Thou shalt covet......

I thought I'd share some of my recent finds with you. I defy anyone to resist the temptation!

First, this week's Posh Yarn update; available on the website from 8pm tomorrow (Sunday 27th February) If you see anything you want, make sure you visit the website a few minutes before 8pm and refresh your browser contunually because once the yarn is available it will sell out within minutes, often seconds! What's not to like? But you'll need to be very quick! I shall not be buying anything this week though for the simple reason of resisting the urge to buy yet more purple-related sock yarn!! Sometimes there are some beautifully multicoloured variegates in shades I absolutely drool over, but this week, although everything is beautiful, as usual, the skeins I covet the most are purple-based, and I have to use up some of the purple sock yarn I already have before I can justify buying yet more!

Incidentally, they have some free patterns; my favourite is the one for the Slip Up Socks.

Next, a fabulous MWK (Men Who Knit!) website, which I found while I was looking for video tutorials related to the Kromski Sonata spinning wheel; I am waiting for mine to be re-delivered (the saga continues in a moment....sigh!) and in the meantime looking at other people using theirs is the next best thing! So...I found this guy on You Tube, with a link to his site, Crafty Andy. He is a gay Californian who loves yarning, and he has a Sonata! I love him!!! His website has some lovely patterns for sale; mainly lace scarves/shawls and amazing hats! Really, there is something rather sweet about photos of a guy sitting with a Star Trek book, wearing a delicate lace shawl! I have every respect for guys who knit, spin and/or crochet and who aren't afraid to show off their stuff! So let's hear it for Crafty Andy!

My next discovery is this knitting pattern blog, Sonnentaler; it has these fantastic One hour Mitts pattern. It made me chuckle! It would actually take me about eight hours, even with chunky yarn, as the pattern recommends! Some people knit really fast, and some....er.....don't!! These mitts remind me a lot of the Toast wristwarmers (from A Friend to Knit With, one of my absolute favourite knitting blogs) which I knitted last year using some of my own handspun merino/alpaca/silk from - yes, yes, of course - Limegreenjelly. But these mitts - unlike the mitt version of Toast, Toasty - have a proper thumb (i.e. with a gussett). I'm going to use up some of my handspun merino/silk, holding two yarns together I think rather than actually plying; this is one of my favourite ways to knit bulky because you can change the colours as you go along.

I don't have a baby to knit for, but if I did I would have to knit this amazingly different little Kurbis hat in the shape of a pumpkin, also from Sonnentaler. Let's not forget, the Primavera socks I'm knitting in Dream in Color Knitosophy (in the Strength colourway) are also from Sonnentaler.

I've been browsing on Etsy again (oh no!!) I have plenty of plain, natural colour merino for practising spinning when my Kromski Sonata arrives, but in the meantime, I am perfectly within my rights to look at beautiful, handpainted OOAK luxury fibre! Here are a few of my favourites, in order of preference:

Spinning Awesome Good's BFL/Tussah in Kalypso is my first choice this week. I love the way they have arranged it, very attractive, and guaranteed to suck in helpless fibre addicts such as myself! Beautiful!

Then in second and third place come two amazing offerings from Cincinnati-based FiberOptic; both in pure 100% BFL, they are Ultraviolet (left) and Bramble. My fibre stash - unlike my sock yarn stash! - is somewhat depleted, so I do have justification to buy a few more braids. I've just bought some LGJ Merino/Camel/Silk from one of my Raveler friends, Mary from Folsom in California. Now, if the fibre's colour name Kiss rings a bell that's because the last thing I bought from LGJ was also Kiss, but in Merino/Baby Camel. When the one from California arrives (think how many miles it's travelled from Leonard-on-Sea to California, then back over the Pond to Newcastle....!) I'll photograph them side by side for comparison. I LOVE camel! It's really soft, and baby camel is so soft you can barely feel it!! I'm gonna spin spin spin when my wheel arrives, and may ply these with merino or Corriedale from Forest Fibres in one of their fabulous colours.

This brings me to my fourth place Fab Find this week, the epic-win bargain that is their Ashford Corriedale Sliver 5-Colour Pack 5 x 100g for £13.99!! The customer chooses the colours. This would be really useful to have for plying with my lovely LGJ fibre! As I remarked in a recent post, combining a handpainted fibre with a plain one can look amazing! I guess I would have to choose the Indigo, Chilli Pepper, a couple of purple shades, and one of the natural shades. If you're anything like me, you'll just like looking at all the lovely colours together.

Now to the ongoing saga of my eagerly awaited Kromski Sonata. I saw it listed on ebay and won the auction the next day - amazingly with my opening bid. The listing included a Kromski arched Lazy Kate, a large Kromski niddy noddy (which I have wanted for ages!), a pair of Ashford large hand carders (which I have always wanted to try out) and about 500g of various fibre. All for way less than I was going to pay for an Ashford Traveller alone! Anyway....the seller sent it by 24-hour courier on Wednesday and told me it would arrive by Friday. It did indeed, but when I was at work (despite the seller asking them to wait until after 3). So I phoned up and asked to have it delivered on Saturday but was told "We don't deliver on Saturdays, except for Saturday deliveries".....um, am I the only one who thinks this sounds a bit hard-of-thinking? It does look as if I'm not going to get it for another couple of days anyway. I might have to request Tuesday for delivery instead of Monday since I'll be off work and more likely to be at home when they come. Either way, I'm going to have two days to practise spinning, so I'll have to go to Waitrose tomorrow and stock up on microwave meals!

Right....I'm tired and need sleeeeep!! Watch this space.

2010: YEAR OF THE YARNIE

It has snowed non-stop on and off, if that isn't too much of a contradiction, for a week and the snow, where undisturbed, is about 20 cm deep! I have not seen snow like this since my childhood, when we would make bobsleigh runs in the tracks made by trucks going down the many hills leading off our road. While it looks beautiful, it is becoming a nuisance for people who have to drive in it. Joshua arrived home from college at lunchtime today and said they were closing it down because there were so few people turning up. His class was the largest today, with only 6 people! The cats have not even gone near the back or front doors! Thom was standing on the windowsill at the top of the stairs last night, up on his hind legs and trying to catch the falling snowflakes! Mostly he has, like the other two, spent his time at the windows or sleeping on the sheepskin rug on the sofa.

I have been extremely recalcitrant in my blogging of late and my new year's resolution (if I did resolutions, which I don't) is going to be to blog more regularly!

I have fallen into spinning in a big way! I have only just begun to achieve finer yarn and I am frustrated that I have to keep removing the small 'singles' from the spindle because they affect the spin after a bit. Having a spinning wheel will give me more control and consistency, and I will be able to spin the finer yarns I love so much! For the moment the spindle is okay for the chunkier yarns I want for Saartje items and the sock yarn weight I like for gloves, non-lace scarves etc. In fact I called one of my yarns' colours Saartje after her love of pink and purple.

I have named my hand spun yarn Spingle - yes it's a cross between Spangle, spin, and 'single' as well as being the cute name Saartje has for Spangle! The reason for calling a yarn after one of our cats? Well, obvious if you know her, but by way of explanation, the 'tops', pre-spinning, are soft and fluffy, just like Spangle's thick, luxuriant fur.

I am waiting for Amy's Rainbow and Shunklies to list more, but in the meantime I am more than happy with Lime Green Jelly. I have just received five lots of tops from there - yes, I know - decadent, but I had to sepnd my Christmas treat money on something and since I already had Lush and L'Occitane stuff aplenty, plus loads of new books, and I do not tend to buy general 'stuff' I decided that buying some merino would be three times the treat: once when it arrives and I get to look at it and feel it etc; once when I spin it and see the resulting yarn and then once when I have knitted it up into something truly unique and gorgeous. Also, someone else gets pleasure, not just me, because whoever I knit for gets a lovely (hopefully - ha ha!) hat or scarf or pair of gloves.

So.....these are my lovely treats:

Sweet Dreams (70% Merino/30% Tencel)

I Know where It's At (70/30 Merino/Tencel)

Edge of Heaven (100% 21 micron Merino)

A Fine Romance (50% Merino/30% Baby Alpaca/20% Silk)

Girl Talk (100% British Blue Faced Leicester)

Needless to say the BFL above is going into Saartje's Hat and mitts, and the Merino/Baby Alpaca/Silk is going to be made into a fine yarn to make myself a scarf and gloves.

Speaking of gloves, I finished two pairs of wristwarmers just before Christmas. One pair in Freedom Spirit for myself ....

......and the other for Schnatz in some gorgeous blue/purple/turquoise sock wool, the same as the ones worn by her favourite "Twilight/New Moon" character Alice. I got the pattern from here. Needless to say she is absolutely thrilled with them.

I have just begun knitting some "Jaywalker" socks for Nicola, in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino (shade: Winterberry) and just this evening cast on for some wristwarmers which Fiona has commissioned; I am knitting a basic wristwarmer/sock leg pattern from Knitty Fall '09 with an added thumb, using Fiona's choice of my suitable available yarns - Royal Platinum Alpaca (shade:Santa Fe Skies):

So....I have three W.I.P's left from 2009: Cold Mountain - shown as it has been knitted thus far;

Kernel (on back burner until Cold Mountain is finished and which, hopefully, I will finish in time to give to my schoonzus Ellen when I see her in early Spring/Easter); and the Catses' Blanket in Patons Inca. (Why was I going to type Sirdar Peru, which I have never had?!)

New Year was okay. Then on the 2nd Hev came round and we talked and drank some wine. On the 3rd - Sunday - I was making apple crumble and was a bit overzealous with the apple-chopping and ended up with enough apple for two crumbles, so I made an extra one for Hev and Keira and as soon as they were ready I ran round the corner to give it to them while it was still hot from the oven. I do love surprising people, and sharing my apple crumble!

Well I guess I've caught up to this week. Tomorrow - Thursday - is normally an easy day for me and I intend to have a lie-in and read some more of my book (Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts) then get up around 11 and wander down to the Garden to see the guys and find out what's what for next week's work. Then I'll spend the late afternoon/evening on Fiona's wristies. What a tough life, eh? Oh well!!

I'll end with this lovely photo of a mischievous little Saartje playing in the snow over in Leiden:

Tot ziens......