Tuesday 15 September 2009

New goods

Last April when I came home from the Frolic I was depressed because I had purposefully not purchased yarn before going, assuming that I was going to have so much to look at and pick up while I was there, but in the end I came home with nothing because I had no time to shop! I was determined not to make the same mistake twice and made sure that I came home with a lovely selection of purchases.

Some purchases were planned, I knew I wanted to pick up the Fall issue of Knitscene and the new Brooklyn Tweed book. I knew I wanted to find some Koigu and add it to my stash because I thought that it was about time that I knit with such a famous and popular yarn. I bought 3 mill ends in 3 different but beautifully coordinating colourways adding up to 118g, enough to make a really great shawl. Cookie A's Sock Innovation book is one that I've been eyeing for a while, and it was right by the cash when I was buying my Koigu yarn so I decided that it must be a sign that I had to have it.

I picked up 2 kits from Pick Up Sticks, the one on the left in the photo above that includes a pattern for the Ulmus Shawl and 2 skeins of Malabrigo sock, and the one on the bottom which has a pattern for the Tongues of Fire stole and 2 gorgeous skeins of Hand maiden Sea Silk in rich coppery tones. Directly above the Sea Silk are 3 skeins of Classic Elite Fresco to knit the Beaumont Beanie from the Made in Brooklyn book (this yarn is so soft and lovely, this hat is going to be amazingly comfy!) Next to the Koigu on the right of the photo is a really cool skein of Lace merino by Ella rae, I don't have a project in mind for it yet, but think that it's just such a great colourway that I'll be able to make something really neat with it. I also came away with a bonus kit given to me by my booth neighbour Passioknit, a fingerless gloves kit containing two of the softest, lushest skeins of Miski baby llama yarn. I'm not sure that I'll make the gloves, because I don't really find them that practical, but I love the yarn!

I bought one more kit that isn't in the above photo because I've already cast on with it!


It's a kit for the coolest sparkly beret you've ever seen. I'll have it finished by tonight and will hopefully get some shots of it tomorrow. It's not the sort of thing that I usually knit, but I really love it.

And as if all that wasn't enough I came home to a really amazing treat waiting for me!

I wanted to join some sort of yarn of the month club, but I really don't need more yarn so it didn't seem like a very sensible thing to do. Then I thought that maybe I'd join a roving of the month club, but I dye my own roving too, so maybe that wasn't the best option. In the end I came up with the perfect club: Grafton Fibers Colourways Club, a batt of the month club! Since I don't make batts, it's perfectly reasonable. Since I joined in August I got the entire year up until now in one shipment, it's almost too much for my brain to process, so lovely and soft and fluffy, and such colours! It's so nice it's really running the risk of never being spun because I'm too afraid that I'll mess it up. I am so excited about the next 4 months of shipments!

I'm so happy to be sitting in my studio/yarn room surrounded by all my new lovely goodies! I haven't put any of it away yet, we're still honeymooning together, I like to leave it all out where I can see it and admire it, occasionally stop to pick it up and hug it if I feel like it...