Yarn Along.......Stripy Mitts and some Fairisle.

Hello, how was your weekend? I had a fab Saturday, I spent the day with friends having a mini spa day with afternoon tea. My friend, Di, had us all around her house and booked a beauty therapist to give us all a treatment. After our treatments we all relaxed and enjoyed afternoon tea and a glass of fizz. It was a wonderful, relaxing day with friends!!!!

In my last post, I told you about the Fairisle workshop that I attended, last Thursday, after it had finished, I went downstairs to John Lewis haberdashery department and picked up a few different colours of the Rowan Felted Tweed DK. I really enjoyed the process of Fairisle but felt as though it would be something that you need to practice, otherwise you could forget the different techniques, so over the weekend with my new yarn, I cast on a Fairisle scarf.

I'd seen a pattern called Leftover Cowl by Wendy D. Johnson, it's a large cowl using leftover sock yarn. I loved the Fairisle pattern but didn't want a large cowl so I decided to use the chart for a Fairisle Scarf, instead.

I'm knitting it in the round using magic loop, knitting Fairisle in the round is so much easier as you don't have to purl, I'm really caggy handed holding the two yarns and purling, so this is a good option for me. It's a 12 stitch repeat pattern but because I'm knitting it in the round, it's two sided you need to cast on multiples of 24. I cast on a total of 144 stitches which gives me a width of 27cm, each pattern uses two colours which I'm randomly choosing from my ten colours. I'm loving this project and find Fairisle very relaxing, this will be a long term project and I might even buy another couple of colours to add to my rainbow of colours.

I've finished the sleeves on my Aureus, I just need to set the sleeves into the armholes, knit the button band and I'll have a finished garment to show you, hopefully by next Friday.

I've also started another new project, I'm joining in with Jane Richmond's Linden Mitts KAL, this will be a fairly quick project as it only uses 50g of Knit Picks Felici or any other self striping yarn.

The pattern gives you the option of 4ply or sport weight yarn, I've had to go down to a 2.25mm needle as the 2.75mm knit up too big for me, I prefer a tighter fitting mitten. Even though the pattern was written especially for self-striping, I think it would work just as well with a variegated yarn. I love the Knit Picks Felici but it's hard to find in the UK, I managed to get this one ball from Great British Yarns but it looks like they aren't stocking it anymore.

This week, I've started reading The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield, I can't tell you too much about it yet, as I've only just started it but it's a fictional diary about a 1930's lady and her family life. I like to collect classic books with limited edition covers and I love this one designed by Cath Kidston, isn't it pretty? Check out more knitting projects and reads over at Ginny's Yarn Along, also pop over to Tami's blog for more WIP's.

Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate the time you take reading and leaving me such lovely comments.

xxxxDebxxxx