Test Knitting and Baby Knits.

I'm back today to share with you what I've been working on since I've finished all my WIP's, the first project is a test knit, the first one of the year.

It's a gorgeous shawl design by Melody of Manderine's which is knit in a sportweight yarn, I've never knit a shawl in this weight yarn before so was looking forward to seeing it finished and been able to wrap it around my shoulders with this cold weather we're having.

I wasn't sure I had any sportweight yarn in my stash but when I looked through the yarn that I'd received for Christmas, I saw that I'd got some Rosy Green Wool, Cheeky Merino Joy Sportweight. I'd like to just tell you a little about this fabulous yarn company.

Rosy Green Wool is a company that only sells ethically sourced, organic merino wool, which is extremely soft. All their yarn is certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), an organisation that ensures the workers are treated fairly, the sheep are not harmed in any way and the yarn is strictly checked for harmful substances, you can read more about it here.

I was looking forward to taking part in the test knit after seeing some sneak peeks of the shawl on Melody's Instagram feed, it looked stunning!!!! I'd also test knit for Melody before and love her style, I test knit her very first pattern, Pinecone and Mulberry, a beautiful, textured hat that I gave to my daughter, she stills says this is her favourite hat, ever!!!!!

It didn't take long to finish and is all ready to be blocked, the pattern will be released on the 5th February and is when I'll show you the full finished design.

Now from gorgeous organic wool to some cheap yarn from a supermarket, I never buy acrylic yarn but when I went food shopping at Lidl, I saw a pack of 4x50g balls of chunky acrylic/wool blend for £2.99. It was enough to knit the Latte Baby Coat that I've been wanting to knit for ages, I hadn't got the wool in my stash though.

I loved the colour and the tweed look, it felt soft and didn't feel cheap but it was acrylic!!!! I couldn't make up my mind, I walked around the store, finishing up my shopping, thinking about what to do. In the end my husband just said get it and give it a go.

So I did and when I got home, I downloaded the pattern ready to cast on.

Friday evening, I cast on the hooded version of the Latte Baby Coat using my new Knit Pro Marblz Interchangable needles. I'm really pleased with them, they needle and join is very smooth and the added bonus is they are pretty to look at, just a pleasure to knit with.

Now back to the wool, I've knit the body of the cardigan and have just got to pick up and knit the borders, the jury is still out. I can't make my mind up, it's knit up lovely, it's soft and doesn't look cheap but on the other hand it doesn't feel like a 100% natural fibre that I'm used too. The test will be, how well it washes, I'm not saying I'll never buy an acrylic blend again but my first choice will be a more natural blend of wool.

I'm on the third promt of 26 Books with Bringing Up the Burns and the prompt is 3: A Book You Pick Solely because Of The Cover.

I've chosen The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield, I think you can see was I was drawn to the cover, designed by Cath Kidston.

The book itself is a very enjoyable read, set in the 1930's, written in diary form, a humorous account of her family and everyday life.

I'm linking this post to Ginny's Yarn Along and Nicole's KCCO, where you can find more links to some beautiful projects.

Have a good week.

xxxxDeb xxxx