I was expecting my visa to arrive on Saturday because I got a text from the delivery folk telling me as such. What I wasn't expecting was for the doorbell to go at 11am and to be presented with a huge bouquet of lilies and roses! It was a bit of an apology from Ollie for not reading the small print on our flights, and was well received!
And then the door went again!
I went to a little craft-y fair at the Grammar School today, I popped in on a bit of a whim and hadn't really thought to get any money out before I went in. This turned out to be both a good thing and very, very annoying. I spent £9 on 300g of something that seems to be a super-bulky weight and is made of silk/merino/alpaca. I honestly tried to walk away, but it was just too darn nice.
While putting these three hanks away in my stash box I realised how far I'd come in terms of my choice of knitting materials. My old stash used to look like this:
It all used to fit in that boot box in fact! Then I went to Baa Ram Ewe for an afternoon, and this happened:
And I somehow managed to add a Cath Kidston knitting bag to it all.I now have to store my wool in one large Ikea box and my notions and printed out patterns live in one half the size, thus:
I've also added an awful lot of knitting books to that one, solitary Debbie Bliss book. I love me some Mason-Dixon knitting...Instead of the large balls of violently red acrylic, I've started investing some money in the wool I buy. I love knitting, and a large part of that is down to the fact that I'm quite a tactile person. You can show me the nicest, most delicate jumper in the world, but if I don't like the way it feels, forget it. I love the way different wools can feel quite luxurious but completely different depending on what they're made of. I love the warmth and almost animal fur quality of alpaca and the loft and softness of mohair. The sheen of silk is something else and I'm often found stroking the sleeves of my cashmere jumper. I love the feel of it and the smell of it too. I defy anyone to hold a ball or hank of something lovely and not hold it to their nose and take a big sniff. I know it drives wool shop owners mental, so I restrain myself to the wool I have at home!
So, pictures! My stash is nowhere near as impressive as some of the others online that I coo over on a regular basis. I only buy wool in small lots or when I have a project in mind, but this is all going to change in about a week. India is proving to be quite awesome when it comes to luxury wools, but because of the cost of living being so much lower it's ludicrously cheap. 25g of Kidsilk Haze, a laceweight wool, costs around £7-8 for 25g, in India, 25g of pure mohair costs 40p. That's not a typo, it costs around the price of a chocolate bar rather than a cinema ticket. Enough pure silk yarn to make a jumper would cost you £100 easily in the UK, the custom dyed silk that I've ordered from Mint Fabrics in Bangalore is going to cost me £20. I have a feeling that an extra suitcase is going to be needed, and I haven't even thought about the sari silk and beautiful fabrics yet!
The silk/alpaca/merino mix, the sheen on it from the silk is very delicate, and it has a lovely alpaca halo (the floof-factor). It's undyed and I haven't decided if I actually want to dye it at all. This is going to be a Reversible Cabled Scarf for me, I think. It's a super-quick knit, which I might get started on today!
More super-bulky weight 100% baby alpaca. I don't know what this is going to be yet, it might end up being pet wool! It's a lot smokier/sagier than this in real life and SO SOFT!
100% lambswool DK that I bought at Woolfest in June. This is going to make my first lace shawl!
This might end up being a cowl, though I'm considering a crochet shawl instead. Also from Woolfest.
The lovely Jess gave me 4 balls of kid mohair, that I haven't yet decided what to do with. It might be nice to use as an edging for a cardigan, or possible be held double on something stripey to give it a nice halo.
The remains of my Rowan yarns, the red is Felted Tweed DK, the pink is Pure Wool DK and the green is Cocoon. The pink is most of a ball that I have no clue what to do with, the red will become a Jaques Cousteau hat for Ollie to match his Knucks once my extra ball of Felted Tweed arrives. Last but not least, the Cocoon is going to be a slouchy beret called the Weekender Beret.
I would love to make something out of these two, the blue is actually more teal in real life and goes so nicely with the red/pink. I'd like to try colour work using these two and think they'd be soft enough for a hat.
I made quite a lot of bunting for Rafferty (the dark and light blue) and Sacha (the raspberry and pink) for their Christmas presents (which I forgot about until now!) and still have heaps of the stuff left! I think it might be quite good fun to make some more bunting out of all of them, would be quite nice for BBQ's/birthdays/just because!
This has a definite future. It's 15 balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky to be turned into a jumper which has clever little cabled owls along the yoke. I thought this was going to be my first jumper, but I cast on something else that's actually wearable first!
Yeah, it's Kidsilk Haze/Cracksilk Haze. 5 balls of silky, mohair-y, floofy LOVELINESS! And it's going to be a long line cardigan soon, hopefully!
This is one of my favourite thing ever. It's Artesano Aran which is a 50/50 alpaca/wool mix and is so soft. The colour is far, far richer in person and I spent a good 10 minutes in K1 Yarns in Edinburgh dithering over buying it (it's not cheap!). I'm glad I did. I'll be fashioning another slouchy beret effort from it while I'm in India so I'll be toasty warm when I get home!
Not directly knitting related, but these are some of my favourite things. They're antique buttons I bought on a total whim at Woolfest. We we just having a last walk round before we got on the bus home, when shiny things caught our eyes! L-R Victorian glass, 1950's plastic, 1880's dyed pressed horn, 1940's mock tortoiseshell. The last ones are going on my Cracksilk Haze cardigan!Phew!
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