The first FO of 2016! Whenever I start complaining again about not finishing enough projects, please remind me that 95% of my knitting is in fingering weight is it’s pretty much my own stupid fault. This cowl is knit in worsted weight and I finished it in under a week without even trying very hard.

Pattern: Adama cowl by Hilary Smith Callis
Yarn: Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in the Birdbook colourway

Never having worked with any Brooklyn Tweed yarn before I’d say it was a good experience. It’s a shame it’s not so easy to get your hands on it in Europe, because I’m especially charmed by their range of colours. This shade of green is pretty darn close to my favourite colour, although I could’ve knit this in almost any of the other colours they offer and still love it as much as I do now. The first picture probably reflect the colour most accurately, but taking decent FO pics on a cloudy winter’s day will forever remain a challenge to me.

The pattern itself was a relatively mindless knit and is an excellent candidate for tv knitting. I did need to keep an eye on the pattern, but most of it was smooth sailing and it pretty much felt like it was flying off the needles. And I actually like it in the tweedy yarn! I’m sure this’ll be keeping my shoulders warm for still many hours to come this winter.

Hello dear readers, how has to first month of 2016 treated you? I found myself in a serious state of knitting deprivation in January. I figured I’d make a *super quick* cross stitch as a birthday gift for a friend (which was in the beginning of January), which I only finished just last week. We both love Community, so I thought this would be a nice little gift, but I was SO over cross stitch for the last 2 weeks. I didn’t want to start knitting because the temptation to just forget about the whole gift would be too great. I’m glad I pushed myself to finish it, now I just need to nicely frame it and it can finally be gifted. Just one month too late, that’s not so bad right?

I don’t foresee doing any new cross stitch projects in the next few months, so I indulged in casting on new projects. The first had to be socks of course. It’s been so long since I knit my last pair of knee socks, plus I had some beautiful leftover yarn from my Golden Leaves socks that I wanted to use up. Yellow as a contrast colour for gray knee-socks seemed like a fail proof idea, and so far I am LOVING them. I just need to calculate if I have enough yellow to also make yellow heels and toes, which I think would be my favourite option. If I don’t have enough yardage left I’ll at least try for yellow toes.. because YELLOW TOES! The pattern is called Evening Stockings for a Young Lady, ha! I guess I am a young lady, so perfect fit of pattern & prospective stocking wearer.

Next to that I cast on a cowl with the Brooklyn Tweed yarn I bought in Canada. The pattern is Adama, although my project doesn’t look like much yet. Had to share this picture though, because Iva demonstrates why she deserves the title of top photobombing cat of the year title. Her little head with those blue eyes full of mischief popping up behind the knitting cracks me up.