vanessarama.net

… you can’t do it. No plane knitting. For me this has also led to no train knitting today; I’m off to Sydney tonight, and since it’s only overnight I’m not checking my luggage but taking a small carry-on. Normally I knit on the train every day, and if I’m flying I just whack the needles in my checked luggage; but not today. I feel positively naked on the train without my knitting.

I’ve recently discovered Trekking XXL. I’ve often lusted over the beautiful subtle colour striping in the ombre tones, but now I’ve discovered the place to purchase it: Astrid’s Dutch Obsessions. Lots of lovely sock yarn, lots of colourways; no handpainted, but the good basic workaday sock yarns. Yummy. I ordered three Trekkings and an Opal Handpaint, and they came within a week, for about what I’d pay for two balls of Opal plus shipping from most Australian online retailers. Don’t get me wrong; I prefer to support Aussie and NZ vendors when I can, and indeed have done in the past. But when I can get twice the yarn, just as quick, and more variety, from an overseas vendor… it’s a hard decision to make.

Speaking of overseas vendors, I’ve just discovered that Scout’s Swag has a colourway called Rosalie. Here is a larger version. It’s absolutely beautiful. Those are all my colours. And it’s even more appropriate because my grandmother, who taught me to knit, was called Rosalie. My grandmother was one of the people who made me what I am. She was a survivor, and she had a hard life. Here she is as a teenager, working as a housemaid in London:

She was working as a maid at the age of thirteen, at which stage both her parents were deceased. She looked after me when my mum worked, when I was little. She was of her generation; she and I didn’t always see eye to eye, but we had a deep affection for one another and she was my introduction to the world of knitting. My big regret is that in the couple of years before her death, I was somewhat estranged from my mother (her daughter) and therefore didn’t speak to her as often as I should have; family politics was in the way.

I’m going to get some Rosalie. It’ll have to wait a while, because I have one Etsy parcel coming and another one from Astrid - and even though we all know that sock yarn doesn’t count as stash, the rest of my stash is still big enough to fill a couple of wardrobes And I have to decide what I want; do I want to make socks, or do I want a special scarf or shawl, named after my Nanna (in my head, anyway!) and wrapping me up so that I can think of her when I wear it?