10 down - only 98 to go

Well here are the first squares of my Rainbow Blanket
Some of my dyeing is a bit different from what I am aiming for but I have decided to go with the flow on that or I'll never get there. They look good framed in the cream.

Cowl completed

 Well it's finished and it's lovely - even if we are having an Indian summer here.
I'm still not sure that the colours are really me....but it's a good pattern and warm yarn.
I think I may be making more cowls this year - as the answer to my cold neck.

Something old and something new

I had knitted one of these for my design project and decided to finish the pair - and send them off to the person who has a matching shawl

 I really had the urge to start something new, despite having 2 other projects on the go, and so I launched into another of the designs from the Unwind competition.  This is Doe Arnot's Crochet Alpaca Cowl. She has posted the pattern on Ravelry. I am using a Flagstaff Alpaca/merino/nylon bland that she has hand dyed with this cowl in mind - long dye runs. It is quite clever as you join as you go - saving a lot of work at the end. I am about halfway around and then there is an edge to add. As we head into autumn it will be handy soon

My first designs

Without the deadline of the Unwind Design Competition these mitts would definitely still be a work in progress - probably forever. Knitting them up was the easiest part - writing up the pattern 'properly' was not so easy. And getting Word and Excel pages into a pdf and then posting them on Ravelry (the Mecca of Knitting websites) was an even bigger. But all done and dusted by 2am Friday morning!

Anyway - the details. They had to be knitted in 4ply/fingering weight NZ yarn so I used Vintage Purls Sock yarn because I seem to have quite a lot of it and it is hard wearing but soft and comes in great colours.

The mitt you see below I called Birdie's Mitts after Birdie Bowers - one of those who perished with Scott on his ill-fated journey to the South Pole. Birdie was the man in charge of stores amongst other things and was the backbone of the expedition. Unmarried, I imagined these to be the sort of mitts his mother might have knit for him to keep his hands warm while he worked.

 And I decided to show them in another softer colour way also.

The next mitts came from a prototype I made last year. I gave them to my sister and she wore them all winter so I figured they must have some redeeming features. They are warmer because of the 2 yarns used that create a double layer. I called these Bonnie Jean Mitts - in memory of my mother who was called Jean and Bonnie.
Once again I made 2 pair to show the effects of different colour ways. They use various Sanquhar patterns - from Scotland.

So at the weekend we had Unwind. 70 mad keen knitters all in one place - including my 2 sisters.
There were classes: I went to ones on crochet, design and reversible cables. There were also Trade stalls and a lot of yarn and goodies found new homes.
Oh - I didn't win the design competition - a beautiful lace-pattern shawl did. All the entries were lovely and I have my eye on 2 in particular that I plan to make soon. Watch this space.