Let's begin with the buttons. The lady at Brimstone, when she saw me poring over her Victorian black glass selection, gave me her entire stash and cleared a space for me to sit on her sofa. I was overwhelmed! I came away with some lovely bits and pieces -

I think my favourite is the top left - so very unusual. The little ladybird buttons are from the Button Lady, and I have not included in my slightly inept collage a set of 9 smaller Victorian black glass buttons; the haul was definitely a good one. Eagle eyed long-timed readers might recognise the black star button as the very same design to the one I bought at Wonderwool last time and used on my Christmas hat. I sadly broke the one on my Christmas hat using it to hit my friend in a lift (long story) and although I glued it back together I fear I may one day have to replace it; now I can, though this is a smaller version of the design.
I did buy some hemp, too, though not enough for a garment. I should have been a bit better planned as I had intended to buy a 500g skein but they didn't have any in the solid colours and I didn't know how much I would need so I bought a skein of 2-ply and another of 4-ply and intend to do some swatching.

So, that must be all I bought, right?
Oh dear.
We started, of course, at Knitwitches where I instantly fell in love with some silk the colour of the Mediterranean in the sun, and some cashmere in a deeper blue, but I made myself come away with just this Merino-Angora blend which was in the sale bin, and which Eirwen calls a light chunky but which would be worsted in any other language, I think. I want to knit some kind of bulky cowl with it; I don't have a red scarf.

Sorry about the blurry picture, but the colour is quite true and that's the main thing, right?
Continuing with the red theme, I bought some Merino DK from Knitting By Numbers. They had an enormous range of shades and a great display - most saturated of the colours at the top with paler version in the rows underneath. Naturally I went for the top row but had trouble deciding between my usual bright blue and a very fetching red. In the end I remembered I had some bright blue mohair I bought last year still waiting for its project, so I went with the red. I have ear-marked this for a Flutter Sleeve Cardigan.

Then, on my way to buy some buttons, I saw this winking at me from the edge of a stall. It was quite a splurge but it's OMGSOSPARKLY and I really couldn't leave it behind. The colourway is Deep Water and it reminds me a lot of Lorna's Laces Blueberry Snowcone, which I intended to buy in the Lion & Lamb but the colour's now discontinued in that yarn. And it came with a free pattern. Yes, I am trying hard to justify my splurge.

Finally, a last-minute purchase of some sock yarn from bluefaced.com. I really liked the subtle sparkle in this yarn but discounted it because, you know, I don't actually knit socks and also the idea of white sock yarn is anathema to me. But then I was peeking at my queue on Ravelry to try and find a good hemp project and I remembered that the Apres Surf hoodie is knitted in sock weight. SOLD.

I also got some very cute stitch markers, some earmarked as gifts.

That is quite a haul. Looking at it is very enjoyable, as is thinking about what I will knit with it. It also inspired me to finish up a project I had OTNs made from stash yarn today: out with the old and in with the new, so to speak. Though if I want to go to Wonderwool next year I had better get a move on with getting this lot knitted up. At least I didn't succumb to the Knitwitches.
* Let's be honest here - having looked back over my haul from last time, I realise I haven't knitted up ANYTHING I bought when I went to Wonderwool in 2010, much to my shame, though I have used the roving for thrums on the first of a pair of mittens.
2 comments:
I've still got stuff in my stash from my first visit to Wonderwool, back in 2008!
And I think I saw you in the queue for food from the Indian stand, but I was concentrating too much on keeping warm and finding my friend to say hello. Next year maybe...
Oh that was me, queuing! I wish you'd said hello, it would have been great to meet you.
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