There seem to be a rather depressing number of yarn shops closing down at the moment. One of those sadly I only learned about after its demise. It was in Woodmansterne, and I think closed down last year. Since their closure they have been holding occasional yarn sales in the village hall. I learned about one of them in December through Kitty who organises the Ashtead knitting group, and weather permitting they are also going to be coming to the January meeting of the Ashtead group.

They are selling off their yarn at £1 a ball, and have quite a wide selection of yarns left (or at least they did when I left the hall!). I picked up 7 balls of Patons Baby Pure Wool 3ply (these are 25g balls).

I’m not sure where they have been stored because there were bits of twig and grass in the bag, but the yarn itself seems fine. I think I am going to have a go at dyeing this, and then knitting something lacey.

I also went along to Stash in Putney during their closing down sale and picked up a couple of skeins of Koigu in colour 14063, a lovely spring colour. At least it can be spring inside even if the weather is full of grey slush outside.

And I got two balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply in a lovely shade of bright red. Unfortunately the two balls were the last they had and are two different dye lots. My plan is to knit socks with them and then hopefully you wont notice the difference in colour.

It is a shame to see Stash closing, but people’s lives change and it isn’t always possible to carry on doing everything. It has definitely made me re-appreciate how luckily I am living here that there is easy access to a wide range of yarn shops, along with all the mail order places and people I see at shows.

On a more upbeat note. The weather may be grey and grim, and the ground grey and slushy, but the weather is definitely warming up, and transport looks like it is getting easier.