Knitting Surprises - Yarn Bargains and Blog Prizes!

Thank You Kathy! 

Last week I got a delightful surprise - no, make that two delightful surprises - when I won a blog prize from Kathy B at IrishEyesKnitters Blog , and I found a great yarn bargain in Kinsale.

Firstly the yarn prize came as a complete surprise, as I hadn't expected to win the competition. All I did was post a comment linking to another blog on knitting that maybe needed more visitors and comments, so I trawled a bit and thought of Irish Knitting and Crochet which is a great resource of all the Irish crafty sites, although they don't update too often. Anyway KathyB informed me I'd won and asked for my address so she could forward my prize. So I sent it off and forgot about it till a box with an American postmark arrived during the week. I had to think what it might be and wondered then if it was my prize, which it was - all the way from Illinois! I had missed the blogpost that showed the prize, so it came as a real thrill to see all the lovely yarn! I got 2 x 50g skeins of Berocco Denim Silk, which I'd never heard of, and 3 x 50g balls of Tivoli Cotton and Linen slubby boucle yarn in a nice creamy colour.

My lovely prize from Illinois! 

The irony of the airmiles undergone by the Tivoli didn't escape me as it started life in Cork about 50 minutes drive away from Lismore! In fact my son and his family live in the suburb of Tivoli, near the original woollen mills. Sadly now most of the yarn is made in Turkey but still marketed out of Cork as one of the oldest most regarded Irish knitting brands. Thanks KathyB for making my week a  lot brighter - especially given the foul weather we're enduring in pursuit of our Irish Summer, which is making a mockery of us! I have yet to decide what to make with this fab prize but I'll let you know in good time! This yarn is now discontinued so I will make sure I use just enough!

Beautiful Silk/Wool blend Sock Yarn

The second surprise which actually preceded the yarn prize, was this find of a ball of 100g Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn Colour 301 in Vivi, a lovely crafty shop in Kinsale where I went last Saturday. I wandered around the pretty seaside town while hubby Jan attended a town councillor's national meeting in the Blue Haven Hotel, and as I'd never  been to Kinsale before I figured I'd make like a tourist and do all the touristy trail things. Like wander the narrow streets, visit the shops and go down the quayside to the plummy Kinsale Yacht Club and gawp at all the recession-busting yachts in the Marina, which were the ship equivalent of bumper-to-bumper (stern-to-stern?).

The Yarn shop in Kinsale

Kinsale Marina

A colourful Kinsale street

Along one narrow winding lane I saw this shop which was manna to any knitter, and I browsed covetously for a while, like I do in bookshops, not buying but loitering with guilty intent. I had taken my stash-busting pledge seriously, or maybe I thought I had; well I had told hubby not a drop ball of wool would enter the house till the stash was diminished to virtually nothing, but like any self-respecting knitaholic, I was only one  ball away from falling off that wagon, and the temptation of a lone ball of Noro was too much, and I caved in. The real lure was the price tag - a fiver, that's 5 Euro or about $6, or £4, anyway about a quarter of the normal price. Seems it was the last of the lot and the saleswoman didn't seem to make much of my enthusiastic reaction to my find, as she told me she wasn't a knitter herself.

I have spent the past week deliberating over what to make and while it's sock  yarn,  all 300m of it, I think it's far too pretty to hide in my boots, so I'm going to make a scarf/shawl in a chevron pattern that'll show up the stripes beautifully. I know it'll have a right and a wrong side but I don't think that'll matter as the reverse stocking stitch will be lovely with the lacy design. I have decided on a pattern I found in Pinterest, as it's simple and easy.

Source: ravelry.com via anemone on Pinterest

I think it's very delicate and hope it does the Noro yarn justice!  It's also on Ravelry as a free download.

Right now I don't have time to work with complex charts as I've a wedding in a week and a bit. Our eldest son Shayne and his fiancee Jany are tying the knot after 4 years together, and regular blog readers will know they have two beautiful daughters, Sofia and Livia. So I have a cake to bake and decorate, albeit simply, and a frock to find, again not getting too stressed about that, as I'm not going the whole mother of the groom thing with hats and shoes and bag matching a serious rigout. More like a summery frock and a shawl or bolero and I'll be grand. I got nice white sandals in New Look in Cork today so that's a start!



Enjoy the photos and be sure to visit Kathy's blog and all the blogs people in the competition recommended to her and thanks again for thinking up a lovely surprise to make my week!