Scarlet by name....

Scarlet in nature :o) Not in the whorish sense I hasten to add... unless you mean a yarn whore!

I went to Ravelry Fun Day yesterday at the Crafty Cottage in Warwick with Ruth and a couple of her friends, Rachel and Alison. This was the first knitting 'event' I've been to in a long time and I'm so glad to say it was way worth my expectations and well worth the weeks of barely contained excitement. I'd briefly met Ruth in the flesh before, though I've known her blogwise for a longer time. She really is a wonderful friendly person and really enjoyed her company.

The Crafty Cottage had it's official opening day and invited those that were a part of Ravelry to come along and also the gals from her Monday night knit group too. The spread she put out was amazing and the yarns she's got- I got a bit giddy when I first walked in with a heaving shop and a wall to wall scrumptiousness. There's stuff from all over like Handmaiden, Fleece Artist, Louisa Harding, Mango Moon, Malabrigo, Shades of Cashmere and so many more. To say I had a feast for the senses is an understatement. But most importantly, Jo is so lovely and down to earth and very accommodating.




















This little part of the store had a lot of attention. The first 2 shelves were Handmaiden and the 3rd and 4th shelves were Fleece Artist- which I chose the yarn for another Dahlia.




















Here is the Noro section which was really impressive. I love Noro for the colour combinations they use, but rarely find one that has exactly all the colours I like.
















This was just a small fraction of the food that was put out. I grazed constantly as I'd not taken a small knitting project with me and found the mini samosas and spring rolls really difficult to resist!















Well this is the haul from the trip! The two biggest skeins are Fleece Artist Scotian Silk which is 35% silk and 65% wool. So divine.

The little red one in the middle is Mango Moon Capelli which is a fuzzy but very fine elastic yarn which is meant to be knit in with another yarn to add elasticity to a project. However I plan to use it alone to make a very simple airy scarf.

The smaller red ball is Rosarios 4 Pop Corn. Believe it or not, the yarn is 100% maize and extremely soft. I bought 2 balls to make the Branching Out scarf from Knitty.

The blue skein is Malabrigo lace weight and got to be the softest yarn ever. I don't usually go for lace weight but this is quite thick really and not far off 4ply so I'm going to make something special with that for myself. I might make a small kiri or something like that.

The little kitty brooch is actually from a lovely vintage boutique called Aspire Style in Warwick town. The stuff in there is amazing and definitely worth a browse.

I'd bore you with all the pictures from the haul but Blogger is playing up a bit and it's a pain trying to get it to load pictures. No doubt I'll put them up again in another post though.

I will show you this though...














This is just over 4 repeats of the Branching Out pattern in the Pop Corn yarn. The only complaint about the yarn is that it's very splitty but you get that with a lot of cottons really. I'd originally started it in koigu but this yarn suits the pattern so much more. I think with some blocking it'll open out nicely. The only mods to the pattern I've made is added 2 stitches to the garter border so that it's 5 stitches, not 3. The pattern isn't very wide so I thought that it would add width without having to work out half pattern repeats or anything too technical.

Well, I do want to get on with this project as it's for my great aunt so I'll bid you all goodnight xxx