Yarn Overload!

This week I seem to be absolutely drowning in wool. Not that this is any kind of complaint, you understand!

A friend of mine was having a clearout of her yarn stash, and kindly passed on a few goodies that she thought I might like.

Yummy new sock yarns

These are two sock yarns. The purple one is by Opal, and the other is one of the Kaffe Fasset colourways for Regia. These yarns together would make a lovely pair of the Simply Knitting socks that I’m still working on. Alternatively, as I only really wear very short socks, I might even manage to get two pairs of anklets out of 150 grams of yarn. We’ll see – I’ve got plenty of time to think about it while I’m finishing my current sock!

I’ve also come into possession of a complete pack (10 balls) of RYC Cashcotton 4 ply, in a beautiful peachy colour. I don’t quite know what I’m going to do with it yet, although a lacy summer cardigan seems like quite a nice idea.

Macro wool...

Over on the Simply Knitting website they’re running a series of articles about taking photographs of your knitting in new and interesting ways. I thought I’d see what the “super macro” setting on my little camera could do, and this is the result. I like the obvious difference in texture between these two yarns. You can almost imagine how they’ll feel from looking at the picture.

The top ball is the peachy RYC Cashcotton – 35% cotton, 25% polyamide, 18% angora, 13% viscose and 9% cashmere. The lower one is Debbie Bliss Soho – 100% wool.

I’ve been updating my stash details on Ravelry to include these new goodies, and although I don’t have as much yarn tucked away as some people, I think I probably don’t need any more just now.

This is particularly disappointing, as I received an email from Colinette this morning, giving details of several new colourways. I’m also intrigued by their new Creative Project Packs, where you can buy a bag of one yarn type, but in little hanks of different colours. I can feel some interesting scarves and socks coming on…

Fruit Salad

Fruit Salad

I fell in love with this wool back in December. John Lewis were having a clearance sale, and I was tempted into buying a whole jumper’s worth.

The yarn is Debbie Bliss Soho, in colourway 16. I wouldn’t normally go for yellows and oranges, but the colours reminded me so much of those little Fruit Salad chews I used to get entangled in my braces as a child that I couldn’t resist!

At first I thought the wool was going to turn into a pullover with a deep v-neck. Then I spotted these buttons, hard and translucent like delicious boiled sweets, and knew that they’d be perfect for a chunky cardigan. I spent a good while trying to choose between the pink and the orange and, uncharacteristically for me, I left the pink ones behind.

Now I just need to find the time to break out the coloured pencils, and draw up a design for a Fruit Salad cardigan, with boiled sweet buttons. Irresistible!