As part of my duties in Canberra I wound up in a bookstore. A pretty decent bookstores – Dymocks Belconnen – which not only had my books (not knitting) but a fairly decent range of knitting books. I found this:

Somehow it ended up in my luggage.

It’s a typical ‘geeky idea’ pattern book in that the designs are based more on cool ways to incorporate maths in to knitting than on good garment design. Yet while there are some very silly looking designs, there are also some beautiful, tasteful ones. (Though I reckon even those could do with a bit of waist shaping – but that’s just me.)

When I arrived in Canberra, I received this gift from a New Zelander friend:

Supreme Possom Merino. It feels beautifully soft, but also robust. Believe it or not, but this gift was from a male non-knitter.

I’m very tempted to order more of the yarn. Lots more. I’ve had a mental image of a jumper sporting a mariner’s compass on the front for a while now, and since my NZ friend is a cartographer it would be a nice touch to knit it out of this wool.