribbons of lace are made using bobbins of fine thread. (dude, some people still make this stuff by hand!)

just check out this detail! 

here's the wife trying the basic lace bobbin stitch (assisted by one of our neighbours at the co-op who is rather proficient at the craft).

i also happened to make make real friends with three of my imaginary friends - truly kind and awesomely talented folk that i'm very likely to keep in touch with.

that's rebecca of nook, shannon from luvinthemommyhood, and 

me - minus my lovely wife and knitwear designer jane richmond (i have knit quite a few of her lovely, very wearable patterns!). (there is a pic of that includes my dear wife over at luvinthemommyhood. thanks shannon!)

the wife even tried on one of jane's samples and promptly ordered that i knit her this very sweater! (there is more jane richmond knitting in my future, to be sure. much more. she and shannon wrote a book together. and it was sold out by the time i got there.)

i made out of there with only 3 skeins of yarn to sample. (now i know i'm not supposed to be buying yarn. but one of these skeins is for a gift, the other two... i can't order online. so there.) more on those later. and i bought a book! 

i also took a class on knitting colourwork with kate atherley - which was honestly more than a bit of a revelation on how these things are done. she was fabulous.

needless to say, after wringing myself out of excess rainwater from the commute back home, i'm finding myself recharged, inspired, and even humbled by the many laps i made around the festival floor .

there's so much more to learn. so much more i want to knit. so much more i want to share, right here, with friends - new and old, and of course, with my loves.

and with this lovely image from my knit city walking coffee break, i wish you a fabulous week and a happy monday - whether or not your own city skies are behaving like a perpetually leaky faucet.