Yarn at John Lewis in Reading

On the second Saturday of most months the Reading branch of the Knitting and Crochet Guild meet up at RISC in London Street.   On 11 July I went to my first meeting in ages.  Last month I know I said that the yarn sellers of Reading were disappointing but that didn’t stop me visiting them.

John Lewis should be praised for continuing to have a Haberdashery department when most of the other department stores closed theirs years ago.  This month I visited the Reading branch and bought the yarn shown below.

It is 9 x 50g balls of Wendy Merino wool in a dark blue denim shade.  I know it isn’t very exciting but it was in the sale at less than half price.  Although I wasn’t exactly intending to buy it – I have been thinking about buying some yarn to use as a main colour for a couple of Jo Sharp designs that I would like to knit which would use up some of my yarn mountain.

Otherwise I have still been thinking about knitting rather than working on any of my projects.  I am knitting for Colinette at the moment and the project is commercially confidential as it hasn’t been published yet – so I had better not post photos of what I have been knitting.

Hopefully next week I will be able to show you a finished mauve and orange wrap.

Thinking about Knitting

This week I have done some knitting but I have done more thinking about knitting!

I am still knitting my stole/scarf that I have been working on for the last few weeks.  Today I bought a fifth ball of the yarn.   However while I have been knitting I have been arranging balls of Fandango on the floor trying to imagine what they will look like when knitted.

I was going to do a brick wall design with shades of brown  and so I selected the balls shown above – but I think that could look a bit dull – so I will probably have to use a few more vibrant colours. 

I will have to knit some rectangles and see what they look like.   I want the bag to look different – not like any of the others I have done.

I have been thinking about knitting a couple of cardigans as well.  I have looked through lots of old pattern books and found a couple of lovely designs in a Jo Sharp book.  I will add them to the list of things to do when I have more time.

Shell-Shaped Modular Wrap

I have edited the last post because I forgot to include contact details for Banbury Sewing Centre for those of you who are not familiar with it and may want to visit it sometime.

This week I have been working on my shell-shaped modular knitted stole or wrap.  I am not sure what to call it.  It is a wide scarf!

This first photo shows what a single module looks like. 

I am not sure that I have bought enough yarn – I have bought 3 balls.  The original pattern says 5 but that is for a baby’s blanket.  I think I will need to buy at least another one.

The photo below shows how much I can knit with one ball (11 full shapes, and 7 half shapes).  It also shows how colours can look very different when the light changes.  It was much brighter when I took the second photo.

I am glad I am trying something new.  It is easy to just knit the same things.  Having said that I would like to make myself a new Fandango bag.  I have had the idea since I made one last year.  I think that will be my next project.  It isn’t suitable weather for throws.