Stash – Knitting Box

Eye Candy

Yesterday I shipped Annette off to a friend who kindly looked after her for the morning so that I could spend some child-free time at the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair. It was so good! I was like a child in a candy store, with so much crafty goodness all around. I’ve never been to a craft show before. I’ve read other bloggers who wrote about going to this and that sheep & wool show, or something or another quilt show, etc, and finally I get a taste of Sydney’s craft show.

For me it was a great opportunity to see and feel in person the yarns and fabrics that I would not get a chance to otherwise. Things that I’ve only seen in online stores but not knowing how the colours actually look or how the yarns actually feel. The yarns that I ended up buying could easily be bought online, but I probably wouldn’t have picked these particular yarns or colours if I were just looking at them online. Plus it was great to support the Australian businesses and meet the lovely people at the booths.

So here’s what I got:

Colinette Jitterbug, from Sarah Durrant booth. Velvet plum (left) and Mist (right) colourways.

From Kaalund Yarns booth, one ball of Classic Two laceweight yarn in ‘Pacifica’ colourway down the front (bigger pic here), and two bags of mill ends. The mill ends bags contain little balls of laceweights, boucles, and thick ‘n thin yarns in various colours. I just love the vibrant colours.

And finally we have 3 balls of Rustic 8-ply yarns from Bendigo Woollen Mills booth, in the ‘Carnival’ colourway (close up here). Each ball is 200 grams, they’re huge! I’m hoping these three balls will be enough for a jumper or cardigan for me.

Oh, and I also got some fabrics from Patchwork At Central Park booth.

The night before I went, I had looked up the exhibitors listing and noted their locations so that I could look them up. But even so I didn’t get to visit all of them before I had to go home. Probably a good thing, otherwise I could’ve spent way too much money! If you’re in Sydney, the craft fair is still on until Sunday at Darling Harbour.

29 June 2007

Just pretty pictures

Knitting has been slow going here. Here and there cables scarf is growing a little longer, and the swing coat is growing a little more, but they still look the same. I’m dying to start a sock with the STR, or maybe something from the Victorian Lace Today, but I keep thinking that I should make more progress on the current WIPs first. I don’t know how long this will last, though. So in the mean time, how about I distract you with some pretty pictures instead?

Got these on a recent trip to Spotlight. The yarn is called ‘Dashing’, which makes me chuckle. They must be new, as I had never seen them before. For a cheapo yarn it’s surprisingly soft, although the colour range is not that great. This one is pastel green. It also comes in pastel blue, pastel pink, and peach.

I’m also in the middle of making this baby hat for a friend who just had a baby boy. I’m going to see her next week, so this one is taking priority. I’m not using any pattern, just making it up as I go. I actually started with a pattern, and got up to the crown decreases, before I had to admit that it would be far too big for a newborn baby. I really do have a bad denial problem. So off to the frog pond it went. Anyway, this one looks ok for size now. I’m using Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino for this one. Mmm… Cashmerino…

There have been some sewing as well. Here’s a peek on what I’m working on 🙂

And another eye candy: A new fabric line to gawk at, Chocolate Lollipop by Anna Maria Horner.

23 February 2007

Forecast: Chance of socks

Indeed, here’s a pair of Pomatomus socks done…

… with plenty of yarn to spare.

Pattern: Pomatomus Socks by Cookie A, from Knitty.
Yarn: Celia‘s handpainted sock yarn in Bougainvilla colourway, 1 skein with plenty to spare.
Needles: 2.5mm DPNs

The second sock actually progressed faster than the first one, perhaps because I already ‘got’ the pattern. However all this thinking that I’ve got the pattern down got me rather smug, that I stuffed up the foot and had to rip back 10 rows for like 3 or 4 times. Grrr. But no matter, they’re done, and I love them. I think the stitch pattern looks so pretty…

I’m officially converted into sock knitting now, and there sure will be more handknit socks in my future. I thought getting sock yarns would be a good start, so I splurged and got these:

Socks That Rock!! My first STR yarns ever, and I’m definitely not disappointed. From left to right: Obsidian, Chapman Springs, G-Rocks, and January One colourways. How good are those colours! I absolutely LOVE the colour combinations in each skein, they just look so good together. So much so, that I’m almost afraid to wind the skeins into balls and knit them up. Almost.

And in non-sock-related news, I’ve made some progress on Annette’s swing coat. It’s knitted in one piece from the neck down, and I’m enjoying this very much. I’m looking forward to very little seaming too 🙂

I’m using some Malabrigo worsted, in the Marine colourway, which is kind of a mix of navy blue, indigo, and steel blue. The variegation is very subtle.

13 February 2007

Purchases

Yarn purchases!

Went to Tapestry Craft yesterday to get these yarns… That’s Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in olive colour for making another pair of Fetching, this time for me, and the black ones are Grinasco Bambi, for making Serrano from Knitty. I’ve been wanting a lacy cardigan for a long time, and Serrano looks very appealing to me.

I must say that the colour, black, is a rather unadventurous choice for me. I tend to wear dark colours a lot, even though I actually like just about any colour in the spectrum. I had considered other colours, just to have something different. I spent ages and ages in front of the Grinasco Bambi shelf, trying to decide on a colour. But in the end I settled on black. Oh well, hopefully that will mean that I’ll get to wear it a lot. Black is still the new black, right??

On the way home, I popped in to Dymocks to check out their crafts books section. And oh my do they have a lot of great books there! I could spend hours there just browsing through them. I bought this book:

It’s Toys to Sew by Claire Garland, the author of Knitted Babes. It has patterns for dolls along similar vein to Knitted Babes — basic doll patterns (two boys and two girls) with sets of clothing items to mix and match, except that in this book the dolls are sewn as opposed to knitted. Which is great as I’ve been wanting to sew more. There are also many other adorable toys in the book — patchwork crocodile, turtle, spotty pull-along elephant, and even a tea set! The toys are sooo cute and I want to make so many of them! (Interestingly, when I got home and looked at Amazon US’s page for this book, the book is not released yet in the US. And I got it here for less than fifteen bucks! I love it when I get a good bargain…) I have pictures of some pages from the book here, if anyone’s interested.

1 October 2006

I went to the sale, and look what happened…

Tapestry Craft is having a 25th birthday sale (25-50% off), so last Saturday I took a trip there and of course there was some Stash Enhancement! 🙂 Here’s what I got:

6 balls of Cleckheaton Merino Bambino in pink. I bought this with the bow tied bolero from Debbie Bliss Special Knits in mind, but I’m still thinking of other possibilities.

Cleckheaton Bambino in pink

This is a 4 ply (fingering weight) yarn, which I don’t usually use. The balls are very light, only 25g (

These are Heirloom 8-ply Cotton in purple, mauve, cream, and fuchsia. I’m planning to make a striped summer top for Annette with this. Or maybe a summer dress, if the yarn is enough for that. I’ll probably do a top-down raglan with cap sleeves. That way I can just stop when I almost run out of yarn.

And then I got some more of the Filatura Di Crosa Zara merino in light blue, because I just love this yarn. It’s very nice and soft, and knits up beautifully.

Filatura Di Crosa Zara merino

Then there’s this:

Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed

Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in Beach and Tartan. I’m thinking of a hat for me with these, no pattern in mind yet. Actually the tartan one I bought from The Wool Shack, by looking at the colour card on the website. I thought it looked dark grey, and that’s why I bought it. Turned out it’s dark green (like army green) with white and red flecks. Well duh, I should’ve known, it’s tartan! What was I thinking?? But well, it’s growing on me, and it would probably be quite nice as a hat.

And finally, there’s this:

Katia Cotton Club

Katia Cotton Club in natural and light blue. I’m thinking of making small tote bags with these. I chose this yarn for this purpose because it’s 100% cotton and hopefully easy to wash, it looks solid and durable, and it’s soft!

24 October 2005