Did someone say Knitalong?!?!

ARGH! a whole month without an update?

It really has been a very busy and hectic January. Not just on the Knitting front mind, but with moving and finishing work and more "fun" things. I am no longer based in London, but now in Leeds, "oh Leeds how I have missed thee?". My new digs are a little small and whilst equipped with a fair few cubbyholes is unlikely to successfully hold all my stash. So i'm going to have to be parted with much of it again, and be very smart about what projects I am going to be knitting in the next few months to stash bust to make way for more!

Little teaser of the Test Knit I mentioned last month

So of course my genius plan to sort this out, was to do a Knit along with some of my friend's from I Knit in London. Combating the issue of plans for stashbusting and also keeping us "bonded" in a small way. Now me saying a Knit along is a little misleading, because we are in fact doing 11! Over the course of this year.  The simple idea of a Knit along grew and grew and became a devil monster of a crazy suspiciously organised thing, but really, with myself at the helm and several others going along for the ride it could be no less.

So when I say that those 11 KALs are our shortlist, you should not be surprised. I wouldn't be able to tell you the number of project suggestions we started off with as everyone had a good deal that they wanted to knit, but with vetoing powers and bribery in some cases (You know who you are!) we managed to get a list of 22 patterns, which we then priority voted down to 11. Another Priority vote after than and we had our knitting order.

The clear winner was Carpino by Carol Feller
An absolutely lovely pattern and with the yarn choices, ranging from Rowan Kid silk haze glamour, Uppingham Shetland 4ply yarn, botany lace to my gorgeous blue purple marl from Kingcraig they all promise to be the same beautiful project but stunningly different!

Next up as a light relief and an "I'm frustrated with this lace pattern and 4ply" project we have Millwater by Beth Kling
Scrumptious cowl that it is I have ummed and aahed about what yarn to knit it in and think i might end up dyeing some yarn to use for it, but then again I'm not sure.

The rest of the list consists of

• Infinite Loop
• Paris Sweater
• Raindrops
• Clarity
• Il Grande Favorito
• Blanket cardigan (Bethany Wrap, Caramel, or Eternity cardigan)
• Stonecrop
• Funky Grandpa
• and finally Owls

Of course this wasn't enough for me and i had to add one last KAL with a friend in Leeds to make a little bit rounder in number, i am finally going to be knitting a version of Aidez. Aidez with several modifications i should say, as i'm adding pockets, buttons, a hood and a different cable pattern for the back.

Last month in all of the hecticness i did manage to carve out a little time to do some yarn dyeing so feast your eyes on the lovelies as they hung to dry.

Left to right, Malabrigo lace, and several Kingcraig Shetland DK (sugarflair dyes used)

I've wound up those pretties and looking forward to using them, now what project to knit in a gradient yarn.......

On another note if you are interested in Knitting one of the items listed above, join our KAL all you have to do is pick a stash yarn to do it in and comment, my favourite suggestions will receive the pattern free as a gift on Ravelry. 

#knitting  #giveaway