Fibre Spirit 2018
Hey guys! how’s everyone doing? The last couple of days I’ve been scrolling through Instagram and I realized, it’s that time of year again! The kiddo’s are heading back to school and all of the mommies are posting their back to school photos. This makes me super sad because I LITERALLY FINISHED SUMMER SCHOOL ON MONDAY! I have to cram a whole summer vacation into the next five days. FIVE! And I have to work three of those. Worst summer vakay ever.
In truth, my complaints are pretty half hearted. Next week I’m supposed to start school at York University after I randomly decided in the summer that I want to become a French teacher and I’m super excited to get started. Never mind that this morning I was scrolling through the George Brown College continuing education site perusing creative writing and photography classes. Let’s be real, idleness is not a thing I do. Five days off is probably as much as I can stand. One day soon my blog post is going to be a meditation on ‘can one person do all of the things they want to do in one lifetime’ and I’m going to invite you to weigh in. I don’t have the answer but that’s not stopping me from bounding from one thing to the other trying to make it all happen.
Moving on to more important things though! Last weekend Ashley and I were in Barrie at the first ever Fibre Spirit! We loved everything about this show! Ash had the brilliant idea of staying in Barrie on Friday night after set up so we wouldn’t be in a hurry on Saturday morning. When we checked in at the Comfort Inn we found out that the venue was immediately across the street from us which was awesome. We had our beds, a Tim Hortons and the venue all within a 100 metres of each other. Better than that, we showed up at the venue and were immediately greeted by a group of the most helpful volunteers ever! Their shirts all read ‘voluntolds’ which I totally loved but I felt like that was a serious misnomer. They were all super sweet and had us unpacked and in our spot in under 15 minutes. I looked at Ashley and had to ask if we’ve ever been unpacked that fast.
Our setup was more of a chill sesh with neither of us being in a particular hurry to get things done. Every once in a while a volunteer would check up on us to make sure we were ok and didn’t need anything. The show didn’t start until 10 am the next day so we went for a drive to explore the city, and get wine and food. Barrie people are apparently huge breakfast people because there was a different pancake house pretty much every couple of corners. After the fourth one that we passed I told Ashley that I think I found my tribe. Barrie people are clearly my people. Never mind that the city is so pretty. At one point we were coming down a hill on Essa Road as the sun had just set and you could see tons of pretty lights from the city. I think that was the real moment that I fell in love. I think Ash did too. The next day she asked someone what kind of fishing they’ve got there and they said all kinds so I think we’ve got a real shot of convincing my bro to move.
The show itself was an absolute blast. The crowd was fantastic and took both of us by surprise. We were both on our toes for most of the day but we still managed to each get a walk around to do a bit of shopping. Ashley and I generally try to hide our wallets but both of us caved. I knew I would when I realised on Friday that our neighbours were Bead FX. When I was a kid my dad used to crack jokes about how I would trade anything for beads which was my first realisation that value is a matter of perception. Anyhow, when I saw Pam Kearns working on a tapestry sampler bracelet I couldn’t help myself, I bought myself some new toys and took it back to show Ash who immediately asked me if I needed a new hobby. For the record, I’m always looking for a new hobby. Learning new hobbies is my actual hobby. Anyone in the GTA who’s interested, Pam is teaching a class on these gorgeous bracelets on September 27th from 5pm to 9pm. Click here for deets.
Ash and I also left the show with new knitting projects. Ash has been exploring her Scottish heritage and she bought this beautiful book called the Book of Haps. We both fell in love with a few shawls in that book but she finally settled on the Lang Ayre by Gudrun Johnston which she’s going to be casting on as soon as she’s finished her Free Your Fade. I, on the other hand, have finally embraced my love of the Find Your Fade shawl. I had previously resisted it for no other reasons than the time it would take me to finish and actually committing to a colour scheme which was the hardest decision ever. I’ve taken more time to decide on the colour scheme for this shawl than it took to commit the next four years of my life to a Bachelor of Education degree. In the end I think these are the colours I’ve decided to go with. Let me know what you think.
So that’s it for this week. Next week I’ll be preparing to make my way down to Ottawa for the Almonte Fibre Festival which is always special to us because it was our very first show ever. This year will be our fifth year there and it feels like we`ve hit an awesome milestone! Until we speak again, PEACE to you and yours and happy knitting!