new year stash increase

I've actually been quite good about buying yarn so far. Mainly 'cos I've not been out a right lot. Whilst at Ro's over the new year I discovered that the wool that I'd taken down with me was too scratchy for the project I had in mind so I had to go and buy some more. Tracking down a wool shop in Leicestershire is FAR harder than I thought it would be. The last time we went to one in Burbage, which has since closed down.
Anyhoo

We managed to find one in Hinckley called "Busy Fingers" (I believe they also have a store in Coventry). This is quite a nice little shop, properly friendly as a knitting shop should be, and with a pretty good range considering it's size. As well as the Patons and Sirdar stuff they had Rowan wool too.

I bought some :-
Patons "Funky Chunky" 60% wool 40% acrylic, which is a bit like the Rowan Big Wool in it's density and ply. These were on offer at £1.50 a ball (should have got some more). Got four balls of a dark green and one (the only one) of a nice dark pink.

And a load of Sirdar "Salsa DK", which is a 50/50 blend of Merino and Acrylic. Bought this with a particular project in mind but I'm keeping quiet about it, cos I don't want to bring down curses upon my head (it might all go horribly wrong). Mind you, it's looking okay so far. I'm hoping that the wool content of yarn will counteract any tendency of the finished object to go horribly out of shape when washed which seems to be what acrylic does if my memory serves me. It's a long time since I knitted anything with acrylic and that would have been 100%. I can't remember how much the Salsa was, about two pound/ two fifty a ball I think.

Dunno why those pictures are so small, something to do with how I got them from Ro's computer to mine I think. Will have to try again.

And last but not least
This is picture that I took yesterday of a ball of Adriafil Baroque. However the purpose of posting it here is NOT to demonstrate the loveliness of the yarn (though it is lovely), but to show you the capabilities of my new toy.

Oh yes, I've upgraded my camera. It arrived yesterday and it's FAB.

It's a Panasonic LZ1 which I bought myself with part of my Christmas bonus and I love it. The instruction book is a bit large and I'm trawling my way through it. I'm NOT a photographer, I have used a 35mm SLR camera, many years ago when I was an art student, but never really got to grips with the technicalities of it. Since then it's been 35mm point and click stuff. This is a point and click job, but it seems that you can override the settings when you want to be a bit more adventurous. (That seems to be the case anyway).

I'm still at the point and click stage.

Dontcha love it?

The review says that it's disappointing indoors in low light levels, but I took that yesterday afternoon in my (darkish) living room without a flash. I'm quite happy with that.