Lilly Brush Love

I thought I'd share a little product love today, for something that has been making my life a little easier. I've had some stashed Malabrigo laceweight for ages, and think that some lightweight knits are in my very near future, to start using some of it up.  Now some of you already know that Malabrigo is known for being crazy-insane soft; but it also is quick to pill. I have a gleaner, which is great, but sometimes I feel a little too rough for single spun yarns. Enter the Lilly Brush, which is my latest obsession- it works magic on Malabrigo!

This is my geodesic cardigan, which has seen a lot of play and subsequently was looking a little ratty. but now it's all soft and lovely perfect again.

The brush is also pretty kick ass as a lint brush in general, which is awesome for someone with as much cat hair in her life as I have. It doesn't work on fiber blends that have nylon/synthetics (sorry sock yarn lovers!), but for cashmere sweaters and most of my hand knits, it's perfection. I'm not alone in my Lilly Brush love, either- Real Simple has a lot of love for it, too.

Just thought I'd share! I've got some new knitting to share with you soon....

Review: The Knitter's Tool Tin

I recently got a chance to review this amazing little knitter's tool tin from Sarah, a.k.a The Sexy Knitter. I've been following her designs and blog for ages and had no idea that she had an etsy shop! Sarah very kindly sent me a wonderful little tool tin to review, and now that I have it, I'm not sure how I lived without it.

The kit contains:

• 1 Stitch holder 

• 1 Cable needle 

• 1 Double ended crochet hook (has a big end and a small end)

• 5  folded paper star stitch markers to fit up to US 8/5 mm needles (handmade by Sarah herself!)

• 1 pair of (flight-safe!) scissors

• 3 needles: 1 sewing, 1 large eyed/blunt needle, and 1 large eyed/sharp needle. 

• 1 Retractable measuring tape 

The one thing that I'm adding to my tool tin is a small quantity of fingering weight yarn, because a) I often take my stitches off my needles to check measurements more accurately, or to hold stitches for the front or back of a sweater; and b) the bit of yarn makes the tin absolutely silent, so there's no rattling around of any items while the tin is accompanying you everywhere, like your knitting does (maybe that's just me?!). Check out Sarah's Etsy shop, here.