So here it is! My latest knitting project is finished. I had lots of fun making it, here is the journey so far…
At the beginning of September, my daughter and I went to the Bristol Wool Festival. We had a lovely day, watched sheep shearing demonstrations, spoken to the lovely people who bred goats and sheep, make their yarn, spinners, dyers and sellers.
We have met the lovely ladies from Whistlebare, talked about their goats, patterns and admired their beautiful mohair. They had samples of their patterns knitted up so I could try one on. Always an advantage as selecting patterns to fit and sizes can be a little bit of a lottery. It felt lovely, so soft, warm and airy … so I had to buy some yarn and patterns.
I had to wait a couple of days till Alice returned from the show and could e-mail me the pattern. I’m not a patient person when it comes to new projects … but at least I had something to entertain me while waiting.
As the yarn comes in a skein I had to wind it into a ball ready for knitting. I remember when I was little all yarn came like this and my mum and nan had to do this every time. We used each other’s arms to hold the skein. It was a bit tedious but a nice memory of times spent together, some of us more patiently than others.
Then the pattern arrived. I could start. The pattern calls for 6.5 mm needles. Luckily I had a pair, unluckily they were heavy metal ones with quite round ends. Now imagine the lightest, fluffiest yarn and heavy needles. They do not go together. And if you are going to take one stitch over couple of other stitches as per the pattern, you will need sharp pointy ends. There was a moment I nearly gave up. This was the initial solution…
The long term one was to buy lovely bamboo needles. Perfect. With size 6.5m the knitting grew very fast 
until
It feels warm but very light and fluffy. I’m looking forward to wearing it.