What happens when two sewers get together?

This is what happens.

And out of those few, innocuous looking carrier bags, came all of this scrumptious fabric-ey gorgeousness. Before you wonder if I won the lottery, the left hand half of this delightful pile belongs to RuthieK, who came to stay with me this weekend so we could go to the Knitting and Stitching show, and basically spend an entire weekend talking almost exclusively about sewing.





This is my haul.


At the back there is black wool and cashmere coating, and in front of that, heavy stretch satin lining for same coat. Decorating the top of the coating, are two small pieces of suede leather, one in hot pink, the other in burgundy. These will trim something. I don't know quite what yet, but they are super soft glove weight leather and leapt out at me, begging to come home with me.
In front of that, there is two balls of utterly soft and scrumptious yarn gorgeousness, in the shape of Mini Mochi by Crystal Palace. Far too good for socks, I know not what they will be, but I am currently content to just look at it and pet it.
To the left (on the photo) of the coating, there is a length of dark grey rayon jersey which has no lycra. This will be a Simplicity 2603 cosy and some kind of top to go underneath it. To the left of that, greyed blue rayon lycra jersey. Which will probably become a polo neck. Most fabrics that stretch become a polo neck in my house. Sat on top is a string of hematite beads that are like little arrows. These will form part of the embellishment, which is a requirement of the Stitchers Guild SWAP, which I hope to enter if I ever make up my mind what to make and with which fabric.
Next row down: black knit with a lacey pattern, semi sheer in places so it will be doubled on the body of the top I will make from it. Again, this will probably have a polo neck (I think maybe in the US this is called a turtle neck?). Next to that is french wool melton in a lovely cranberry red. This will become some sort of jacket as my current red jacket is getting a little worn and will need replacing fairly soon. The luscious blue yarn is hand dyed merino laceweight. That will become some kind of scarf or shawl. I've never worked with laceweight, and have never actually done any lace work at all, so it may be a while before I can find a pattern I can manage for that.
The neatly wound blue/brown skein is merino sock yarn, and the messy, escaping everywhere skein is lambswool, angora and cashmere sock weight yarn. These may end up becoming scarves or a shawl to practice the pattern before I knit the laceweight.
At the very front, a bottle of fraycheck (boring but useful) and a roll of tiger tape (so now mum can have her reel back, which I am sure she will be pleased about).

Ruthie went back home this morning, and I am sincerely hoping that the only things she took back with her were good memories and pretty fabric, because my sore throat over the weekend has rapidly turned this afternoon to a rather nasty sniffly cold, and I am sure she didn't want that as a present to take back with her.

Anyway, with all that excitement over the weekend, the jacket has seen no progress whatsoever. Though last Wednesday I did manage to spoil the lining by ripping a hole in it. When I looked closely at the lining I had sewn, it wasn't really holding up well at the seams, so rather than take the risk of it ripping out later, I bought some new lining on Thursday and will start again with the new lining on Monday evening, cold permitting. The jacket needs to be finished by next Sunday really, so it can go into the contest.