July 24, 2005
French yarn
I didn't get a chance to enhance my stash a lot on holiday. There aren't many yarn shops in France, and I didn't see any at all in Spain (but we didn't visit any cities).
In France, I ran into a Phildar shop, where I bought two balls of Preface (70% wool, 30% polymid, 50g/193m) which I really like for socks.
On the way back, we stopped in Toulouse, where I went to La Droguerie. I have been La Droguerie before, in Paris and in Lyon, and I have always found it to be a very attractive, but difficult shop. There are so many things to look at, beads, buttons, ribbons, yarn etc. and especially when it is very hot like it was in Toulouse (40C), I find it hard to concentrate!
The yarns are hanging from the wall in hanks, or are standing on shelves on cones, like the case was with the alpaca I was interested in. Then you have to ask a person working in the shop to take a cone from the shelf in order to look at it. This is not the way I like to shop, so in the end I made a somewhat 'panic' decision, but I'm happy with it anyway!
I got light blue and light grey alpaca to make the Union Square Market Pullover from the autumn 2005 Interweave Knits. So far, I haven't been able to get the right gauge. The attempt you can see in the picture will be frogged.... I got almosyt 8 spi on 2.5mm circulars. 3mm will have to work, but I tried and it got too big. Still, that's what I'm trying next (again).
Another thing is that I have to make the smallest size from the waist up, but my hips are bigger than 33.5", they are more like 40"! So I have to start bigger and decrease faster, at least that is my plan. We'll see how it goes.
I also got 250g of this dark red alpaca, the color is called 'Cassis'. I'm not sure what to do with it yet, I'm thinking about a shawl. It's about 775m, so I should have plenty.
They gave me a card with a little piece of each yarn I bought, with the name and dyelot written next to it, so I will be able to order more if I need to. Nice, eh?
I finished the first Estonian glove:
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and started the second:
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Posted by saartje at July 24, 2005 2:25 PM
