It is, obviously, important to keep busy over Christmas. I mean, it's not as if I have anything more important to do - like cook meals for the family for example. I also wanted to dig through some of my stash - good intentions and all that!
So just before Christmas I took out 10 balls of DK pure alpaca and a ball or two of my precious cashmere/alpaca/silk laceweight, did a swatch and set to on Shiri Mor's Botanica Medallion Shrug. It is a clever design, starting with a hexagonal centre piece and then a border knitted separately and stitched on afterwards. Be warned, the border takes FOR EVER plus a few days. The medallion, on the other hand, knits up quicker than you can say K1,P1,K2tog.
Because I am just a touch larger than the girl in the Vogue picture I added about an inch of garter stitch around the medallion. Then the border, and more border but actually that was great during Christmas as it didn't involve too much thought once I'd got going.
I also changed the border using the idea from here. This is a winter shrug and I wanted something that I could fasten in front - although I haven't figured that out yet.
But that wasn't all. I also decided to continue my good intentions of using up the wool stash and set to on a pair of fair isle gloves. I rather thought I would get stuck and stop before I finished because in the past I have hated knitting fingers - too many of them - and I don't like mittens very much. But I was pleasantly surprised. The hand went whizzing along and before I knew it one glove was finished. The second followed a couple of days later.
And finally, something I finished over a year ago and have only just managed to photograph! This is Mary Ann Stephens' lovely Polar Chullo from 2009 Twist Collective. It is utterly gorgeous and was my first serious fair isle hat.
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