yarn

Now take a look at these goodies!

I have to tell you about this really nice new yarn shop I ordered the Lollipop and Zauberball yarns from. It's called Mylys and it operates from Hamburg, Germany. The online shop is pretty and easy to use, the yarn is gorgeous plus the service was really helpful and quick (I had a little problem on placing my order, but the owner Naima solved the problem in a minute and actually asked for more feedback so her programmer could see if the shop is working properly!). Plus the yarn arrived in a day or so - shipping cost free (for orders over 40 euro from Germany)

So that much of the new lovely shop where I will certainly be buying again - now the yarns!

EDIT 20.01.2010: I got an email from the owner, and the fur has been removed from the shop. As it turns out, the owner is a vegetarian herself, and answered my mail in a nice manner. I have no problem anymore with buying from Wollkontor Erlangen.

I've been a pleased customer of the German online yarn shop Wollkontor Erlangen - they have a really nice selection of yarns and their service is good.

Last week a few of regular Essen knitting group "members" met at one knitter's home for some knitting (obviously), chatting and ball winding! One of us has a swift and a ball winder and she was kind enough to bring them with her. I brought half my skeins with me and wound them all to pretty center-pull balls!

Here's a little film I took from the process. Just German audio, but you'll get the point just by looking (and notice the interested cat!)

I thought you'd like to see the yarn I got from Finland in July. Here it is (and that's all - I didn'z go crazy this time!)

First the Schoeller+Stahl Elfin Color acrylic and mohair mix. I felt a bit silly buying German yarn in Finland, but it was in sale and I haven't seen it here, so I just took it with me. Later I found out it has been discontinued . I bought three balls, even though there were four left in the shop. I still regret not buying the last one! I think I'll be making a shawl out of this at some point.

I also bought some (=three balls) new Sandnes Garn Kitten Mohair, the same yarn I made my Fifi with. I really liked working with this yarn; it wasn't itchy or splitty, and you can knit it with big needles (the Fifi was made on 6mm needles and in my opinion that is a good size for this yarn when making a lacey shawl (which most likely this yarn will end up becoming).

Two weeks back me and a few friends from the Essen kniting group went to one member's place to have fun and dye.

She had set up everything at the back yard, so we won't mess up the house. There was also bread and salad to eat, plus chocolate of course. How lovely!

So we got started and everything went fine, before it started drizzling and the weather got quite chilly. We persistantly kept on dyeing, and the rain pesistantly kept on coming down, so at the end we were almost as wet as the yarn! Just take a look at the sun parasole in the microwave picture! (press Read more if you can't see it)

In the end, the results were gorgeous, as you can see. Everything got dyed, and after three pots of tea we started to feel dry too, and sat around talking for several hours more.

I take part in activity called "Random acts of Kindness", mainly through the groups on Ravelry. One posts a wish list of things one wishes for, and some one else can then send these items (or thoughts or anything) to the wisher, without getting anything back or getting money. Someone else might then send something for this person.

I've been really blessed with two gourgeous big gifts lately. First, Clarissa from US/Italy sent me a skein of banana silk yarn, and KoolAid. I only took a photo of the yarn though, it's so gorgeous! I don't know what to do with it yet, though. Any ideas?

The second beautiful packet arrived from Finland, from Muoriska and contained four (!) balls of Novita Wool, which I like a lot (it's great for hats!) and a box of chocolates - on the cover it says "Life is like a box of chocolates". I found that lovely!

After the Hamster month I think I got a bit carried away ordering yarn... let's see what we have here.

First the actual reason for ordering: Malabrigo lace. I'm taking part in a swap, and decided to send my partner some lace yarn. Plus I've been planning to try some lace myself, too. So two skeins for me in gorgeous green (colour Forest) and two skeins for the partner in another lovely colour!

There's no point in odering just four balls of yarn, is there? So I got some other things I liked too.

Some local yarn in orange, plant-coloured and organic sock yarn in a similar colour. The picture is really bad, the colours are much more orange and stronger!

When I go to Finland, I always manage to grow my stash substantially. This time was no exception. Let me show you the gorgeous yarns and wools.

* Tässä olisi Suomen lankahankinnat! Ensinnä Villa Laurilan lankoja * 

First, I ordered some locally, small-scale produced wools and yarns from Villa Laurila. I got yarns and wool for spinning (and a drop spindle!) from near-extinct Kainuunharmas-sheep and  Ahvenanmaa's sheep. They are so cool and you can really notice that they're not industrially processed.

I also odered a spindle, and wool from the same rare breeds to go with it!

There's also other lovely yarns I got - see them after peressing Read more.

* Read moren jälkeen on vielä lisää lankoja! *

I got myself the Knitpicks Options needle set from This is Knit on Saturday. I have already tried them out, and they seem good! Especially the flexible cable is great, and the needle part is quite long = fits to the hand nicely.

I couldn't resist the new Noro sock yarn while I was there. I mean, just look at it.

Isn't it gorgeous! Who else would think of combining purples with oranges and reds? And succeed in making a beautiful yarn? If I ever learn to dye properly, this is going to be my goal.

I also got another skein of beautiful sock yarn, but I'm not going to show it, as it will be a pair of socks for my future-MIL and she might see it here! 

I played around with some more Kool Aid, and thought I'd show you the results before they go on a ball or a project even.

First one's made with two sachets Orange, one Cherry. The yarn weighed 127 grammes.
  

Next yarn weighs only 50 grammes, so I only used one sachet of Ice Blue, and one Grape. The grape is too heavy here I think, I was hoping for a more turqoise yarn... but I'll learn for the next time.