One of the many things I love about the huge number of knitting blogs I read is that there is always new yarn to discover. And when I’m in the market for the perfect yarn for a design, my radar is going beep-beep-beep at the merest sniff of something fibre-related.

It was because of this that when Rubbishknitter linked to Skeins I was off ogling yarn like a madwoman. I’d been looking for a while for a yarn I’d had in my head. Something DK weight in a leafy sort of green. And voila!

This is their DK Shetland in Moss Cottage, which is soft and squishy and I can’t wait to start knitting with it.

Especially when it comes to manly socks. When I read on Rubbishknitter’s blog that Kemp’s had Regia sock yarn reduced to £1.20 a ball, I snapped up enough for a couple of pairs. This should keep me going for manly sock knitting for the next year, based on my current production rate.

The multicoloured yarn is self-striping, so will be nice mindless sock knitting for a bit. The other yarn, however, will need a pattern of some sort and I’m hoping inspiration will strike…

Five months late, but I finally spent my birthday yarn gift certificate at Stash today.

It’s been a very non-knitting sort of week due to the evil heat. I’ve spent most days in very little clothing with an electric fan wafting over me in an attempt to cool me down. So my Wimbledon knitting hasn’t progressed much further than the photos from last week. Fortunately, today was better and trekking into town wasn’t that bad and hopefully I can pick up the needles again now the temperature has dropped below 30 degrees, especially as I have new goodies!

I bought five squishy balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in a lovely rich cranberry red colour which is earmarked for a Pea Pod Baby Sweater (Ravelry link). I also bought a Dale of Norway baby pattern book for some steeking fun . You can see all the patterns in the book here. There are hats with ears, so it was kind of calling out to me!

I do maintain that I am trying to use only stash yarn at the moment to clear out some of the oddments that I have which are just right for baby-size knits. It makes good sense to save my yarn money for more important stuff like nappies and other useful baby paraphernalia, and I’d also like to be able to shut the lids on the plastic boxes which hold my stash… It’s not an ideal scheme: I still choose patterns according to what I want to knit rather than necessarily choosing them according to the yarn have in my stash, which means that I have bought the odd ball of yarn recently. But sometimes something that I did months ago will also cause my stash to increase…

Back in early February, I pre-ordered two skeins of Crystal Palace Mini Mochi from The Woolly Workshop. Not surprisingly, I’d half-forgotten about it over the following months but then it arrived on my doormat and I am smitten.

I chose the Neptune Rainbow colourway as I plan to use it for manly socks for Mr B’s spoilt feet. He approves of the colours, too, which means I can’t use that as a reason to knit socks for me instead, sadly. It’s a gorgeous blend of blues, greens and purples which are a lot brighter than the photo on the Crystal Palace website, and he so wouldn’t have chosen it for his socks until I started knitting them!

The yarn has a 20% nylon content which should mean it wears well and it feels wonderfully soft and is named after an actual cat which is just silly and I love it. It does seem to be slightly unevenly spun, but I like that. I know there are a lot of comments on Ravelry about it being prone to knots and splitty, but hopefully this being a new batch will mean my yarn is unaffected.

Once the Having Hope socks are done, these are the next manly socks in line. Though they’d make wonderful Wimbledon knitting in plain stocking stitch, which might mean a bit of queue jumping!

It feels like AGES since I bought some yarn. I think it was probably back in January, when I bought the New Lanark DK for my Deep V Argyle Vest. I still have the gift certificate for Stash which I got for my birthday and I must go and spend it!

Since deciding to wait and see what colour bump I was having before I started the Cabled Raglan Sweater, I’ve been itching to cast on for a larger baby project. I briefly considered knitting a shawl, and got as far as casting on before I realised that I really wasn’t going to use it and it was a big undertaking to then be put away in a drawer for evermore. Plus my grandma has my baby blanket needs covered already (knitting it in green so it’s nice and unisex!) so I went back to looking at cardigans.

Browsing the baby cardigans on Ravelry, I found so many cute versions of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Modular Tomten Jacket that I was won over. I have three versions of the actual pattern, though it apparently appears in about seven different places. I have a reproduction of the original newsletter pattern in The Opinionated Knitter, an updated version in Knitting without Tears and yet another version in Knitting Workshop. The pattern in TOK has the advantage of including notes by Meg Swansen. So the three combined are pretty much the “definitive” jacket!

The beauty of this jacket is that just using a different weight yarn and needles makes it come out to fit different people without changing stitch counts. In KWOT, EZ suggests using baby yarn for a newborn size, and looking through the finished ones, fingering/4ply seemed the way to go. I knew I wanted to knit one using a variegated yarn as the garter stitch is quite plain, and eventually after much umming and ahhing, I chose some yarn!

Kauni Effektgarn in the Rainbow (EQ) colourway. The swatch shows the colour variegation better than the photo of the actual ball; all the greens and blues are hidden inside. I got a whopping 160g ball, which should be plenty. I now need to find a nice coordinating yarn for the i-cord edging. Still debating whether to add buttons or a zip. Zips don’t scare me, but it’s such a hassle getting one as my local department store only stocks dress (closed end) zips – lovely range of colours and lengths, but all totally useless!

Either way, I won’t have to worry about that for a while. I’m just really looking forward to starting my first non-hat or sock baby knitting.

I’m the first person to admit that I am a bit of a fibre snob, but with the disadvantage of not wanting to spend money. The sweater quantities of yarn that I have are sale or eBay purchases or birthday presents. I’m not fussed about brand names or stuff like that; just that the yarn is lovely and has known the backside of a sheep or alpaca or other furry animal.

So I had some festive money left over from buying the New Lanark yarn and with a few projects in mind that used larger quantities of DK yarn than I had stashed, I started looking around just to see what was available. Which lead me to find Melandra Pure Wool DK from Woolshopdirect.

This is handwash only 100% wool. It’s considerably softer than the New Lanark yarn and after washing a swatch, it produced a lovely, even fabric. I’d say it was similar to King Cole Anti Tickle Merino or Stylecraft Pure Wool DK, except that they’re both superwash. Unfortunately, there’s no meterage given on the ball band, so I took the precaution of buying more than I’d need so there’s no danger of me running out. And how much is this yarn? £1.49 for 100g.

*waits for everyone to pick themselves off the floor*

So as I’d swatched, I figured I might as well cast on for something…

Can you tell what it is yet?

Although a vast proportion of my family generally ignore my obsession interest in yarn, sometimes they surprise me. I went to visit my grandma today, and was finally able to hand over her Christmas present of the Beth scarf (which she loved). While I was there, she gave me a bag of yarn which she had found at her local charity shop. Once upon a time she used to churn out sweaters for my little sister and me when we were both much younger, but now she sticks to knitting blankets for the local cat shelter, which means she scours the charity shops for the squeakiest acrylics she can find. But this yarn was too good for the cats so I got it.

Both yarns are so old that the weight is in ounces. Googling them has yielded nothing, which is unsurprising. The Hayfield Babykin is a very fine yarn, probably almong the lines of Patons Fairytale Dreamtime 2ply, though there’s no meterage (or yardage) given on the ball band. I’m guessing that I have a total of approximately 500 metres, which should be enough for a small shawl or scarf.

The other yarn, which is equally as enigmatic (or possibly more so, as I have at least heard of Hayfield), is marked as double knitting, though in reality, it’s more like a fingering/4ply yarn. It’s tweedy and rustic-looking and I think would make lovely mittens used with a dark blue yarn. Again, there’s no meterage on the ball bands, so it’s all guesswork, but there’s easily enough there for a couple of pairs of mitts.

I imagine these yarns were part of an elderly knitter’s stash and maybe like all of us do at some time, she bought the yarn because it was pretty and then put it away, never to be used. Hopefully I can do something with it at last.

Destined for something lacy… all will be revealed!

I did a Google image search for “winter warmers” and this was on the first page. I would LOVE to have a big fire like that right now. *shivers*

Anyway, there is a UK winter warmers swap starting shortly on the UK Swap blog. Signups close on 30th November, so there’s still time to join. I’m looking forward to taking part as the last swap I did was Sockapalooza 4, which is about 18 months ago now! I love all the cloak and dagger stuff with secret emails and cryptic messages. I am a very good stalker, which should probably worry me..!

I am trying to find a way to write this post without breaking my self-imposed rule about no festive knitting til November. But it seems ages since I had some yarn pr0n to share, so bum to that!

I’d been thinking what to make my Grandma for Christmas. She loves the Bertie scarf I made her a couple of Christmases ago, so I thought another snuggly scarf would be perfect. I have a few suitable patterns in my queue, and I was almost going to knit her a Lily of the Valley Estonian Lace Scarf but then Diane published her Beth pattern and like the fickle person I am, it was a case of must! knit! that! scarf! now!

I could have used some stash yarn, of course. But I wanted something soft and slightly fuzzy in a solid, Grandma-suitable colour. As I was sure nothing in my stash would do, I bought this:

Two balls of Angora 50 in sage green from The Little Knitting Company. It’s 50% angora, 30% wool and 20% nylon. The yarn is perfect as it has the softness and slight fuzz from the angora, but is a bit more substantial than pure angora yarns. The colour is nicely muted, too. Not that someone over eighty *can’t* wear shocking pink and luminous green, but I think my grandma is not the sort of person that *would* wear those colours. And the best part? It cost a measly £1.95 per 115m ball. No, the even better part was that the service from TLKC was brilliant. I ordered the yarn yesterday, got a phone call from Ruth in the afternoon to apologise that she had missed the post for it to be sent Recorded and did I want it just sent regular first class, which I said was fine so she refunded the difference!

Now all I have to do is knit it..! Can anyone tell me how to make a 36 hour day?

Diane’s right, of course. There’s been far too much secret knitting going on here of late. And as it’s not just an odd pair of socks, it takes longer to complete, or even longer if I have a bloggable project on the go at the same time.

But I have done other things other than sit with my secret projects and ignoring my blog. A while ago now, Diane posted details of her oven dyeing technique and as it seemed fairly idiot proof, I had a go.

Not having proper dyes available to me, I used Sugarflair food colouring pastes, of which I have plenty. Mainly in garish colours, mind, but I selected Dark Brown and Ice Blue for a relatively harmless and, hopefully, manly combination.

I’m actually very happy with how it turned out. The proof will be in the knitting of course, but it was fun to do and I’m tempted to try with some “proper” dyes next time!

I was going to post that I haven’t bought any yarn this year because people keep giving it to me, but then I realised that wasn’t quite true, seeing as I had bought the yarn for Mr B’s boring socks and then the yarn for the Catherine Socks. So maybe I’ll rephrase that and say that I haven’t bought any yarn for a project all for ME ME ME! Until now, that is.

Today I received a squishy parcel of Wild Fire Fibres Superwash Blue Faced Leicester in “Blueberry Muffin”. Vikki even enclosed a tiny box (the sort of size that is perfect for a mouse to keep their best hat in) containing some stitchmarkers.

The yarn is gorgeous. The purpleness drew me to it in the first place, and I have never tried Blue Faced Leicester for socks before, so clearly it was a matter of doing important yarn research that I buy it.

And in one of those lovely coincidental happenings that must happen because the knitting gods are smiling at me and saying “buy yarn because you’ll need it!”, while I was waiting for it to arrive, lovely if spinning wheel obsessed Kai has published her first ever pattern, Lotus Lace Socks!

The pattern is just perfect for my new yarn. They look lovely in purple, and the lace isn’t going to be overpowered by the yarn variegation. I can’t wait to cast on as soon as I possibly can!

So other than eating muffins yesterday, I also got to fondle yarn.

Diane brought me a gift from her trip to Australia: a skein of Touch Yarns “Exclusive”, a kid mohair/merino blend yarn. It’s like having a little purple curly pet and will make the snuggliest scarf imaginable next winter.

…a pig flying overhead, and a confirmed sighting of the Loch Ness monster. All things I expect to happen today, because this parcel was delivered:

My Rowan International membership gift! I renewed my membership in July last year. A whole nine months ago. I had given up pretty much ever receiving the gift as I was holding out for the purple colourway and it was never in stock. Clearly I’m not alone in my purple obsession. But to give Rowan their due, it arrived!

I don’t intend knitting either the waistcoat or shawl patterns that came with the yarn as the stitch pattern doesn’t appeal to me. But it’s good to know that you can get a shawl from 4 balls of yarn and I might do something lacy of my own instead.

Now off to hunt four leaf clovers and see if that rainbow has a pot of gold at the end of it..!

It’s been a funny sort of week. I’ve been getting older, not knitting much and have been a bit blergh. Fortunately, the getting older part involves presents, so I can cope with that.

There’s a bit of a purply-pink theme running through my presents. I don’t know where people get the idea that I like those colours. Firstly, from Diane, a giant skein of Dream in Color Baby, which is the same squishy gorgeousness as their Smooshy, but laceweight. From Tess, I received two skeins of Jojoland 2ply Cashmere (the pink), two balls of Angel Yarns Cashmere (the purple) and some Tess Dawson Suri Silk. Much squidging has been happening.

But I also got knitted pressies! From Kai, I received a Mary Jane Pithy Hat knit with dreamy alpaca and SOME SOCKS OF MY OWN!

Here they are being modelled. They fit perfectly.

And then Diane sent me MORE SOCKS!

These ones are Baudelaire, knit with Knitwitches sock yarn. I feel completely spoilt and am going to look after my socks and not get holes in them, even if I have to walk on my hands all the time.

Finally, a self-portrait of The Bunny at 33 Years Old. I think the likeness is uncanny.

Some things are a sure-fire way of helping me to forget the trauma of mitten knitting.

Yesterday Diane came round with cake and my Christmas present. Two skeins of the softest cashmere loveliness from Live 2 Knit, which had travelled all the way from Australia.

After looking through my patterns last night, I’ve earmarked it for Ene’s Scarf in Scarf Style (Ravelry link). It’s very subtly varigated, so I think the simple pattern will go perfectly with it. Plus I have almost exactly the right amount of yarn needed. It’s fate.

* * * *

I am waiting for a package from Amazon. I’ll share the photos on here when it arrives; my grandma (with a bit of help from my sister) gave me an Amazon voucher for Christmas so I chose a few knitting books that have been on my wishlist for a while. I chose free delivery, which saved me £5, but it’s taking forever to arrive. However, it does have tracking. At 6.30 this morning, it was in Droitwich. Now it takes about three or four hours to drive from there to here. So the bets are on: will my parcel arrive today?!

Now there’s a title! I speak only of yarn, though. Although some people have storage boxes purely to store their Koigu stash, I have never bought any at all. Ever. While I think the colours are pretty, it isn’t the cheapest of yarns and there are so many other pretty varigated yarns to try and I am only one small red-hatted bunny.

Anyway, I bought an odd skein of Koigu from Cairi last week because it was various shades of my favourite colour and I was curious. There’s not a lot a person can do with one small skein of yarn other than admire it:

but the Koigu Addict came to the resuce again with this pattern. I bought some dried lavender at my local farmers’ market at the weekend, too, so assuming that I can somehow stretch time, I will knit a couple of these sachets as Christmas presents.

So far it hasn’t had any strange effect on me, but maybe I have to start knitting with it to get the Koigu Bug. I shall report back!

I started writing this post yesterday evening, but gave up after about two minutes because I was just too flippin’ exhausted.

Yesterday I met up with Diane, Kai, Meeta, Ali and Jacqui and our little band of eager knitters went to the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace.

I will never go on Saturday again. I need to have that tattooed on my forehead or something because it it VITAL that I don’t forget. It was fine when we got there, but after about an hour, suddenly every other crafter in the universe arrived and it was packed.

I wanted to get lots of photos, but instead, you’ll have to be content with one of my haul:

I bought 150g of denim blue hand-dyed bamboo silk and wool blend from The Handspinner Having Fun. The secret parcel (bwahahaha!) and Folk Knitting in Estonia (which has been on my wishlist for ages) are both from Socktopus – who eaily win the award for most beautiful giftwrapping, if there is one. The purple cashmere laceweight is from KnitWitches and was my early Christmas present from Kai. Well, it saves her carrying it all the way home!

Not in the photo is the bag of sweets bought from the stand in the entrance hall which cost almost as much as a skein of sock yarn. Still not entirely sure I wasn’t conned. After all, fat people will pay a fortune for sweets, they are so desperate. Well, ha! Because I didn’t eat any of them. Um, yes…

I also picked up a copy of the new Yarn Forward magazine, which contains the pattern for the Pomegranate Shawl I designed back in Februrary. The Interweave Holiday Knits magazine wasn’t strictly in my haul, but Diane gave it to me on Saturday so it counts as far as I’m concerned.

I should add at this point that despite being overcharged for sweets, aching in places that I didn’t know it was possible to ache, etc, etc, that I had a BRILLIANT time. Highlights include spinning with a potato!

I will be spending today fondling my haul tidying the house ready for a VIP visit tomorrow. Send very overpriced chocolate.

…it saves time. A brief break in the postal strikes meant I could get my Wollmeise order today.

Wollmeise Superwash in Vergißmeinnicht, medium intensity. I was also sent a tiny gift sken of this colourway:

and I need to find out what it is, because I adore it. (ETA: It’s Indische Rot. Now I just have to stalk the site til it’s available!)

This yarn is destined for my festive knitting. I don’t suppose anyone can guess who it could possibly be for..?

Why wait until your socks are finished before you wear them?

This sneaky photo was taken this morning while shoe shopping with Diane. She was buying, not me. I was just there in my role as Fashion Guru. *sniggers* If you’re buying boots to wear with handknitted socks it makes sense to try them on with said socks. But what if you don’t have any with you? Ever resourceful, Diane used the half-finished sock in her bag, and wandered around the shop with a circular needle around her leg, trailing the remaining yarn behind her. I think the sales assistant was slightly bemused by this mad behaviour by people who knit their own socks and don’t just buy them like normal people. Oh, and for the record, she didn’t buy the boot in the photo, but some gorgeous ones with ribbons on instead.

I have yarn pr0n to share too, of course. I have found The Yarn for my noggin warmer!

Two squidgily scrummy balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in pale pink for Grumperina’s Art Deco Beret (Ravelry link for those of you on there). And I don’t even have to knit it myself!

One of the things I like best about being a knitter is that I get to buy myself presents in order to give other people presents!

This is more of Cairi’s lovely 100% merino sock yarn, for another person deserving of handknitted socks this Yuletide.

The yarn for my Mabelle has arrived:

It’s King Cole Merino Blend DK in shade #136. I think it’s a discontinued colourway (I bought mine from this splendid eBay seller, but can’t find it on the King Cole website). Anyway, the shade name is “African Violet”, though I have renamed it “Tinky Winky”:

See? Far more like a Teletubby. I hope this doesn’t mean that I’ll look less like a delicate flower and more like a big purple creature with a triangle on my head.

It’s lovely yarn. I’ve used it before, pre-blogging, for a small person’s sweater and it washes and wears really well. And it’s incredibly reasonably priced, too. Even full-price, it’s no more expensive than some other yarns which are blended with acrylic and other synthetics. So now I’m a happy bunny with my yarn, it’s time to swatch!

Alpacas spotted at Chessington today. They must have realised that a crazed knitter was watching them.

Lots of the things I like are purple.

And yesterday was a very purple sort of day.

I met Diane for coffee again. This time she dragged me round graveyards to see dead people and put her feet on the table. Though she made up for her disgraceful behaviour by giving me this:

Her own beautiful handspun yarn, which I had admired on her blog! It is the softest, loveliest yarn imaginable and will be knitted into something gorgeous.

Then the obligatory visit to Stash to ogle yarn, where I bought some Malabrigo laceweight in Purple Mystery (which I keep misreading as Purple Misery…).

When I got home, a tiny parcel from Angel Yarns was waiting for me.

More purpleness! This is for another Molly’s Headband – for my little sister this time.

And though it’s not yarn, I just had to gloat about share my Oxfam find. Four old Rowan magazines for 99p each – numbers 2, 5, 6 and 7.

Yes, the magazines are incredibly dated. And though I used to complain about their titchy sizing, it’s nothing compared to the “one size fits all” thing going on in these. But some of the designs are really beautiful and would look just as nice today. If I can get good pictures, I will share my favourites on here.

Mint choc chip – MINT CHOC CHIP! – self-striping sock yarn from Middle Earth Yarns. If anyone wants me, I’ll be licking my wool…