IKL and stash enhancement

It was a particularly excellent evening at the BFI on Wednesday night. I had imagined we would be knitting in the cafe on the riverside, but in fact we were located in a rather classy bar area in the new annex between the NT and the BFI. We sat on the most fabulous sofas and armchairs, and it really was the perfect setting for knitting and chatting, except when they dimmed the lights, and then it was only perfect for chatting. Heh.

It's always good to catch up with the I Knit London boys and the usual suspects, plus this week there were a lot of new faces or recent additions to the group, all of them really friendly and I do hope they all come again. Gerard was knitting a sock with some yarn dyed by long-time IKLer Jon [check out his site to see more of his dyeing projects]. I myself had yet another disastrous night of ripping [a subject for a future post], but despite this frustration, the evening was an absolute blast, the only sour note was that I had left my purse at work, and had to rely completely on Gerard to refill my glass. For shame.

It's been a good week for the stash. First, on Tuesday, I received the first instalment of Sundara's 2007 Petals Collection, which I've been longing to see, and it did not disappoint. The package contained a 350 yard skein of soft, soft merino sock yarn in blue grape hyacinth, a pretty picture of said grape hyacinth and a sock pattern. My rubbish camera has spectactularly failed to capture the colourway, the skein is predominantly blue, but it has more purpley tints than is evident here. It's a lovely package, the only thing is that I don't really wear blue, so I guess I'll be knitting these socks for someone else!






Then, on Thursday a package from k1 yarnsarrived, this time containing two skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk. I've been wanting to get my hands on this yarn for the longest time, and I am so glad I did. It is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, although I admit, I'm not that keen on the moss colour. As soon you can see, I didn't wait for better light, and as soon as I'd finished photographing the skein, I wound it into a ball and cast on.