a midsummer night's dream of rosehips...

a few weeks back, i went for a wander through astrid's dutch obsessions, the webstore of a seller from whom i'd purchased some Opal Rainforest yarns (through eBay). it's pretty impressive--she's got loads of yarn, particularly for socks, and a nice selection of addi turbos; the prices are very reasonable (low even), and the shipping rates are phenomenal. she's in the netherlands (as you might guess from the name of her shop), yet the cost for shipping is less than i've been charged for shipments within the US. i've gone with the lowest rate (which i think she lists as taking 1-2 weeks), and it's gotten here in just over a week both times.

i was looking for something in particular that i'd seen (and missed) in one of her eBay auctions, and luckily she still had it in stock in her store :-)

this is the popular (well at least in michigan it seems to be...i know of at least two knitters in the state who have purchased a skein of it) "Hagebutte" (which apparently translates as "Rosehips"):

per usual, click to get full sized photos


it is lovely, however it is definitely on the neon side ;-) i don't think i quite managed to capture the brightness in this photo...it'll make some pretty spiffy socks though.

then i noticed this link on the hagebutte page...not fair astrid! ;-)

i had to ended up ordering a skein of it too:



in my defense, this appears to be a limited colorway--i couldn't locate it on the Opal website, and astrid herself says she doesn't know if she'll be able to get any more...works for me lol

this is "Sommernachtstraum", which (after some googling) i determined translates to "Midsummer Night's Dream", after finding references to the Shakespeare play of the same name on German websites...this photo is also a bit duller than the actual yarn (it's much prettier...very 'rich' colors--i'll try for a better shot), though not as bright as the picture on astrid's site. the colors suit me a bit better than the first yarn, and i can't wait to see how it knits up :-)

and in other news:
even though i look like i've been dead a week lousy in yellow...



...i joined ;-)