MIA – have you seen Sanna's parcel?

My KTW4 pal Sanna in Finland, hasn’t received her parcel yet. I am mortified as I received her wonderful parcel over two weeks ago! And true to my Canadian birthright, I am so sorry right, down to the bottom of my toes.

I don’t get it. When I choose the method of delivery, I was told 12-14 days. Seemed very reasonable. But here we are almost 4 weeks later, and still nothing! And every week I call Canada Post and I get the same answer – they tell me no tracking can commence before the parcel has been MIA for 6 weeks! That’s ridiculous! It will be only a few weeks before Christmas before we know if it is truly lost.

In the meantime, TAFK (Tuesdays Are For Knitting) crew got together last night, and our intrepid newbie out-did herself by soloing out before hand and finding herself some more newbie friendly yarn and cute bamboo needles, and voila!, some seriously good gauge and scarf mileage was achieved! The birth of a real knitter – someone who isn’t afraid to buy more yarn and rip out work that’s not up to snuff - ain’t it grand to see!

Our annual Christmas party plans are in full swing – invitations are done and almost all delivered, and the outdoor Christmas lights are up. Food sourcing is complete, and the new couch has arrived! Looking good!

And I forgot to tell you all about my wonderful Saturday last weekend with the intrepid Heidi Pivnik! How could I forget to tell you, I don’t know!! It hasn’t escaped my mind since, and I frequently think back to some aspect if the class that pops into my head.

Sometimes when things go wrong it turns out to be so very right! Such is the case with my Into The Dye Pot class that was to have been held at Algonquin College a few weeks back. Sadly, although we tried hard, we could not make the facilities co-operate with us; specifically we blew the electrical in 3 classrooms with our die pots and had to call it a day.

In the true spirit of sharing her craft with everyone who was interested, Heidi invited the students for a make-up class at her home studio (sorry no pictures – I was so busy yakking and dyeing, that I forgot to pull out my camera!). Are you kidding me? The chance to get to see an artist’s home studio doesn’t come every day so you better believe I was there!

Heidi has convinced me that home dyeing textiles is easy stuff, although a good eye for color is a bonus. A few simple instructions on how to prepare the different dyes and adding different kinds of mordant (to help the textiles take and hold the dyes) and an electric hot pot and you are in business! We tried several different dye techniques for very different results – dip dyeing, over-dying, casserole dyeing. One of the best things about textile dyeing - there is no right or wrong, and sometimes there can be happy accidents, besides intended results.

It was wonderful to spend the day immersed in discussions of color and fibre and the various hobbies we all do. We even got to take a crack at hooking on Heidi’s rug frame – not as easy as she makes it look, but I enjoyed trying it. I can see why it is very addictive, but I won’t be adding any new hobbies any time soon. Although I had the urge to hook a Mary Poppins “carpet” bag using the rug hooking technique we were shown. Why a “carpet” bag? To hold my knitting of course!

So there you are.

Knit on….