Of shipping and other good things.

Some time ago, a friend went to Iceland and brought me the loveliest gift, 

some gorgeous red Einband, the mythic lopi laceweight. Its only mythic to me because it is completely unavailable in my local market.  It is a very rare thing.

About the same time, I got a copy of the Book of Wool and fell in love with the Lillia Hyrna shawl.   

I had started it in some Harrisville Shetland and loved the way it looked.  The shawl is designed for Einband and once I had some in my hands, I was determined to knit the shawl in it. (I'll save the Shetland for something else.) Lillia Hyrna needs two colours of the laceweight and so began my quest.  

The only North American source of Einband is Schoolhouse Press.  I did try.  I wanted a crisp deep black or natural deep gray to offset the vibrant red.  No luck.  Not in stock.  I tried the natural cream. 

Not quite what the look I wanted, but still wonderful.  I now had two extra skeins of Einband to play with.  In all the months since, Schoolhouse has not had the rich gray I wanted in stock.   

A couple weeks ago, March 1, to be precise, some budgetary room opened up and I was seized with the need to search for the right colour laceweight.  I hit the Shop Icelandic online store.  Its a dangerous place.  I planned only for the laceweight, but they have flat shipping.  Flat rate shipping is a bargain.  A person would have to be an idiot not to realize that if you are shipping it from Iceland and it is flat rate...I'm just not the sort of person to let that sort of bargain go.  I did it right.  

There was a discount if I ordered 10.  So I did.  10 Plutolopi cream and a couple of colours.  

Plenty for a sweater and a little left over for play.  

10 laceweight.  The other creams were lonely?  No excuse.  And right back to what I was looking for in the first place,  two each of the richest blackest colours.

See?  

Better with the black.  

Much better with the heathered dark gray.

It took less than 8 days to get to Canada.  I got notice that I could pick up the parcel at the post office on the 9th day. It took customs 3 weeks to clear the Schoolhouse Press package.  So ummm...

Shop Icelandic! 

I promised myself that I would finish another project from my list before I allow myself to start this new shawl.  Sigh.  (If the resolution was not making me feel better, I would toss the list in an instant to knit Lillia Hyrna).  I picked the second Icarus to work on.  I want to get the Moderne blanket out of the way too. (Brier is done.  Blanket is not.) I thought I would have a couple more weeks before the Icelandic yarn would arrive.

Its interesting how fast things knit up when I am highly motivated.   And boy oh boy am I motivated.