Monthly Archives: July 2010

Last week, Mr B had to make a business trip to Seattle. I armed him with lists of yarn shops that he could possibly visit if he had the time and he duly arrived home last Friday bearing gifts. Amongst which was a giant bag of American candy for the boys and a giant bag of yarn for me.

He’d visited Weaving Works which was happily very near his hotel and where he was apparently treated very nicely indeed. The alpaca is particularly scrummy. It’s from a local-to-the-store alpaca farm and comes from an alpaca names Krista. No idea what I’ll actually do with the yarn as it’s really the sort that needs an ultimate special project to make the most of it.

I think for those of you in the UK, the Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride yarns aren’t that unusual, but the Berocco Ultra Alpaca which is 50% alpaca/50% wool is the softest yarn imaginable. And continuing with the alpaca theme, the Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace is like a cloud. Each ball has around 400 metres, so enough for a little shawlette in each.

The colour selection was all his own, too! I deliberately didn’t suggest anything because I am awkward and I think he made some brilliant choices. I just need to find the time to knit it all.

Apparently the postal service is currently operating a new system where mail travels across the seas in a rocket. The July shipment of the Waterloo Wools Sock Yarn Club arrived on my doormat yesterday morning, just four days after it was posted in Canada.

And to tenuously bring this together, this month’s gorgeous, purple-infused colourway is called “Purple Peony” and is inspired by fireworks. As each colourway is inspired by a photo, I thought I’d also post the picture that inspired this month’s yarn:

IMG_9277, originally uploaded by lligett

The base yarn this month is 100% merino, so this is another yarn for the non-sock pile. The colours are so rich and warm that I’m already toying with the idea of an autumn shawl. And I know it’s still summer.

The only time I’ve ever bought any Wollmeise yarn is back before it suddenly became the most popular yarn in the universe and I could carefully choose a colour. I have tried to buy more since then, but I never manage to snag any when the shop is updated. Until last week…

I happened to randomly visit the shop after Rubbishknitter updated her blog with her lovely Wollmeise cardigan and there was one – one! – skein of 80/20 Twin left. No photo, but I didn’t care; I snapped it up before you could say unnecessary-yarn-buying-just-because-it’s-popular. I did notice that the name of the yarn was “Karotten” and though it’s a while since I took GCSE German, I don’t think it takes a genius to work out that it probably means “carrot” and I hate orange. But I was getting Wollmeise!

And then it arrived.

It is ORANGE. Not just a bit semi-solid which I could cope with but, very very very orange indeed and proud of it.

There is no way on Earth I will ever use this yarn. It smells wonderful and feels divine but I just can’t look at it. I could sell it on, perhaps, but instead I’d rather give it to someone who really wants it and will make something suitable with it.

So to win this very orange skein of yarn, please leave a comment saying what you would knit or crochet with it. The yarn will go to the person who has what I consider the best suggestion! Comments will close Sunday evening, around 9pm UK time.