Stora Symässan

I went to Malmö yesterday all by myself, to the Stora Symässan craft fair. Fabrics and yarns and beads and some crap too. I mean, cleaning equipment and terry cloth turbans at a craft fair? It's not a very large fair but it's the only one nearby. I had a great day strolling around looking at stuff without kids even though there weren't that many yarn vendors there, and some of them just had acrylic horror yarn. I managed to buy some yarn anyway. Not very much because there wasn't much fun or unusual yarn around really. I do regret that I didn't get the Araucania Ranco I saw for the Girasole that I want to make, but that's no big deal. I did get a ball of Zauberball because I can't resist Zauberball and the price was good, an Opal cotton blend sock yarn to try for warmer weather socks, an Opal Hundterwasser beacuse I liked the colours, and a handpainted Opal yarn for the Brandywine shawl. I also got a skein of Visjögarn to complement the ones I already have.

I also got buttons for a baby sweater I really ought to finish today as the baby is due any day now, two Tunisian crochet patterns, beads for my Evenstar shawl, and some odds and ends. And two quilt templates for some reason...

I thought it would be easy to find beads because I read that there were going to be many bead vendors at the fair, but they had mostly larger beads for jewellry making. Only one had the size 8/0 seed beads I was looking for. But she had them in little baggies for 5 SEK each! So I got six baggies each of two colours for 60 SEK :-)

The thing I was really looking forward to was the workshops I had booked. Three heels and three thumbs with Ann-Mari Nilsson, the author of Sticka mössor, vantar, sockor! (Knit hats, mittens, socks!) which I like very much. Both workshops were great fun and the samples were so cute!



The samples were made with half the adult number of stitches. Ann-Mari has an interesting way of doing afterthought heels. She knits the sock from the top and knits in waste yarn on half the round. Then she knits the heel. So the waste yarn is for the foot, not the heel that's the more usual approach. She said that she has always done it like this to be able to try the sock on for foot length.

Startitis

I've been itching to write a blogpost for ages but, as always, something else gets the attention. Kntting, family, knitting, work, and knitting mostly. I have loads of ongoing projects and I seem to cast on more every week without finishing as many. Heard that before...? However, this is my hobby and I refuse to have a bad conscience for knitting whatever I want!

The LYS situation here in Helsingborg has been rather sad but it improved tremendously last Saturday when Tant Thea opened. This is a modern yarn store, with lots of variety and hardly any acrylic :-) Drops yarns yes, but also Schoppel-Wolle, Colinette, Noro, Fyberspates, Aade Lõng, and more. The store is full of yarn but there is room enough to really see it. Classes and knitting groups are on the horizon. Fun, fun!

I must confess that I have already bought three different Aade Lõng yarns, some Zauberball, Colinette Jitterbug and a beautiful skein of Fyberspates Nef Lace

Burnt Orange, alpaca, silk and cashmere, how could I resist!? I think it will become Bitterroot.

To my defence I have definite plans for most of it (in fact I have already cast on a sock and a shawl, see below) and I really want this store to stay in business! I also haven't bought much yarn for a long time. Except nine balls of bulky yarn for a cosy shawl (see below too) from one of the other yarn stores in town that have 30% off everything because the owner is retiring and closing down. I won't miss that store though. Not inspiring at all, neither the yarn nor the owner. Nice but not very helpful. The helpful person in that store is now working at Tant Thea instead :-)

Here's my new Colinette Jitterbug sock:

and my Revontuli shawl in Aade Lõng Artistic:

There has been much shawl knitting here lately, I'm on a shawl kick :-) Also I joined the Ravelry group 10 shawls in 2010, so I have 10 shawls to knit this year. That won't be a problem, the group requirements are very low. Only two shawls have to use more than 500 meters of yarn, the rest have to use more than 250 meters. So I have finished three already. Here's Clothilde:

And number 4, 5, 6, and 7 are OTN... Told you about the startitis! One is a mystery KAL (Evenstar), with a clue every two weeks (#2 is due tonight in fact),


one is miles of plain garter stitch at this point,


one is a big bulky lace shawl,


and one is the Revontuli I *had* to cast on when I got the yarn. They complement each other nicely I think. Do check my Ravelry page for more info and pics! I'm much better at updating there than here...

Knit on, and prosper!

I forgot to mention...

... that Garnhärvan has 20% off lot of things in August. I fell down hard when I saw that they have Harmony needles. Soooo soon I will have my own set :-) They have a starter set and a luxury set but I put together my own for about the same cost but with exactly the stuff I wanted. I have no use for 8 mm needles or 120 cm cords or plastic carrying cases. And when I asked they even had 3.75 mm needles. I will sew my own case when my set arrives, I got some ideas off etsy.