Buy British

With the news that Britain is in a worse recession than the experts expected, I continue my one knitter quest to boost the economy.

Exhibit one: Big sporting event themed stitch markers from Fripperies and bibelots. Shhh, don't say olympic or we all might get arrested.

Exhibit Two: Vampire's Kiss stitch markers. 

 I felt a bit bad yesterday morning when I was waiting for the stitch markers to arrive.  I am using about 30 at the moment, of the 50 I bought before, so that brings the total to 70, and then I ordered a club set that will be sent out next week.  When they arrived though, I didn't feel bad anymore.  They are pretty and they live up to the claim of snag free and they make me happy.  I have decided not to buy anymore for a while though, as each time I see a set I like, I will end up buying four or five as I have very little self control.  I'd rather have one in every colour or not at all than just one.

Exhibit Three: Sirene, BFL and Wensleydale 600m per 100g, from The Natural Dye Studio

This is lovely, less orange than I expected but still a lovely peachy colour.  It does have a sheepy smell but it's not as strong as another hank I have, which as I type, I realise I haven't blogged. So that could be another exhibit but I'll leave it for now.

Exhibit Four: Spyder Silk, 420m per 100g

I bought this in case my aunt is too allergic to wool to wear her Percy#3, in which case I'll keep it and knit her something in purple silk.  Unless she also doesn't like pale purple, in which case I'll keep everything.

Exhibit Five: Sparkle Sock, 600m per 150g in Midnight Purple from Fyberspates

This is for a Rock Island for my mum and it's so beautiful I have already wound it and am itching to start.  I'm going to keep to my new rule of not starting a something until another is finished so either that will be Echo Flowers or Simplicity cardigan.  I'm alternating between the two as a whim takes me and making use of my stitch markers on both.

Shopping trip

Every so often, I take a lovely shopping trip on the internet. It's been a little too often lately, as I've been feeling low due to the weather. Some people say shopping's not the answer but then they obviously haven't been to Loop before:

I snapped up some Darn Pretty tips and cables. These have become the baguette handbag of knitting needles so when I saw Loop had some in stock, I really couldn't resist.

The 3.75mm tips are rose wood and the 4mm tips are Apple wood. 

I felt slightly amoral, but decided to embrace my dark side, as my sister ordered a pair last November and is still waiting for them.  Perhaps they'll arrive in time for Christmas this year.

I also wandered into the sale section at Loop and saw this Washi tape. I'm a sucker for most things Japanese so I bought a roll to try out on lace charts.

 

I tried it on the compliments slip and it worked well. The same piece lifted off easily, curled up quite a bit, but then stuck down again. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list of shopping.  More to come in the future.