After a flurry of many finished objects in January, I fear February is going to be a much quieter affair. At the beginning of the month I cast on and finished knitting my second Kate Davies Kokkeluri mitten. It flew off the needles within a couple of days.
And then I cast on many other things…
I have been dreaming about this project ever since Nicole from Stash & Burn made her Aislinn cardigan a number of years ago in the colour yellow. She no longer wears hers, but I still desperately want one. The yarn was a Christmas purchase from 14 months ago, so relatively ‘fresh’ stash. It is Cleckheaton Superfine Merino in the mustard colour way.
And then I joined a couple of Knit-alongs…
The ‘it’ pattern of the moment is a shawl called Waiting for Rain by Sylvia Bo Bilvia (yes that’s really her name). It caught the imagination of a few of the Richmond Knitters, so some of us cast-on! I was really enjoying knitting this shawl, it’s clever and fun and heck it’s going to be a great shawl to wear. But then… the yarn failed me. This beautiful yarn did not have it’s dye fixed properly and was coming off on my hands REALLY, REALLY, BADLY. Both skeins have been caked up prior to starting, so there’s no turning back, just sulking and knitting and purple hands, which gives the appearance of burnt hands, boy have they been burned.
The second knit-along I began, involves Deb and just myself; last weekend was our one year anniversary of attending Stitches West in California together. To celebrate, reminisce, feel sad about not being there this year… we decided to cast-on the same project in the same yarn together (we did shop together you know, and there were several double-ups).
We’re both knitting the Stitch Block Cowl by Purl Soho. These are my colours inspired by being in the same state as Stephen West!
Gosh we had fun!
My cold sheep February update:
• No yarn purchased (woo hoo)
• My Kokkeluri mitts used 175 metres (baby steps), so I’m 175 metres down!
March is looking more promising for stashing down with so many WIPs on the needles, it does sound great in theory.
Sonia Knits 
It looks like a fun month 🙂 I love your colour choices 🙂 you have a real eye for choosing just the right colour 🙂
love the mittens!
Wooho, I love that photo of us and it is a awesome one of you!
You’ve been busy Sonia. The mittens are gorgeous, and I love, love anything yellow. What will happen to your shawl when you wash it?
Thanks Bek 🙂 When I finish knitting the shawl, I plan to ‘heat-set’the dye with citric acid in the microwave. Basically I’ll soak the yarn with water and citric acid, then microwave it for a minute on, a minute off, a minute on, and hopefully that will save more of the colour coming out.