Acquisitions - a list

Intellectually I understand that I am not going to finish knitting my stash. Yarn goes out, and yarn comes in. I also know that since I use about a kilometre of yarn a month, I have to average a kilometre and a half of yarn in or I will run out of yarn ... in about a year. Still, I am always surprised at how much yarn (and now fibre) arrives at my house.

These stunners are from the Ixchel fibre club. I signed up for a three month subscription after I did some spinning last year and early this year, but I'm stuck in the "I don't know what i want to spin for so I'm not spinning" cycle. I did sign up for Jillian Morena on Patreon, so hopefully I'll learn some new things about spinning.

This is from Stranded in Oz. Yep, the club yarns keep on rolling in, delighting and stressing me out in equal measure.

This skein is Miss Babs (not local, for a change!) which I threw in when I put in an order from Signature Needle Arts, after I lost a DPN on a night out.

And this is my big purchase for the month. One of the "Bendigo sweaters" selected by the Richmond Knitters for 2021 is Andrea Mowry's Winters Beach Cardigan. Delightful. I knew I wanted to knit it in a local yarn, in a natural colour. I had some thoughts in mind, but when Briony (formally Briony Yarn Artist) was destashing this, I said "yes please" so incredibly fast.

It's corriedale/silk, spun up by the Great Ocean Road Woollen Mill as a sample and never moved into production. It's got a slight sheen and an amazing sheepy smell. I've got a kilogram of it, and am hoping that will be enough for this cardigan, and maybe a jumper for Leon. if not, I can always dye it up for something else.

And that's my yarn in for the moment. Stashcount is16,020. One day I'll see it at below 10 kilometres. If I don't buy any yarn before Bendigo I might make that goal. But probably not. I'll end up spinning a bunch, or getting some from a destash, or needing something specific for a project. You know how it goes...

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Linky Wednesday - the one with the pause

In meditation it's said that the pause between the in breath and the out breath is a gap, a space to rest. Well, I'm in that in-between space for reading, listening and knitting. This is a random photo of a highlight of my week - I filled up my lolly jar. These are just supermarket party mix. During the lockdowns, we sources a great pick-and-mix delivery service, but at some point they started sending from the UK, which is a bit silly. Rachey messaged me a new one she found, and I impulsed purchased a kilo of mixed lollies, and then she sent me a link to the biggest lolly shop in Melbourne, which also delivers sweets by the kilogram, so i think I'm sorted for the rest of the year! In reading I've just finished The Beckoning Lady by Margery Allingham . It's the second last book in the Summer of Mystery, and I have to admit, having now read nine Margery Allingham books, that they are OK. I wouldn't have read them if they were not connected to this club, but on...

Why Andrea Mowry, why? (A rant and a rather nice finished object)

As mentioned, prior to our hiking trip I suddenly, and rather randomly, decided to knit Andrea Morwy's Traveler Shell . It's basically an open fronted rectangle in a knit purl pattern. The pattern is FOURTEEN pages long. Why is the pattern 14 pages long? Because, instead of explaining the ten row repeat and then putting the shaping on top of that (e.g. decrease while continuing to knit in pattern), she writes out the entire ten row knit purl sequence every time something changes. Additionally, most of the time she starts with even number being the right side and wrong numbers being the right side,which is just plain odd. It's confusing and it's like she wants to keep you looking at the pattern for every row, rathe than following the very intuitive stitch pattern, which I had memorised after one repeat. The instructions for the band just say 'pick up x number of stitches'. No ratios, no acjnowledgement that different bits of the band have different ratios. Afte...

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises.

What I made, by Sharon

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