I’m back! Well, sort of. Even if I hadn’t gone to New Zealand for two weeks I wouldn’t have been able to post here. As if going back to dial-up speed wasn’t painful enough, my pc became mortally ill and had to be replaced, and the beau has spent many, many hours swearing over the new one in his attempts to get it running.

The New Zealand trip was fantastic. I signed up to the Kiwi Knitters group on Ravelry before we left, and found a thread especially for visitors that listed the worthwhile yarn shops to visit. I have to say, NZ knitters don’t know how lucky they are. All the disparaging comments about the Knit World shops totally undeserved. Imagine a chain of knitting-only shops the size of Wondoflex, with stores reachable by foot in most major cities. I think the problem is Knit World only has a little bit of imported yarn – a bit of italian stuff, some Rowan (yawn), Regia and ACS yarns – but they have LOTS of local yarn, which may be overly familiar and boring to locals. In fact, I was constantly surprised at how much local yarn there was. I not only managed to find a ball of New Zealand yarn in every place I visited for my souvenir travel blanket, but each was a different brand and even after ten balls I could have kept adding more new manufacturers to add.

I deliberately packed VERY light so I could fit lots of yarn in my suitcase. By the end of the trip 2/3 of the space was filled with yarn and the expanding section had been expanded, and I’d bought an extra carry bag as well. Trouble was, the yarn got cheaper and more interesting at every shop! Some serious stash enhancement took place, and the only reason it’s all still on display on the day bed is because I’m not sure where I’m going to store it. I can’t wait to post a photo of it all. Along with photos of fos. And a couple of snapshots of NZ’s spectacular scenery.

But that’ll have to wait until I have a working pc again. Soon. Sooooooon.