In which I go to Fibrations 2012

....and forget to bring my camera - FAIL!

BUT, I had a great time, hanging out with my sister-in-law and also my friend Melissa from MisoCraftyKnits. Fibrations 2012 was once again held on the St. Ann's Academy grounds in their beautiful orchard. I must say, I was really impressed with the number of booths; quite a few Bees were representing as vendors (Emma from Everything Old and Linz, who I'm not sure if she has a website, but is one of the fastest crochetters I know!). I also finally got to meet in person Rebecca from Nook, and her lovely handknit monsters (I so need to pick one of those up for Z for Christmas!), as well as Shannon from Luv in the Mommyhood fame ;). I met Jane of Jane Richmond patterns, though not for the first time as I met her a few years ago at the once annual Victoria Fiber Fest, which is now no-longer running (hence Fibrations). Oh, how I wish I had my camera with my today to snap photos of everyone's great booths! Jane had this great line hanging above her booth with all of her pattern cards attached and fluttering in the breeze, it looked great! Plus she had all of her patterns on cards kindof how you would see a paint sample deck, with the bare details (ie yarn requirements, etc) on the back... genius idea!

One of my favorite finds this year was Kattikloo Fibre Studio which my friend Melissa pointed out to me. Oh my goodness, what beautiful yarn she had on display. I was immediately drawn to this gray merino mulberry silk lace blend. It's tonal variegation was stunning going from a soft light dove gray to a darker graphite. I squished it with my hand and it felt cool to the touch. Turned out it had just been dyed last night and was still drying! You can't get much fresher than that! I bought a skein (over 800yds at $20, what a steal!), my friend Carol bought another, and when we swung by the booth only 45 minutes later the other two skeins were gone! Popular colourway indeed! Kattikloo also had stunning felted silk scarves. I would have loved to have purchased one, but I had to draw the spending line somewhere! Fiona Duthie (the artisan of Kattikloo) was very lovely. I'm so glad I got to meet her and enjoy her beautiful creations!

So, that was today. Yesterday the hubster and I (and Z) trucked it to home depot to get supplies for a little home improvement project. HD was disappointing, so we went instead to Lumberworld and were very impressed with their selection (and their customer service... plus I've been told that they're locally owned, so let's support them!). What did we buy? Well, our gutters have been failing at the corners (ah, homeownership), so we needed some caulking to fix those. We also needed another downspout as we only have one for the entire stretch of the back of the house. We also decided to buy a rain barrel to tie the new downspout into! So, with no more further ado, meet our new rain barrel!

 
Any name suggestions? And, of course, it wouldn't be a true update without a snapshot of my tomato plants. We're just starting to get some ripe ones (though hubby gobbles them up pretty quick!)