WIP Wednesday, Yarn Along & blowing the budget!

For a long time I have mocked knitted toys.   In fact, I have commented to my friend Sarah that she has too much time on her hands if she can think about knitting toys.

It was with great shock that I then found myself head over heels in love with a toy kit a yarn shop in Amsterdam was selling.  The pattern was Joris, and I had seen it in Penelope Craft last year, and thought it was nothing special.  In fact, the pattern still is nothing special in my opinion.  However, the show model Weldraad had was knit using Aade Long.

Both my husband and I decided instantaneously that I would buy the kit, knit the toy and put it on a shelf far from little fingers who don't appreciate hours of work when they see it.

Progress after day 1 is good (3 broken up hours in the afternoon):

Now, as I said at the start of the year when I decided I was going on a yarn diet, there would be a few exceptions, and the trip to Amsterdam was one of them.

The photo coming up is the very definition of blowing the budget.  Luckily it was in foreign money so it doesn't feel like I spent a lot (plus the fact I pre-ordered most of it online before I left....)

I do have plans for most of this, so it's certainly not as bad as it seems at first glance!  It would also appear I have a bit of a thing for red and turquoise.  And white.  And grey.  Not in this photo is a skein of yellow Alpaca which was knit into a hat for my sister who will be in a back brace for 3 months after shattering 2 vertebrae 2 weeks ago.  See! Already using up the stash!!! 

I've been really struggling to find interesting books to read recently.  Interesting might be the wrong word because I have lot's of interesting books I'd love to  read, I just can't get into them.  I read the second book in the All Souls Trilogy recently which was really good.  I am about halfway through The Historian, but neither of those I absolutely must finish straight away, which is the feeling I usually get when I get into a book (it doesn't help that this is a re-reading of The Historian, so I already know the end!).  I think I need to spend an hour in the second hand book shop here and just buy a whole load of random books.

For other WIP Wednesday visit Tamis Amis.  For Yarn Alongs, head to Ginnys.

Stash Diet Review: Rowan Fine Tweed

Rowan Fine Tweed has only been in my stash a few weeks.  It was bought with 1 purpose only - Peerie Flooers Mittens and Hat.  I fell head over heels in love with these patterns form the moment I saw them.

I'm not usually a fan of tweed yarns, but when I looked through the projects and saw the mittens and hats done in solid yarns, they just didn't have the same effect on me.

The colours are gorgeous.  The yarn is not rough, but not soft.

 I especially love the red and yellow colours, but then I love red anyway, and something about certain shades of yellow gets me thinking maybe I *do* like yellow afterall.

 
The tweed effects is most obvious in the dark green and yellow, with orange, yellow and green flecks being seen quite strongly in the yarn.

I'm going to be starting Peerie Flooer Mittens very very soon as part of my build-up to the Bohus hat kit, and I really cannot wait to use these colours and watch the mittens develop!

Stash Diet Review: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 80/20 Twin

People seem to either love or hate Wollmeise.  It is rather expensive, but the bold vibrant colours seem to make it worth it for some people.  I bought these 2 skeins at Knit Nation last year - there was a bit of a stampede to get to the stall selling it!  I've not knit with it, but it is very tightly spun and I can see it being quite good for socks.

I just can't seem to find the perfect pattern - socks are on my to do list, and the multi-coloured skein may well end up as socks, but for the plain blue I have no idea!  I'm not sure I would buy it again - easy knits have some amazingly bold colourways now, and the extra yardage doesn't justify the price in my opinion.  I may change my mind when I've actually knit with it though!

Stash Diet Review: Sokkusu

Sokkusu first entered my radar some time last year.  When I started knitting again after my break, I searched out Socktopus as a place to buy nice yarns, only to find it had been replaced by Alice Yus own hand-dyed creations.  I seeked out some images on Ravelry, and I was smitten, then when I read how much research had gone into finding the perfect qualities of yarn base, and then finding someone to mill to the specification of Alices perfect sock base, I knew I had to try it.

When I saw Socktopus were going have a stall at last years Knit Nation, it was on my list of places to spend money.  I feel in love as soon as I laid my eyes on this colourway, Siffie.  As some of you may remember, last year I said I would no longer be buying single lone skeins of anything, so I did receive some flak for this purchase.  I had a great excuse though - this is a dyepot baby!

The colours are the perfect muted rainbow.  I could look at this all day and never bore of it.

One day, I will join her Knit Love Club.  I love this yarn that much!  The base is perfect, and the spin and ply seem tight enough to be able to withstand the wear of being socks, despite being 100% Merino.

I love this yarn, and when my stash has been reduced, I will be seeking out some other colours!  This may become socks, or it may be crocheted into a shawl, I'm not sure yet.  I need to stop looking at it first!

Stash Diet Review: Malabrigo Sock

You can't be a knitter in this day without hearing of Malabrigo eventually.  "MMMMMMalabrigo"  It really is everything the hype makes it out to be.

I was quite late to the Malabrigo game, and bought my first skein (Rayon Vert, below) of Malabrigo Sock in 2011.  I picked it up while at The Yarn Cake in Glasgow one evening and had some money burning a hole.  The Ravelry Red I bought while at Penelope Craft in Amsterdam last summer, and since I love red it was a very obvious must-buy!  The colourways Malabrigo come in are gorgeous, the colours I have seen have been so saturated, it does make me wonder how much the dye will bleed when being washed! ;D
I can't honestly say these will become socks.  The yarn feels so soft, I can't imagine it not pilling and felting really really easily, not to mention the fact there is no nylon and it is 100% Merino.  They also seem to my inexperienced eye to be on the looser scale of plied for sock yarn, but I could be way off base with that.  It really is very very soft, and would be amazing knit up as a shawl or fingerless gloves, but even the gloves might pill badly.

The two colourways I own I fell in love with as soon as I saw them.  I love the way the purples are highlighted by green in Rayon Vert.  The Ravelry Red is just sensational, a real treat for lovers of red everywhere.

I do have projects planned for these.  Honest!  They will both become triangular shawls at some point in the future, but I do not have any specific pattern in mind for them.  I must confess though, being a variegated yarn not-love-just-like-er, Rayon Vert has me worried!  This is my main problem with variegated yarns - I love how they look skeined up, but I hate the randomness of it when it has been knit up, so I may actually crochet a shawl with Rayon Very!

Stash Diet Review: Koigu KPPPM

Just after I moved down here almost 4 years ago, my love of yarn took off.  Shot up like a rocket.  I don't need a psychiatrist to tell me buying yarn was just filling a void left by leaving my friends and family behind; I'm woman enough to admit it!

I joined Ravelry in November 2007, so by the time I moved I was already well aware of the bright glorious world of luxury yarns.  I had this silly notion I might knit socks, and what better website to buy sock yarn from that Socktopus (this is Socktopus of old, when she sold all manner of luxury sock yarns otherwise very hard to obtain in the UK, not the recent Socktopus where Alice dyes her perfect yarns and publishes books.  Though I do love both incarnations equally.)

I loved Socktopus-of-old.  Not a day went by that I didn't look, but I had better self-control than than I do now and only bought yarn (from anywhere) very rarely.  Until the Koigu sale.  

The love affair started with the rainbow skeins at the very top.  It was buy-one-get-one-free, and how could I say no.  

This started the luxury yarn buying.  Not a bad yarn to have as a trigger to an addiction!

The colours are all glorious and vibrant, and the twist is just perfect - not too tight and not too loose, and it produces gorgeous looking fabric.  

So why has it not been used?   Well, because I like it too much.  I am so afraid that what I knit with it will never do this yarn justice.  I started socks with the blue skeins, but frogged them when it became apparent I was never going to finish it, so now I'm worried it's been sitting in cake form so long all the stretch will have been taken out the yarn (which is why I tend to never cake anything up until I'm ready to use it!).

This year, I will use at least one of these colourways, and it may or may not be on socks - KPPPM is 100% Merino, and I really don't want to use 100% wool on something that will be worn as hard as socks!

More details on the colourways can be found on my stash page on ravelry, and here are some more photos for you too drool over ;)