Warm Woolies

 
































The Alpaca Cotton jumper finally got finished. I had stalled a while back and got wrapped up in other projects.  The return of freezing cold weather recently prompted me to finish off the sleeves and sew up this warm, cosy sweater.  The pattern is "Nellie" by Kim Hargreaves and is a simple stocking stitch sweater with wide raglan sleeves and a deep v neck. I've worn it a few times already and love it.

 

The baby clothes are still on the needles and really need to be finished before they are outgrown. The little purple coat just needs the sleeves finishing and buttons sewn on. It was fun to knit and should look really cute.
 
 The Spanish Dress from an old issue of the Debbie Bliss knitting magazine is very sweet in moss stitch with tiny cables.  I am using Rowan Cotton Glace to knit the little bodice and will be making the skirt from some Liberty Tana Lawn in my stash. No hurry here as it far too cold to wear this yet and I have gone for the 6 months size so it will be just right for Summer.
I went to the Stitch and Knit Show at Olympia last Sunday  - it was great!  I was determined to use up some of the yarn that I bought at Ally Pally last year before I got tempted by a whole load more.  So, with that in mind, I whipped up this lovely Triangle Cowl from the Natural Dye Studio Dazzle dk that I had purchased there.  I wore it to the show and am quite pleased with it. Of course I was tempted by many beautiful yarns at Olympia and gave in to temptation to some extent.  One of my favourite buys was this ball of lace weight yarn from a German company called Schoppel.

I love the colours and am thinking that it will probably be good for a shawl. There are 800m of lace yarn on this little beauty so there will be plenty of suitable patterns to choose from.
The "Lunatic Fringe Shawl" from the new edition of "Knitty" really caught my eye recently.  I wanted to make it in a drapey yarn that would be suitable for Summer wear. Katia Hydra seemed to offer just the properties I was looking for and comes in some lovely pale Summery colours. It is a simple pattern but I am not as fast at knitting on circular needles and it seems to be taking me longer than usual to get this project going. I am going to persevere and not give in to the temptation of casting on with some of my lovely new yarn.
Here is Alfie watching me knit...


 
I would like to think he is fascinated by the process, but suspect that he actually just wants to eat my wool!