Holiday 2015: crafty stuff

The last of the holiday posts! I had a few ideas in mind for things I wanted to buy on holiday, as I'm trying to avoid buying just random stuff to stop the stash building up again. There were a couple of nice fabric shops in Worcester, and I found this elephant fabric in Rags Fabrics (I couldn't find a website for them) to make a little dress for my impending-niece.

In Hereford we happened to come across a fabric and yarn shop in an alley leading to the cathedral, Doughty's does have a website. I managed to find both a ball of Sirdar Crofter DK in the same colourway as the one I got in the knitting group's secret santa in December, but also a book of Crofter DK patterns at half price. With two balls I have enough to make a pair of snuggly bedsocks (how old am I?!).

And in Worcester we found possibly the smallest but most packed wool shop I have ever seen, Hopmarket Wools, where I bought a ball of sparkly pink baby wool to make a frivolous cardigan for the impending niece (my brother and SIL aren't ones for gender-stereotyping, so they're going to love a sparkly pink cardi!). King Cole Baby glitz isn't the type of things I'd usually choose... But the balls are 100g, so you only need one to make a baby cardigan.

I am really behind with my stash running totals. In June I bought 458m of yarn, but didn't finish any projects, so that gives a running total for the year so far of 616m more yarn used than purchased. July should look better, as I haven't bought any yarn (yet), and finished a couple of projects, which I'll blog about soon.