What's on my needles - January

Selfish knitting

If November and December are mostly about knitting presents for friends and family  then January is all about selfish knitting. That's right, knits that are just for me!

Not one for hanging about, I cast on my first ' selfish knit' on Boxing Day.  I have been gathering the yarn together for this one through the year - kid silk mohair and baby silk alpaca yarns don't come cheap, even when they are by the fabulous Drops Studio who are famous for their excellent priced quality yarns! My other half had forbidden me to start this project until Boxing Day because he knew once I got going on this one I would be lost to the world for a few days at least.
He wasn't wrong.

The Fox Jacket by Garn Studio (home of Drops yarns and literally 1000's of free patterns) is constructed in the round from the bottom up with a beautiful lace stitch yoke. The three yarns - kid silk, baby silk alpaca and silver thread - are held together and knitted as one which was a little tricky to start with but the results are well worth it.
I altered the pattern slightly to make the sleeves 3/4 length as I find longer sleeves just get in the way!
In just 2 weeks I had worked the body and the sleeves, joined the sleeves and started the yoke pattern. I was so looking forward to wearing my jacket I knit every spare moment I had...
Then I ran out of yarn...

Not all of it you understand. Just the kid silk. For the sake of just 15rows I now need to buy more yarn. So frustrating... (and if course it's a bit silly to pay postage charges on a single ball of yarn so I had to order some more. Obviously. )
Hopefully I should receive the extra ball soon and finish my jacket at the weekend.

(If you want to know more geeky stuff like yardage, needle sizes etc pop over to my project page on Ravelry )





As luck would have it I had another selfish knit lined up to fill the knitty hole...

This one is a knitalong organised by Louise at Knit British and Isla at Brit Yarn. Called the Natures Shades along (#naturesshades on Twitter and instagram ) The idea is to knit a wearable item (no mug cosies or cushions)  using only natural, undyed British (or local to you if you're not in UK) wool in a minimum of 3 shades.
I chose some fabulous Jacobs Wool by the West Yorkshire Spinners. Priced at £5.50 for a 100g skein I thought it was excellent value, and although I didn't have a pattern I did have a great idea for a cowl I wanted to try...
I am still playing with stitch ideas as I write this, and the idea has changed - as ideas tend to when I am designing - but I hope to have something a bit special to share very soon.
The knitalong cast on date was 14th January with finished objects to be shared by 19th March so if you want to join in there is still time. Check out the Knit British and Brityarn Ravelry group for more details.

My final cast on this month I am actually really excited about. Ever since finishing my first proper pair of socks back in Socktober I have been promising myself that I would do more. In fact I may have even, rather rashly even by my standards, said I wanted a whole drawer full of hand knitted socks by the end of the year.

Over Christmas I took the plunge and signed up to The Knitting Goddess sock club. There are 2 options -  one for yellow shades with patterns designed by Rachel Coopey and the other, named 'The Blue Skies Club' with designs by Clare Devine. Each club includes a gorgeous and exclusive hand-dyed yarn and sock pattern every 2 months - so 6 throughout the year. Not a drawerful but slightly more realistic challenge!
Being more of a blues kinda gal I went for Blue Skies and received my first instalment at the beginning of January and finally got to cast on earlier this week...  The beautiful hand dyed Britsock yarn is so lusciously soft I cannot wait to encase my feet in it!

So, that's what's on my needles this month. What's on your needles (or hook)? Do let me know because I am incredibly nosey and love to see what everyone else is working on!