A Productive January So Far. . .

There's a wonderful sense of well-being when all your knitting projects are going well and working out as you'd hoped. I finished my Stevenson Sweater, by Kate Davies, using all twelve colours of her new Milarrochy yarn and I am in love. It fits perfectly and I can now be a walking shade card, whenever I want to choose colours for another project.

Here they are in bright sunshine - the yarn bloomed beautifully and while there is a bit a of prickle factor, I'm not terribly sensitive so am happy to wear this against bare skin.  It will be a great piece to wear in warmer weather as is, and I'll layer it over a long-sleeved shirt in the cooler months.

Kate's new West Highland Way club released its first pattern - the Craigallian hat and mittens - yesterday and I've already cast on for the hat.  I only used about two-thirds of the yarn to make the sweater - below are my left-overs and there is plenty to pop into future designs.

While getting ready for the club pattern releases, Kate also published Carbeth, a very quick and quirky jumper, knit in bulky yarn.  It's such a quick knit that I managed it in four days.  I think it probably does look best in a single colour, but I was good and used up stash.

The brown/olive is some Cascade Eco that I've had for years. The variegated is a skein and half of Fleece Artist Back Country. Last year was the 150th anniversary of Canada's National Parks and this Nova Scotian dyer created special colourways for each of the province's parks. This green is celebrating Gros Morne in Newfoundland. I loved the idea behind the colours and ordered two skeins each of five colourways. When the box arrived, I got a bit of a shock - I had been so focused on ordering the right park, that I failed to notice the weight. I thought I was getting fingering; instead, I got chunky! Since then, I've been looking for suitable patterns to use some of it up, so am thrilled this came along and the colours remind me, appropriately enough,  of a Canadian pine forest.  I made a few mods - added some inches to the cropped length and changed the collar. The original has a rolled up collar, but I can never get them to behave properly.  I have to block this, but it's the perfect jumper to throw over a pair of jeans.

I seem to be a bit obsessed with green and brown at the moment. To match my Elska hat, I've also cast on some mittens in mostly the same colours.  These are the Shaila Mittens by Ella Gordon and it's really nice to have a smaller colourwork project on the go.

I love it when the year gets off to a great start.  So much fun knitting ahead. . .