Enticement

We drove to Malvern for a walk up a big hill. It rained, so we had some tea and cake and a heart-racing look around the delicious Knitting Parlour. There was a warm glow within as we ooh-ed and aah-ed at the window. Inside it smelt of new wool and wood. They had quality yarns in irresistible colours. There were some crazy textured yarns too, like the giant one that you knit with your forearms instead of needles.

Pete bought this soft as angels' breath alpaca-cotton blend. I exercised restraint. Well... I have to use up a lot more of my stash before I can get carried away again. It's not easy though, when your senses are being gently teased like that. But they have a website here if it turns out I neeeeeed more yarn.

Chunky Mitts

Here, at last, are the Arm Warmers, made with Sirdar Click Chunky yarn, on straight needles, and following a very simple pattern from Hand Knitted Things. I actually finished them very quickly, for me, but I was put off photographing my hands wearing them because they have been in a right dried-up old state. I had to slather on some heavy duty hand cream before taking this pic, just so that you wouldn't recoil in disgust.

The yarn is a mix of acrylic and wool. I usually buy pure wool, even when it isn't necessarily practical. I just prefer the feel of it. But the wool shop which is to be my local for as long as we decide to stay in our current location (somewhere in the county of Worcestershire) has a large selection of yarns, but most of them are blends. If I'm going to be a purist I'll have to travel further afield.

The cable stitch was a cinch. How pleasing to be able to create a complicated effect by simple means. And I like the finished result so much I went straight out to buy more (blended) wool and I am knitting a shorter pair. I liked the idea of a long-armed mitten, but I think I will rarely have exposed forearms in the next few months.

The Accidental Collector

I used to think that the world was divided into collectors and non-collectors. I also thought that I was part of the latter group. I was wrong.

I didn't wake up one day to find myself fascinated by stamps or Lord of the Rings miniatures but I do now have a stash. This is a legal kind of stash. It includes wool in as many colours as I can find, and lately a selection of buttons has been growing in a box of many compartments. And when you live in an Airstream the size of the stash soon reaches its limit. Some clothes had to go.


Most of these things are there just in case, just in case a future project demands them.

I was once the same way with stationery. I loved a good stationery shop. When I lived in London I could be tempted into an irresistible one in the Leicester Square area. It was like walking into a dream-like sweet shop. Everything was arranged in colours: gorgeous, edible, tropical fruit colours. It was impossible to browse and leave without purchasing at least a gel pen in bright orange, or some handmade cards to have 'just in case'.


Bead shops and wool shops can enchant me equally. I'm like a magpie, stimulated by colour as well as sparkles. Time and currency can melt away in these places.

Recently we relinquished quantities of both in the amazing Mandy Wools in Wells in Somerset. This shop fits the 'Alladin's cave' cliche very snuggly. They have all kinds of yarns, in all the colours. I like a shop you can get lost in.