Oh, Oh, Oh, Celtic Memory Is A Calendar Girl!

Some rather exciting news that I'm allowed to share with you. I'm so thrilled I can hardly believe I'm typing this! Sorry, I really do have to shout.


MY POMATOMUS SOCKS ARE GOING TO BE ON THE NEW KNITTY CALENDAR!

Yes, yes, YESSS. Back last August I remembered that the closing date was nigh and hauled my friend Eileen off into the woods of Gougane Barra for a photo shoot. DH was much amused but understood that this was something in which he couldn't be involved, and waved us away with lots of good advice.


Well, if I didn't know it before, I sure know it now - it is not all that easy to take stunning pictures of socks. Especially when you have half a dozen dogs romping around (Eileen runs a brilliant kennels where our lot stay when we're away, and they regard it as their home from home. It means several dogs always accompany her on trips, and since mine demand to come too, it gets a bit lively.) We clambered up and down rocks, into mossy damp forests, splashed through streams. At one point I got what I thought was a good picture of Eileen balancing precariously on an ancient moss-covered stone wall - only to fall backwards myself down a concealed rabbit hole. When we were both thoroughly soaked and muddy and hysterical, we came home, changed into dry clothes, went out and did it all over again.

But it was worth it. One of the pictures was deemed worthy of inclusion. Can't show it to you since I've been asked not to, prior to the official announcement (it was OK to tell you, though!) but am absolutely dying for the big day when the whole calendar is launched.

I'm trying to be offhand and casual but I can't. SQUEEEEEE!!!!!

OK, moment of self-indulgence over. To other matters. The new Atlantis yarn has been listed on eBay. Moiraeknittoo asked in my last posting if I could email a link - would have, gladly, but you didn't give me an address. Here is the id number: that may bring it up.

170156632616

If not, go into Crafts, Knitting, Yarns, and then type in Celtic Memory. Listed some of that covetable cashmere/silk too (although not in the natural shade, all that is being kept for my Starmore St. Enda, go away, you can't have it!), and a couple of mohairs. Gotta make space prior to Ally Pally!


Found some wonderful cabled kneesocks on the Drops site:





which were promptly downloaded for future use (the desktop folder marked 'Socks' is getting a little full...)

And a nifty cabled scarf -







I mean, a girl has to have a few projects in the pipeline, doesn't she? Would be too too dreadful for words if a rainy afternooon came along and one had the rocking chair, the pack of biscuits (US=cookies) - and NO NEW PROJECT. What a ghastly thought!


Both of these were entirely the fault, once more, of the always-elegant Angeluna, who, having read of my wild desire for a new jacket, suggested I might like to look at a Drops design for one. I did, it was ideal -






- and I should have stopped surfing right there. But I didn't, hence the accompanying scarf and socks.


Speaking of Angeluna, just look what arrived in the post for me the other day.








Some of that amazing Kraemer Silk & Silver - how will I ever have the courage to dye that? And a skein of Some Assembly Required merino/tencel, especially hand-dyed for me to Angeluna's strict instructions! Was any Celtic Memory ever so spoiled? A, you're a star.


I somehow forgot to mention a few more additions to the stash lately, some via the Net (it's all the fault of the Net, it can hardly be my weak will), and some via the Little Yarn Shop in the Far West, aka Spin a Yarn.





I'd called in to see Jo and Jean at Spin a Yarn and they had the new Araucania sock yarn in. Well, how could I leave that mossy green behind? And then I saw this lovely pale-green Stella silk/cotton from Debbie Bliss and remembered I'd seen a girl in a supermarket wearing the simplest of short sweater/shrugs in just that shade over a white top, and looking spectacular. So some of that had to come home too. You know, for the rainy afternoon.



And so pleasant to work with am I finding the Austermann Step that I broke down and ordered two more shades from my nice friends at Paradise Fibers.





Good heavens, how did that Misti Pima Cotton get in there? Must have been an error - somebody else's order perhaps? Oh well, it's here now...

Thank you so much for the advice on US size O wooden circulars for plane trips. Searched everywhere, but can't find anyone admitting to stocking (or even manufacturing) this size in that material in a circular. Further guidance and directions much welcomed. I'll hunt at the Knit & Stitch Show but don't have much hope.

Rho, thank you so much for suggesting that I offload my Knit & Stitch stash at the nearest DHL or FedEx and let them take the strain of shipping it back to West Cork. Oh if only those were possible options in the frantic crowded surroundings of a North London suburb with only minutes to spare before dashing to the airport! My mind reverts longingly to wide, sunny shopping malls in Florida or California, where you alight from your car, stroll into the welcoming coolness of a centre dedicated entirely to the purpose of helping you offload your onward-travelling items, and let them look after everything. (I remember so well that one in San Diego whither I dashed on the very first morning of Sock Madness, to get my Mad Cow pattern printed out, and they refused to charge me even a cent for it, what lovely people!) Oh they do have DHL and FedEx and everything else in London, I have no doubt. We have them in Cork. But it takes time, travel, a lot of searching and an AWFUL lot of hassle, even when you have a day to spare. Might check for a local post office in the area between Ally Pally and the Tube, but inner-city London is definitely not super-convenient and spacious America! And before you ask, yes, to my eyes even New York appears far less crowded and hassled than London.

Still working furiously on the Noro Halfobi (despite whispered endearments from adorable charcoal Shetland, as well as its close but somewhat more aristocratic charcoal cousin, a cone of 90% lambswool, 10% cashmere...) and piteous glances from the Austermann Step Faggot & Cable Socks. No no, I cry resolutely, onward and upward to wearing the Halfobi at the Knit & Stitch Show.

(They say that if you visualise the happy result, it encourages you to put in the preliminary donkey work. Hope they're right.)