Yarn lovey stuff and something a little bit, well, icky.

It's just finished a long cold, dreary winter here in Australia, so I thought I'd do a quick yarnie catch-up before we fall into a fun-filled spring!

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I finally finished the 'Close to You' shawl and see that tiny yarn end (in the first photo) - that was all the yarn I had remaining, it was a very, very close case of yarn chicken!

The princess blanket (above) is the much loved blanket that I made for Laney last year but it's not really a practical size, so I found the remaining ball of grey yarn that I used and am just adding a couple of rows to the outside to see if it makes it a more 'useable' size. The size that it is currently is really just for play, it's not even big enough for a knee or cot blanket. Also, the yarn that I used is really holding up well and I'm going to stock my cupboard with more of it!

This stunning ball of wool was an 'must buy' mainly because I just wanted to look at it, touch it and rub it against my cheek!
I spent ages trying to find the perfect pattern, I first started out with this one but it was giving me such grief that I decided that there was no enjoyment factor in making it, so I frogged it. I then found this gorgeous shawl which is what I'm currently hooking.  
The yarn colour by the way is called Raspberry Rocky Road (yum!!) and I'm so going to be buying more but maybe in the colourway called Popin Candy or Lemon Casis Cream! Tell me what your favourite colourway is with this yarn, see them all here... 

This next bit makes me feel icky on the inside and I feel such regret buying this and just have to get it out of my system, so feel free to ignore this last bit!  I don't feel great having a whinge but I'm a stay-at-home-mum and when I choose to spend $150 on something, I want to be 100% satisfied with it and in this case, I wasn't.

..the disappointment you feel when you decide to treat yourself with an expensive item and it doesn't work out for you. I paid $150 for a dpn set with a needle roll and I received it in a plastic wrap with a tacky 'thank you' stuck to it (no nice wrapping as you would normally receive from any other Etsy seller) and then you discover that they have no quality control and don't even care that the needle roll is ..well, flat (not rolled at all) and should be called a needle fold instead. So you contact the seller because you are totally unhappy and the customer service is ..well, lacking and you fell shite because of it and one of the comments you receive from the seller is this ..."So sorry that you are still unhappy with your order......but I don't see that it should be such an ordeal that you are so unhappy about it". So now it just makes me feel bad because $150 is a lot of money (well, to me anyway) and I just can't stand looking at the stupid knitting needle holder now. So I don't want to waste my money, so I'll fix the stupid Velcro myself and I've decided to dye it using this fab Indigo kit.  I'm not going to pop the shop name up as I honestly don't want to send any business there way because I'd totally feel guilty if you received shitty service too!