Many Finnish knitters are currently participating in a national yarn buying strike and stash reduction group effort, traditionally arranged each February. And the “lose 10% of both your stash and body weight” campaign only finished less than two months ago!

Am I in these campaigns? Eh, no. Me, I love yarn. And I looove buying yarn. Yarn is happiness! Stash is good! Granted, I may not have a huge stash yet, but trust me, I’m getting there. And so, let me introduce the latest arrivals to the flock:

Monet suomalaiset neulojat osallistuvat paraikaa lankahamstereihin. Ja 10 %:n projekti päättyi alle 2 kuukautta sitten!

Osallistuinko minä kumpaankaan näistä? Ööh, en. Minähän rakastan lankaa ja langan ostamista. Lanka on ihanaa! Lankavarasto on ihana asia! OK, varastoni ei ehkä ole vielä kovin suuri, mutta odottakaas vain.

Pitemmittä puheitta siis uusimmat tulokkaat:

Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, 100% merino wool. Burgundy.

Cherry Tree Hillin sukkalankaa, 100-prosenttista merinoa. Väri Burgundy.

Koigu KPM.

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, Chocolate & Cranberry…

…and of course my favourite, Colinette JitterBug, in Morello Mash, one of the new Dali colours. A beautiful, beautiful colour.

…sekä tietysti suosikkiani Colinetten JitterBugia. Väri on nimeltään Morello Mash ja kuuluu Colinetten uusiin Dali-väreihin. Todella kaunis väri!

This, on the other hand, is something new. It’s Dream In Color Smooshy, 100% superfine Australian merino wool. The colours were so fabulous that I had a hard time deciding which one I liked best, so I took the three ones I liked best. Make sense? I’m glad I did, because the colours differ quite a lot from the pics on the manufacturer’s website. From the top: Chocolate Kiss, Gothic Rose and In Vino Veritas. I’m keeping the Gothic Rose one and have already bought more of it, enough for a sweater. This is sock yarn, but the skeins are huge and the yardage is really good: 450 yards per 100 grams. I’ve already sold the bottom one. Chocolate Kiss is still up for grabs. Any takers? Feel free to contact me on my e-mail or by leaving a comment.

ETA: Gone!

Tämä sen sijaan oli uusi tuttavuus. Lanka on Dream In Colorin Smooshyä, 100-prosenttista australialaista merinovillaa. Värit olivat niin upeita, etten osannut päättää, mistä pidin eniten. Niinpä tilasin kolmea parasta väriä! Värit ovat itse asiassa luonnossa aika erilaisia kuin valmistajan nettisivun kuvissa, joten kokeilu kannatti, varsinkin kun ylimääräiset voi aina myydä. Värit ovat ylhäältä lukien Chocolate Kiss, Gothic Rose ja In Vino Veritas. Pidin eniten Gothic Rosesta, joten ostin sitä jo lisää villapaidallisen verran. Lanka on sukkalankaa, mutta vyyhdit ovat todella muhkeita ja metrejäkin on 100 grammassa noin 415. In Vino Veritas löysi jo uuden kodin, mutta Chocolate Kiss on yhä vapaana. Jos olet kiinnostunut, lähetä meiliä tai jätä kommentti tähän postaukseen.

Edit: Meni jo!

On we go. Noro Silk Garden Lite, colourway 2013.

Eteenpäin. Noro Silk Garden Litea, väri 2013.

These I got mainly because they’re cashmere and… they were a bargain! The black ones are 100% cashmere (colourway 622) and the pale pink one is 50% cashmere and 50% silk (colourway 502). They’re both lace weight and let me just say… they’re incredibly, incredibly soft. Once I picked them up from the parcel it was hard to put them down! From Yubina.

Nämä ostin lähinnä siksi, että ne olivat kashmiria… eivätkä maksaneet paljon mitään! Mustat ovat 100-prosenttista kashmiria (väri 622), ja hennon vaaleanpunaisessa on puolet kashmiria ja puolet silkkiä (väri 502). Molemmat ovat pitsilankaa ja aivan käsittämättömän pehmeitä. Oikeasti niin pehmeitä, että kun ne kerran poimi paketista, niitä ei olisi millään malttanut laskea käsistään! Yubinasta.

As the year is coming to its end, it’s time to blog about the last yarns acquired this year. Without further ado:

Kun vuosi alkaa olla lopuillaan, on hyvä hetki esitellä loppuvuoden lankahankinnat. Suoraan asiaan siis:

Colinette Mohair, colourway Fire. Christmas present at the local knitters’ Christmas party. The colour is just delicious!

Tämä on Colinetten Mohairia, upea väri Fire. Pikkujoululahja. Tämä oli sokkolahja, mutta väri osui kertakaikkisen nappiin!

Knit Picks Gloss, colourway Dusk. Lovely, soft merino & silk yarn. Enough for a sweater. The picture doesn’t do the colour justice - it’s a beautiful, nighttime sky type of blue.

Knit Picksin Glossia, sävy Dusk. Villapaidallisen verran ihanan pehmeää merinovillaa ja silkkiä. Kuva ei tee värille oikeutta - se on todella kaunis yötaivaan sininen.

I also went yarn shopping in Tallinn. It’s a fantastic place to buy yarns - look what I got!

Tallinnassakin tuli käytyä lankaostoksilla:

TitanWool Merinos Extra, 100% merino wool, in two different shades of brown. I have some of this already and thought I might see if it could be used for a sweater, triple stranded, combining different shades of brown.

TitanWoolin Merinos Extraa kahdessa eri ruskean sävyssä. Olen ostanut tätä aiemminkin ja ajattelin kokeilla, saisiko siitä kolminkertaisena neulottuna villapaidan. Lanka on 100-prosenttista merinovillaa.

More brown merino wool! This is TitanWool Winner, also something I’ve used before, in a lovely chocolate brown colour. Again 100% merino wool and enough for a sweater.

Lisää ruskeaa merinovillaa! Tämä on TitanWoolin Winneriä, jota olen käyttänyt aiemminkin. Väri on todella syötävä suklaanruskea. Tämäkin on 100-prosenttista merinovillaa. Mukaan lähti villapaidallisen verran.

Then the real jackpot:

Sitten todellinen jättipotti:

A heap of ultimate Italian luxury yarn - merino wool, silk and cashmere! I saw this at a distance and could barely hold myself back at the sight of this - I could have grabbed it all! Unfortunately (or luckily) this shop only accepts cash and I run out of currency as soon as I started heaping this in my shopping cart. The colours were beautiful, but as you can see I resorted to my usual favourites red and black. What can you do? And besides, my knitting friends have assured me there’s no limit to how many red or black knitted sweaters or cardigans one can have…

Tässä on todellista luksuslankaa - merinoa, silkkiä ja kashmiria! Näin tämän jo jonkin matkan päästä ja pysyin tuskin nahoissani, kun näin tätä laarikaupalla ihanissa väreissä. Olisin voinut ottaa ne kaikki! Pahaksi (tai ehkäpä sittenkin hyväksi) onneksi tämä kauppa hyväksyy vain käteistä, joten rahat loppuivatkin sitten alta aikayksikön, kun rupesin näitä latomaan kärryyni. Kun kaikkia värejä ei voinut ottaa, niin otin sitten taas vakiovärejäni punaista ja mustaa. Minkäs teet? Onneksi kanssaneulojat ovat vakuuttaneet minulle, että ihmisellä ei voi olla liikaa neulepuseroita ja -takkeja, vaikka ne kaikki olisivatkin punaisia tai mustia.

That wasn’t all of it - I bought loads. 30 balls in all. Whoaa!

Tätä on siis paljon. Yhteensä 30 kerää. Nam.

And finally, a bag of black (again) sweater wool, superwash, 100% pure new wool. This is Nordic from Filatura Cervinia. It was cheap, black, pure wool and superwash - so I grabbed it.

Viimeisenä Tallinnan-ostoksena nappasin mukaan pussillisen villapaitalankaa, Filatura Cervinian Nordicia. Se oli halpaa, mustaa, täyttä villaa ja vieläpä konepestävää, joten miksipä ei?

More black wool, this time from Finland. This is from Pirtin Kehräämö, a local manufacturer. This is thick, undyed black wool, 100% wool from black sheep. Somehow I love the thought that this yarn is the colour of the sheep it came from, nothing artificial. A Christmas present.

Lisää mustaa villaa, Pirtin Kehräämön hahtuvalankaa. Väri on luonnonmusta, mustan lampaan villaa. On jotenkin ihana ajatus, että villa on oikeasti lampaan väristä. Tämän sain joululahjaksi.

And finally, a second Christmas arrived in our household with this parcel from the US. It’s Patons SWS, 70% wool and 30% soy, in the fantastic Natural Earth colourway. Just look at those colours! As far as I know this yarn is not available in Europe, so it was a real treat to get this.

Meillä koettiin toinen joulu, kun tämä paketti saapui välipäivinä USA:sta. Lanka on Patonsin SWS:ää, 70 % villaa ja 30 % soijaa, ja väri on upea Natural Earth. Tätä ei tietääkseni saa Euroopasta, joten tämä oli todellista herkkua.

I know have more than enough to knit from next year as well, so… All the best for the coming year, happy knitting, and thanks for reading my blog this year!

Nyt on sitten lankaa ensi vuodenkin tarpeisiin, ainakin vähäksi aikaa. Onnellista uutta vuotta, paljon mukavia neulomishetkiä ja kiitos, että pistäydyitte blogissani tänä vuonna!

Hiya, long time no see! It’s been a while since my last update. We’ve recently bought a new flat and moved, and all the buying, renovating, packing, moving, unpacking, and selling the old flat has left very little time to knit, let alone blog. This is the first time in my (albeit short) knitting history that I’ve actually gone for weeks without touching my needles. I’m also constantly weeks behind in blog reading, but now that things are slowly getting back to normal, it’s time to break the blog silence and try to get back on track.

Syvä hiljaisuus tällä blogirintamalla johtuu hiljattaisesta muutosta. Ostimme isomman asunnon, ja kaupanteon, remontin, pakkaamisen, muuton, uuden asunnon järjestelyn ja vanhan myynnin lomassa neulomiseen, saati bloggaamiseen, jäänyt aika on ollut liki nolla. Olen myös jatkuvasti viikkoja jäljessä muiden blogien seuraamisessa. Onneksi elämä alkaa vähitellen asettua uomiinsa uudessa kämpässä, tavarat alkavat löytää paikkojaan, ja minä olen taas löytänyt television ja sen myötä neulomisen.

Päätin myös kokeilla kahdella kielellä kirjoittamista. Tarkoituksenani oli alun perinkin tehdä tästä kaksikielinen blogi, mutta yhdellä kielellä kirjoittaminen vei jo niin paljon energiaa, että se vain jäi. Kokeillaan nyt ainakin, miten tämä luonnistuu. Saa rohkaista. :-)

As you see I’ve also decided to go bilingual since, by the look of that fun little map on the side there, most of my readers are in Finland.

Anyway, now some Knitting-Related Content, please!

One sign of getting over the whole moving hassle is buying yarn. I bravely resisted the sale at Cucumberpatch until one day I just snapped, and here’s the result. This is Jaeger Extra Fine Merino, both DK and Aran, in Aubergine, Jet and Cream. Rather nice - and at a very nice price. I also got some Debbie Bliss books with neat cable patterns to go with the yarns.

Yksi muutosta toipumisen merkki on langan ostaminen. Vastustin Cucumberpatchin alea urheasti, kunnes eräänä iltana rysähti. Yllä Jaegerin Extra Fine Merinoa sekä DK:na että aranina. Värit ovat Aubergine, Jet ja Cream. Pari Debbie Blissin kirjaakin tarttui mukaan. Kurkkupenkki on muuten käsittämättömän nopea: langat tulivat kotiin tasan kahdessa päivässä. Toisin kuin Seasonstore, josta paketti matkasi Suomeen kolme viikkoa. No, loppu hyvin, kaikki hyvin, sillä siinä niitä herkkuja vasta olikin:

Whereas Cucumberpatch delivered in an amazing two days from the UK to Finland, Seasonstore’s parcel took three weeks to arrive from Germany. Not that it wasn’t worth the wait: folks, here’s a box full of silk, merino wool, mohair and cashmere!

I got quite a bunch of Lana Grossa Tusshena, 55% silk and 45% mohair, enough for a sweater or cardi. The colourway is fabulous!

Ostin Lana Grossan Tusshenaa (55 % silkkiä, 45 % mohairia) aika reippaasti. Väri on tajuttoman kaunis, ja langan pitäisi riittää villapaitaan tai -takkiin, toivottavasti. Samaan syssyyn vetäisin pari kerää luksussukkalankaa, jossa on merinon ja silkin lisäksi myös kashmiria.

While I was at it, I also got some luxury sock yarn that contains not only silk and merino wool but also cashmere. Yum!

And, like the title says, I’m also knitting again, little by little. Pics to follow when I have some results to show.

Neulominenkin edistyy hiljalleen. Kuvia luvassa, kun on jotain näytettävää…

Can there be a happier sight than this?

A boxful of goodies from Knit Picks!

This is Alpaca Cloud, laceweight 100% baby alpaca, in both Peppermint and Smoke. I’ll probably make a new Hanami from the Peppermint - this colour is closer to the pinks that I can wear. I gave the first one to someone whom the colour suits really well.

This is Wool of the Andes, 100% Peruvian highland wool, shade Hollyberry. Perfect for Hedgerow Coat!

I also got a bunch of the new wooden Options.

Yes, it seems my prayers have been answered! The Options Harmony wooden needles are made of birch, and despite the Technicolor effect (honestly - why couldn’t they just make natural-coloured wooden needles?), I ordered a bunch of them as soon as they came out. And now they’re here! And to my surprise, they’re not as migraine-triggering as I feared. In fact, they are quite pretty and much less bright than in the pictures.

I switched them on to my then WIP (which is now a FO) immediately, and in action they look mostly like rosewood needles.

They’re also very light and have the lovely warm feel of wooden needles. I love them!

You may recognise that the lace piece in the picture is the Mystery Stole 3 at its last stage. It’s now finished; photos to follow as soon as I get organised.

Finally, the stuff from the Finnish Handicraft Fair in Helsinki last week. Yes, she’s been buying yarn again! In fact, she seems to be carrying home more yarn than she has time to blog about! And would you believe it, nothing red. No, this time it’s all brown (and a bit of white):

Malabrigo Aquarella, shade Coronilla, hand painted pure wool. Lovely, rich chocolaty-coffee colours with a hint of gold and honey. It’s super bulky - the recommended needle size is 9 mm! I should have enough for a decent-sized scarf, or I could make a smaller scarf and a hat. Any pattern suggestions? I haven’t knitted anything from bulky yarn before.

Here’s a closeup of the colours:

Mmmmm…

This was so interesting that I just had to grab it, all of it. It’s Handpainted Boutone Pure Wool Yarn from Handpainted Yarn. The name comes from the small bulky bits that can be found here and there, and those along with the individually painted threads that have then been spun into a 3-ply yarn are precisely what makes this yarn so fascinating.

Incidentally, I’ve been toying with an idea for a sweater design for a while now, looking for suitable yarn, and this could just be it! Let’s just hope that 400 g is enough.

This is King Cole Merino Blend, 100% pure new wool. The white ones are for a friend, and the chocolate brown is for me. It’s soft, thin, anti-tickle and superwash, and I think it will make a nice pair of gloves to go with the Malabrigo scarf.

And finally a bunch of Hjertegarn Ribboo, 50% bamboo and 50% soya. For a corset top.

I’ve also bought some books:

Vogue Stitchionaries 1 & 2…

…and some Zimmermanns.

The Book Depository is fantastic! They have books for more or less US retail prices (which is a fraction of what books cost here) and free delivery. And a nice selection of knitting books. Could book shopping get any easier?

This part consists of a Knit Picks order that came in while I was away.

This is Shimmer, 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk. The colourway is called Turquoise Splendor, and turquoise splendor it indeed is. Perfect for a Peacock Feathers Shawl, which intrigues me although I fear it will be far too big for me. There’s also enough for a regular winter scarf, just in case I’ll never get to wear the Peacock shawl…

I also got some Andean Treasure, 100% baby alpaca, in the Embers Heather colourway. You may remember that I bought some of this earlier; I suddenly panicked that I didn’t have enough for a sweater. This is for my peace of mind.

Now for the real surprise:

Options and I are back together! Thanks to a very helpful tip from Domesticshorthair about a lotion that makes it all possible. It creates a temporary shield between my hands and anything I touch, protecting the skin from contact allergies. I haven’t tried it with the Options needles yet, because - surprisingly - they lack the size I’ve been using in my recent projects, but I’ve tested it with other metallic items and honestly, it seems to work. A miracle!

I’m really happy about this, as despite fervent re-stocking of my needle stash with state-of-the-art Addi Laces and whatnots I’ve yet to come across anything as good as Options. Addi Laces are nice, especially the tips, but the Knit Picks cables are simply unbeatable, and I love the idea of always being able to pick the right cable length. I do prefer working with wooden and bamboo needles, but I also like circulars and have not yet been able to find wooden or bamboo circs with decent enough cables and joins. My ideal needles would be Knit Picks Options and fixed circulars in rosewood, but until that dream comes true, I’ll be very happy knitting away with these.

This one should actually be titled “Goodies from America, the Prequel” as I got it a while ago. (And as you see, I have actually been knitting as well.) It’s JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk, lace weight, 50% fine grade merino wool and 50% tussah silk. This shade is Lady Slipper, a rather strong pink. I got some in black as well, enough for two scarves or stoles. I have no particular projects in mind for it but it’ll be there when I need it.

Other recent acquisitions include a yarn swift, a wool winder and an electronic kitchen scale, bought for the sole purpose of weighing yarn. It’s all in the tools!

Coming up: goodies from Helsinki, as well as my first piece of lace knitting. Stay tuned.

When I left for the US, I was mentally drooling over all the North American treats most of us living in Europe never get the fondle in our local yarn stores: Lorna’s Laces, Koigu, Fleece Artist, Socks That Rock… I couldn’t wait to get my hands on that stuff! Now, this was of course first and foremost A Holiday Together, time to meet friends and go places, so driving routes were not to be planned according to which yarn stores I wanted to visit. Which in part resulted in none of the above-mentioned yarns finding their way in my stash.

Most of it I simply couldn’t find. Lorna’s Laces, which I’d been coveting ever since seeing the original Clapotis picture, was an exception. I had a couple of colourways in mind that I especially wanted to check out, having seen warying colourway behaviour when googling finished objects and therefore not daring to order it online. When I finally saw it live at a yarn store, I eagerly grabbed a hank, found the colourway not quite as striking as in the pictures, fondled it, thought about it, and put it back. It just didn’t speak to me. I do believe I’d like to try it one day, when I find the right hank, but this time there were other things around that looked more tempting.

Although our road trip took us to four states, I did all my yarn shopping in California. Thanks to Hapagirl, I got some shopping done in the Bay Area. In San Diego I spent a very fun day with Tuulia, talking yarn, fondling yarn, going through her stash and various WIPs and FOs, talking more yarn - oh, and did I mention shopping yarn? Michael and Jo-Ann were also very helpful with lots of small stuff.

My first stop was Artfibers in San Francisco. I’d heard a lot about it, and what an experience it was! I walked into the store, and my first reaction was surprise at how small it was. The next was horror as I saw the prices. Then a strange flutter near my heart when I looked at the yarns more closely. The store was full of natural fibres in fantastic colours, each more brilliant than the next. They had swatches of nearly everything, and the yarns seemed to knit up beautifully. Nevertheless, they were pricey. Right, I thought, these yarns may be gorgeous, but I’m definitely not buying anything. Nope, I’ll just look at them and savour the moment.

About half an hour, one swatch and an x-rated amount of dollars later I walked out of there with a bag of yarn, dazed and confused but definitely elated. Now how did that happen?

First my SO points out a lovely red thing, just my colour and 100% silk. Fantastic-looking swatch, too. Oaahh. Crave it, look at the price tag, and decide to leave it on the shelf.

Next he finds me a beautiful mixture of dark browns (I’m still way behind him, advancing slowly, taking it all in). There was no swatch on the shelf, so I ask if they had one. No, it was a new arrival, but would I like to knit a bit myself? Oh well, why not, I thought - at least I’ll get to have a small Artfibers experience even if I can’t take any of it home. The friendly woman asks for my needle preferences - straight or circular, bamboo or metal - and has me sit down in one of their comfy chairs. I start knitting, and the thing is just divine. It’s dreamy soft, and the colours behave just as they should. Knitted up, the yarn has even more variety than on the cone. And the softness… My heart starts beating faster and faster, and my breathing gets heavy. I absolutely must have this yarn, no matter what. I may not need it, but I have to have it.

I buy all of it. (They didn’t have very much.)

Artfibers Quipu, colour #12, 100% baby alpaca. The softest thing ever. It may not look like much on the cone, but wait till you see it knitted up!

And while I’m at it, I grab the red one as well. A couple, in fact, to make sure I don’t run out.

Artfibers Golden Chai, colour #23, 100% golden tussah silk. Fabulous.

On we go. In the next store I find a wall full of these South American roses:

A bunch of them now adorn my humble stash.

It’s Manos del Uruguay, 115 Flame. Hand crafted, kettle dyed pure wool.

Chasing Rainbows was something I hadn’t come across before:

They had fantastic colours and absolutely brilliant reds. This one isn’t even from their “reds” shelf; it’s much darker and almost sombre compared to the real reds.

It’s 118 grams of their superwash 100% merino sock wool. Very soft, with beautiful, subtle shades of wine and plum, and a bit of chili and tomato peeking out here and there.

This was also too yummy to be left behind. It didn’t look like my colour at first, but the more I circled it - it’s so silky and soft that I went back to pat it again and again - the more it spoke to me. It’s another Chasing Rainbows yarn, 50% merino and 50% tencel, and it feels heavenly to touch. I could have sworn it was silk. This will replace the JitterBug Mist that was a little too bright for my taste after all.

Finally, a bit of Noro. You may remember that I wasn’t very impressed with its tendency to stripe when knitting my first Clapotis, but this is a colourway I’d had my eyes on for a long time. When it stared at me right in the eye, I had to take some of it home. For old times’ sake.

(The friend I was shopping with also happened to mention the magic words: camel hair coat.)

It’s Noro Silk Garden, shade 47. Later I heard that it’s been discontinued, so it’s a good thing I grabbed a few. Now all I need is that coat and a smashing scarf pattern. Any ideas?

Now, on to book stores. Couldn’t buy everything I wanted due to luggage restrictions, but I did get some magazines.

I rushed to buy the latest issue of Interweave Knits the day it came out, because I’d already seen in the previews that it had a cardigan that simply screamed my name. And while I was at it, I bought the latest Vogue Knitting as well.

I also got a bunch of back issues of IK plus Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles by Cat Bordhi. It was slim and weighed next to nothing, and I’ve heard good things about it.

In addition I got about two bags full of small stuff - needles, buttons, stitch markers, beads, a massive pile of t-pins and other nice knittery things, and, surprisingly, some sewing stuff as well. Now, I don’t sew, do I? Errh, not yet, but I absolutely crave this. As soon as I find the right material, it’ll be time to dig out the old sewing machine.

Out of the small stuff, this has so far proved to be the most useful purchase:

Proper needle holders. Yes, they do make a difference compared to rubber bands and hair elastics. Love ‘em.

My stash had already grown to somewhat substantial measures, at least by my standards, but as if it wasn’t enough, I spent a sunny Saturday yarn shopping in Tallinn, Estonia, with Marjut and Niina. We took the morning ferry in, rushed from one yarn store to another, had dinner, stopped by one more yarn store and took the evening ferry back.

Our first stop was Karnaluks, also known as Addi heaven - a wholesale store with an amazing amount of yarn and a wall full of Addi needles.

Happy shoppers in Tallinn.

Since I parted ways with the lovely Options needle set that was more or less supposed to satisfy my needle needs for the rest of my life, there just seems to be no end to my needle stashing. I basically went to Karnaluks to buy one 2.5 mm bamboo circular, but they didn’t have any. Somehow I ended up with 6 other circulars that I didn’t really need, at least not that badly. I’ve been admiring the needle rolls many knitters have, thinking I should try to make one for myself, but at this rate it seems a sleeping bag would be more appropriate to hold all my needles.

I also got two balls of regular Fortissima sock yarn and a whole lot of stuff I didn’t really need, such as wooden buttons, although I have no intentions whatsoever of knitting a cardigan. But they were cheap and they were there, and if I ever should feel like knitting a cardigan, I’ll already have some nice wooden buttons. How’s that for reasoning?

At the next store our attention was focused on huge hanks of TitanWool 100% laceweight merino wool. I was on a mission to buy some for Villasatu, but couldn’t help fondling the yarns even after we’d chosen the colours for her. It was so lovely that at first glance I thought the label read “irresistible” although it in fact read “irrestringible”…

Those of you who have been reading this blog know I’ve never knitted a lace shawl, and those of you who know me in person could probably never imagine me wearing a lace shawl. I’ve admired them on many blogs and think they look beautiful, but they’re not my style at all. So what do I do? Buy a hank of laceweight merino wool for a lace shawl. That I’m going to knit. I think.

Got a black one, the only imaginable colour for a lace shawl for me. Only somehow, when I was already at the counter, I found myself running back to get another one. And then another. In the end I left the store with four merino hanks.

The second one from the left is a very dark chocolate brown, and the one on the right is the black one.

Honestly I don’t know how that happened, and as we left the store I was already starting to regret my lapse. I’m not a lace knitter - what the hell will I do with all this laceweight yarn? I was quickly reminded of my stash philosophy and the undying words “stash is a security blanket”. Yeah, right. My blanket will soon be big enough to cover the entire Olympic stadium.

I also got three balls of thicker TitanWool merino. The colours just looked so good together. The SO is going to get a new winter scarf.

After this we went to several stores where I didn’t buy anything, but the last store sold thick Estonian wool and I completely lost my self control. You’ll never believe it, but I got this:

Yep, it’s totally Technicolor! I would never even have dreamed of buying anything that gaudy had Niina not shown me this. We figured this yarn would suit the pattern - it certainly is very rainbowish. I prefer sweaters over cardis and am not crazy about the box-like shape either, but I’ll see if I can modify the pattern a bit. I love the use of colour in that pattern and find the idea of faux fair isle very appealing.

The shop was full of fantastic colour combinations and I couldn’t resist buying some more.

The one on the left has fantastic autumn colours, and the one on the right has different shades of red, my favourite colour. These will make sweaters and/or scarves.

The situation may not seem that bad in the pictures, but there’s yarn everywhere now and all that wool was heavy to carry. The Estonian wool hanks are humongous, about 300 g each, and I can tell you I was embarrassed to walk around with my bursting plastic bags. The others were wiser and brought backpacks; the amateur went shopping with a small handbag and had to carry everything in huge plastic bags.

Us knitters know that yarn is an addictive substance just like alcohol and tobacco, but thank god there are no import restrictions on yarn - I would totally have been busted at the customs.

Let’s keep it a secret, shall we? I’m up for a new yarn shopping trip to Tallinn any time.

Someone went a little ga-ga on eBay.

Now all I need is some more circulars and I should be done… for a while.

And while I was at it, I got myself a couple of crochet hooks as well…

…because a girl can never know when she feels the urge to learn to crochet.

BTW, something quite weird has happened. I’ve found out that the people at the post office know me. I don’t have to show my ID when picking up a parcel, and last time they even rang me at work to say my goodies had arrived so I could go and pick them up on my way home, without having to go home to fetch the package slip first. They had even set my package aside for me under the counter. Now that’s what I call good service!

What’s weird about this is that we’re not talking about any old village post office where everyone knows everyone but one in central Helsinki. And it’s not like I go there every day, either. I’ve only been there to pick up the latest additions to my stash, and I haven’t ordered that much yarn, have I?

Be that as it may, I have been doing some knitting as well. The JitterBug Mist that I was a bit disappointed in and was actually thinking of selling started to whisper in my ear from the bottom of the stash bag. She was saying that instead of a scarf & gloves she could be a nice pair of socks. I toyed with the idea for a while and decided to give it a go. And she is lovely! Like her brother Jay, she’s a true pleasure to knit, and it turns out she has some surprises up her sleeve as well. You never know which colour she’ll whip up next: pearl grey, steel, dark purple, mauve, pale pink, magenta, boysenberry…

Here are some sneak peeks:

These just may become my favourite socks.

First, the yarn shipment has arrived. It got here earlier this week just in time for the monthly knitting meeting where the new owner of the Options set was already waiting for her new toys, so I rushed from work to the post office and from there to the meeting. The parcel contained replacement bamboo circulars for the project the Options were in, so I got to open the parcel in front of all the knitters, replaced the needles, handed over the Options set, and everybody got to fondle the new yarn.

This is what I got:

Louisa Harding Grace, 50% silk and 50% merino wool, shade 4. Lovely, soft, silky, shiny. For a scarf and possibly gloves, if it’s not too thick.

Trekking Pro Natura, shade 1603. Socks for the SO, finally. It took a long time to find a good colourway for him, and I believe this is just right.

And finally, you guessed it, two hanks of JitterBug. These are Velvet Damson and Velvet Plum. I’m a total sucker for this yarn - I can’t help it. I also seem to be getting quite a reputation already. People at the KIP picnic yesterday were saying that I should get a yarn winder because I buy so much JitterBug!

I also got some needles:

While I like bamboo and wooden needles, I’m also going to try the new metallic Addi Lace circulars, which contain no nickel and are apparently as sharp as the Options, which I liked a great deal.

With the new bamboo circulars, I got the scarf going again and finished it yesterday, after a long, sunny day of KIPing and picnicing in a park. Thank you all who were there, it was a lot of fun!

Pattern: Here and There Cables Scarf
Designer: Norah Gaughan, Scarf Style
Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk, Hollyberry, 7 balls
Needles: Knit Picks Options 4.5 mm circular & Clover Takumi 4.5 mm bamboo circular

The finished scarf is lovely, thick, chunky, and very warm. I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again: the pattern is ingenious. It’s extremely simple, yet results in an intricate jungle of cables that go every which way but are also symmetrical. And what’s best, there is no “wrong” side. The scarf looks exactly the same on both sides!