Shop Update 25th September

September, September.
Are you ready for Halloween crafting?

This week brings Zombie Unicorn in both fibre and yarn, as well as some new stripies.

Shop Update 18th September

This week's shop update sees the return of our lovely Aussie merino top. It's such a squishy fibre. And it now comes in a larger put-up for your spinning enjoyment.
Prefer something with a bit more grip? Try the Corriedale!

There are also some lovely stripies and variegated yarns.

Shop Update 11th September

Super Deadly Kawaii

Today's shop update had to fight last minute Sock The Vote work and a four-day gas outage (resulting in no stove and no hot water, and thus, no dyeing).

Shipwreck Coast

But it brings several new colourways, including one inspired by a souvenir from Japan, and two that showcase Australia's coastal beauty.
Of course there's some self-striping, too.

Lacy Loligoth

Have a look, I hope you find something you love!

Bipartisan Socks

There are few things I enjoy knitting as much as socks. Especially bright, cheery socks. In fact, a very large part of my stash was bought with the thought of "Ooh, pretty. That'd be great for socks." The rest were bought after just the first sentence, but never mind.Sometimes, I buy yarn for other things, but overwhelmingly, it's socks.
I love socks so much, I jumped on the chance to show my political side at Sock The Vote, an event so incredibly full of win, it defies description.
And then along came Megan, incredibly fun co-host of the awesomely named podcast Stockinette Zombies. She's designing a sock. Not just any sock. A bipartisan sock that brings together the two parties. You know. Cuff-down or toe-up.Now, I've knit socks from the cuff. And from the toe. And I've loved them both ways. So when I had a chance to test-knit this awesome pattern, I just couldn't wait to get started!I'd been wanting a fun, slip-stitch pattern to show off this wildly variegated Woolen Mill St yarn, and finally, I had the perfect combination.Then our gas went out. A weekend of waiting for people to assess the problem, and then set about fixing it (which involved open flames, a half-dozen plumbers, a cement truck and enough pipes to fill a Mario level, from what I could tell) gave me a lot of knitting time.So these got done in record time, and they are fantabulous! Love them so very much.

So which one are you? Toe-up? Cuff-down? Or -gasp! - not a sock knitter at all?

RIP Watercress

Watercress were my first mystery socks. My first lace socks. My first green socks. Eleven months ago, I struggled with them, ripped out the cuff and redid it.
I loved these socks and wore them pretty often.
Now there's a hole in the sole and the pretty lace pattern has felted over.
It's time to let go.
They were nice socks. But they wouldn't survive the zombie apocalypse.

The Rockefeller saga

Casting On

Did you knit along with the Summer Mystery Shawl by Stephen West this year?
I missed last year's Earth & Sky craze (and conveniently ignored the mixed response), and this year, I was in.
It was fun to play along. A lot of us posted potential yarns and colour combos, and many of us got a response from the designer himself, giving us hints on what might or might not work in his design.

I got a response, too. I'd been looking for an excuse to use up my parrot-bright Zauberball Crazy, and I paired it up with one of my all-time favourite yarn/colour combos, Wollmeise 100% in Maus Jung, a gorgeous light grey.

Clue 1

I adored clue 1 when it came out. It's very Spectra-esque, which of course meant Spectra jumped into my queue, too.
Then things got a bit meh. Clue 2 really didn't work for me in the yarn I chose. The change of colour flow direction bothered me. it looked a bit clown ruffle.

Clue 2

But part of the mystery is the joy of knitting, so I kept going on while being slightly envious of the gorgeously elegant solid-coloured options that kept popping up in the spoiler thread.

Clue 3

I loved knitting clue 3, and it brought my colours in again. It didn't balance clue 2 (I don't think a whole circus tent could have balanced that!), but it was pretty. You know. Once you got past picking up a million, jillion stitches.
This shawl was sure shaping up to be a great exercise in basic knitting-related skills I always needed.

Then came clue 4. Stripes. I love stripes! Never mind that my yarn balls were getting teeny-weeny (that's technical for less than 10g remaining). I was adding wings to the design, just as I'd hoped.
Excdept, tehse wings were loooooooooooooong. really long. And my yarn was getting short.
No problem. I've got some Araucania Solid floating around, ina  red and a green that kind of match the ends of the Zauberball spectrum. I'll just use those for the tips and I'll be fine.

Clue 4

Yeah. Fine.
Except, once I started the second wing (you think second SOCK syndrome is bad? Try second ginormous wing.), it was clear I was going to run out of the Wollmeise, too. How do you run out of a Wollmeise skein?? These things are huge!

Fun fact about my shawl knitting, I roll them up and tie them down as I knit them so the turning each row isn't sucha  tangled mess. I knew the blob was heavy, but running out of two skeins of yarn made me realise how huge this shawl was going to be.

Fortunately, I had some more Maus Jung in Twin, and while it pained me to break into a skein I had (vague, very vague) plans for, it couldn't be helped. All for a good cause, right?

It's a bike cosy!

And then I finished the shawl. And unwrapped it. And held it up.
I had knit a circus entrance way! This thing measures almost 3 metres tip to tip. And that's before blocking!
Holy mother of shawls, Batman.

I gave the thing a light soak and patted it down. no way was I going to block it. For starters, I don't own enough floor to lay this thing out. Also, it's already rather large.
In fact, it may not be a shawl at all!

I wasn't sure I love it. I mean sure, it's big and it's colourful and it's certainly unique.
But I'm just not sure how much wear I'll get out of it.
I might be looking at it the wrong way though. It's getting to spring here, and it's certainly rarely shawl weather in balmy Melbourne.
But maybe this is the perfect shawl for travelling to Northern winter. It'd probably be an awesome shawl-slash-blanket on a plane.
What do you think?

Unicorns

Aaah, unicorns. Whinnying and deadly. (Just ask Diana Peterfreund. No really, do!) A quick search on Ravelry reveals an amazing array of unicorn patterns, from headbands to doorstops, to the fabulously named Unicorn Barf scarf.
But most of them are of the happy, sparkly variety.
What I'm looking for is something a little more in line with the true, sinister nature of unicorns. Something that will go great with a skein of Zombie Unicorn. I'm thinking a shawl...
Any ideas?