Wednesday 9 November 2016

Knits and purls

My collection of DK yarn. Well, most of it anyway
You may have gathered that I do like to knit things and recently I have even started with the crochet needle. Which means that I might finally be able to use some of the yarn I have gathered over the years. 

Like the two large containers of DK (double knit) yarn I got when I lived in England, ooh, a lifetime ago. All colours of the rainbow and then some. To be used for small items like elephants and mice, tooth brushes and ginger bread men. 

Part of the sock wool. Anybody need a pair?
Like all the yarn I have bought since living in Norway. To make socks, mittens, slippers, mice, sweaters. Most of it is wool or a wool-blend and they are fantastic to knit with. 

Then there are the needles. I not only have my own needles, collected over the years, I also have the ones my mother didn't want anymore. Plus the ones she had gotten from somewhere else again. Plus the ones my sister got rid off when she realised knitting wasn't for her. I could have 5 projects on the go at once and still have needles for another one!

But, I have a problem. One that is pretty annoying to me. Because even though they love their knitting and to a lesser degree crocheting here in Norway, finding the yarn I want and/or need is proving to be extremely tricky. Very! Because they do wool here. Llama, alpaca, sheep. Blends with cotton, acrylic, polyester. And yes, I can even find some cotton over here. Either in size 3 or up or 1,5 and down. I needed size 2 (needle size). 

The recently acquired cotton yarn
I went into five different shops. And in the end I struck lucky. The tiniest shop had in fact the biggest choice in crocheting cotton in the size I want. Mind you, that still only meant a couple of small shelves, but it's a start! As for the the other yarn I might need? I guess a trip to the UK will be in order at some point!

Or start a shop of my very own!!

14 comments:

  1. Good luck trying to find a decent wool shop in the UK….they are an endangered species!
    Oh and I would luffs to dive in and play wiv those balls of wool…..Mum won't let me play wiv hers, meany
    Loves and licky kisses
    Princess Leah xxx

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  2. Hari OM
    OOOhhh yess, a DK-agency could be a nice little earner! "Detective of Knityarns" that is!!! That's a lot of lovely colour there... but WAIT!!!.. TOOTHBRUSH???... YAM xx

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    1. Oh yes. All thanks to a certain British lady who made so many lovely patterns that are very easy to follow. In fact, I can read British patterns, but Dutch ones...

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    2. heheh - yes you'd think it would be standard the world over, but no! Turns out in crochet there are about 87 different versions of how to make a standard double-triple-double afghan stitch and none of them originate from Afghanistan itself.... (walks away muttering from the flashbacks of a very negative hook-up)... Yxx

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    3. When making the first potholder, my sister had to translate from ?? into oh! Thing is, she can read English patterns, but Dutch ones...

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    4. hehehehehehehehehehe .... I went on a bit of sojourn through various interesting articles after you got me started... rel="nofollow">Here's another I think you will enjoy! Yxx

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    5. ... and I have no idea why part of the hypertext is showing... sigh..

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    6. Loved the link, although quite long. I knit with a needle under my arm and with the thread on my right hand. Here in Norway they look at me in horror! The end result though: the same!!

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  3. WE are embarrassed to say... we see those as being GORGEOUS TOYS... that need to be PLAYED WITH..

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  4. I have a couple of bags full of yarn and knitting needles from my mom. If you keep writing these knitting posts, I'm going to have to start knitting again! I can't crochet, though.

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  5. So now you have enough yarn, and needles, instead of going to England to buy more yarn, start to knit and crochet, lol !

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  6. You also have a sister in the UK who can have a look.

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    1. Oh yeah, I do. But when I mean visit the UK for yarn, I mean visit you of course...

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  7. You have such a great collection. I say you don't buy anything new until you empty your containers!

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Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!