First, this week's Posh Yarn update; available on the website from 8pm tomorrow (Sunday 27th February) If you see anything you want, make sure you visit the website a few minutes before 8pm and refresh your browser contunually because once the yarn is available it will sell out within minutes, often seconds! What's not to like? But you'll need to be very quick! I shall not be buying anything this week though for the simple reason of resisting the urge to buy yet more purple-related sock yarn!! Sometimes there are some beautifully multicoloured variegates in shades I absolutely drool over, but this week, although everything is beautiful, as usual, the skeins I covet the most are purple-based, and I have to use up some of the purple sock yarn I already have before I can justify buying yet more! 
Incidentally, they have some free patterns; my favourite is the one for the Slip Up Socks.Next, a fabulous MWK (Men Who Knit!) website, which I found while I was looking for video tutorials related to the Kromski Sonata spinning wheel; I am waiting for mine to be re-delivered (the saga continues in a moment....sigh!) and in the meantime looking at other people using theirs is the next best thing! So...I found this guy on You Tube, with a link to his site, Crafty Andy. He is a gay Californian who loves yarning, and he has a Sonata! I love him!!! His website has some lovely patterns for sale; mainly lace scarves/shawls and amazing hats! Really, there is something rather sweet about photos of a guy sitting with a Star Trek book, wearing a delicate lace shawl! I have every respect for guys who knit, spin and/or crochet and who aren't afraid to show off their stuff! So let's hear it for Crafty Andy!
My next discovery is this knitting pattern blog, Sonnentaler; it has these fantastic One hour Mitts pattern. It made me chuckle! It would actually take me about eight hours, even with chunky yarn, as the pattern recommends! Some people knit really fast, and some....er.....don't!! These mitts remind me a lot of the Toast wristwarmers (from A Friend to Knit With, one of my absolute favourite knitting blogs) which I knitted last year using some of my own handspun merino/alpaca/silk from - yes, yes, of course - Limegreenjelly. But these mitts - unlike the mitt version of Toast, Toasty - have a proper thumb (i.e. with a gussett). I'm going to use up some of my handspun merino/silk, holding two yarns together I think rather than actually plying; this is one of my favourite ways to knit bulky because you can change the colours as you go along.
I don't have a baby to knit for, but if I did I would have to knit this amazingly different little Kurbis hat in the shape of a pumpkin, also from Sonnentaler. Let's not forget, the Primavera socks I'm knitting in Dream in Color Knitosophy (in the Strength colourway) are also from Sonnentaler.I've been browsing on Etsy again (oh no!!) I have plenty of plain, natural colour merino for practising spinning when my Kromski Sonata arrives, but in the meantime, I am perfectly within my rights to look at beautiful, handpainted OOAK luxury fibre! Here are a few of my favourites, in order of preference:
Spinning Awesome Good's BFL/Tussah in Kalypso is my first choice this week. I love the way they have arranged it, very attractive, and guaranteed to suck in helpless fibre addicts such as myself! Beautiful!
Then in second and third place come two amazing offerings from Cincinnati-based FiberOptic; both in pure 100% BFL, they are Ultraviolet (left) and Bramble. My fibre stash - unlike my sock yarn stash! - is somewhat depleted, so I do have justification to buy a few more braids. I've just bought some LGJ Merino/Camel/Silk from one of my Raveler friends, Mary from Folsom in California. Now, if the fibre's colour name Kiss rings a bell that's because the last thing I bought from LGJ was also Kiss, but in Merino/Baby Camel. When the one from California arrives (think how many miles it's travelled from Leonard-on-Sea to California, then back over the Pond to Newcastle....!) I'll photograph them side by side for comparison. I LOVE camel! It's really soft, and baby camel is so soft you can barely feel it!! I'm gonna spin spin spin when my wheel arrives, and may ply these with merino or Corriedale from Forest Fibres in one of their fabulous colours.
This brings me to my fourth place Fab Find this week, the epic-win bargain that is their Ashford Corriedale Sliver 5-Colour Pack 5 x 100g for £13.99!! The customer chooses the colours. This would be really useful to have for plying with my lovely LGJ fibre! As I remarked in a recent post, combining a handpainted fibre with a plain one can look amazing! I guess I would have to choose the Indigo, Chilli Pepper, a couple of purple shades, and one of the natural shades. If you're anything like me, you'll just like looking at all the lovely colours together.
Now to the ongoing saga of my eagerly awaited Kromski Sonata. I saw it listed on ebay and won the auction the next day - amazingly with my opening bid. The listing included a Kromski arched Lazy Kate, a large Kromski niddy noddy (which I have wanted for ages!), a pair of Ashford large hand carders (which I have always wanted to try out) and about 500g of various fibre. All for way less than I was going to pay for an Ashford Traveller alone! Anyway....the seller sent it by 24-hour courier on Wednesday and told me it would arrive by Friday. It did indeed, but when I was at work (despite the seller asking them to wait until after 3). So I phoned up and asked to have it delivered on Saturday but was told "We don't deliver on Saturdays, except for Saturday deliveries".....um, am I the only one who thinks this sounds a bit hard-of-thinking? It does look as if I'm not going to get it for another couple of days anyway. I might have to request Tuesday for delivery instead of Monday since I'll be off work and more likely to be at home when they come. Either way, I'm going to have two days to practise spinning, so I'll have to go to Waitrose tomorrow and stock up on microwave meals!
Right....I'm tired and need sleeeeep!! Watch this space.
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