Friday, June 20, 2014

Gems and goodies.

Fortunately for my recent fit of esurience*, I've had some beautiful little treats sent my way recently!

The golden yarn is mulberry silk lace in "Gold of the Aztecs" from Povetkina's Dyeworks on Etsy. I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I found yarn in shimmering true gold. I'd resolved to knit Sheherazade in gold with dark ruby beads, but it had to be gold - yellow or orange would have ruined it for me. This yarn is an absolute marvel. It took a little over two weeks to get to me from Russia, but 1) it came all the way from Russia and 2) it's so worth it.

Moving on clockwise... I was lucky enough recently to have won a giveaway hosted by the Dull Roar blog and sponsored by Alicia of Woolen Diversions. Alicia kindly offered me my choice of scents of her Sweet Sheep solid lotion bars - and I have to say, Alicia's done an excellent job with her products. It was well-packaged so that the lotion arrived still solid and intact through temperatures in the low 90s yesterday, but warms and melts quickly in the heat of one's hands. The green tea scent that I chose smells just like a freshly-opened canister of looseleaf tea. It's a very pleasant and mild scent, not at all overpowering, accompanied by the faint warm smell of beeswax. The scent fades within the hour (a huge plus for me; I don't wear perfume and hate having a smell clinging strongly to me all day!) but my hands stay plump and soft for hours and hours, even in the dry climate of Colorado. I'll definitely be using this for a long time to come! You can find Alicia's lotion bars and lip balms in her Etsy store, Sweet Sheep Body Shoppe.

Below that tin are three of the six removable Melody stitch markers that I bought from Twice Sheared Sheep. Yes, in addition to very affordable recycled luxury yarn, Twice Sheared Sheep also sells beautiful stitch markers, row counters, shawl pins and more. I bought this set for myself on Tuesday night, as a little prize for getting all of my thesis postponement paperwork done, and they were in my mailbox on Thursday afternoon! The seller does live only an hour away from me, but still, that's remarkable speed in posting the package. The other three markers are already doing their duty on projects.

Finally, I went down to my LYS today and picked up two tiny crochet hooks and a pair of size 4 Addi Turbo Lace circs in the longest cable size they had, 47 inches. My Celestarium is now in its final set of charts before the lace edging, and nearly 600 stitches around. It was becoming a bit of an ordeal to try to squeeze all of them along a 32-inch cable. So now I have five sets of long size 4 circs (as well as two sets of short circs) of various lengths, and as soon as I shift projects and needles around and cast on the Sheherazade, all five will be in active use. The two tiny crochet hooks are, of course, for beading. My 0.5 mm hook was too small to reliably catch the DK weight yarn for Storm Warning, so I picked up a 0.85 mm and a 1.00 mm hook to see if either will work better.

What knitting treats have you picked up recently?

 

 

*esurience (noun) overwhelming desire for more. I like that I can use this word to describe my craving for yarny things without the ugly stain of moral defect that "greed" or "avarice" would leave.

4 comments:

  1. No moral defect noted here, as who could resist these amazing treasures. I can't get over the beautiful of the mulberry silk lace. I would just sit there and stare at it in marvel.
    Thank you for mentioning The Sweet Sheep Body Shoppe. I am always on the lookout for hand lotion that has a mild not overpowering scent.
    No new treats this week, but I think I make up for it all the other weeks. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. esurience. What a wonderful descriptor :) I love the golden yarn. It reminds me of a fairy tale. Can't wait to see it in action :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am going to have to remember that word for my own yarn-y pursuits... and I'm so glad you love your bar! Thanks for all the kind words. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great pair of socks!
    I really have to learn how to knit a pair!
    I love your needles also! ;-)
    http://secondstoryloft.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete