Catching up, and Unwinding in Brighton...

Well it's been an age, and to think my last post was berating myself for missing a month. Not been very dedicated unfortunately. You'll be happy to know though that I finished Grey Matter Cardigan, though I didn't succeed at any of the KAL's except Aidez, and I fell out of love with Carpino. I did on the other hand find some yarn for Millwater that should be lovely so I will likely be knitting that soon.

My Aidez was a bit of a roller coaster in all honesty, I started it in Crelando Meli in teal which is a lovely springy Superwash merino wool. I just didn't love it for my Aidez. I adored the cables in that yarn, just not the Stockinette for the pattern. After working on that iteration up to past the pocket join (I added pockets and a hood to my version), I had to put it down as it wasn't quite right for me. So began the hunt for more yarn, fortunately after much disappointment commercially, I hunted through my stash and came up with some navy aran tweed. I swatched this yarn a lot as the pattern called for a super bulky. In any case it worked out in the end.

More information about the trials and tribulations of my Aidez are available on my project page, so check that out if your interested and would like the chart for the back cable that I created. If you would like to use it and would like a key for the chart let me know in the comments and I'll put one together and add it.

Since then I have been #knitting a Drangey (by Stephen West) for my wonderful but equally grumpy Bf, that buys me yarn so in the eyes of my knitting friend's is a keeper :) Also a new t-shirt, which originally was being knit as a long floaty t-shirt for summer, after much urging was kept at a shorter length and improvised a lot! I have to say I only used the pattern to figure out how many stitches to cast on. I finished this little top on Saturday, which meant that I got to wear it to Unwind! Feast your eyes :)

#Unwind Brighton was absolutely lovely, though my journey there was hell and unfortunately made an unplanned start in Leeds at 3:30 in the morning! We won't talk about that though. We got there to be greeted by visions of knitted creations, probably not quite as many as you would expect mind, it was only the few people that had, had the presence of mind to knit for the summer, as believe me the weather was incredibly hot! I took well over an hour to do my first circuit, in which time I fell for some gorgeous Madeline tosh which was then totally eclipsed from my regard, by some delicious Old Maiden Aunt yarn. Lilith definitely knows her stuff, there was a trunk of her scrumptious superwash merino 4ply on the floor and after 5 minutes of looking, I knew I was in it for the long hall and promptly parked myself on my ass in front of that trunk and dived in. Oh the Colours! Oh the Squishyness! Oh the wonderful Sci- Fi Inspired Colourways. Truly a woman after my own heart, don't tell my boyfriend!

Two hours to the end of the day

That trunk was now empty

Alas I was short of funds and it took me nearly two hours to settle on two of her colourways, 'To the black' a sumptuous ode to a wonderful series and 'Selkie' which is earmarked for Balmy by Alicia Plummer. I showed remarkable restraint in only getting four, as a wonderful friend of mine may have spend £120 there alone! There were 600 skeins of yarn at the Old Maiden Aunt stall at the beginning of the show, and after just one day, well I felt sorry for the ladies turning up on the Sunday. We positively cleared her out, leaving perhaps 50 tops skeins left, she even gave myself and my friend a skein each free!!!! On top of all that and incredible patience from her and her partner, Lilith let me try on her Raiun, which is  a pattern I own, but as with all knitting patterns rarely do you get the chance to see if it suits you before you go to the effort of knitting it. So muchos thanks to her for that and I love it, I'm scrambling around in my stash for the yarn to do it in, but it may very well be an Old Maiden Aunt Merino silk which will be saved up for.

One of each colour in our haul (there were four of us)

Speaking of saving up though I have been going through my stash and have decided to sell some of it off, little by little. If you get a chance please check out the auction for 200g of Noro Kureyon  in shade 260. Along with those I'm selling some of my hand dyed bumper sized (250g) skeins in the colourway riot pink. There are 2 of them for £15 each in a lovely 100% British wool. I will be selling more of my hand dyed yarn, but this will likely be when I get all the pictures done to add to my Etsy store. If you are interested in any hand dyes, send me a message on Google +

Yarning around

So a bit of a change of pace.

Before last week I haven't been knitting for about a month or two as I just haven't felt up to it. Right now though I've thrown myself into it with a vengeance. However with more knitting means more yarn buying. My full stash and I are separated, I'm in London and my stash is in Leeds. So of course I have to buy yarn for my new projects. Nevermind that I have undyed yarn for a specific project that I haven't planned the dyeing and or started yet.

On Saturday I had a bit of an eBay buying spree with yarn. All of it from Kingcraig fabrics. Which is based in Brora in the Scottish highlands. This isn't the first time I've ordered yarn from them, but the first one was more of a test to see what their yarns were like as they are made and produced by the company themselves rather than a known large yarn brand such as as Rowan or Debbie bliss.
This time I bought some Supersoft Lambswool in a purple/blue marl 4ply. When i say some i really mean 820g of it. It looks absolutely gorgeous in person, and I can't wait to get stuck into it (even though it's not really earmarked for anything yet).

I had thought I might use it for a project I'm designing for my boyfriend, but it's far to gorgeous for that and also not quite the colours I was envisioning. I know have something else that unfortunately perfect looking for his project you guessed it, on eBay. I swear though once I get it I'm on a yarn diet with what I have here.

I can't wait till Christmas because I get reunited with some of my stash. It'll be like getting loads of new yarn!



The picture on the right it's probably the truest to the actual colour. I'm thinking I might use it in a design I dreamed up today. Though with the way my first knitting pattern design is going that likely means I'll get to it next year around now.

Whilst I still have my battleship on the go, I've decided to test knit a different pattern for SheilaToy. It's a really lovely summer style cardigan, which when I saw it I had to have it. which brings me to my next eBay yarn buy from Saturday.

Ta Dah! It's a 90%-10% Merino Silk mix in a Dark brown multifleck, again from Kingcraig. I've started swatching it already in my eagerness to get started with this wonderful knit Salt City Cardi by Sheila Toy Stromberg. Part of the reason I'm swatching is that I know that KingCraig yarns are generally oiled yarns and will be completely different washed. So I'm trying to see if I will need to wash all my yarn before I knit it. I still can't wait to get started.

If your interested in any of the projects I'm knitting or have already knitted check my projects out on Ravelry my username is Thaliya . Are any of you Knitters or crocheters? Or do you have a better idea for my Lambswool? Let me know.