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.

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.

Though I never find supremely wonderful charity shop knitting bargains, I do hope that one day I will find a bag of cashmere for 50p or something. In the meantime, I think yesterday’s find wasn’t too shabby.

Just over 200g of pure wool, aran weight, price: £1.90. Well, I’m saying it’s pure wool. I’m basing this purely on the fact that a) it’s in skeins and b) feels like pure wool. The test will be if it felts. Not that I’m going to use it for felting, but it would be perfect for the background of the whales on the Pod of Cetaceans Cardigan I’m planning for Rose (once I’ve knitted her Willie, which I don’t even have the yarn for yet…) and that needs steekable yarn. It also needs to match the tension of any other yarn I use… but hey! Yarn bargain!

The June instalment of the Waterloo Wools Sock Yarn Club arrived yesterday. Called “Castle Krumlov”, it’s a 50% merino/50% tencel blend yarn in a shimmery, jewel-like combination of reds, oranges, purples and blues. Definitely destined to be a shawl, I think any of the patterns I picked for the February yarn would also work with this one.

I’m really enjoying this club. I like the surprise (well, semi-surprise as I often sneak a peek at the spoiler thread in the Waterloo Wools Ravelry Group!) each month of getting a yarn in colours I wouldn’t necessarily choose myself and the ability to pay monthly, which is probably an incitement for me to stay a member for longer. And just getting squishy parcels every four weeks, which always magically manage to arrive at exactly the right time – for example, when I have a grumpy baby or it’s raining – and I am suitably cheered. My only regret is that I am so slow at getting projects finished right now, and I can’t knit the yarns up fast enough!

The May 2010 instalment of the Waterloo Wools Sock Yarn Club is named “Fisherman’s Bastion”. I love this colourway, even though I know the yarn is headed straight onto Mr B’s feet (with a brief detour via my ball winder and needles). It’s so manly, I can feel the testosterone oozing from the fibres.

This is the Waterloo Wools Sock Club February 2010 yarn, “Cave Diving”. Yes, you read that correctly, the FEBRUARY yarn. Nearly three months after it was posted, it turned up on Saturday (except I wasn’t in so it went to the sorting office where it stayed til Tuesday because of the bank holiday ). Sadly, the envelope wasn’t covered in franking marks where it had travelled around the world before it arrived at its destination, but I like to think that it saw something of Canada and the US before it took the plane to get to me.

The colourway is probably close to what I’d choose for myself for a yarn that wasn’t purple, so not really stepping out of my safety zone, but it’s gorgeous. I love the mix of earthy browns and greens. The base is 100% wool, so this is going nowhere near any feet but will be a simple-ish shawl, possibly Wandering the Moor to appeal to my Bronte obsession, Aestlight, which seems to work well with variegated yarn, or the snappily titled Shoulder Shawl in Cherry Leaf Pattern from Victorian Lace Today.

When I got back from my travels, a squishy parcel was awaiting me: the April instalment of the Waterloo Wools sock yarn club. The colourway is called “Magic Carpet” and is a very cheery blend of yellows, blues, pinks and a bit of orange. Definitely for socks that need showing off! Though I may make something for Rose with it. For now it’ll just be squeezed occasionally until the perfect pattern comes to me.

The club is open for signups again for anyone else who wants to join. It’s really convenient, too. You pay monthly and can choose when to quit at any time, so don’t need to commit to several months’ worth of yarn. I love this, though it’s a sure-fire way of me accumulating stash..!

And then a couple of things happened. There was Rose’s Infamous January Growth Spurt which coincided with reading on Lindsey’s blog that she was opening sign-ups for the Waterloo Wools sock yarn club and payments were monthly. I considered it for a brief moment and figured that a) I was in need of some serious cheering up and b) a person can have too much purple sock yarn – and joined.

However, thanks to the crappy postal service, the February instalment has yet to arrive, if it hasn’t already been pilfered by a sock knitting postie, so my first yarn is the March colourway, which arrived this morning.

This colourway is called “Paris Nights” and is inspired by a photo of the Eiffel Tower at dusk, and is just lovely. Completely not what I would ever choose off my own back, but I still really like it and the yarn itself is wonderfully sproingy. And as it’s a 20% nylon sock yarn, it’s already earmarked as being a pair of making-up-for-felting-the-other-socks-socks for Mr B.

* * * * *

I also realise how much I am off the radar when only today I discover that Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting is being republished this year. This is momentous news: even Mr B understands the great importance of this event as he helped me try to find a library copy of this book last year to no avail – apparently there are three or four copies in libraries throughout the country but they can’t be inter-library loaned, probably because they have to be kept under lock and key for fear of obsessive knitters pilfering them. Me, I just wanted to knit St Brigid. But now it’ll be an early Christmas present and there was happy dancing aplenty. Here’s to Tudor Roses for 2011.

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.