Stash enhancement and a swatch

I was hoping to post this earlier but couldn't get Blogger to upload the pictures. Anyway, here is it now.

Last Wednesday at knitting group Mary brought along some dolls clothes she has been making and we had a go at the colour pattern she had been using.

Apologies for the horrid colour choice, this was what happened to be in my knitting bag at the time.
The pattern is actually really easy since it only has two rows, the first row you work a repeat of p3, sl1 purlwise with yarn in back, then the second row you knit while slipping the slipped stitches purlwise with the yarn at the back again (you do need some kind of selvedge stitch on this repeat). Rows 3 and 4 are the same but the stitch you are now slipping is the centre one of the three plain ones from rows 1 and 2. You change colour for each pair of rows. Being a slip stitch pattern, the colours blend and it doesn't look starkly stripey but you only ever knit with one colour at a time. It is a kind of pattern which is actually very restful and has a nice rhythm to it once you get going. It looks better from a distance, and it was interesting to see the colour choices people were using. You got quite a different effect with three very similar colours, to three very contrasting colours. It looked very nice as Mary had done using two colours which were close together and the third was a contrast. I think I will have a bit more of play with this.

After knitting group my Mum and I went to investigate the new knitting shop in Farnham, called Interknit Cafe, it is at 60 Downing Street, round the corner from the central car park. She had only been open a week and only had about a third of her stock so far but it looked very promising. I have signed up to her newsletter and am looking forward to hearing when she gets more stock in.

I did manage to buy 7 balls of Sirdar mercerised cotton DK in navy. This is beautifully soft stuff and I thought would make a lovely summer top of some kind. She only had 7 balls but luckily they were all the same dye lot so I bought the lot. I'm not sure if that will be enough for a top for me but I do have lots of bits and pieces of DK cotton lying around so I'm sure I can think of some way of eeking it out.

I've been having a very good week stash enhancement wise. I think I need to work on being able to knit the yarn up as fast as I can buy it though!

To help me in this endeavor Miriam (she of the Icarus shawl in Interweave Knits) is having a pattern sale, which ends today. I bought the patterns for the Mountain Peaks Shawl and the Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl. This download-a-pattern lark is good for the instant gratification too :-)

This lovely parcel arrived the other day.

Sock yarn from Curious Yarns , from left to right the colours are: Sloe, Deep, and Admiral. It feels lovely too, not very soft but not at all harsh. They sent me two little stitch markers too with my order which was very nice of them.

And last but not least, so that I can be organised as I disappear under the ever growing mountain of yarn, a circular needle holder from Stitches Market, the people behind Knitter's magazine.
And this is the inside.

The plastic wallets are all quite large, easily big enough to fit several circular needles in, and have a re-sealable end at the bottom. I am going to have a fun afternoon sorting out all my circular needles and organising them into this holder.