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Squirrellings!
March 18, 2007
By which I mean all the yarn I just bought, because I'm going to bury in it a hole and come back for it in winter! The hole is my box of stash yarn and winter is in a couple of weeks when I've finished the sublime sweater! I went to London yesterday with my friend Jess (who you can see here and here) for a day chatting and shopping. Also she is getting married next year and asked me to be a bridesmaid, which was so exciting I hopped about shrieking. Anyway! She has started knitting (and brought a very cute knitted teddy to show me) so we went to several yarny places. Firstly we went to John Lewis, where I bought some of the new Debbie Bliss yarn Rialto. Debbie Bliss says it's a kind of all seasons yarn, even though it is 100% merino wool. Either way it's extremely nice to touch and comes in lots of pretty colours (like all Debbie Bliss yarns, I think the lovely fibres and gorgeous subtle shades are the best thing about them). I got lots of it:
It is for another stripey sweater! I showed it to Adam and he looked horrified at the lime green and orange balls! But I think with stripes you can use colours you never normally would, and they are fine in stripes even if they would be a bit much all over - do you agree? I reminded him that Carolyn has lime green in and he likes that one, but he still looked sceptical! It makes me want to start knitting straight away and prove him wrong :) There is a pattern book for Rialto which I looked at as well - I nearly bought it just for the cabled vest on the cover, because it has some seriously good cabling.
After that we went to Islington to go to Loop. I had drooled over the website before and they have a ton of stuff, so I was surprised how tiny the shop actually is! But it was fantastic - I've never seen so much lovely yarn and knitted things in one place. I thought I was generally pretty extravagant with my yarn buying, but there are yarns there that are so luxurious (and expensive!) that I could only pet them wistfully. I'm not sure I'd even touched cashmere before, but it was incredibly soft. I'll have to make a scarf or something small from it some day! Anyway - I did get some yarn there too:
It is blue sky alpacas cotton, and is definitely the softest cotton I've ever come across. I think I read on a friend's blog recently (sorry I can't remember who's!) that it can pill really badly, and I can see how that would happen, but I think they also said it's better knitted tightly so I'll be doing that. I will make a summer tank with it, with some lacey bits I expect. The last thing I bought was some very cool turquoise swallow needles, they are in the same photo as the rialto yarn above.
Not a bad days shopping, all in all!
Posted by jen at March 18, 2007 03:46 PM
Comments
Oh! That may have been me commenting over at Amelia Riatte's blog! I certainly think that about the Blue Sky Cotton...it sheds like mad, lots of short fibers everywhere...it is probably worth it in the end though, it is truly beautiful cotton.
I love those colors together!
Posted by: Cirilia at March 18, 2007 05:05 PM
Blimey, that is one jealousy inducing shopping trip :D Those colours should work really well together (the orange would look ace in a thin stripe between the blue or purple, and the lime is mouthwatering). Ignore Adam as he is not an artist like you are ;)
Posted by: Bryony at March 18, 2007 06:17 PM
Hello, you're on my blog. I hope you don't mind! If you do then let me know and I shall take you off. I like all your new yarn especially the purple and orange! Take care, EtSu
Posted by: Eternal Sunshine at March 18, 2007 06:40 PM
Aha! I'm so happy you have been enticed by Loop. (And ohmygod I agree about the prices. The last time I was there, the only yarn I bought was definately the cheapest there. It was still pretty, though.)
Your yarns excite me! Hooray for stripes! I'll stop blabbering now, but only because I LOVED the feel of all of the blue sky alpacas products and am still sad that I didn't buy any.
Posted by: anushka at March 18, 2007 08:11 PM
Hi,
I am so happy I found your blog and that you mentioned yarn stores in London. I am going to London in May with my kids for a short holiday and of course, since they are allowed to visit Chessington and London zoo I am allowed to visit a yarn store.
Have a great day
Hanna
Posted by: Hanna at March 19, 2007 06:09 AM
very impressive shopping. i think those yarns will be brilliant stripped all together!!! :)
Posted by: carolyn at March 19, 2007 01:11 PM
I'm using that exact same Blue Sky cotton (in the same color) and it's not shed on me. I'm still making the sweater so I don't know about the pill factor. I'd assume it pilled because it's soooo soft and yummy but know for sure yet. It's so soft and nice to work with, what's a little sweater shaving?
Posted by: Sil at March 19, 2007 03:59 PM
Oh, I love those Blue Sky hanks - what a gorgeous colour!
Posted by: Nora at March 19, 2007 11:19 PM
I'm drooling after looking at all that yarn! Great color mix for the stripey sweater - I agree with you. The lime green is perfect. it will add some nice pop to the other colors. Can't wait to see what you make from all this pretty yarn!
Posted by: Kelly at March 22, 2007 12:36 AM