My sale haul

Compared to previous seasons, the mighty Liberty sale was rather disappointing - but that's probably because I'm not a huge fan of cotton yarns and Liberty had plenty of those. I had such high expectations as well as a long shopping list - but all was not lost. I did pick up lots of khaki Rowan Cotton Tape, which I love because it knits up quickly and doesn't catch on the needles. And I bought some pattern books so I can reduce my shameful yarn stash.

My biggest triumph was this....



This is no humble clipboard.
In fact, it has transformed my knitting experience. I cannot recommend that you get one highly enough.
It's a metal board with a magnetic ruler. It makes working with charts a lot easier because you can mark off your row and the ruler (obviously) doesn't budge.

Fellow Central London Morning Knitter Pauline lent me hers, which was a present from her Secret Pal. I made it my mission to track one down for myself - I even toyed with telling Pauline that the gremlins under the stairs had stolen it.

But I found one in a lonely corner at Liberty's embroidery department and it's made even Koigu's convoluted patterns much easier to understand.

Look - see how much progress I've made with my Gypsy shawl....


Both the John Lewis and Peter Jones clearance sales had much the same cotton stuff as Liberty.

I had high hopes for Peter Jones. This was where I snaffled a pack of (still unused) half-price Noro Kureyon in the summer.

But never a girl to leave a sale empty-handed, I bought a cushion pad and a remnant of black corduroy for the back of this cushion.

I'm going to work on this on New Year's Day. Simple sewing will be all that my hungover head will be able to cope with.