I bought yarn

which really should come as no surprise.

I went on my second SkipNorth to Haworth and I bought yarn.

I really did plan my spending this year - I knew I wanted yarn to make "Star Cross'd Love" and I wanted some yarn to make "Twist and Shout" and I wanted some skinny (technical term) yarn for general lace knitting.

It all went right out of the window when the very first thing I saw at our very first stop (Coldspring Mill) was this:



A kilo of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk for only £30. This would have cost £130 at my LYS. Quite a saving. I don't quite know what I'm going to make with it but something will come to mind.

I got back on track with my next two purchases:



A kilo of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK for only £20 (£84 in the shops). I thought this would do for Twist and Shout but I'm also leaning towards Alice Starmore's "St Brigid" I need to do a bit of swatching. Swatching? Wash your mouth out with soap.



1.150kg of Twilley's Freedom Wool (looking very loud in the picture - in reality it's a beautiful muted rust colour. This is what I plan to use for "Star Cross'd Love" and, in fact, I've started.



I'm having a little difficulty because the pattern is written for only one size and that size is OS/S. There is no way that I fit into that category and so I'm having to resize the pattern but because the structure is "interesting" I'm not quite sure where to do my tweaking. I've made the first piece (above) much longer than the 27 rows the pattern says. All this is made much harder by the fact that there is no schematic with the pattern and no row gauge is given, so I don't know how long this "left front" should be. I'm guessing that it's the bit you can just about see in the picture with the pattern - the bit that goes from the shoulder down to the under arm. I'm not quite sure how long this should be. I know the cardie is quite close fitting but I do want to be able to get my arm into it. I shall refer to the ever-reliable Montse Stanley's "Knitting your own designs for a perfect fit" and see if she can shed any light.

I bought other stuff, too and I've been doing plenty of knitting but all that will have to wait because Ann-at-someone-else's-work is coming to take me out for lunch.