Tempting Fate

Tonight is the first meeting of the season for the Downtown (Toronto) Knit Collective. An intermittent visitor the past couple of years, I thought I might buy a full membership this year and try to make the meeting each month.

Their meetings are held at the Downtown YMCA. The first time I went (to hear Fiona Elllis speak about her book "Inspired Cable Knits") I honestly expected to find a dozen or so knitters sitting in a circle chatting about yarn in some small meeting room. I couldn't have been more wrong. If you've ever seen one of the Yarn Harlot's sock shots of a huge banked auditorium filled with knitters - maybe 200 or so - that's what DKC meetings look like every month from September to June! (I wonder if the reason the Harlot is never featured on their list of speakers is the room won't hold the DKC regulars AND the crowd the Yarn Harlot would bring in!?)

The scheduled speaker tonight is Richard Ashford of Ashford Handicrafts from New Zealand. They make and sell spinning wheels and looms. This could be extremely dangerous - the last thing I need is another fibery activity but I'm going to be downtown early this evening anyway so I'm going to throw caution to the wind and go - after all they aren't selling his products there tonight (I hope!).

If you're a knitter from Toronto the DKC is a great starting place for getting out into the knitting community. I found it introduced me to a bunch of other knitting resources and activities. You can just pay as you go for each meeting ($5.00 at the door) so there isn't much invested if you don't find its for you.

Hopefully Mr. Ashford's presentation tonight convinces me that spinning and weaving aren't for me! ;)