knitting neels

Well, we don’t get a Spring Break here – especially not in my college – but I decided to really kick back and treat myself this weekend. I came down to Galway yesterday afternoon and had a few hours to myself to catch up on some shopping. Mostly, I bought clothes. I rarely have the time to shop for clothes and tend to save up my money and buy a whole pile of things together. I have learned, too, to always be on the look out during these clothes sessions for things that I will definitely need – a unique pair of shoes, a well-fitting skirt or a stunning dress. They are things that you can never find when you’re at the last minute before a concert and always good to have in the wardrobe. I didn’t find anything spectacular yesterday but it’s always good to look.

I did find some wool though 😀 Yarn have a great new selection of Colinette in and I had a good time looking through it. In the end predictable old me went for some mohair.

It’s pretty, though, isn’t it? I love the colours. I have been hankering after a spring shawl for a long time and I think with some big needles, this could make a very satisfying knit.

Along with the usual chunky, fabulously coloured Colinette yarns, I found some Jitterbug, a sock-weight yarn. Again, it was really the colours that swayed it for me! I suppose at e13.90, it is a little dear, but considering there is about 270m per skein, you could easily get a decent pair of socks out of one skein. So a little more pricey than Opal, but a little more special, too.

Boogie-woogie or what!

I got the blue yesterday and having thought about it for a while, I returned and got the purple-pink stuff today. You don’t come across Colinette easily here, and it is more than likely I won’t be back in Galway for at least a month or two. I may not make socks out of the purple stuff. It is a lovely weight to do something small and lacy with for summer.

And, of course, the main purpose of my visit was to hunt down some more of that Donegal Tweed to finish the Blue Raglan. I was a bit worried when I couldn’t find any on the shelves, but lo! there were some balls in the bargain bin. I got 4 for a tenner!

I can’t imagine that I’ll need more than one to finish the jumper, but you can never tell. I’m not taking any chances!

I forgot to take knitting progress pictures while I had the camera out. The Fruit Pastille Jaywalker is getting funner and funner as I go on! I did alot on it on the way down on the train. I also got started on something that has been bugging me all winter. My Salina jumper is just too short. It’s not awfully short, but short enough for me to keep giving it the occasional tug. I had some Felted Tweed left over from it – almost a full ball – so I threw it into my bag. It was warm enough on the train for me to take off my jumper and work on adding extra to the hem. I thought it might look terrible but so far, it’s not looking all that obvious. Ok, you can see a little seam if you look closely, but from afar it doesn’t stick out. Hopefully it will turn out nicely and I’ll get more wear out of the jumper because otherwise, it’s a lovely little thing.

Have you all been out to the new shop at This is Knit yet? From the look of the photos on Lisa’s blog, it looks really amazing. I can’t wait to visit myself. Lisa was telling me that they’ve got an extra room now to run their classes and have their mid-week knitting group. I’m delighted about this because both of the mid-week knitting groups in Rathmines and Santry are really out of my way. Blackrock, despite being a bit further out, is far more convenient because the bus route not only goes right by my college, but overlaps with my own bus route home too. And, often, there are times when I would love to call out for an odd ball or just a chat, but can’t make it out at weekends because I’ve got something on. So it’s all good. Best of luck to Lisa and Jacqui in their bigger’n’better venture!