Ya, Ya, New Yarn

...and new yarn store.
I visited Toronto's newest yarn establishment on Thursday. Lindenhof Farm has opened a storefront at 102 Ossington Ave., among the galleries and wine making depots.
The yarn is beautiful to look at, particularly as it's homegrown. Yet, this is serious wool lover country. No sea silk and etcetera. Sweaters, hats and socks reign here. The natural stuff really shines. Wools and alpacas, undyed and untampered with. Glorious!


I bought this beautiful, lace weight, undyed white alpaca. Here's the "funny", yet annoying part of the tale. It's a small store and I was the only customer at the time. I was happily chatting with the nice lady and suddenly, it occurred to me that I simply must buy something. I felt obligated. This due to the fact that I was there and she was there and therefore....
I can be silly that way.

Regardless. I left with one seriously beautiful skein of yarn which is enough to make the Qiviuk Webs Scarf from Interweave.

It Has Begun

It turns out that I can do this...it's just extremely difficult...well, for me anyway. Pick up and purl? Puhl-eese!! Could we invent anything more awkward? Wait. Maybe that's just me again.

Sure looks pretty though...

I did hit a major snag. When I laid out the skein for winding, I discovered about 6 to 8 clean cuts in the yarn along both sides. I don't recall them being there before, but I wasn't looking for damage. It's as if the skein was sliced partway through, maybe by a box cutter when opening the original shipment? Just guessing. Anyway, I had to perform a lot of grafting to get the yarn ready for knitting. There are still some weak spots. I'm concerned.

Entrelac In The Round?

I've recently purchased Interweave's Holiday Gifts 2007. What an improvement over 2006! I am seriously in love with the issue.
I think my next project will have to be Sandy Beadle's Annetrelac Socks. Of course, I've never knit entrelac before so why not attempt it on tiny needles and in the round?
I've been waiting for the perfect project to come along for the beautiful Fleece Artist sock yarn Canknitian gifted me last summer. This is it.

Sunday Pink

We went a'visitin for Thanksgiving. This was the only pink ribbon I tied on Sunday because the rest of the day was spent either at the Toronto Coach Terminal (which honestly has nothing worth marking), on a bus, or out of town.

Ribbon Project Summary

So what did I get out of this? What was the point? Looking at the project Flickr page tells me that the point was different for everybody - and that in itself may have been the whole idea.

Personally, I decided to tie the whole experiment into my personal therapeutic work. Being present in my life and noticing the world around me has been my project for the last year or so. "Be curious," my therapist says. She also says "Get out of your fucking head!" I love that I pay her to talk to me this way.

I also wanted to make my part in this Toronto specific. This city where I live, that has kicked my ass around the block repeatedly lately. I've been here twenty years now and TO seems to be getting harsher, more crowded, ruder and so much more expensive. The streets are dirtier, the air harder to breathe and housing is ridiculously inflated. The highschool situation is just plain scary. I've been considering leaving.

I need to believe that goodness and beauty still exist. So I set out to notice it, even if it was very small, and to mark it. Thus I found that if one stops and looks a little differently, there are a few small reasons for delight.

Saturday Purple

Took the bus to Madeleines, one of my favourite coffee shops.

Friday Yellow

Thursday Green

Didn't have any green ribbon. Used yarn. You understand.

A "cute" story:

While I was taking the shot of the steps at Glenholme. I laughingly shouted "Smile!" to the boys at the top. One of them mumbled something back that included the words "stupid bitch".

"Hey," I said to the Daughter, "The art just swore at me."

Wednesday Red

Tuesday Orange

Ribbon Project: Monday Blue