And the Title Goes to

ME!!

Sorry for keeping you all in suspense, but I got in late last night and I don't think that I could have put together a coherent post.

It was a very good show (CSNF). I did my knitting time of 234 stitches in 3 minutes on Saturday morning, walked around the show and then hung out at the Knit Café hosted by the Downtown Knit Collective. There was a display of garments, accessories and art from DKC members and friends. There were tables and chairs for sitting, knitting and helping with knitting dilemmas and to share knitting knowledge. They also were providing free learn-to-knit lessons. Here is Jane (in the Noro) and Leslie aka The Knitting Therapist (with the Koigu shawl). These ladies are excellent Teachers and Knitting Ambassadors. They welcomed all comers and with encouragement and patience got them all off on the right needle. Everyone left with their free ball of yarn and confidence to go home and continue knitting on their own.
You ladies rocked!
SpongeBob had a blast and couldn't resist sneaking into a couple of the pics.
Joan (co-ordinator extraordinaire) and Jasmine (who is wearing a Rowan Birch shawl knit by Leslie). Joan is also a test/sample knitter so we talked some shop and exchanged experiences. I felt privileged to be welcomed by these skilled and enthusiastic knitters.

A special shout-out here to Joan for the pass on Sunday. Ada & I appreciated your generosity and the money saved was appropriately invested in yarn futures (stash).

The afternoon flew by in the company of new friends who cheered my success when it was announced that I had won the fastest knitter of the day.
Ada came down to the show with me on Sunday (I crashed at her place to save some driving time & distance). I have had no greater source of support ond consolation over the last couple of years than Ada and she was convinced that this was my year. I was more cautiously hopeful, never underestimating Linda or the possibility of an unknown knitter coming in and blowing us both away.
We had no problem finding distraction though - I bought Sally's new Color book (shame on XRX for taking out the "u" in Colour - Sally's Canadian, eh!) and Mryna Stahman's Shawls & Scarves from The Needle Arts Book Shop, a couple of interesting focal beads from Beads of Colour, seed beads for a shawl from That Bead Lady and some Eucalan and blocking wires (because I still haven't found mine since the move). Ada did just fine too - but I won't tell on her. What happens at the CSNF stays at the CSNF.
We met Wendy Mortimer (no link, but a skilled designer and knitter) with Lily Chin who was doing a mini workshop on knitting with beads.
And Fiona Ellis. The sweater behind us is from her soon-to-be-released book. This sweater was knit by Joan. I have a sweater in the book too. I knit one of sweaters that is in Fiona's book. Joan and I were joking around that we were both hoping to have the one that we knit on the cover. The choice was out of Fionas' hands - next time take the bribes before you tell us that Fiona - and it turns out that the cover sweater is one that she knit herself. Next time Joan!
And yes, I was grinning like the village idiot. I really admire these people and was thrilled that they would take the time to indulge me.
The end of the day finally came and my knitting time from Saturday was sufficient to take the Fastest Knitter title. Linda was at the booth when it was announced. and we tried to be adversarial. This picture says it all. We don't see each other much - I stop by her store if I'm in the area. We bring out the fastest in each other once a year, but I wouldn't look forward to it if we couldn't laugh like that when it's all said and done. We also compared knitting styles - we have never really seen each other knit. Linda's needle tips move more but my hand makes a larger wrapping motion. She said that if we could just morph our styles that it would be unbeatable.
Thanks to all of my supporters - you know who you are, I don't want to make a huge list and then find out that I left a name out. And to Patons for starting this crazy train, the other prize sponsors (you can see them on the banner in the pic), and especially to Sarah and the other ladies who spent their days counting stitches.
Sarah encouraged everyone to have a go at the challenge and really emphasized having fun with it. The knitted strips are sewn together into blankets/throws for charity so everyone who participated in the competition helped out. Sarah is not short - Linda & I are freakishly tall.

I got quite a bit done on the Sunshine sock and on River. I opened Sandy's package with Ada and we love the yarn. The mints were a hit and that card was perfect - you couldn't even have known. It was worth saving and opening with a special friend.