as you may have heard, there were some markets in canberra this weekend just gone, and a whole heap of crazy knitters turned up at the old tin shed to do battle over much fibrey goodness. my co-conspirators, george and bells, and i had a plan: get in early, get only what you need, and get out. so we turned up a little before official opening time, and i’m glad we did. i had been watching on michelle’s blog the genesis of a new project bag, and because i have one of everything of hers, and because i like to have a full set, i was determined to get one. turns out rosered wanted one too, so i managed to snaffle two early in the day:

i think the bikes are for rosered and the city scape (new york) is mine. arent they fab? we swung past the dazzling looking knitabulous/randomknits stall which was totally full everytime we went past, but i didnt buy anything here, because i already have a full complement of donna’s fantastic project bags, and am a *cough* regular customer, of knitabulous already. and in a SPOILER ALERT,  i did pick up my latest installment in the ‘black japan’ themed club, a gorgeous skein of 50/50 in a watermelon-meets-cherry blossom colouryway:

delicious!

then it was on to look for the only other two stalls i was interested in, glenora and tarndwarncoort. i didnt really intend to buy anything at the latter, although if there were small hanks of the silver polwarth silk i was thinking maybe a little top up might be needed for the featherweight . but i was a bit disappointed here. TtHF wasnt quite so hot this year, not sure why really, maybe the weird headband? and there was very little natural coloured yarn on display. a lot of their hanks had been dyed in fairly ordinary colours, and i think it was a shame. their yarn is so naturally beautiful, maybe they felt compelled to compete with all the colour of the indy dyers, but i think if you have a speciality you should stick to it. im hoping that more of the natural stuff will be available in bendigo, as i ended up buying nothing here.

but what i really wanted, the only thing i really wanted actually, was some stuff that i missed out on last year, which was some fabulous red alpaca silk 2 ply from glenora.

i liked it so much, i bought another one, in a beautiful natural camel colour.

these kinds of yarn make me think very seriously about my shawl knitting. i have been messing around a bit lately with patterns and yarns, and have figured out now what i do and dont like. so this morning, i did a bit of shawl rationalisation and pulled two off the needles that i havent worked on in ages and dont think i will go back to, icarus and the second aestlight:

the aestlight was a mistake. never attempt two of the same shawls back to back, and it was meant to be gift that never got gifted, in a colourway i wouldnt wear. the icarus was just too ambitious. again, a large part of it was stocking stitch, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but now just bores me to tears. and its a nice yarn, in a nice colourway, but i had so much of it it was going to be huge. i may come back to these, but right now they are officially hibernating.

which means that soon, i can start the big shawl project i have been planning, and can do it guilt free. a clue about this project is that im thinking the camel alpaca silk wants to be a shetland tea shawl. but im not doing anything about that right now. its just going to sit, brewing for a bit, while i finish off a few other things.

all in all, this weekend was a completely guilt free Stash Enhancement Exercise (s.e.x.). i had a budget, and i came in $30 under it. i have no buyers remorse, and didnt feel overwhelmed and out of control while in the markets themselves. in fact, we could have left about 10.30, but we lingered in the sun, over coffee and meeting people, before repairing to the shelter of kokoblack and the most amazing iced chocolate in the world. a very successful weekend, signifying Growth As A  Knitter and a shopper!

k xx