Trouble with tribbles ...

Finished James's wristwarmers on Monday night with just about a yard to spare in the end. Narrowly averted disaster when I realised about halfway through the second one that I wasn't going to have quite enough yarn, so I frogged the first one back to the same point as I'd got to with the second one, and shared the remaining yarn equally between the two. James has very long fingers (takes after me) but I just got there on one ball of Jaeger Matchmaker, so he was very pleased (and I was pretty relieved - PHEW!).

So to Holly's wristwarmers - she decided she wanted pink. That was easy enough on the face of it - but a frantic search through the stash pile proved I've got lots of pink DK, but only in some cheap acrylics that I had left over from some dolls, or some mixed fibre leftovers, and some mercerised cotton (not really ideal for warmth) - and Emily and James both got nice merino .... sooooooo, off to John Lewis in Oxford Street on Tuesday during my lunch break (any excuse, eh?)

John Lewis have a few irritating habits - if they've got the yarn you want, you can be sure they haven't got it in the shade you want, if they stock the spinner you want, then they won't have the particular yarn, I could go on - but there again, most London knitters will already be fully aware of this one, and I don't want to be boring about it - and in any case, I really ought to say that they've improved quite a lot recently (because it's true!) and they actually stock quite a large range (also true!), and their staff are pretty nice, even when they're busy (which they always are when it's lunch-time - truest of all)

Couldn't find Jaeger Matchmaker in the nice sugared almond pink that I wanted, only a rather lairy shade of Barbie pink (gruesome!) - but then I found a rather cheaper range of merino DK, by a company called Cygnet, in exactly the right colour. Grabbed a ball only to discover there wasn't a yardage on the label, but the nice lady assistant looked it up for me, and as it was only about 100 metres, compared with Jaeger Matchmaker 120 metres, I grabbed 2 to be on the safe side.

Then I wandered over to look at the Louisa Harding yarns - was just dribbling over the Kimono Ribbon and Angora in the pretty pink/purple/grey/black colourway when a lady came up to me, and admired my scarf ...! WOW - this has never happened to me before, at least not from a complete stranger! Honest to God, I was so THRILLED I nearly fell over, but at least I managed to have the presence of mind to tell her where she could find my pattern for it.

Can only put it down to over-excitement(!), but enough angora and ribbon for another Curly Whirly found it's way into my basket, along with the merino DK. Whizzed out of JL on cloud nine, and sprinted down to Borders, where I found a number of new knitting mags, including the latest edition of Knit.1 (the man issue, though I note they had a Curly Whirly pattern in there as well - I suspect they breed in dark corners, rather like Tribbles), and then back to the office ...

When I got home in the evening, Holly enquired about the JL bag (not much escapes her notice!) - and asked if the Curly Whirly was also for her. I wasn't thrilled 'cos I'd really intended it for me, but she pointed out (with perfect justice) that I already have one, and So Does Emily, which of course was the real clincher to the argument, and faced with this I gave in. Finished the wristwarmers in a single evening - must have got them off perfectly by now, and I only needed one ball, so I can knit another pair for niece Ellie whose birthday is next week, and who also likes pink.

I've embarked on the scarf, which I think I should have finished, either late this evening, or (more likely) tomorrow on the train ... and here's a Very Strange Thing - I don't actually like the yarn after all! The angora feels horrible to knit with (sort of slimy), I daren't pull it too firmly in case it snaps (following some recent comments on UK Handknitters) and the colour changes aren't long enough or subtle enough, so the overall effect is kind of spotty rather than graduated, as they appeared in the ball. Holly, however, is thrilled so I think I can manage to look as though I meant to do it for her all the way along, with an almost clear conscience ...

I see that I've had lots of new visitors over the last few days - don't be shy, stick a pin in the map (go on, you know you want to) - I'd LOVE to know who you all are!!