Bags of Yarn

Work continues on the Kauni jumper. I have started the steeks. I put the first stitch of the round on a safety pin and cast on one edge stitch, eight steek stitches and one more edge stitch (ten in total). I'm keeping both edge stitches in the background colour and working the remaining eight steek stitches in a chequerboard pattern (less chance of the whole lot coming undone when the cutting happens.) No pictures of that yet but there will be.

I promised to make my "not-a-Barbie" sister-in-law a bag for some posh do she's going to next month. We finally settled on "Clyde" by Sarah Hatton from Rowan #38. There is one of those "I'm a fashion photographer, I don't do clear" pictures here. Since you won't be able to see that, let me just tell you that it is a small, felted bag with a ribbon for a handle, which goes through a "button hole" in the bag to fasten it. The yarn suggested is Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran, which has, of course, been discontinued. Substitute suggestion is Rowan Scottish Tweed, which doesn't have the right colour. I searched through the stash - I just need one skein of 100% non-superwash wool in a chocolate brown. With all the yarn that is in my house (just about enough to start my own yarn shop, if you must know) you wouldn't think that was a "big ask". Well, it was. I've got the right colour, wrong composition. I've the right composition, wrong colour. There was only one thing for it - off to the yarn shop.

You wouldn't believe that they didn't have any suitable yarn either, would you. Nicky-in-the-shop even offered me some of her own stash (but she didn't have the right colour either). I'm starting to tear my hair out at this stage. When I say "next month" I actually mean "next week" (which is, after all, next month), so time is of the essence.

Google was my friend and I found a stockist of Cascade 220 in the UK. A new-to-me yarn shop, first4yarns. I honestly cannot praise them highly enough.

I telephoned yesterday morning with a couple of queries about colours and yarn requirements. Very nice lady, very helpful, very pleasant. She said it was easier to order on-line, which I duly did. This was at 10am. I went off to work. . She sent me an email at 1pm (which I didn't get because I was at work) saying the order was packed but there had been a problem with my credit card and would I phone, or email so she could send it that afternoon. At 2.15 she telephoned and got 'im indoors, who was able to sort out the problem. When I got home I replied to her email to thank her for her diligence. To which she responded, in part, "we are always worried when Husbands answer the phone as we know often wool stashing is top secret". What a hoot! (True though, obviously they understand their target audience.)

The postman came up trumps and I was rewarded with this little lot:



Two skeins chocolate brown Cascade 220 for the "Clyde" bag.



Two skeins lime green Cascade for the body of another bag.



Pattern for the Noni "Two Versions of Two Felted Evening Bags", aforementioned lime green yarn and one skein fuchsia for the flowers round the top.

Sorry about the dark picture, the previous one of the lime green yarn gives a much better impression of the vibrant colour.

Don't forget to check out first4yarns - they were brilliant.

I know it's Saturday, though I did start writing this post yesterday and then had all kinds of problems with uploading the pics (don't get me started). It's early here and I haven't been out to take a picture of the back field but it's still there.