Crafts - Customer service & unintentional yarn

I'm happy to report that I've got my KnitPro Karbonz 4mm tips back! The size is one of the most used ones so I was eager to get my replacements. Kudos to KnitPro - reclamation via the store I bought them at, new ones were there within a week without any problems!

Wollmeile has started to stock Rohrspatz & Wollmeise yarn. I did get some last time and this time - I swear, I was just there to pick up the needles - this beauty called me to take it home:

Purple and grey and almost black? C'mon, there was no other way! ;-)

It's a 80% merino/20% polyamide blend, and this time I'm hard-pressed to find a translation for the name... "Verhext und verratzt" - jinxed and ???
Anyway, I'm sure I'll find a beautiful project to use this for, quite probably something without much texture or complicated pattern as the yarn will be playing out beautifully by its own.

Crafts - New yarn

While I do have quite a stash of yarn at home and a few projects already in the back of my mind (or rather in my queue on Ravelry) there's always new yarn that's begging to be acquired in some way. Here are the newest additions:

Wollmeise "Pure" 100% Merino with the sweet name of "Armer grauer Kater" (which translates to "poor grey tomcat"), a variegated fingering weight. I went to one of my favorite stores, Wollmeile, to make a reclamation for the 4mm carbon tips of my KnitPro set where the screw thread of one of the needles broke. I learned that they just recently stacked some Wollmeise yarn, so I had the hard choice between a few beauties but managed to decide on this one. I see a beautiful shawl in the not to distant future...

The second one came to me as a present from my dear friend Betsy, who asked if she should send along some US-ian yarn as a Christmas present. One of my favorite American stores is Dragonfly Fibers and I opted for a deep purple (if you know me this shouldn't come as a surprise) 100% merino lace yarn with the name of "Arya Squishy Lace". This one also asks to be worked into some kind of shawl, I already worked with a different yarn from this store and the quality is superb:

Yay for new beautiful yarn! :-)

Crafts - A few "firsts" & the next finished project...

Ever since I held the first hank of hand dyed yarn in my hands I was eager to start a proper project and make something out of it. Equipped with the right kind of tools and finding a project that appealed to me on the Usual Site(tm) - here comes the purple Dragonfly Wing!

I used the String Theory Caper Sock Yarn, the color is named Elderberry, a beautiful dark purple shade. The yarn itself is very soft to the touch and almost works itself. It normally asks for US 2 (2,75mm) needles but I went with what was suggested in the pattern - US 7-10 (4,5mm - 6mm). While the result turned out a little bit smaller than I would have liked it's perfect as a shawlette and I'm looking forward to wearing it - if my daughter doesn't snatch it away first :-) Blocking went easier than thought and I ended up with a size of 160x40cm (about 63”x16”). There are still some 50g left of the 110g of yarn and I wonder what I'll make out of this...

A big "thumbs-up" to the creator of the pattern, Boo Knits. The instructions are very well and clearly written and there's a chart for the lace part, which is great for a visual person like myself. I'm looking forward to trying more of their patterns!

So, about the "firsts":

• First hank of hand dyed yarn
• First English-only pattern
• First project where I put the KnitPro needles to good use
• First time doing a cable cast-on
• First time doing a cast off other than the usual one

Last but not least, the beauty itself...

Crafts - Yarn porn...

If you live in the German speaking part of Europe and own a TV you're probably familiar with the Zalando ad on TV. For those who aren't - stereotypical ad where you'd see/hear women squee and scream over the delivery from the store, usually shoes. I do have to admit that some things can evoke a similar reaction from me, but that's limited to finding/receiving beautiful yarn! So yes, I have an addiction. To beautiful yarn. Like probably every other prolific knitter...

Since I've started doing lightweight/lace projects a whole new box of yarn choices opened up for me. I do like gradient colors a lot so I couldn't NOT take this beauty home with me last week when dropping into a local store on my way home:

It's called "Lace ball" by Schoppel-Wolle, which is a pretty well known brand but was a novelty for me - lace (2 ply) weight, 100g and 800m (3.5oz/874yds) and waiting for the right project. Probably some kind of shawl?


My dear friend and coworker Kristin went to visit the home store of Rohrspatz & Wollmeise and asked if I wanted some yarn from that store as well. Frantic scanning of their website and narrowing down possible choices ensued and I ended up with two beauties, which she thankfully brought today - cue me almost doing The Squeeeee ;-)

While it doesn't look like much this is a 330g/1730m (11.6oz/1894yds) skein of most beautiful pure merino wool in a 2 ply/lace variety. Rather bright for my usual choice but a gorgeous shade of purple. And still looking for a project!

And since I'm a sucker for fitting names and my third favorite color (apart from black and purple) is grey I present - Heavy Metal \m/ :-)

A rich and warm/dark grey, totaling at 2099.5m/600g (2296yds and 21oz) so that should make a nice pullover, cardigan, jacket or something along that line...

I should probably get that third container to properly store my stash? *ahem*

Crafts - my favorite yarns and yarn stores

Like many people I love natural yarns and fibers - merino, cotton, the more the better. Somehow most of my stack contains Lana Grossa yarns but I have recently - thanks to fellow enablers... oops, I meant knitters ;-) - found some awesome stores and yarns and am trying NOT to spend too much money since my stash is big enough for now.

So in no particular order and mostly for myself as a kind of bookmark...

• Lana Grossa
• Dragonfly Fibers (not ordered yet but got some things on the wishlist)
• Colour Adventures (stashed but not used yet)
• String Theory Yarn (stashed but not used yet - how could I resist, being a geek?)
• Wollmeise - (ordered via a friend)

Look at these beauties... (Colour Adventures and String Theory) <3

Are there any other stores and yarns you think I should know about? Recommendations welcome!