Monday 28 June 2010

Frankfurt and area wool shopping

So I went to Germany to a wedding and of course I came home with wool. I did try to get German brands and as usual I picked up sock wool.

I went to Germany and visited two wool shops and was quite restrained (even my husband remarked about my restraint!)

First was in Frankfurt

Woll-Boutique Elflein, resulted in this loot (with two balls of some)

030

Wiesbaden resulted in this:
022
From Wolle Rodel I bought a few balls of cotton rich sock wool there.

Most is sock wool, whether or not all will become socks in the future is another question. Some was just rather cool wool that wanted to come home with me for me to play!

Saturday 26 June 2010

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Mostly finished objects

Well they're almost finished, they both need pressing and the Luna Shawl seriously needs blocking.

Seaside Cardigan

cotton cardi 1 It went into the washing machine today, finally. Yes, later it will go onto a drying rack but I wanted it to benefit from the good drying outdoors today.

Ravelry Link


Luna Moth Shawl

Luna Shawl

Luna Moth as pile of yarn actually. Ravelry Link for this

Boggled

I have no real idea when my subscription for the Knitting magazine runs out so I'm almost constantly surprised when it turns up. It's often a nice surprise. It arrived Monday and I brought it upstairs when I changed and part of the way through I let loose a snort/surprised noise, Mac was worried.

It was the More Stash than Cash article by Erika Knight....

A hanging basket liner pattern - not a bad thing.

"Materials:

DK or 4ply (used double) smooth and textured yarn

One ball of each is sufficient" (Sufficient!!)

"A= Rowan Q: Summer Tweed
B - Rowan Q : Cotton 4ply used double
C- Revive Q: revive DK
D - Rowan Q: Pima Cotton DK
E - Rowan Q: Cotton Glace
F - Rowan Q - DK Cotton
G - Rowan Q - DK
E - Rowan Q - DK Tweed"

Summer Tweed is about €7-8.50 and is a silk and cotton mix
DK Tweed is about €7.50 - merino wool, alpaca and viscose
4-ply cotton is discontinued - pure cotton
Revive is silk, cotton and rayon - €6.50 per ball
Pima Cotton - 100% cotton - between $4.95 and $9.95
Cotton Glace - 100% Cotton - $8.50
DK & DK cotton I'm not sure about, there are a number of yarns in this category in the Rowan Range, most Rowan yarns don't cost less than €5. I'm not sure that I would use these premium yarns for this purpose, instead of using something like a much cheaper cotton & acrylic or cotton yarn. What about Lang Cotton at €2.95 per 50g in the Yarn Room or maybe Cotton Viscose from Garnstudio from the Constant Knitter at €2.80 per hank, or Paris (100% cotton) from Garnstudio again from the constant knitter at €2.15... and these are just a few random samples I could find of fairly cheap cotton or cotton rich yarns.

I have, and I do have a few hanks of Rowan yarns, I won't be using them for this, I would be putting them aside for a while waiting for a project to justify them, particularly the fact that they're expensive yarns that even if I had only one or two of them I wouldn't be setting them up to rot under my plants. If I happen on premium yarns at a cheap price I wouldn't regard them as disposable like this. I would regard this as a lucky find that should be used when I could for something quite good rather than something minor.

Sunday 13 June 2010

Choices

So I'm almost finished Luna Moth in Schaefer Anne and I'm going to be joining the Annis knit-a-long with This Is Knit, and I've narrowed the choices down to a few.

choices

They're all beautiful and I want to use them all NOW!

Dammit