Sunday, April 30, 2006

stash enhancement

At least I think it's an enhancement. Starting to have second thoughts!

Yesterday morning I went into town early (miss the Saturday rush). And after Tesco's I wandered along to the Kirkwood Hospice Shop (charity shop, thrift store, what you will).

There I found a bag with a load of yarn in it, looks like home dyed lace weight in shades of green and blue. The same bag also contained a small skein of something cream coloured and a bit slubby with a label on it that said "EAT ME". . . . . . . . . .

no sorry wrong book.

with a printed label on it that said "coreopsis" and a handwritten one that said "dead coreopsis". Now this is clearly incorrect so I'm sort of thinking home vegetable dying????

Anyhoo, there was a price on the whole bag of £1.00 which is what, the cost of a litre of diesel nowadays (I paid 99.99p per litre when I refilled the truck on Wednesday, nearly had heart failure. The tank was only half empty and it took nearly £200 quids worth!). So I paid me money and took it home. The lady behind the counter when I paid for it asked me what it was so I said I thought it looked like home dyed lace weight knitting yarn.

When I got it home I got out me swift and wool winder and set them up and realised that the skein didn't have an end. Well I had a hell of a job finding it anyway. Next problem was that the skein seemed to be inextricably twisted so I couldn't use the wool winder as I had to keep stopping and passing what I'd wound back through the skein. In the end I was forced to take it off the swift and hang it over my arm whilst winding it the good old fashioned way by hand.

Best part of two hours later and I've wound ONE BLOODY SKEIN and am left with a ball larger than a ping pong ball but quite a lot smaller than a tennis ball. Perhaps about rounders ball size (though my memory isn't what it was and it's a long time since I saw a rounders ball.). This ball weighs about 20 grams and the whole lot weighs about 100 grams so I have a lot of untangling ahead of me.

I like the colours though, looks much better wound onto a ball than it did in a skein and it feels beautifully springy so I don't think it was a waste of money, but it may take some time to sort out. I've been wanting to try lace knitting at some point so now I have something to practice on.

My socks continue apace I've turned the heel on the second one and finished decreasing the gusset, all downhill to the toes now.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice! Bet it remains forever one ball of wool and a number of skeins.

Anonymous said...

Nice haul! So now you need to use all that money you saved and purchase a ball winder and swift!

ra said...

already gotta ball winder and swift but I managed to twist the skein so couldn't use them.

acrylik said...

Great stash find! I wish you lots of luck and patience with the unravelling...

Anonymous said...

Good luck with the winding. I can get in a mess with a perfectly normal skein. Yes, I know about swifts and stuff I just always bash on. I didn't join the guild although I was tempted; I like joining things!

TutleyMutley said...

What a bargain! I'm intrigued by the "dead coreopsis"?!