And wool again, and Noro wool again

I didn't make it until the end of December without buying more wool, despite my birthday resolution.

On Monday 27th I went to the John Lewis knitting wool sale, both at Oxford Street and at Peter Jones.  There was nice wool there but nothing that I could not resist.  In previous sales the wool has been discounted by 50%, this time it was more like 25 - 30% - difficult to calculate exactly in my head, so it helped that it was not ultracheap.  I did like the discontinued shades of Felted Tweed though, and Wool cotton and especially the Cocoa shade of Kidsilk Haze.  I looked at Kaffe Fassett's Colourscape, but I could not see myself knitting anything with it.  The most difficult thing to resist was Noro Yuzen with great colours.  But I went away without buying anything.

On New Year's Eve I found myself unexpectedly going past John Lewis so I had to go in again to check how the sale was going.  The nicest yarns had gone, but there was still plenty covetable left.  I studied the laminated price list and noticed that it included Noro Sock Yarn.  I was surprised because I had not noticed any in the sales baskets.  So I memorized the four shade numbers and went off to the Noro shelves to check if any of them were there.  My heart sank - there were about a dozen different shades, so I thought I could not possibly go through all of them.  I looked at my favourite shade anyway, the black brown beige one, and it was one of the four sale shades!  So I took it to the assistant who promptly said 'That's not in the sale'.  I showed her the shade number, she checked it against the computer and it was reduced.

After that it was impossible to put it back.  I found two more balls of the same shade on the Noro shelves, enough for a sweater for me, possibly with short sleeves, and I bought them.  Now the three balls sit on my coffee table, looking at me reproachfully.  I know the pattern I want to knit with them, but now is not the right time.  I look towards the summer after the New Year.

I have noticed it in charity shops as well.  Once you start talking to an assistant it gets very difficult not to buy.  If I see wool, even if it is something that I have no intention of buying, I need to know how much it is before I leave it.  Often wool in unpriced so I have to ask, and then I end up buying.

So I bought 300 gr of wool on December 31.  I could say that I used my January allowance (and a little of February's) early.  But I think the whole project is unrealistic.  I will have to see how it goes.

I am knitting.  I finished knitting blanket #137, and here is a close up.  Blanket #138 is underway.  On the Noro Transitions jacket I am doing the collar, but without a pattern it takes time.

New Blanket

I am still knitting even if I'm not blogging.  There are always reasons or excuses not to.  On several days it was too dark for taking photographs.  Then I got an e-mail saying that I was near my monthly allowance of broadband usage.  Today I will take the chance anyway.

I have started a new proper project, but I will write about my new blanket, #137, that I started several weeks ago.  This is one of the white blue green beige ones, so that I can use up some of the pale bright green and blue yarns.  It does not have the same feel of wool as #136 had, although there is quite a lot of wool there.  There is some acrylic but not much, and the remainder is what?  Some cotton, and I can't think of anything else.  I have come to the conclusion that I should use more old fashion pure wool DK yarns, because it feels so much better, instead of unravelled bought sweaters.  They don't feel so nice, even if they are pure wool.  I just have to get through the 50 odd sweaters in my store.

Here are two photographs of the blanket, one with flash and one without.

This if the first of the two unravelled sweaters bought from charity shops.  This one was bought because I could not resist it; in fact I could not resist the second one either.  It is a 1980s style large sweater in a slip stitch rib pattern with deep raglan sleeves in an off white colour.  There is a label in one side saying Jil Sander.  Can it really be Jil Sander?  The label does not have the name in large black letters as usual, but the name is quite clear.  Perhaps it was a sample.  It also says 50% alpaca 50% cotone, so made in Italy?  The yarn is nice and soft, several strands not spun together, slightly thinner than DK.  This is one of the easiest sweaters to unravel that I have ever experienced.  The seams were crocheted together, so once I found the end it took a second to undo.  The stitching was the same, and each piece came apart in a single thread from top to bottom.  I have not in fact used it for this blanket because I have plenty of pale coloured yarns that I want to use up first.

The second sweater, a cardigan, is my next Kaffe Fassett Persian Poppies pattern.  At least I thought it was when I bought it, but if it is it is a simplified version of the pattern.  I prefer to believe that it is anyway.  The cardigan is awful.  It is a children's size knitted in bright acrylics.  I bought it because I thought it was Kaffe Fassett and I saw it as an illustration of how awful his patterns can look in the wrong hands.  The knitter has gone to a lot of trouble to put the colours together, as you can distinguish the flowers against the background.  It is knitted tightly with the thinner yarns doubled.

I thought that there were some wool yarns in there and I told myself that I can throw the acrylics away.  Now that it is unravelled I can say that there were a few wool, but very few, and it is becoming very difficult to dump the others.  I tell myself that a few acrylic strands won't be noticed in a full sized blanket.

My first Kaffe Fassett Persian Poppies sweater was very nice.