the Soxophone Player

The Toronto One of a Kind Christmas Show had a competition for artisans to enter their rendition of ‘a teapot’.  People can cast a ballot for their favourite and the winner is announced later in the show. Kind of a neat idea.

(I didn’t enter. There are only two conditions under which I will enter any competition…)

Here are two of my personal favourites:

The Red one is, I think, a pillow – fabric based at any rate. But what is really interesting is the ‘tea’  – all of which is buttons.

The display of teapots is very interesting – many real teapots by potters and glass makers, but also felt work and other fibres, painting, metal work… every conceivable medium. I took lots of photos but the wireless internet at my hotel is slower than dial up and I haven’t been able to upload them all yet.

I admit that I was quite nervous about applying to this show – the grande dame of craft shows. And in the few days prior to the show I was at the point of breathing into a paper bag.

However, within minutes of the show opening my breathing returned to normal and I settled into the realization that it is just another craft show.  Bigger? Holy sh*t – the aisles add up to 8 km of artisans.

8 km!

But just another craft show.  And I’m blessed again to have great neighbours and to be meeting many new ‘sock folks’ and knitters.

My booth is set up and ready to go.  I’ve got tubs of socks under the table ready to add, and stacks of tubs in my section of a storage room.

It was hard to decide what inventory to put out first.

Some of everything?

Lots of a few things?

In the end, I decided to open with ‘the big guns’: Kogiu Mori, Koigu KPPPM, Lorna’s Laces, and Qiviut,  backed up with my sock scarves and knee socks and a selection of sport socks in heather wool/nylon, black wool/mohair, and fawn wool/alpaca.

Let the games begin.

Egad.

I didn’t think I’d arrive in the big smoke alive today. The fog was as thick as pea soup and I could barely see two car lengths ahead of me for most of the drive down.

I guess between 6 air bags and a bazillion socks I was pretty safe in the event of a crash, but it’s not a nice way to start a show.

I had to wait a few hours in the ‘marshalling yard’  when I arrived. I had booked Valet Unloading. You’d think that would be quick, but it was not!

But eventually my stuff was delivered by forklift on two skids to my booth:

Two skids of socks.

!

!!

!!!

Ay karumba, where to begin? (!)

In the beginning, I guess.

Here’s the booth of my other neighbour at Fair November 2009.

Gary and his son Nick make bread, cheese, and cutting boards. Gary told me his striped designs were inspired by his many years in the men’s clothing industry, where striped shirts and socks were amongst his favourites.  And what’s really neat, to me, is that he doesn’t do any staining at all. The stripes are all achieved by using different species of wood.

Saturday night, the last overnight in Guelph, Gary and Nick and I went to Moxey’s for dinner and had a great time feasting on something other than a burger or sandwich.

Yesterday, Sunday, the show wrapped up.  DS and GK2 came to Guelph for the final day of the show and helped me pack and load the truck and I was home before midnight. Usually I unload the truck right away when I get home from a show, but I was truly bagged, so I left if for this morning.

And now I’ve re-packed the truck for the next show…..it will be early to bed and off on the road again early in the morning.

I was going to tell you how many pairs of socks fit into 20 large rubbermade tubs plus 14  half size tubs.

But you wouldn’t believe me.

H*ll, I don’t believe it myself!

The truck loaded up pretty quick for this gig.  This chore seems to get easier as the shows go by. I hope I didn’t forget anything.

Jesse knew I was going away. He also knew he wasn’t going with me. He gets along with his sitter really well and I know she treats him like family, so I’m sure he’ll be fine. But it really tugs at my heart strings to see him knowing he’s not being included in an outing.

A few hours and seven construction zones later I checked into my suite (thankfully with complimentary high speed) and headed over to the University for the show.

Here is my booth set up. I’m pleased that I’m on the main floor this year instead of the lower level. The lower level isn’t ‘basementy’, as it has very high ceilings in the ball room, but it is hot hot hot down there for some reason. Last year I had trouble keeping my eyes open!

My neighbour on one side this year was also my neighbour last year…

Tracy makes the most scrumptious wine jellies and some amazing exotic syrups and mmmmmm apple butter.

Now I know what I forgot to pack. My mouse. It’s taking me forever to blog with the touch pad on the laptop!

More later…

Today I’m heading to Guelph, Ontario for the Fair November craft show that runs at the University of Guelph from tomorrow, Thursday, through Sunday.

I’m taking my laptop and will see if I can find a wifi signal in my hotel to blog. Otherwise….later.

I don’t crochet.

I don’t even knit. (Well, many have told me what I do with the sock machine isn’t really knitting.)

DW does crochet. And I’m pretty sure she’ll like this book:

I had the pleasure of meeting Kathy Merrick, and her book,  at Koigu. She was visiting there for a few days.

I don’t meet a lot of designers. Or book writers. And so it was interesting to meet Kathy, and to look at her book.

The same warm yet vibrant personality was evident in both.

I guess its the same thing as people and their dogs.

(Yeah, I know, Jesse is white haired, scruffy, and lays around all day!)

If you are reading this post, chances are high that you are – like I am  – an addict.

Addicted to yarn.

Really addicted to sock yarn.

Of all the things to which one could be addicted, I suppose yarn is one of the least harmful substances. I mean, unless you start blowing the grocery and heat money on yarn. Although you could argue that with good yarn, you won’t need heat.

I wonder how many yarn addicts sneak out of the house late at night to feed their stash under cover of darkness and away from the prying eyes of loved ones. And I wonder how many carefully pry up floor boards to high secret purchases of art yarns.

I wonder if there are strange characters in trench coats hanging around on street corners after all the shops have closed…ready to make a quick sale of hand painted cashmere blends from the stash neatly arranged on the inside linings of their trench coats.

I wonder how many yarn shops are thinking about running a graveyard shift.

But addictions are addictions, and step one is admitting it.

So I decided to seek help for my addiction, and with Jesse in the truck for moral support, I headed out to seek help.

Oops. Wrong turn!

Um. May just as well pick up a few things while I’m there.

So where was I… oh yes….

Step One…

It was the best of times.

It was the worst of times.

It was knitting Lorna’s Laces Sherpherd Sock , Watercolor.

I’ve always been partial to Lorna’s Laces, and I love the colours  in this edition, but ay karumba, what a difficult job to crank this baby. I thought I was going to snap the handle off my sock machine.

The yarn is deliciously soft, as you would expect from Lorna’s, but the dyes must be very, very dense as this sucker did not want to stretch enough to form a stitch. And yet the sock itself has the same natural stretch as any other colourway. I think Beth should rename this one to Paradox.

As difficult as it was to crank this yarn, at least the gauge was consistent… no thick n’ thin (like Noro).

Normally I will back off my tension for a stiff yarn, but you can only back it off so far before your stitches turn into Jumbo’s and you end up with a baggy sock.

So I knit this just a quarter turn looser than my normal tension and ended up with a great pair of socks, and a bonus cardio workout knitting them.

I would knit this again willingly. I only point out the stiffness as a point of caution to newbies.

I’m curious…do you dpn folks find  dense dye make a difference to your knitting’s?

I found a stash drawer I’d forgotten about, with ends of Regia Silk, so I put them to use in knitting some more sock scarves.

Regia Silk is 55% Merino 20% Silk and 25% Nylon, and runs the typical 220 yds/50 grams.

I love this yarn but Regia doesn’t seem to care for it….the colourways were few and I haven’t seen any new releases of the Silk Sock Yarn in a couple of years.

For that matter, Regia seems to be getting scarce in Canada. They dropped Diamond Yarns as their Canadian distributor, apparently to self distribute, but I’m uncertain of how this all ended up. (If anyone knows who/where is distributing in Canada please pass it along!)