New Things and Stuff

A lot of the knitting I've been doing lately has been design stuff, most of which I can't show you yet, and so I've been neglecting the knitting I should be doing, Rainbow's sweater. I had planned to make a dent in it last night at knit night, but my stomach started acting up midafternoon and I decided to punt. So tonight's goal is to get into the intarsia portion of the body, which should only be a few rows away.

Rather than showing you another shot of green stockinette with a bit of ribbing at the end, I'd like to share a couple of new acquisitions from last weekend. The first was a complete surprise, as it arrived in a package on Saturday afternoon bearing the return address of my best friend's mother. She's sent me yarn in the past (the woman has known me my entire life, so when she sees yarn, I guess she thinks of me), but I definitely did not expect this:

This beautiful braid of greens is 100 grams of Wensleydale from Sweet Georgia, a dyer whose fiber I've long been wanting to try out. It seems this was in the crafting stuff of the youngest daughter in the family, who last year was trying to make felted mug cozies and not having much luck. This was also in the package, which I assume is the same fiber and is what was leftover from her attempts:

If this is what she used, I'm pretty sure I know why it didn't work out so well for her. Wensleydale, for those of you unfamiliar with the breed, is more like hair than fur; it's long and wavy rather than crimpy, so it won't felt easily. It spins beautifully, however, so I am looking forward to getting into it. I think I should make the nice lady who sent it to me something with the yarn I spin from it, don't you think?

My other acquisition was planned. The week before, when I was at my LYS (as I usually am on Saturday afternoons), another regular customer came in with samples of her hand-sewn project bags to leave for the owner to look at because she was thinking of carrying them. They were all extremely well sewn and done in super cute fabrics, so I knew they would go fast when it was announced midweek that the store would be carrying them. I kept my fingers crossed that there would be some left by the time I got there, and I was in luck:

Isn't it cute? It's made by Stitched by Sasha (that's her Etsy shop, only recently opened, if you want to get your hands on one and aren't near my LYS). I'm very excited about this bag and might have to find it some friends in the future!