Finished koigu Jaywalkers!

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Having been reading A Dress a Day and Sew? I Knit for a few weeks, I got the stitching itch and decided to make myself a sun dress.

I have had this pattern for years and years and years. It was probably my grandmother’s though it’s never been used.

I made a rough version from an old muslin curtain, just to check the fit, because I didn’t want to waste any of my Liberty Sale fabric, and since that worked fine, I plunged into making the final version:

The pattern consists of little chairs.

(Can you tell I basically took a picture of my boob upside down?)

I’m pretty pleased with it. Enough to have worn it all afternoon, (paired with my mini-sweater – cute!)

I probably need either some sort of petticoat or to line the skirt at some point since it’s pretty thin cotton, but that’s an easy fix.

But overall – yay! Sundress! 🙂

On about Wednesday, I read about Stash Yarns in Amelia Raitte’s blog. Within the hour I had organised to meet up with my friend J, and check it out on Friday afternoon. Also I posted about it on the Blue Stocking website* and generally got very excited when I saw the list of yarns they stock.

They stock Koigu and Lorna’s Laces, for god’s sake, and they are the only place I know of where you can go and fondle them, rather than just ordering with blind faith from a web store, without ever having actually seen either of the yarns in real life.

So off we trotted to the shop. Or rather, I spent thirty minutes waiting for a coach, then two hours travelling on a coach, then fifteen minutes on a tube to go to the shop.

And you know what?

It was totally worth it.

The shop is as neat and lovely as you could hope for. The yarn is displayed in tall, black laminated wood cube shelving, with little drawers for overstock and the like. Given my love of neat things for putting things in I felt right at home.

The owners, Michelle and Nathalie were chatty, and funny and knowledgeable, and obviously tickled pink to be running their own yarn shop. I swear they spent some of the time just staring at their stock in awe. We joined them – we really couldn’t help it. It all looked so beautiful.

Obviously J, having been yarn shopping with me before, made me promise to hold her back from spending too much. And obviously I, being the good friend I am, I completely ignored her and let her play happily among the skeins, building up an impressive pile of purchases. Then we sat on the comfy leather chairs and played with the baskets of tension squares that are there for people to add a row or two and get a feel for a the yarns while on the needles.

I was in yarn heaven. I felt to welcome, and relaxed, and excited to finally get to touch and buy all the yarns I have been reading about on US blogs for the past year.

I got a bit giddy.

I broke my ‘look but don’t buy’ policy.

I came away with yarn.

l to r:
– 1 skein of Art Yarns Ultramerino 6 (colour 139) which are going to be a pair of Elfine’s Socks I think.
– 2 skeins of koigu which I am busily turning into my first pair of Jaywalker socks (Yes, I’m late to the Jaywalker party, but I *can* see what all the fuss is about. 🙂
– 2 skeins of Colourmart cashmere which I still have yet to wind into balls, and will will probably become more socks, (maybe Pomatomus, since this girl can never have too many cashmere socks.)

There were a ton of other things I *could* have added to that pile, but I didn’t. As Michelle and Nathalie pointed out, they’re not going anywhere. 🙂

In conclusion:

If you live in London, or in travelling distance to London – please go and visit the shop and say hello.
If you are visiting London, East Putney is easy to get to by tube, and the shop is only a couple of minutes walk away.
If you know me – that’s where I’m planning my next birthday party!

ETA: It turns out Michelle has a blog so if you want to see what the inside of the shop looks like there are lots of pictures here.

*The Oxford Blue Stockings is the local knitting group I’m part of. It deserves it’s own post. I will write one very soon.

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I finished the thank you socks for W’s mum.

They are knitted in Gem yarn, and the pattern is adapted from the Friday Harbour pattern in Socks on the Road by Nancy Bush.

She received them yesterday, and from her email, I think they were a success!

(Shocking though i find it, some people don’t actually like hand knitted socks. I’ve sent a few pairs out into the world that have been met with a distinct ‘meh’. In fact even W says he feels that hand knit socks get ruined to easily and leave his feet too hot. Which is a pity because I love knitting them. I just keep a list of who *does* find them useful, and figure, well more for ‘our side’ then. )

After being inspired by the plethora of minisweaters made by Streets and YOs and Elliphantom, and via their links Cosmicpluto I succumbed and made my own.

However this meant converting the pattern from aran to dk (and because I’m a 4ply kinda girl, I’ll probably convert it down to that too.)

It’s just too warm here aran for much of the year, plus I look better with smaller stitches.

Anyways it knitted up quickly, and used about 3 or 4 balls of the Jo Sharp classic dk I had bought in the getknitted sale a few months ago.

Overall I’m pretty happy, though I should have knitted the ribbing along the bottom with smaller needles. Of course it’s far too hot to wear it right now, but I did put it on for a bit while I was shopping yesterday and it’s very comfy. 🙂

I need to get a few other projects out of the way, then stash bust a few more of these, and the one skein skein wonders to wear in the evenings and while the weather gets cooler.