Earl Grey Books

Welcome to my first-ever yarn haul!

In the last few months, I’ve been really getting into knitting. My Nanna taught me how to knit when I was about nine or ten but I lost interest pretty quick and I only came back to it in August this year. I’m not going to go into the whole story of why in today’s post, but I just wanted to provide a little context.

I’ve bought quite a bit of yarn so far, most of which hasn’t been used yet. But today I wanted to share the things I’ve bought in the last two or three weeks and share some of my ongoing projects. Also, just as a side note, I’d love to make some knitting friends—I’ve got a Ravelry if you’re interested in becoming friends there.

But let’s get into the haul.

First up, a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make a few people blankets for Christmas this year. I know I left this super, super late but I’ve made some good progress which I’ll show later when I get to the projects. But because of that, I of course needed some new yarn first. 

First I picked up this Lion Brand Mandala Ombre in the colour ‘Pure’, which is a really gorgeous pink to blue with some white in there. I’ve never used any of these yarns before but I do really like this one so far.

Next is also from Lion Brand, I got some of the Ferris Wheel line in the shade ‘Evergreen’. This looks deceptively thicker in the ball and has a bit of a strange silky texture on the needles. It looks okay knitted up but I’ll see how I feel at the end.

Finally from that day—I really wanted to try something from Caron and I decided to go with a Baby Cake in ‘Dreamy Peach’. This is by far my favourite yarn of the three. It’s so easy to knit with and it looks gorgeous with the pattern I chose.

Of course, I had to pick up some Black Friday deals. I didn’t buy anything else in the sales apart from these three types of yarn. Again, this purchase was about trying some different yarns.

First, I picked up some more Caron, this time one of the full cakes. I got this gorgeous blue ombre in the shade ‘Faerie Cake’. I’m very excited to use this one once I have a spare set of needles.

Next was some of the Sierra 8ply from Patons. I saw this on a local yarn store’s website and knew that I’d have to give it a shot. I got the colour ‘Sun Road’ which is a beautiful mix of pinks, blues, purples and oranges. 

And finally, I picked up some Miracle 4ply from Panda in the colour ‘Plum Print’. This is super soft and lovely and hopefully will turn into a nice pair of socks someday. 

So that’s all the yarn I’ve bought recently, and now let’s talk about what I’m using them for.

Ongoing Projects

Let’s start from the one I’ve done the least work on to the one I’ve done the most.

Last weekend I started my first pair of socks ever. This yarn is the Twin Soxx sock wool from Lang Yarns but I’ve lost the colour name—it’s their rainbow one anyway. My partner picked it out for himself and I decided to use it as my first pair. This is not super high on my priority list right now since we do live together I can just pass them over to him whenever they’re done rather than trying to push for Christmas.

Next is what I’ve dubbed ‘the dreaded blanket’. I’m making this for my dad’s partner for Christmas and I’m sure she’ll appreciate it, but this is the Ferris Wheel yarn. It takes me about double the time to get through a row of this yarn compared to others I’m using because it’s slippery and has no real stretch to it. I’ve warned her that I’m probably not going to have it ready for Christmas at this point, more on that in a moment though.

I decided to make these Christmas presents because I really wanted to try out some new blanket patterns but I also knew that we didn’t need another million blankets in our house. So I asked Angel, my best friend, if she’d take one of them off my hands and she very agreed to. This is the Caron Baby Cake yarn and it’s my absolute favourite one—I love the colours and how they highlight the pattern and it’s so soft and warm. I’ve had to pause this one but I’m probably not going to see Angel before February so it’s no such a rush anyway.

Next, I have a blanket I’ve been working on since September. This is one that I’m knitting for us—I’d originally planned to give it away but I love how it’s turned out so far and I don’t want to give it up anymore. This is using Katia Inca Ice in the colours ‘Reds Orange’ and ‘Green Ochre’. I’ve put this aside until I’ve finished with the gifts.

And finally, my main focus has been this blanket. This is the Lion Brand Mandala Ombre yarn and the photo really doesn’t do it justice. I’m making this for my aunt and she’ll be incredibly upset if she doesn’t get a Christmas gift, hence why I’ve paused the others. I’m doing about 8 rows per day to finish a few days before Christmas so I can block it so it’s a bit further along than the photo that I took a few days ago.

Big thanks to my partner, Alex, for taking all these photos for me so I could organise all the yarn at the same time. And, of course, to his very special helper Percy who just had to stick his nose in everything.