Thanks for all your well wishes about the craft fair and to those who’ve asked how it went. You guys are so sweet. It was fun, and I made enough money to cover the cost of going but it was pretty quiet and I didn’t sell that much. But it was worth it for the people I met and for the fun we had going on a little road trip to Glasgow. I love how wee this country is. You can pretty much drive from one side to the other in 50 mins :). After the fair we went to pick up my flatmate Emerald from her mum’s house in this pretty little village. We took their dogs for a walk and then we went home and more or less fell asleep watching the three muskateers. It was a fun but exhausting day. This is the only pic of the fair I have. It’s horrendous but this is me and my friend Sean (who is wonderful and drove me through at 8 am). We took Jamie along too and they had fun exploring the west end and buying records (Sean’s a dj when he’s not my chauffeur).Excuse the tablecloth we forgot I forgot and blamed Jamie and Sean to take the fabric I had to cover it. So I sent Jamie to find something in a charity shop and this was the best he could get.

The hall was so incredibly 70s. We felt like we were in Life on Mars.

Last week I got the loveliest little package. Hill Country Yarns sent me a skein of their hand dyed sweet feet sock yarn to test knit and review. It’s gorgeously cushy soft light merino and while I haven’t knit it yet I love it so far. The colours are great and really intense, I didn’t choose them but I love both the chocalety brown and the electric blue. I don’t know if you can tell but it’s self striping. The colours are all inspired by the Texas Hill country apparently and while I’ve never been there I can see how that it’s had great results. This yarn isn’t superwash but I can handle hand washing socks. I like hand washing *blush* it reminds me of washing my dolls clothes and hanging them on the little line my mum strung up with little clothes pegs. If hand washing doesn’t make you feel like a little kid playing then they have a variety of different sock yarn options - including a finer weight than this one. I know exactly what I’m going to do with this yarn I just need to get started. I might need a ball winder but I make do pretty well:

Yes that is a screwdriver. At the fair I wound one of my skeins into a ball on a glue stick. It’s now like this:

I’m not a big fan of variegated yarns and fancy patterns as a rule. But I think these work well together. Tropical pomatamus :) I’m having problems tearing myself away from them.

I’ve been listening to craft sanity podcasts while I knit and also Treasure Island. I love audio books and a while ago I found this great website. You can download lots of books for free or pay to get them in a more convenient and better quality format which seems fair. I’m listening to the lowest quality of Treasure Island and it’s not great through the powerbook’s speakers but hooked up to my actual amp and speakers it’s ok. I love the man reading’s voice and he does all the voices :) I’m off to listen to it now and clean my room a bit before I go out. Looks like a bomb hit at the moment. I have several projects I need to get started on, but I have to sort this space out first and do some laundry. These projects are rather exciting though. I have a couple of submission deadlines (for knitty and the next snb book) that I want to do something for; I have the hill country sock yarn to knit up; I have a cardigan that I was commisioned to design and knit; and I’m putting together a shop site to sell my stuff in. If you have any input at all one what you’d like to see in the shop or how it should work I’d love to hear about it. And before someone mentions it I adore etsy but I’ve decided not to go down that route, at least for the moment.

p.s. I have a few skeins of sock yarn left. It’s not really enough to bother making a shopping cart or anything for but I have pictures if you’d like to see. It will be ?11 including international shipping. Basically email me at mail AT ysolda DOT me DOT uk if you want to see the pictures and pick one out. Absoultely on a first come first served basis, and to insure you get it I’ll want paypal payment as soon as you’ve picked a skein. There isn’t much of it and this seems the fairest way to go about it. When I launch the shop there will be more yarn :) so don’t worry if you miss this.