alpaca

My yarn stash has grown considerably in the last few months and yarn is sort of taking over the flat. When my sister came to visit this month she brought with her quite a few balls including some lovely handspun, alpaca and wool blends and even milk fibre yarn (first time I had ever seen anything like it before!).

First let me show you this lovely handspun Corriedale yarn. This was the product of an inspiring initiative to train 215 women from rural communities in Chile in the art of handspinning and dyeing. They spun and dyed 15,500 of these balls which were then put on sale in a large department store in Chile. The packs also included a small booklet with patterns and a pair of wooden needles handcrafted by a local artisan. You can see a video (in Spanish) of the project here, even if you don’t understand the language it is worth watching these talented and hard-working people, and see how proud they are of preserving the heritage of our ancestors. I am so happy to be able to work with this yarn and continue this chain of love for tradition and fibre, their faces will be on my mind as my own hands work on what was created with their skilled hands.

Next I have some beautiful alpaca and wool blend from the south of Chile, I just love these colours and they come in quite big cakes so I am definitely thinking of getting at least one sweater out of this yarn.

Finally, my mum sent this milk fibre yarn she purchased at a local yarn festival. The colour is so stunning and it is the-softest-thing-ever. I am very intrigued by it and may do a separate post to tell you how these types of yarns are produced once I have knitted or crocheted a sample of it to also tell you how the fabric behaves. So far I don’t know much except that after a quick Google search it appears it is not the most environmentally friendly of yarns and therefore I don’t believe I would purchase more of it, however knowing this makes me want to make sure that it is put into good use.

That is all I have for today, next will be my guide for shopping for yarn and other crafty goodness in Skye so keep an eye out for that 🙂

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Sol

Hello my dear readers! How is 2015 treating you? Life has been quiet around here, it was hard to get back to work and the routine after the holidays but I think I am finally settling in again.

I did a bit of yarn shopping in December so wanted to share my latest buys with you. I have decided not to buy any more yarn until the Edinburgh Yarn Festival (EYF), the vendors have been announced and there are so many stalls (so exciting!!!) so I want to save some money to get some lovely things there. Now, I won’t buy more yarn but I will use a gift voucher for a local yarn shop that my lovely boyfriend gave me for Christmas. I think that now that yarn is taking over the flat he finally realised that really all I want in life is yarn 🙂

If you are planning to go to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival let me know if you would like to meet up, we can do some yarn shopping together, wouldn’t that be lovely 🙂 I am also thinking to take one of the crochet classes so give me a shout if you are thinking the same, a class buddy is always necessary!

Now, about my latest yarn buys, I will begin with this beautiful Madelinetosh yarn, is Merino Light 4ply in a lovely greyish colour. I bought this at Be Inspired Fibres, there are so many beautiful yarns from all over the world in this shop and they will be at the EYF as well. It is already being worked into a cowl and I am loving how this looks with tunisian crochet. The cowl is inspired in the beautiful cobbled streets in Edinburgh, will post pictures and pattern soon!

At Be Inspired I also got a bit of Artesano Alpaca and Alpaca Silk in 4ply, I believe this will become that honeycomb cowl that sparked the idea to start my tunisian crochet tutorials, the colours are the same as my tunisian vest and of course only realised once I got home… 😛

As part of a yarn exchange we did at my knitting group Christmas party I got this lovely Noro yarn, I see some tunisian fingerless gloves in the future! I think tunisian simple stitch would look great with the colour changes in this yarn.

I also got this lovely Brigantia yarn in DK weight at Ginger Twist Studio, I have been eyeing this yarn for some time so happy to finally get to work with it. I am doing a sample for a class project, this New Year may bring some teaching opportunities so will keep you updated but it is all so very exciting!

Finally I also got this from Jess at Ginger Twist: an adorable crochet for my keys! I love it, for me it is only decorative but you could actually use it in those times of crochet emergency 😛

I’ve been hooking away these days and loving every minute of it. It has given me a lot of time to think about what I hope for this year, do you think a New Year resolutions post is too late? I think getting it in writing will help and one of my resolutions is to expand this blog and talk a bit more about life in my corner of the world. I think I will just start working on it and hope you will forgive me for being a little late to the party (or boarding the bus using the back door as we would say where I come from).

I have enjoyed every minute of this blog journey and want it to grow (and me alongside it), I hope to continue to interest you with patterns, colours and yarn goodness if you allow me since it is an honour to have my blog be a small part of your day or of your own crafty journey. Will be back soon with those resolutions…

Hope you have a lovely day!

Sol

a crochet journey

Tales of my journey to a colourful and creative life

Yarn stash update: gifts from home

Yarn and more yarn