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I got my CAT PAC for April from Kathleen today. First, the yarny goodness:
This includes Caron Simply Soft, TLC Cotton Plus, Moda Dea Ticker Tape (oh, the frivolity of it!) and Sugar 'n Cream. The first three are all new to me. Yummy!
Then of course, since I need to know what to do with these: 
and 
and: 
Now you know why it took me half an hour just to go through the box.
In non-yarny goodness,
Tea! and some cute cats:
Not shown here, a couple of lovely postcards from the coast, a ticket to ride on the Chesapeake Beach Railway and a bio introducing Kathleen. A very thoughtful PAC. My week is made.
Undeserving I might have been, but I've been thoroughly spoilt by my spoiler, Ruth*. She sent me a box filled with individually wrapped goodies:
What patience and care to wrap each thing separately! What's more, some providence made the box arrive on my birthday, so you can imagine what fun I had unwrapping everything.
Lots of yarny goodness: Debbie Bliss Maya in 05
A lovely pale blue cashmere lacewight from Hipknits:
It looks good enough to eat! Some more from Hipknits, silk lacewight this time:
Then some yarn from Handpainted yarn which I'm hoping to knit into a purse:
Then the yarns spun (or dyed) by Ruth herself for me: This is 50% wool and 50% silk
12 hanks of this mmmmmMohair:
Doesn't it look like a sheep?!
My first wood-y hooks (the packs said needles, but I'm guessing 😉 they're hooks, and made of Indian wood, besides!):
Then this monster thing of beauty:
My dream-come-true! Tunisian hooks in ebony and bamboo:
And to go with them, naturally,
This book is now out of print, but I have a copy now, yay!
Also, this thread (rayon, linen…):
Some non-yarny goodness:
A thriller:
Strawberry soap:
Chocolate:
Mind that drool puddle!
And tantantara…the ultimate spoilingness:
It's official, you may please refer to me as Princess or Your Spoiled Highness from now on.
* She of woollywormhead.com and wonderfully funky hats and yarn.
Here's what I got from the CLBFX for my birthday from Kimberly:
The yarn is Bernat Denimstyle in colour Canvas. It is already halfway to becoming a vest for a friend's son. Hopefully the two skeins will be enough. There are also a knit dishcloth, some patterns, a picture postcard of Houston,a greeting card and a notebook.
From Jennifer I got these:
A cute card and a smiley face, a pen and huge ball of Aunt Lydia's Baby Denim in pale blue. Yippee, more cotton for me to play with, to add to the Phildar and Rio I got in an earlier CAT PAC.
CLBFX has been fun, if a bit nervewracking while waiting to hear that packages have reached the intendees.
These are the goodies I got from Julie for my March CAT PAC. The stickers are being put to good use by the nephew, and the CD has already played a couple of times. This month's CAT is this weekend.
Desiknitter wanted the link to the pattern for the short rows jacket. So here it is, in plain unvarnished html: http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/baby/shortrows.htm
Dark mysterious things are being done to the jacket as the yarn has run out and I wouldn't get more. Pictures when I'm ready to share.
Meanwhile, I leave you with a picture of one of my recent purchases:
That, me sweeties, is a Tunisian/Afghan hook, all of 2 mm gauge wide.
Come on Elizabeth-Jane, pick yourself up off that floor. You can continue to use your giant normal-sized hook to make king-sized afghans.
Desiknitter wanted to know about yarn stores in India. So here is a list that we at the Crochet_India group have gathered so far (and some of these stores include thread-only stores as well):
Bangalore
Bombay Embroidery Stores,14, Raja Market, Avenue Road,
Bangalore – 560 002 22237311
Bombay
Pradhan Stores
Bora Bazaar (Near VT)
Chennai
Raja Thread Store
Chennai
R S fancy Stores
Adyar opp Telephone Exchange
Chennai
Adyar Thread Emporium
Hyderabad
B S Kamaladevi & Sons
4-3-747 Sultan Bazar Hyderabad
24754468
New Delhi
New Kalpana Tracers
Shop No. 120 (Opp Vegetable market),
Sarojini Nagar Market
2410 1702/2467 8396
New Delhi
Sushila (wool depot?)
Munirka Mkt
Pune
New Galaxy
Wonderland, Pune – Camp
Visakhapatnam
Rathi Stores
Poorna Market,
In lane opp Aarif Opticians
Visakhapatnam
Sivam Garments
Next to HSL colony gate, Malkapuram
No, laughing is not allowed. We take what we get.
And Desi, Vardhman does make fun fur and feathery types of yarns and I didn't know this either until J from Lucknow sent me some. There are colours, also, apparently. I have to confess *shamefacedly* that I've never knowingly used Indian wool, either. But it is available in northern cities in various qualities. Yarn snobbery, yarn stores, stash…a bit unreal, what?
This was the bag that Viji gifted me for my stash. Nice! Handmade by a lady in Pune.
I've become bored with reading all the mails about Michaels closing and also about Mainstays being discontinued and about the 8oz skeins now becoming 7 oz skeins.
We don't get any of those here, so it's all academic anyway. And it increases the feeling of Alice Through the Looking Glass that I get most of the time from reading about all those brands and shops.
Oh well, now I've become one of those irritable slapper-downers. Sigh.
Well, not quite. But I'm dying to work with the yarns my SP sent me, one of which is ggh Aspen in a pinkish colour, 50% merino wool and 50% acrylic, and I have 200g (about 220 m). It is bulkyish.
The other yarn is Froya Narvik double knitting yarn, 100% wool in grey and I have 100g (260 yds, 240m). Thinner obviously. Both yarns are machine washable, so they won't felt.
My er suggests baby things with the Aspen. Any other ideas? Or specific patterns for baby items? I don't want to waste this yarn or spoil it by trying something that doesn't look nice. My fingers are itching to start…
What is possible with ~200m of yarn? *showing my extreme ignorance here*
This is a funny feeling, to have some real yarns (things that have an internet presence) at hand, and not to know what to do with them! I've gotten so used to making yarns fit patterns, that I'm finding it difficult to fit patterns to yarns instead! Weird! Have to explore the manufacturers' sites, although I can't find one for the Froya yarn. The Americans have that down pat, with extensive sites giving patterns by yarn and substitutes. Not all, maybe, perhaps the higher-end US yarn websites don't do that. Not having seen any of those, I can't comment.
Also, these are my first yarns with wool in them (that I know for sure) and not having seen anything except what seems like the bottom rung of US yarns, right now I feel the Europeans have it better in terms of yumminess. Probably they pay more too? I'm not able to say this right.
Are European yarns more boutique-y? Obviously I'm not talking about the handspun ones and things like that. Is it a case of class vs mass?
One exposure to natural fibre and I'm already making judgements! Wow! I feel a natural-born yarn snob deep inside…
Just been a little deeper into the websites. Patterns for ggh are not listed by yarn at the Muench site (the US retailers) and the makers themselves are still building their pattern pages. The Muench ones are all for sale, not free. So they believe the patterns have a market seperate from that of the yarns, and consumers will pay for them. Maybe the American strategy is that if the free pattern is interesting enough, people will buy the yarn for it. hmm. More points to ponder. Maybe that's why most of the free patterns on the net are American.
While I was away, I met a fellow crocheter, Viji, and was just overwhelmed at the affection she and her husband, Victor, showed me. But also, I was in total awe of the amazing work Viji does with her hands, not just crochet but several kinds of international and local embroidery. She is working with a local institute in Chennai to help create lessons for these sew crafts and the examples she has sewn are unbelievable.
I got a couple of pictures of her crochet work:
And one sampler of the other kinds of embroidery she's working on:
This embroidery is fully reversible, and Viji's work is so neat! What's more, Victor is fully supportive of her work, and even knows better than her where her WIPs, FOs, and stash items are!
Viji & Victor treated me to lunch at Saravana Bhavan in Mylapore, followed by an extended browse at the Landmark bookstore. They gifted me with the Harmony Guide to 300 Crochet Stitches (Vol 6 of the series). Yummy!
Viji also gave me a bag for my stash, which is made by a lady in Pune, apparently. I'll post pictures of it later. It's a padded black bag with handy zip pockets on the sides for hooks and needles, and about 15"x10"x10". Also a few balls of Anchor thread (Knitting cotton).
A wonderful time! Thank you, again, Viji & Victor!
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