Bagging a Bargain!

I think I've mentioned that I go to a knitting group in my local wool shop.  I really love going along because we all just sit and knit and knatter, drink tea and eat biscuits!  What better way to spend the afternoon, especially amidst this horrendous wet weather.  We sit in the warmth, surrounded by knitted bunting with tempting colours and textures all around us and a growing pile of creativeness on the table.

As you may imagine, it's quite a hard job to stop myself from buying up all the wool I can possibly carry home, especially as the table is laden with pattern books and all sorts of fabulous ideas for future projects.  I have to keep reminding myself - one at a time - because otherwise I will, and have been known to, start a hole host of new things and then never quite get round to finishing them.  Ahem.  It's a common problem with knitters and sewers and probably any creative pursuits.

However.  When somebody comes along and dangles this in front of your nose and whispers "it's a pound a skein for knitting group members" - well - it's simply not possible to resist.  Not possible, I tell you!  This is in fact a cotton tape and the skeins were 100g each and as you can see, the colours are just gorgeous.  Goodness knows what you could knit with this yarn, but as quick as a flash, I was thinking crochet.  Just last week I was browsing through a knitting and crochet magazine in the supermarket (before I spotted the outrageous price!) and there was a crocheted circular table mat which was beautiful but was made up in some sort of very thick string-like yarn which probably cost a lot of money.

I also realised that in fact it was just a flat circle, the pattern for which is available on Lucy's fabulous blog - for free (thank you Lucy). Well, within minutes my knitting needles were cast aside and the crochet hook was whipping up a storm!

I got 6 skeins of the green as I'm thinking a nice set of 6 for a Christmas present (plus matching fabric napkins, perhaps?).  I also got 2 pink and 2 of the purple to make little mats for the house, or perhaps little circles as coasters.  The mat above is 12 inches across and took about 2/3rds of the skein - about 70g.

So I got all of this fabulous goodness for the utter bargain price of £10. Simply. Not. Capable. Of.  Resisting.

P.S.  Sorry, did I just mention Christmas Present?!!