Fiber East Stash Additions

The weekend before last I was volunteering and taking classes at Fibre East. Unfortunately I was too busy/didn't bring a camera and missed out on taking any pictures of the evert itself. Really though a picture wouldn't show the best bits anyway: friendly people, sunny skies, and amazing amount of knowledge going round. And while I didn't get pictures of the bunnies or the sheep to share with you I do have pictures of the new additions to my stash. with some ramblings about my plans for them.

My first purchase was an ashford Flick Carder. It's part of some grand plan I have to spin and knit a hat for Stephen this winter. Hopefully one that he will wear

Then I spent the bulk of my money on this. This is Big Boy from Easyknits.co.uk because I wanted to do a birght, bold version of the Stoxa tank from this summer's Knitscene. The yarn is delicious, the colours are fabulous and I'm always happy with everything I buy from Easyknits. I can't wait to cast on.

And on the subject of bright colours I picked up these beautiful little mini skiens in seven colour rainbow from The Knitting Goddess. I made two equally sized magic balls, one running purple to red and the other running red to purple. I'm making socks and I'm already over the second heel. I've been tweeting about their progress but if you missed the pictures they are on my project page.

On the more naturally coloured side of things I bought some angora. I could not resist buying angora. I adore angora but I don't like to buy it commercially and if I'm not certain it comes from an ethical supplier. Buying freezer bags full of fluff from the National angora Club seemed like a good way to get some fibre from a good source.

I bought two natural shades. The grey, confusingly referred to as chinchilla, and the golden white, helpfully referred to as golden. It's so, so, so soft. I'm spinning the chinchilla to get a feel for how it handles and I'm going to blend the white with some BFL I have lying about to see if I can't get the yardage for a hat and mitt set.

I couldn't resist buying something from The Farm Animal Sanctuary but as I was slowly running out of funds I made do with just this small sample of Wensleydale. No plans as of yet.

My last purchase of the day came from Sara's Texture Crafts. It was red and irresistible and I'm spinning it up on my bottom whorl spindle from Abby's class. It's ravelry project page is here.

That was it until sunday when I set off fully intending to buy a tub of samples from Low Land Legacy. Each sample is 20g and I want to spin each up to practise with the breed and then make it into a somewhat random lap blanket with other breed samples I've accumulated.

That was my good intention. Just to buy that tub. And I did buy it. You can hardly fault me that it came with a pack of free buttons.

Or that I found a bit more money when I was packing up. I'd forgotten all about putting my chage into that pocket. I was determined to spend all of it so I bought some more John Arbon fibre to add to my collection. Some broken merino tops.

Then because they are so cute I spent my last few pennies in some of Jack Laverick's cool ceramic buttons. And I felt very, very poor indeed. But with some cool new craft supplies, and isn't that what counts in life?

Adventures In Supermarkets

When I'm in other parts of the country I like to go to the supermarkets there and poke around at the different products. No really. I find this fun.

So I slipped off last time I was staying with my parents to pop to Morrisons. The one in Heywood if you're playing along at home. I picked up the bits I needed (toothpaste, why do I always have to forget toothpaste) and headed to my favourite aisles. It goes like this:

1. Fruit and veg
2. Bakery (stock up on muffins)
3. International foods section

Ahh the international food section. Where you can find Polish biscuits hobnobbing (ahem.) with giant bags of gram flour bases purely on the idea that they aren't traditional British. Depending on the area you can find some real treasures here. 

Happiness is imported 

This entry is dedicated to Jelly. Oh Jelly. I love you. Of course Jelly is made from animal bits and I don't eat those. There are vegetarian Jellies in existence, some you can find in health food stores and some you can find in supermarkets, but it's still exciting to find a new one. Especially if it's mango flavoured. 

So I saw the mango flavoured loveliness and as it had Halal slapped across the box I checked the ingredients: 

Refined Sugar, Vegetable Gum, Adipic Acid, Potassium Citrate, Potassium Chloride, Mango flavour, E102 and E110

Awesome cool. I can eat that.

Attack Of The Boringly Shaped Gelatinous Blob

Yesterday I made up a batch and then pored it into... where did all my glass go... in to a ramekin. Stephen had thrown out the pretty glass because we never use it. The fact that he did this around a year ago and I didn't notice is hardly justification. Anyway I pored it into a ramekin. Making the most boring looking jelly in history. I'll have to buy moulds if I'm going to make a habit of this. And I might. Jelly is delicious and this one tastes like mango.