1000 yards/1000 grams...

Of pure Alpaca!

That's what I won at the DKC last night in the monthly raffle!

Its Eco Pure Alpaca and its pure, undyed softness in a skein - well actually 10 skeins!

They read out the number, I gasped and held out my ticket, they called me up! And I never ever ever win anything! Truly, I buy tickets to just support the DKC! I was so surprised I had won that when they asked me to write my name on the back of the winning ticket I started to write my maiden name instead of the married name I've been sporting for the past couple of decades or so.

Then at the end of the meeting, when a woman came up and asked me if I was the one who had won the Alpaca yarn. My instant assumption was that there had been an error - they had checked the tickets and she was there to inform me that I must relinquish the prize. But instead she went on to explain she was the representative of Estelle Yarns who had donated the yarn. She gave me her card and told me she wanted to make sure I was happy with the colourway and so if I wanted, she would change the colour for another of my choosing. The prize pack is "Cocoa" but I'm thinking I might take her up on her kind offer and make a switch for "Silver".

I'm headed for Romni tomorrow morning and I understand they carry the yarn (honestly, what doesn't Romni carry?) so I'm going to check out the colours in person and make a decision.

Now you might think the meeting experience for me was downhill from there but it really wasn't...the Twist presentation Fiona Ellis managed with Kate Gilbert live via Skype from Montreal combined with the fashion show of Twist garments was terrific. There must have been 50 items in the show - including socks and mittens carried by the models as they simultaneously showed off many, many utterly fabulous sweaters.

It was interesting both to see the garments in person but also to see them on real live people. I crawl through each edition of Twist quite thoroughly so I was pretty familiar with everything they showed but I was shocked at how different they looked on people other than the models in the on line shots. I only wished the models had moved their bodies less, adopted a few more static poses and walked around the room a bit more slowly to allow us to get a better view of the knitting itself. But I'm splitting hairs here - it was a great show and I'm glad I got to see it!.

As usual the room was packed, needles throughout the audience were clicking and it was a great night all around. (And I'm not just saying that because I won 1000 yards/1000 grams of Pure Alpaca Yarn!)

Oh and I also found a zipper that will work on the Fair Isle cardigan - It'll be in the FO column by next week for sure! Thanks for dropping by!