My Aussie publisher, Bernadette, is in town this week, and she’s a knitter, so when she suggested lunch I rang CCCK in Northcote for suggestions on where we could get a nice meal nearby. After eating we had a little yarn store exploration.

There was less range than I was expecting, but it was a case of quality over quantity. Lots of Rowan, some Jo Sharp, some Cleckheaton/Patons, some Naturally, and some handspun and handdyed yarns. Not to mention big inviting couches and a friendly shopkeeper.

I admitted I was on a yarn diet so I wouldn’t be buying anything. Bernadette (after giggling at the term ‘yarn diet’) said she wouldn’t be buying anything as it wouldn’t fit in her suitcase. So there we were, two knitters in a yarn store, not buying anything.

Somehow I came out with this:

The black is to go with the alpaca I bought in Lakes Entrance for the weaving project in the book I bought at the Jolly Jumbuck.

The red… I told myself it’ll go with my small but growing collection of red odd balls for a weaving project. (But in the back of my mind there’s a voice saying it’s too nice to be lost in among a whole lot of other yarns, and it goes with that coconut button so nicely…)

Bernadette bought one ball of lemon yellow Jo Sharp cotton (after I pointed out that yarn squishes down and can be stuffed into other things in your suitcase – like shoes). I think she was delighted to incorporate some knitting fun into a work trip.

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Here’s one for the commenters – the felt buckets. The big orange one is from AK Traditions. It has knitting needle and balls of yarn shapes as well as yarn appliqueed onto it. My companion versions just have yarn and a few pockets sewn on. I made them back when I had a modest stash and I thought these, and a few baskets, would be all I needed for yarn storage. How innocent and naive I was…

Now they’re used to hold projects and, in the case of the big one, all my knitting bags. (When the girl in CCCK said she had five knitting bags I said ‘only five?’. It’s amazing how they accumulate. Hmm, maybe I should do a post on knitting bags.)