TTC Knit-a-Long...Ghoulishly Late Post

Of course I braved the soggy, cold Saturday so I could lead a group of knitters into yarn nirvana. Who wouldn't right? Katherine and I co-captaining the East Team was a lot of fun, and dare I say, I'd do it again! Mostly because the East Team totally rawked the house. I'm not kidding!

9:00am was the meeting time, and Pam's Coffee & Tea was the meeting place. I tend to ALWAYS be late to things, since I haven't had to go to a workplace in say... ummmm... a year, so I planned to leave my house twenty minutes earlier than I really needed. I've very glad I did because with all the flopping around I did before I left I ended up at Pam's at 8:57am. Christina and Rochelle were already talking up a storm about knitting related things and I was happy that I didn't have to sit at the café by myself. (Note: I normally like to sit in cafés by myself. That day I was chomping at the bit to s-h-o-p.) With the weather I was a wee bit concerned of no-shows, but luckily people's love of yarn was stronger than their hate of the weather, and we only were short 4 peeps when we walked the few doors down to The Naked Sheep. What a sight it was to see my team in TNS:

Okaaay, so I'm apologizing now for the absolute craptitude of my photography during this KAL. I'm mea culpa-ing now! I *knowingly* brought a old, tired and broken Canon A60 digital camera because I was too stingy with space to carry my Nikon D70. People, I wanted that space for yaaaaaarn. But now I'm sad because I have few pictures. At The Naked Sheep I bought 8 balls of Noro Silk Garden in colourway #245 for the Tithe sweater designed by Jane Ellison.

After the The Naked Sheep, we took the longest part of our commute which required us to take a bus then subway then streetcar to Romni Wools. Surprisingly we didn't get any weird looks or scare folks away. I guess that's kinda comforting. Although I am remembering a few blank stares on the subway, but we were riding the subway and I think if you ride the subway it is required that you perfect a blank stare otherwise no monthy pass for you. I think it's stated in the TTC Ride Guide. Here we are waiting for the bus:

Meet my team (from left to right):Cristina, Rochelle, Nadia, Mary Pat, Michelle, Christina and Melinda. Katherine, Lisa and I were huddling under the bus shelter to keep dry. Since it was the Saturday before Halloween we were "encouraged" to wear costumes, however the weather encouraged most not to wear a costume. Lisa, who by the way came allllll the way from Vancouver AND bought the most yarn out of all participants AND won a beautiful African mud dyed backpack to carry her haul in, ended up winning the "best costume" four our team.

No joke! She was the most dressed up! Her sign says "Will work for alpaca."

Romni was as always wonderful and overwhelming at the same time. We had two peeps join our team there, Carla and Tara. Even just adding two people made the team seem larger. Especially when we hit the Second Cup for a quick breather. We took over, yo! Thanks for joining our team Carla and Tara! Sorry I don't have any pictures of you because I basically stopped taking photos before we walked into Romni because my camera was broken and I was sad. To see some of the photos that didn't turn out too blurry or too broken, check out my flickr. At Romni I bought 14 balls of Noro Silk Garden in colourway #47 for the Fitzgerald sweater (also designed by Jane Ellison) for my Sweetie Pie.

Once everyone had a chance to take a deeeep breath, we all realized we were hungry. Nadia suggested The Queenshead Pub we dove in as fast as possible. What a great suggestion! The barkeep was awesome and didn't get all pissy when she saw our large group, although she did warn us she had only one cook so it would take some time. It did take LOTS of time, but the food was great (at least on our part of the table, forgot to check in with the other side). Since it took so long to get our food, we did get lots of knitting done but we ended up having to skip the bead store and a new yarn/luxury pillow (wuh?!) store and had to run to Lettuce Knit as both the North and West Teams were already done and were waiting for us at the Red Room. Ack!

So off we ran (Ok, we didn't run. We took a short streetcar ride. You get my drift.), feeling a little tired from the combo of food coma and yarn overdose. However, that feeling didn't stop me from buying two balls of Mission Falls 1824 Wool in Curry to make da' bear in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts and a skein of Misti Alpaca Worsted in a funky green/gold colourway to make arm warmers for my Sweetie Pie (not to mention the scarf for the bear) from the same book. Thanks for the alpaca recommendation, Nadia!

All three teams converged at the Red Room for yarn fondling, prizes and bevvies. Sophie once again amazed we with her yarn purchases and Sandi blew my mind her amazing KNITTED Elvis wig.

My haul (a recap): 22(!) balls of Noro Silk Garden, 2 balls of Mission Falls 1824 Wool and 1 skein of Misti Alpaca Worsted. Whew!

And of course, a knit-a-long wouldn't be complete without a knitted item to knit a long. This is what I was working on:

A simple garter stitch wrap for a friend who's having a baby and lives in Huntington Beach (not LA), California. Surprisingly enough, the yarn is 90% acrylic. Perfect to throw in the wash after your baby spits up on you. The bear is for her baby which is due in February and will be able to be thrown in the wash too. And my friend Keri, who couldn't make the KAL, created this little yarn cozy that you see in the pic to test out. I was able to avoid the same knitting disaster I had last year.

Hey East Team Rawkers! If you have a blog and you want me to link to it just leave me a comment and I will update the post. Also if anyone knows how to photoshare with flickr to blogger, please let me know. I'm tired of uploading my pics to my ftp site.

The End.