My Indie Yarn problem continues...

Yet more gorgeous parcels made their way through the post to me this weekend courtesy of Etsy!

The first was this gorgeous pink/red/purple yarn from Marley Yarns, its a 4 ply sock yarn (75% merino and 25% nylon) in the Parrot 4 colour way.

Unlike the last set of yarns that insisted on being brighter in real life than in photos, this one is slightly darker in person.  It also is one that was bought for a specific reason!

My other purchase was from TheNakedSkein / Frankenskein Yarns on Etsy.

The first is a 100% Superwash BFL 4-ply yarn in medium green:

The other is a collection of mini-skeins in a rainbow of colours, which is 50% merino and 50% tencel - this is arguably the squishiest of the yarns bought so far, and its a mix of fibres that I'd definitely consider buying for other projects!

All of these yummy yarns are for use (at some point in the hopefully near future) in this:

Image copyright Heidi Bears

Since I really can't afford to buy several different colours of yarn for this one, unless I make it in Stylecraft that will give a much larger finished project, I figured that a smaller set of coloured yarns, some variegated yarn and a set of green for the body would be a good compromise!

A weekend excursion...

Yes, I'm aware that this is almost a week past the point that it happened, but I've had one of those weeks where I've barely stopped rushing around like a madwoman!!

So, at the beginning of February, I was one of the few people lucky enough to get our requests into Lucy of Attic 24 whilst she still had places left on her March workshop (Lucy's post about it here).

I dragged myself out of my nice warm and cosy bed at 6am... on a Saturday!!!! I'm not a morning person at the best of times, but it always seems worse to be up at that time on a weekend for some reason!

Anyway, up I got and to the station I went. I could have driven, but jumping on a train meant that I could relax on the way there, do a little reading or crochet if I wanted to, and didn't have to fight my way through to a parking space!!

I headed up to Lucy's studio, which sits over the lovely Cooper's cafe. They make wonderful coffee, sell gorgeous tea cakes, and have the most amazing menu that I have ever seen in a cafe!!

Anyway, the purpose was, of course, the workshop for this lovely little fellow:

He's not completely finished, there's still some decoration to be done, but I grin like a loon every time I spot him on the back of my living room door!

Lucy was exactly as lovely and nice in person as she is when she writes on her blog, and the time absolutely flew by in a blur of crochet, chatter and really good pastries! I had an absolutely brilliant time, despite how tired I was Sunday, and it's definitely something I'd do again given a chance... I may or may not be stalking Lucy's blog for mention of future workshops...

Lucy was also kind enough to let us take random pictures around her studio (and I seriously want somewhere as cosy and pretty as that!!), so I present a pic-spam of my saturday...

WIP Wednesday

Only a couple of things in progress this week that I can post about here...

I finally managed to get enough decent light to photograph the progress on my ripple blanket:

I started my Elise Shawl:

And finished off February on my OUAT sampler:

In which I am incapable of self-restraint...

...at least, I am when it comes to shiny new yarn!! Though in my (somewhat patchy) defense, most of it was purchased with a definite project in mind! 

My new-found obsession is indie yarns! I think it started when I was reading Stitched Together's Blog and saw her lovely pictures of hand dyed and hand spun yarns. While I realise that I don't have the time to learn another new craft (no matter how wonderful spinning my own yarn sounds), it's much easier to buy a few very nice new yarns and to support independent crafters.

It's also, of course, more expensive *cough*

Anyway, off I wandered to various links and to Etsy, and back I came eventually with my bank account several pounds lighter and several very nice parcels due to arrive over a week or two!

These are the lovely, squishy, shiny, gorgeously yarns that have arrived so far! 

Anyway, the first two to arrive were Babylonglegs semi-solid sock yarns, which are 3-ply 100% merino in the "Pie" and "Feel the Teal" colourways:

If I'm honest, these give me ever so slightly mixed feelings: they're both wonderfully soft, really rather pretty and I do love them... but they look much brighter in pictures than in real life. I've discovered similar problems with some of the others looking more green in person than in pictures, though I suspect that might just be the way my eyes work - everyone sees colours differently after all.

These are the only one's I bought with no real project in mind, although considering how soft they feel I think at least one of them will have to become a scarf... maybe both of them in a houndstooth pattern since they're both blue based.

The second yummy parcel I got to open (seriously, Wednesday was like my birthday considering the number of exciting parcels I got to open) was from Jelliebean Yarns on Etsy - the Stardust Sock Yarn in the Peacocks colourway. This is 75% merino, 20% nylon and 5% brilliantly sparkly silver thread. 

This was bought for my current on-the-go small-ish project - the Elise Shawl. This has been in my queue for ages, I've just been debating over a suitable yarn to use. It was a little hard to photograph - mostly because it started raining as I was taking pictures of stuff, but also because this is going to need pretty heavy blocking once it's finished.  

The final parcel that arrived the other day was this scrummy yarn from Artist's Palette Yarns.

This is the Smoothie Sock yarn in the "Walk in the Downs" colourway - it's 75% merino and 25% nylon, and is a wonderful mass of greens, yellows and blues. This is actually intended for socks!! Since my knitting is laughable I've been hunting through crochet patterns, and this is the one I've singled out so far... though it may change at some point before I start.

All of my stash yarns and my planned projects are linked through my Ravelry profile... and there will no doubt be another gleeful post like this when my other parcels arrive!