Holiday Part 2: the Loot!

I managed to do some 'stash enhancement' on our recent trip to the Okanagan. Seems Kelowna has a new yarn store called 'Art of Yarn'. My first trip out was on the holiday Monday, except I forgot the holiday part. I met with closed doors and had to press my nose up against the glass and window shop. On a little kid, it's cute... not so much on a (ahem) 'mature' woman. I went back a couple of days later and bought these skeins. They are silk and mohair blend in amazing colours. The pictures don't show the deep shimmer. I couldn't decide between the deep mauves, lavender and smoldery pinks.... or the earthy tone, green shimmer and copper gleam. So I bought both. They are yarns by Hand Maiden.

I went back to the store on my last day with Lynnette and Ngaire and this skein of fine merino said 'crock pot dye session' to me. Or maybe not: lace weave in this cream would be lovely too.

While in Vernon, we went to the local yarn store (LYS) and visited 'Never Ending Yarn'. These skeins are baby alpaca and 50 grams each. They two shades are of equal value and looked so nice together. What ever the project finally gets to be, it will most likely use both colours. I also bought some fine (000 or 1.50 mm) circular needles for some beaded knitting I'm doing at night while watching TV.

My friend and weaving buddy, Gudrun recently had visited Germany and Austria in July to see family and friends.
Then while visiting with Gudrun for our lunch and (too short) visit, she gave me a little gift. Inside is a nifty sley hook tool that was made in Germany. It's quite thin and used on finer reeds but apparently they come in all sizes depending on the reed being used. There also was a special needle for hemstitching: on the point there is a small ball. I have yet to try it but Gudrun assured me that it would be my new favourite. I tried to take a close up picture of the needle's ball but my camera wouldn't cooperate... or focus!

I also added to my linen cupboard and brought home these snowflake and fancy twill runner and four mats woven by Gudrun. They have a fine cotton warp and a fine black linen weft. If I recall rightly, this linen is newly home from Germany. I sampled some on a cone and it was so smooth, and fine and amazingly soft. I would have thought cotton but just *really* uber linen.
Gudrun said she should have brought back a suitcase full of it. I agree!


Lynnette showed me her bead storage system while I was there. She has these little clear 'cuppettes' with snap on lids and so you can see what's inside and they are stackable and secure. Fantastic! So, once home, off I went to Wally World and while no cuppettes appeared, I found these nifty storage cases.

There are many (37?) of the little boxes in two main sizes, plus two larger ones. It came with a spoon for dishing up the glitz and a pair of fine, cheap tweezers. I hate to say this but my bead stash filled three cases and I spilled over into two back up units of these cups. But its way better than those little baggies and all stuffed into a heap in a soft carry bag and stuffed again into a drawer. Now they are more accessible and I can colour code the boxes and take out only the ones I need.
My husband has his eye on these cases below but the pink clips are a theft deterrent! Thinks the guys will laugh at him when they come for railway modeling sessions.

I've been home a week now and there's been a fair amount of business to tend to and so I have been around our little town running errands. I stopped into a local book store and found this gem:

I used to live in New Zealand for five years and so have an appreciation of the Maori and their culture. I'm looking forward to studying this book more closely.

Anything I missed this trip, we can catch next time and that appears to be coming a lot sooner that I had thought! Looks like we'll be going back again this Christmas!

I have also been busy working on Elena's shawl and it's hanging to dry as I write. I got the fringe twisting done ( 2 full afternoon's) and then the beading ( another full afternoon) Next post should be the big reveal!