Wonderwool haul

In spite of the fact that I have not yet knitted up everything I bought when I went to Wonderwool in 2010*, I merrily toddled off to Wonderwool 2012 yesterday with some lovely ladies from Saturday knitting group. This was the first knitting show I'd been to since my last foray to Wonderwool, thanks to my weird ebb in interest in knitting during 2011, and it was very exciting. I went with two purchases in mind: vintage buttons from Brimstone (no website yet), and enough hemp for a summer top from House of Hemp.

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.