Crafty Pressies & Wool Shopping

As a dedicated crafter, I particularly love receiving gifts I can use for knitting and sewing. Books are always great, but what I also love are beautiful bits and pieces I can use to make something. This Christmas I was given these gorgeous buttons;

They'll greatly boost my small button collection, and I am so looking forward to using them on some of the clothing I will be making this year. I also received this wool;

Two balls of Louisa Harding Rossetti (a Merino Wool/Silk/Nylon mix) in blue and purple, and a ball of Debbie Bliss Glen (an Acrylic/Merino/Alpaca mix) in grey. So, what to make? Well, in the recent cold weather I have been coveting a double layered hat, like that made by Kristen Makes. I love that Kristen's version allows for creativity on both sides. I have made a couple of double layered hats with turned up brims as presents and now I want one for myself! However I am not sure if the above would be the most appropriate yarn to use, so I might try another project instead which would lend itself well to the softness of the Louisa Harding wool in particular.

My next lot of wool was purchased in the John Lewis sale. Last year I bought a few balls of wool, but have not use them as yet, since I rather foolishly did not purchase enough to make anything significant. This year, I decided what I would like to knit in the next few months, and then went shopping well prepared.

The sale did not disappoint. They had a great range of reduced wool. I was tempted by some Rowan DK, which was available in a wide range of colours. However as this was not on my list, I resisted! What I did buy were these;

Rowan 4 ply in a lovely inky blue to use for this cabled cardigan from Debbie Bliss' Land Girl book;
A red tweed-style yarn (wool and acrylic mix) to make this jumper, which I have knitted previously but wear frequently;

A few balls of a pale blue-white to use as the main colour in the fairisle short sleeved sweater, also from Land Girl;

I hope to use some of the odds and ends of other 4 ply wools for the fairisle pattern. And finally, just because I have been admiring the gorgeous rich colour of this shade of Rowan Cocoon every time I've seen it, 2 balls of this;

I was thinking that I might use this for a project in my new knitting evening class.

In other knitting news, I have finally completed my Rosa short-sleeved ruffled sweater. Photos and write up to follow soon...

K x