Slipstravaganza finished, more haul

 Slipstravaganza is finished.

I had so much fun knitting this, I will definitely do next years mystery knit along.  At times I had doubts about my colour choices, mainly because of seeing other knitters beautiful choices, but once I tried it on, I love it.

I almost ran out of the main colour for this and had to unravel both swatches I'd made.  I used all one swatch and had about 4 rows left of the other swatch once I finished - talk about yarn chicken!  However as I knew I was running out I went to Loopine Yarn Co, my local LYS and bought another skein of the main colour.    Well of course I couldn't just buy 1 skein.  I really like Kiwiyarn-a so bought another 2 skeins of their High Twist.

This is Under the Sea

And this is Penzance.

One of the most popular designers is Andrea Mowrey.  I have a number of her projects in my queue, including the So Faded and Spark in my last post.  She announced a KAL starting on 25 November and ending 30 November to knit a pair of socks called Sparks.  

It will be a challenge to knit an entire pair in such a short time frame, but I decided to take part.  As I managed to eke Slipstravaganza out of what I had left and didn't need any of my new skein, the new skein will be the main colour and the contrast will be Two Bare Hands "I Wasn't Expecting That"

While I was at Loopine I also bought my first HiyaHiya needles set. I bought some 2.25mm interchangeable needles with an 80 cm cord for magic loop.  The needles are a lot longer than my ChiaoGoos and I'm using them on my current sock project and think I'm finding them easier on my hands and the cord is nice and flexible.

This week the last of my Lightfinger Gang Subscription from Vintage Purls arrived.  

So there was a full skein of yarn and 3 minis and a pattern for a lovely Fair Isle cowl.  I love all the colours and the pattern, so I will definitely be making the Egidia cowl - it is in my queue.

At the end of the week I had a message that Ribbon Rose was having a popup shop with greatly reduced prices.  So of course I had to go.  Amongst other things they had DK 100% Australian wool for just $15 for a bag of 10 50g balls.   On my list is another Andrea Mowrey pattern, Spark.  This is meant to be be 10 ply, but I should be able to do it in 8 ply.

  Also in the back of my mind is I would like to try Stephen Wests Starflanket which is also DK

So I bought enough wool for both projects.

For the cardigan I would need more than 10 50g balls, so I bought two bags of the first one which is a Heather green.  I'm not too sure about the colour, I had been thinking more a light grey for the main colour, so I may yet buy some more!  Also rather than the starflanket I may make hats and mitts for gifts next year.  We'll see.  This is why you can never have enough yarn - who knows what you may want to make in the future.

I really mustn't buy any more yarn though until I start finishing some projects.  Maybe I need to make that a rule - it would also be an incentive to finish something if I said once a project is finished which used x much I can buy that same amount.  Nice resolution but I doubt I'll stick to it!