Big News

Some days at the store we play with lovely things. We actually started on Saturday, but until it is all put together, you just don't get the full effect. It is all done now. I feel just a tiny bit sad, and yet... Let me explain.

Punta Yarns has arrived in Canada, and we are carrying them.

Saturday, we took out the Kid Mohair. I'm not much of a mohair person. Knitting with mohair is a kind of quiet torture to me, probably a feeling I got from a short time working with poor quality mohair. I know I really should break out of my shell of mohair-less-ness but I'm not quite ready yet. This Kid Mohair might do it though. It is hand dyed, and the range of colours is almost hard to believe. You just don't often see this kind of range in a multi coloured mohair. There is a rich, almost navy that is oh so tempting.

Monday, we started with the next box in the line, the Merisoft Hand Painted. The yarn is very softly spun, lushly spun yarn (if there is such a thing as lushly spun yarn. If not, there should be and this is it). The hanks are quite firm, but once you let them free, the yarn is going to bloom and bloom some more. The colours of these hand dyes, the rich, deep, warm, sultry colours, will be like having your own little vacation in an exotic island garden coming to life right there on your needles. It is impossible to imagine until you see it in front of you and hold it in your hand.

There was more.

The Thousand Island is a little harder to describe. Its softness surpasses the Merisoft. It is little lighter (18 stitches to Merisofts 16 on 10 centimeters or 4 inches) Its colours tell a different story. On the skein the yarn has an almost marled effect, but the colour swatches don't quite support this. Or maybe they do. The colour isn't quite so much of a knock you to your knees vibrancy (its a good thing - I don't know how much more I could take). The core of each colour of Thousand Island is softer, ever so slightly softer, as if a veil of mists lay over the shade card. The colours hint at sighs and whispers yet the marl is the steel in their hearts.

Then I was given a gift. I got to work with Mericash solid colours. These yarns whisper. These kinds of colours, this kind of softness sidles up to you and surrounds you in a warm hug of contentment. These are not the brilliant colours of Merisoft. These are not the quiet strength of Thousand Island. They are lighter, finer, softer than the others, but in every single way, their calm and quiet loveliness will take your breath away.

And then magically the display is all together, and the yarns are there for everyone to see, to feel, to fall in love just a little bit with. There is always a little bit of sadness when a whole thing like this is done. I can still see it, and I can still touch it, and so can you, but there is nothing quite like the first time you see the yarns unleashed from the bags, falling all over the table waiting for you.

When I try to talk about a day like yesterday, watching the whole thing come together, playing with each and every ball of yarn, I sound like an idiot. No one in their right mind, no sensible sales person, could feel like this over a few yarns, but here on the blog, where it is safe and quiet, here in my little hidey hole world, I can tell you how much these sorts of days overwhelm me. Here on the blog I'm not ashamed to have my little lunacy leak out.

Here on the blog, I want to put you right there, to reach your hand into that bag of yarn with me, to touch, to see, to feel how very good it is, how something so small, so insignificant in the big ways of the world can warm your hearts and lighten your day.

As they do mine. Now off you go. Go look and see Punta yarns. See, touch, feel, and gift yourself a wee skein of something lovely.

And if you could just leave a a skein or two of the purple Mericash, life will be very good indeed.