It came!

It came!  It came!  It came!

I watch a number of Australian and New Zealand podcasts. It's interesting seeing a different perspective of the world even in knitting.  Different yarns.  Different seasons.  Watching them for the last year made me very aware of yarn festivals and yarn lines that we never hear about here.  

It made me want.  Not going to lie but I became obsessed by Australian yarns.  I debated all summer.  I put the idea firmly aside several times.  

  I caved.  And I am completely and utterly thrilled.  It came. I could hardly believe it when Keith said yes it was at the post office.  I felt like a little kid waiting for Christmas.

It's lovely yarn.  

I started with their Classic line. These giant wonderful balls are 200 grams and 400 metres of Australian goodness are $16.95 Australian.  Our dollars are pretty much equal at the moment so it's a pretty great price. It was $45 shipping but again, when you think of the price of shipping within Canada and how far this has to come, it is reasonable.  There were taxes and duty of $18 on the package, an expected cost.  There were 2 sweaters worth of yarn in my package so when you add all of it up, it is about $120 per sweater.  That is a decent price , in my opinion.  Not a bargain price to be sure but reasonable.  

Classic is an interesting yarn.  It has a crepe twist.  Or spin.  Or ply.  There is a little bit of a different look and feel to it.  

I hope you can see that little bit unusual looking twist.  I can't wait to knit with it and I can't wait to wear it.  

Guess what it's going to be.  

It's going to be a sock monkey style sweater.  Body marled, ribbing cream and red like a good sock monkey.  I have wanted more monkey business for a while but I've knit enough blankets.  Time for something for me.  

Because the cost of shipping was an up to 10 balls sort of thing, you know what I did.  

I fell for the Rustic Tweed.  These are utterly beautiful tweeds.  Rich deep colours and a regular twist makes for some pretty great yarn.  I meant to get the green but when I was ordering I think I pushed the button on this colour, Poseidon which was the other colour I was considering. I either colour, it's going to be a great sweater.

This was not a really responsible purchase.  It really wasn't yarn I needed.  I have tons and tons of stash.  Sometimes it's about more than need.  And that's okay.  Even if it's about yarn from Australia.   

Not purple

Harumphhhhh

Working on this last chair pad is giving me a bit of pain in my brain.  I had a great combo of purples except for one problem.  The richest purple ran out before the end of stripe two.  I thought I would get three good purple stripes but nope.  Two.

I had to fill in with something in a bin full of no more purples or even faux purples.

I went with a rich teal for no particular reason than there is a second partial ball of it so I know I will not run short.

On the upside, the Kauni sweater is behaving magnificently.  I am about to get into a rich green section.  Such a gorgeous green.

And that is it for today.  Coffee is on.  Tools at the ready and I am all set to play.

  

Yarn Colour Troubles

Yarn colours are giving me some trouble.  

My box of Palette seemed to have a lot of browns and purples and greens.  Now that I used most of the brights for the Flea sweater and now that I picked out several good colour sets for chair pads, putting together more sets is a problem.  I have a set of blues that goes with nothing.  

I did find a great set of olive greens and golds.

I also managed to make another purples and browns set.

It's not a really inspiring set but it does seem to fit together.

You do see the problem with the blues though.  They don't fit.  I have some white, dark charcoal and a mid grey Palette and I may have to dip into these full bags to sort something out.  

Still chair pad three is underway.  

I did get in some good work on my Kauni sweater too.  

It's a sweater now.  Just a couple inches till I have to decide on the hem.  It's such lovely knitting and the yarns are such a good match.  They have the same rustic softness that I enjoy working with.  

Keith made his perked coffee this morning and I intend to enjoy every drop.  Coffee.  Yarn.  A light morning breeze.  Who could ask for more?