I have been a bit coy...

...about the knitting related things that I bought back from Wonderwool.

I am not sure why. What I am sure about is that I destashed some yarn a little while ago and I went to Wonderwool determined not to bring home any impulse buys. I was absolutely clear that I should resist the temptation of all yarn that I would have no idea what to do with later.

I think that my recent Storm Water Scarf disappointment was a good prompt to focus on yarn with specific projects (or people) in mind?

I was almost successful - what helped, in addition to the lack of time, was that a little bit of me felt a bit awkward about fawning over other yarn on other stands when my mother had tables loaded with interesting stuff, like this:

Plant dyed, Artisan Yarns silk. No, I promise that this is not a yarn advert for my mother. However, as I spent a lot of time at her stand, it was difficult not to be tempted by the things that she had on offer!

Also, of all things, I did a Ravelry trade with my mother for 14 balls of pinky-mauve Big Wool at Wonderwool. I traded for this skein, one of her skeins of sock yarn , two books and a hat pattern.

The reason that I chose this yarn is that while I noticed a lot of people fondling this and the banana silk yarns on my mother's stand, not many appeared to sell - so while people were drawn to the colours and textures - just from the comments that I overheard, they were not sure quite what they would do with it?

I wasn't sure either, otherwise I would have made suggestions - so I traded for this yarn, just to see what I can make with it. This goes utterly against my earlier ethos but I was careful to ask the fella which skein colour suited me the best and this was his choice.

So we shall see...!

The other yarn that formed part of my Ravelry trade with my mother is this skein of plant dyed, blue faced Leicester sock yarn:

I have not been able to photograph this yarn in a way that captures its true colours. In fact, it is a deep cherry red and burgundy. It is contrasty but not this contrasty - is contrasty even a word?!

These were the two books and the hat pattern that I also traded for. The hat pattern is the one that the Fella modelled in the sheep walk - how could I resist that?!

Yup, a sock book, an accessories book plus a hat pattern. This may seem like an odd choice for someone who isn't good with dpns and isn't keen on knitting socks. However, South West Trains seem to be decomissioning all of the First Class carriages on my train route into Waterloo. So space to knit with 14" straights is becoming a real battle - I am facing the sad reality that I need to diversify into smaller, shorter needle knits, in order to be able to continue knitting (while burping other newspaper reading commuters on my knee).

One of the highlights of Wonderwool for me, was the opportunity to meet Posh Yarns Dee and Tony - I returned again and again to their stand trying to select the yarn that I wanted to bring home with me. It was very tough and I was very hard on myself, keeping my yarn+known project acquisition objective firmly in mind.

After my prickly Koigu sock yarn experience, I knew that I wanted to invest in some Sophia cashmere sock yarn. Just a combination of the above train situation and preparing against for the possibility that I might get the urge to spend another 2 months knitting a pair of socks for myself. After much deliberation, this was my final selection:

Also, I decided that I needed another skein of sock weight yarn, of a different sort, for a specific project that I have in mind, later on this year. As I had heard a lot about Emily, I picked this:

And seriously, that was it. My purchases, in their totality - two days surrounded by yarn but I headed home with supplies for only 4 projects. I was practically in awe of my self restraint.

However, there was one skein of yarn at Posh Yarns that kept catching my eye but I kept making myself put it back. I picked it up, I put it back. I went away, I came back, it was still there, I picked it up, I put it back. I picked it up, I put it back.

Which skein was it? Well, it was this skein of Laura that featured on top of my earlier posh yarn table photo:

You see, I had already made my one sensible purchase of cashmere sock yarn for me.

I knit so slowly that I could not justify it as another sock purchase for myself and I liked the colourway too much to bear the thought of knitting it up as a present for anyone else.

So-I-walked-away-one last last time and put-it-out-of-my-mind. That's where it should end, right? Me feeling a twinge of regret and wondering which lucky knitter now has that lovely skein of yarn?

Well it seems that Dee happens to know us knitters even better than we know ourselves (at least she has me exactly pegged). On Sunday - I got back from a stroll around the food section with the Fella to find that Dee had popped by with this:

Inside that bag? Wrapped in pink tissue paper?

I am sitting here, with this yarn sitting in front of me and I am still smiling - thank you Dee!

Isn't that just beautiful? I do not know what this will be yet but I do not mind. I am quite happy to sit here and pet it and love it - I might even call it George!